between the Texas Revolution and the end of the Mexican Warqv in 1848, much of what is now Live Oak County lay in the disputed area between the Rio Grande and the Nueces. Neither the Republic of Texas nor the Mexican government could establish firm control over this strip of contested land. Much of the area had been designated part of San Patricio County since 1836, but in 1855 a group of frontiersmen gathered under a huge live oak tree at Gussettville and drew up a petition asking that a new jurisdiction be instituted for their settlements. Acceding to their request, the state legislature formed Live Oak County from San Patricio and Nueces counties on February 2, 1856. Later that year county officials accepted a donation of 640 acres for the townsite of Oakville, near the old settlement on Sulfur Creek, and designated it the county seat. -Handbook of Texas Online: Live Oak County