USA > Texas > A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas, Volume I > Part 38
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Some of our sheep men insist that our state legislators have enacted laws descriminating against woolgrowers, and say "it is time we should let them know just what we want."
The protection interests won, for the time, and with their victory the wool business continued to flourish and expand in Texas and else- where. In 1882 and 1883, just after the subsiding of the cattle boom, the people of Texas went wild over sheep. Men who had never owned a sheep bought flocks, and men who owned thousands bought more. They figured out enormous profits, but in the end it came to them as a losing truth that while figures cannot lie, liars can figure. The fig- 11ring went on this way: Start in with a flock of 100 ewes, 80 per cent of which will drop lambs, and half of the lambs will be ewes. At the end of a year the flock is increased to 140 ewes and 40 rams (or wethers). The wool averages 8 pounds, worth 25 cents a pound or $2 a head, a total of $200 for the old sheep and about half as much for the lambs. The wethers can be sold for $3 or $4 a head, say $140 for the 40, mak- ing a total income of $440. That wasn't much for the first year, but it was supposed the man who was doing this had started in on a small scale and was going to build up a large flock. So he estimated that he would begin his second year with 140 bearing sheep, which in turn would yield him 80 per cent lambs, of 112 head, half being ewes. He was supposed to clear up about $600 the second year, and start in the third year with 196 head, and at this rate in five or six years he would have two or three thousand head, bringing in from their wool and their increase a comfortable income of $5,000 to $6,000 a year.
famil Lytte
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No account was taken of the cost of keeping the sheep. That was the day of free grass, when millions of acres were free to the appro- priator of the pasturage. And no account was taken of losses, which were bound to be heavy, where no provision was made for protection or subsistence through the winter except that offered by the open prairie. Some of the investors in sheep-a great many of them, in fact-found at the end of the second winter that instead of an 80 per cent increase, they. had an 80 per cent death loss.
In 1884 Texas had more than 9,000,000 sheep. The number now in the state, as rendered by the assessors, is about 1,250,000.
The chief end of the sheep in Texas has been the production of wool. When the price of wool went down from 25 or 30 cents a pound to 10 or 12 cents, the wool-producing sheep ceased to be profitable, and being no longer a source of profit, then owners began getting rid of them. In that way the 9,000,000 and odd head were reduced to a million and a quarter.
The tide has had its ebb and the flow has set in. Sheep are worth as much now as they were in 1883, or more. Wool is bringing good prices. Having become a money-maker again, the sheep will become as popular as he was before and many will begin to raise sheep, and count their profits before the shearing is done.
"A discouraging feature of the existing condition," writes a close student of the business, "is the lack of quality in our sheep. Our cattle raisers have, in the two decades since 1883, bred up their herds until the old long-horn is a rare animal. The average herd of Texas cattle now weights fully 50 per cent more than the average herd of like age did in 1883. Good breeding has done it. Our sheep weigh no more and produce no more wool per head than they did then. There are ex- ceptions, but we speak of ruling conditions. Men who have bred good sheep have found always a good market for them and for their wool. At the Fort Worth stock yards high-grade mutton sheep are now readily salable at $5.00 to $5.50 per 100 pounds, and such sheep average above 100 pounds.'
CAPTAIN SAMUEL LYTLE, a veteran of the Mexican and Civil wars and a pioneer of San Antonio, now living retired, was born in Columbia, Tennessee, February 1, 1831, his parents being William and Mary G. (Gullett) Lytle. The father was born in Pennsylvania and in 1824 went to Tennessee with his family, then consisting of wife and two sons. In 1838 he removed to the Republic of Texas, locating in the old town of Washington on the Brazos, then the capital of the Republic. The family resided there until about 1841, when they removed to Milam county, then a very large frontier county extending entirely to the Mexican border. They located near where Caldwell is now located, in that section now included in Burleson county. In 1846, William Lytle established a stock ranch on the Medina river, where he moved in 1850, maintaining his home there up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1878. His wife preceeded him in death about three years. When William Lytle first saw San Antonio there were only three two-story houses in the town. He was a typical pioneer settler who bravely
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faced the dangers and hardships of frontier life and aided in extending civilization into hitherto wild and unimproved districts.
From the time he was about nine years of age Captain Samuel Lytle lived upon the frontier of Texas until there was no longer a frontier, the settlements of the white race having penetrated into every district of this great state and laid the foundations for the present prog- ress and improvement. A typical pioneer settler, from his earliest youth, he became familiar with the methods and means of Indian fight- ing and the adventures co-incident with the protection of a frontier home against the depredations and atrocities of the red men, for in these days there was no ranger organization and a totally insufficient number of soldiers to give any protection whatever. Being engaged in raising stock, which was the especial prey of the Indians, the family was in a particularly hazardous condition. but notwithstanding the hard- ships and dangers which formed a part of daily experience at that time Captain Lytle in later years recalls with pleasure the open-air, health- ful life during the period of frontier history that has forever passed away.
In 1847, after the inauguration of the war with Mexico, Captain Lytle became a member of Captain John Connor's company and pro- ceeded as far into Mexico as Monterey. When hostilities had ceased he returned home and at his place on the Medina river he followed farming and engaged successfully in the raising of cattle, sheep and horses. Following the outbreak of the Civil war between the states he came to San Antonio and enlisted in Company H, Thirty-second Texas Cavalry. He was made lieutenant of this company and a short time afterward was promoted to the captaincy. This regiment was assigned for duty in the Trans-Mississippi department and served in Louisiana and Arkansas. Captain Lytle was largely engaged in scouting and skirmishing and led his command through much hard and dangerous service, including the Banks' campaign, fighting that general on his retreat from the battle of Mansfield down the Red river, being thus al- most continuously engaged for thirty days.
After the war Captain Lytle returned to his home on the Medina, where he resided until 1887, when he removed to San Antonio and now occupies a large, pleasant and comfortable residence at No. 332 South Presa street. He has retired from active business life, having earned a comfortable competency and a life of enterprise and carefully directed business affairs now entitles him to a well deserved rest.
Captain Lytle was married in Castroville, Medina county, to Miss Margaret Lucy Noonan, a sister of Judge Noonan, at one time congress- man from the San Antonio district and represented elsewhere in this work. Five children have been born of this marriage: W. J., Mary Ellen, Margaret Lucy, Elizabeth R. and George Nelson Lytle. Cap- tain Lytle has now passed the seventy-fifth milestone on life's journey and during this long and eventful period in the country's history has watched with interest the progress that has been made through in- vention, through the enlargement of business opportunities and through the aggregate endeavor of individual effort. He retains vivid memories of service in the Mexican war, of which there are now few veterans
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remaining and his mind bears the impress of the early historic annals of Texas and constitutes a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive present.
GEORGE W. SAUNDERS, president of the Saunders Live Stock Com- mission of San Antonio, was born at Rancho, Gonzales county, Texas, in 1854, a son of T. B. and Elizabeth (Harper) Saunders. The father was born in North Carolina, lived for some time in Alabama, and in 1850 came to Texas, settling at Rancho in Gonzales county. In 1859 he removed to Goliad county, where he resided until 1880, when he became a resident of the eastern portion of Bexar county, where the station of Saunders, which was later established on the Gulf Shore Rail- road in that locality, was named for him. He died at the Saunders' homestead at that place in 1902. He was during his life in Texas a successful farmer and stockman, well known to all the early residents of the state. He possessed superior qualities and traits of character that made him liked by all, so that his death was the occasion of deep and widespread regret. His wife was born in Alabama, and died at Saun- ders Station in 1893. Their family numbered eleven children.
George W. Saunders is perhaps one of the best known men in Texas who were associated with the live-stock interests of the early days. In his young boyhood he became connected with those lines of business, beginning in Goliad county, the scene of many interesting and tragic events that took place in the days when owners of cattle took the law into their own hands to protect their own interests from the depredations of the Indians. His first trip over the trail to Kansas with stock was made in 1870 and for several years thereafter his life was a succession of adventures that are well remembered by his old friends and associates, which if given in detail would present a picture of conditions which existed in those early times. He made several trips over the trails to the north as well as through western Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, also to Mexico and along the border, and in fact all over Texas and the southwestern cattle country. His life in those days was filled with encounters with the Indians, with cattle thieves and other rough elements, together with the hardest work imaginable in connection with his duties. He has, for.his age, seen perhaps more of this cattle life than any one else, as he has always been a very busy man and was a representative of the live-stock interests of the state during the pioneer period in its history-now a distinguished epoch in its an- nals.
Unlike many of the cowboys of those days, however, Mr. Saunders was ambitious to get into permanent business and win success, and while still a young man he established a live-stock commission business. His wide acquaintance throughout the cattle country and his reputation for the strictest honesty and fair dealing won him business and assured him success from the start. He located in San Antonio in 1880 and his home and business interests have centered in this city since that time. He is now a man of large capital and interest in the commission busi- ness, and he likewise owns a fine ranch in Bexar countv. A contem- porary publication speaking of him in this connection has said: "No one man in south or west Texas is better or more favorably known to
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the stockmen or in live-stock circles than is George W. Saunders, the live-stock commission merchant of San Antonio. He was born a stock- man and has never forsaken his calling. For over twenty years he has been in the live-stock commission business there, and was one of the first to open offices at the Union Stock Yards as soon as they were ready for business, and he is still at the old stand. No man has done more than he to develop the live-stock market there, and a large part of the success of that market is due to his untiring efforts and everlast- ing hustling. One reason for his phenomenal success is the personal attention he gives to every detail of his business, looking after every shipment, no matter how large or how small. In doing this he has made a large acquaintance and built a business reputation that can only be acquired by hard work and honest dealing. Mir. Saunders has al- ways advanced and grown with the upward trend of business, branch- ing out at different times, to be able to give better service and better his facilities for taking care of his increasing business. Three years ago he opened offices at the Fort Worth Stock Yards, and from the opening day enjoyed a large and lucrative patronage, which has steadily increased. His business has steadily grown to such proportions that Mr. Saunders found it necessary to make another important move, to be able to handle it to better advantage. The capital in the business has been largely increased, thus permitting the handling of a greater vol- ume of business. About fifteen months ago he incorporated the present business under the name of the George W. Saunders Live Stock Com- mission Company, of San Antonio, with offices at San Antonio and Forth Worth, with a capital of $30,000. The officers of the company are : George W. Saunders, president; T. A. Coleman, vice president ; and J. Jacobs, secretary and treasurer. Nearly all of this stock was sub- scribed at once by the following well known representative business men and stockmen of this section: G. W. Saunders, T. A. Coleman, W. H. Jennings. W. B. Kerr, W. E. Jary, J. Jacobs, Charles Schreiner, George R. Stumberg. D. & A. Oppenheimer, William Casin, A. E. Mitchell, W. A. McCoy, Fritz Scheel, O. G. Bartels, L. W. Burrell, O. W. Wadenpohl, John Kenney, W. A. Lowe, J. R. Blocker, New Orleans Live Stock Commission Company, J. M. Chittim, Joe F. Spettel, Louis Schorp, Alfred Schorp, John Muennink. George Muennink, Henry Schnehle, Joseph Courand and C. A. Oefinger. It certainly speaks well for Mr. Saunders' business ability and integrity to be able to receive the unqualified indorsement of such representative men. and it speaks well for the company to have such a fine list of stockholders." For many years Mr. Saunders has been in the lead in stock exhibits of San Antonio, Fort Worth and other places and enjoys the distinction of having organized the first roping contest in the country, which was held under his management at the San Antonio fair in 1892, which was a great success. Since then public roping contests have been a popular feature of enjoyment ali over the west.
Mr. Saunders has been married twice. He first wedded Miss Rachel Reeves, a daughter of W. M. Reeves, who in his day was one of the largest and most prominent stockmen of the lower country, his home being in Refugio county. Mr. Saunders died leaving two daugh-
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ters : Mrs. Jonnie Jary, the wife of W. E. Jary, who is the manager of the Fort Worth branch of Mr. Saunders' business; and Miss Georgia Saunders, who married Thomas Webb, December 20, 1906. For his present wife Mr. Saunders chose Miss Ida Friedrich, a daughter of Wenzel and Agnes Friedrich, the latter still living at the old Friedrich homestead on Crockett street, almost in the shadow of the old Alamo, the enclosure of which was a playground for the Friedrich children in their youth. Mrs. Friedrich is an interesting lady, recalling many of the historic events connected with the early days of San Antonio. Like her husband, she was born in Bohemia of German parentage. Wenzel Friedrich came to San Antonio in 1849, the city remaining his home until his death, which occurred in 1901. Of the present marriage of Mr. Saunders has been born one daughter, Agnes.
Mr. Saunders had a brother, J. M., who was one of the first soldiers to enlist in southern Texas. He was captured at Arkansas Post, and at Franklin, Tenn., received three wounds from the enemy. He now lives on the old homestead at Saunders Station. W. D. H., a second brother, who also served throughout the war, is now a merchant and postmaster at Sayers, near Saunders Station. Of other brothers, A. J. is in the live-stock business in New Orleans, and J. C. is a salesman for George W .; S. A., another brother, who was a merchant, died in 1894. The two older sisters, Nancy and Annie, live on the old home- stead: Mrs. Mary Henry is the wife of a wealthy stockman in Mc- Mullen county, and Mrs. Polly Ferguson, the other sister, lives in Frio county, being the wife of a stockman and farmer.
COLONEL DILLARD R. FANT, to whom has been vouchsafed an hon- orable retirement from business after many years' connection with the live-stock interests of the state, his residence being in San Antonio, was born in the Anderson district of South Carolina. July 27, 1841, his par- ents being W. N. and Mary ( Burriss) Fant. They were also natives of the Anderson district and were of Scotch-Irish ancestry. They came to Texas in 1852, locating in Goliad county in the town of Goliad. The father was a merchant, successfully following his business and at the same time taking an active and helpful interest in public life and politi- cal work. He was well fitted for leadership by natural ability and en- terprising spirit and unfaltering devotion to the general welfare. Prior to the Civil war he was elected county judge of Goliad county and after the cessation of hostilities he was again called to the bench, where his decisions, strictly fair and impartial, made him one of the ablest men who have ever sat upon the bench of that county. His death oc- curred in June, 1891.
In taking up the personal history of Colonel Dillard R. Fant we present to our readers the record of one who for a long number of vears was a prominent cattleman and one of the largest operators in Texas, his business interests also extending into Indian Territory, Kan- sas, Nebraska, Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho. At the age of fourteen years he began freighting with ox teams between San Antonio and Goliad. At the outbreak of the Civil war he joined the Confederate forces as a member of Captain Kinney's company of the Twenty-first Texas Cav- alry and Carter's brigade, serving in the Trans-Mississippi department
Vcl. J. 19
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in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. He became familiar with all the hard service incident to military life and participated in many of the most hotly contested battles of the war, remaining in the army until the cessation of hostilities.
Following his return to Texas, Colonel Fant engaged in farming for a short time in Goliad county, but in 1866 he turned his attention to the cattle business, in which he rapidly rose to prominence because of the extent and importance of his operations. He made a specialty of taking cattle to the north over the old Chisum and other trails to Ne- braska, Wyoming and Dakota and for a number of years had large contracts with the government for supply beef cattle to various military posts and agencies, including Yankton and Standing Rock agencies in Dakota and Fort Reno and Fort Sill in Indian Territory (now Okla- homa). These contracts extended over a period of about fourteen years, during which time Colonel Fant sold thousands of heads of cat- tle to the government. For four years he wintered his cattle on the Loup and Platte rivers in Nebraska, but his operations extended farther west to Wyoming, where he sold a great many cattle and even as far as Idaho, where he spent two winters. One of the largest bunches of cattle ever taken over the trail to the north from Texas, so far as re- corded, was taken by Colonel Fant in 1884, numbering forty-two thou- sand head, which were sent to Wyoming. The magnitude of this ex- pedition may be imagined from the fact that these cattle cost him from twelve to twenty dollars a head. Twelve hundred saddle horses were used and two hundred men were needed to handle the supplies on the trail. After the quarantine laws against Texas went into effect Colonel Fant ceased taking his cattle to the north and thereafter confined his operations to trips over the trail to the Indian Territory. During the fifteen years that he was in business it is estimated that he took between one hundred and seventy-five thousand and two hundred thousand head of cattle over the trail to the north.
In the meantime Colonel Fant had continued in the cattle business at his home in Goliad county and was the second man in the history of the cattle industry in Texas to fence a pasture, enclosing his first pasture in 1874. About this time also he began to improve his cattle by the introduction of Durham and Hereford blood. He greatly extended his land holdings, placed more pastures under fence and established ranches in Frio, Live Oak, Hidalgo and other counties even as far north as Tarrant county. In the 'gos he owned and operated the Santa Rosa ranch in Hidalgo county, comprising two hundred and twenty-five thou- sand acres, also a pasture of sixty thousand acres in Live Oak county and altogether had holdings of seven hundred thousand acres of graz- ing land in various parts of Texas. He has now disposed of all of his cattle and land interests and is living retired from active life. As the above record indicates, he operated most extensively· in live stock for a number of years with a business which in volume and importance placed him among the foremost representatives of this industry in the southwest. In April, 1901, he came to San Antonio and purchased the beautiful home at the corner of King William and Sheridan streets which he yet occupies.
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Colonel Fant was married at Goliad, October 15, 1865, to Miss Lucy A. Hodges, a daughter of Colonel Jack Hodges, a prominent Texas character, who won distinction in the Mexican war and after- ward became a successful merchant. Colonel and Mrs. Fant had eight children, seven of whom are living: Mrs. Bertie Storey, Mrs. Ophie Collins, Dillard R., Jr .; Robert W., who died in San Antonio at his father's home in May, 1906, aged 2 years; Mrs. Agnes Ramsey, Suth- erland C., and Misses Ermie and Lucile. Colonel Fant is a typical repre- sentative citizen of the southwest with something in his nature that is akin to the broad prairies and the extensive business interests that have been conducted in Texas. He is a man of much breadth of view, who looks at life from a humanitarian standpoint and merits and receives the confidence and respect of all with whom he has been associated. From a humble beginning he worked his way steadily upward in business circles until he stood prominent among the representatives of live-stock interests in Texas.
CHAPTER XXIV.
SAN ANTONIO AT THE BEGINNING OF THE RAILROAD ERA.
"Wonderful land of limitless prairie, of beautiful rivers and strange foli- age; land where there is room to breathe full breaths; land beyond which there seem no boundaries-the railroad will yet subdue you! Then there will be no more mystery in the plains, the chapparal thickets, the groves of post-oak and pecan, the cypress-bordered streams, the grand ranges, the sun-burnished stretches. The stage routes will be forgotten; the now rapidly decaying Indian tribes will stray into some unexplored nook never to sally forth again. All this in a few years."-Edward King.1
Though one of the oldest cities of America, the capital of a province for years, and since its earliest history the concentration point for mili- tary and exploring expeditions, yet, after railroads began building in Texas, uniting its chief cities to the outside world by bands of steel, San Antonio was for many years an isolated city. It was the last important point in Texas (if we except El Paso, which was at that time only a village) to be given railroad communication. And it is essential to re- member that the arrival of the railroad in San Antonio marked the close of one epoch and the beginning of another. The modern aspects of San Antonio, of which the citizens speak with such pride, almost without exception have been assumed during the last thirty years. The unique composite of Mexican and American civilizations held full sway until the late seventies.
The enterprising understood what the railroad would do for San Antonio. The newspapers for years had advocated the extension of a line to this point, and had kept the agitation alive through prosperity and adversity. As is well known, railroad-building in the United States has proceeded during the periods of prosperity and has halted during "hard times." Unfortunately, the progress of railroad construction was so calculated that the period financial reverses befell the country before a railroad reached San Antonio. During the latter sixties and the early seventies, railroad-building went on at a wonderful rate in all sections of the country. Then came the blight of hard times in 1873, and during the next three years this department of industry, as nearly all others, came to an almost abrupt stop, not resuming until 1876.
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