USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 22
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kenzie was elected president without opposition. At the annual meet- ing in March, 1902, Mr. Murdo Mackenzie was re-elected president without opposition and served the Association two years, the limit pre- scribed by the by-laws, with credit to himself, and his administration unanimously endorsed by the Association.
At the annual meeting in March, 1905, Mr. W. W. Turney was re- elected president without opposition. Ike T. Pryor has been president since 1906.
Mr. J. D. Smith was the first vice-president, holding the position for one term. Messrs. J. B. Mathews and J. R. Stephens were the two vice-presidents selected at the second annual convention. Mr. Stephens was chosen each year for a number of years thereafter, till he would no longer serve, and was then elected an honorary member for life. The other vice-presidents have been Messrs. C. C. Slaughter, J. M. Lindsay, Jno. F. Evans, W. S. Ikard, A. P. Bush, Jr., J. W. Bustér, Murdo Mackenzie, Dr. J. B. Taylor, S. B. Burnett, R. J. Kleberg, A. G. Boyce, L. F. Wilson, W. W. Turney, John T. Lytle, I. T. Pryor and Richard Walsh. The last two were re-elected at the annual meeting in March, 1905.
J. C. Loving, of Jack county, was elected secretary at the organ- ization of the association, and was re-elected each succeeding year to the time of his death. In 1879 he was also elected treasurer, and filled both positions to March, 1893, when E. B. Harrold was elected treasurer, which position he held until March, 1900, when S. B. Burnett was elected treasurer, and has been re-elected each succeeding year since. J. C. Loving also filled the position of general manager of the associa- tion from 1884 to the time of his death, November 24, 1902, when J. W. Colston was chosen, by the executive committee, as assistant secretary, to fill out the unexpired term of Mr. Loving.
After a service of nearly twenty-six years as secretary of the associa- tion, and eighteen years as general manager, J. C. Loving expired Novem- ber 24, 1902, at his home in Fort Worth. To him, more than any one man, is due the success of the association, and to his memory will be erected a monument by the association, as a token of appreciation of the man and his valuable services.
At the annual meeting in March, 1905, Captain John T. Lytle was re-elected secretary and general manager, a position he held until his death in 1906.
The association keeps cattle inspectors at the principal markets, shipping points, on trails leading out of the state; also looks after the
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range depredations, and gives more and better protection to cattle growers than can be obtained from all other sources combined; has broken up more organized bands of thieves and sent more of them to the penitentiary than could have been done by any other power. This department of the association is under the management of an executive committee, chosen at each annual meeting.
'In the beginning of the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas the scope of its operations geographically were limited. The objects of the association as formed almost thirty years ago were limited to the interests which presented themselves. Conditions have constantly changed, and with the changing conditions the association has adapted itself, its purposes, objects and aims to the necessities which have arisen from time to time.
The protective and detective features were the prime objects of the association's efforts at first, and while these are still insisted upon they are less important now than other questions to which the associa- tion has devoted itself to solve. This is an age of combination, and what individual effort is impotent to effect an organization of many whose interests run together has great power to direct to the accom- plishment of any wholesome purpose. So it is that the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas has been foremost in agitating the question of governmental regulation of railroad rates and suppression of rebates and similar practices that now are admittedly the pre-eminent politico- economic questions before the American people for solution. In fact, the association, through its officers, is now credited as an influence of national importance in getting these matters before Congress and in advocating a just and equitable control upon the railroad interests.
In an interview published in the Texas Stockman-Journal, in 1907, Mr. Pryor, president of the association, said: "Those veteran cowmen who organized the first Cattle Raisers' Association in Texas at the old town of Graham in the year 1877 did not at that time have the faintest idea they were laying the foundation for what is now one of the greatest and most influential organizations of its kind in the country. This small beginning, the seed of which was planted at Graham in 1877, has grown and spread until its membership is about 2,000 individuals, and it carries on its assessment rolls nearly two million cattle, and, I dare say, controls as many as 5,000,000 head. The membership includes all the prominent cattlemen of Texas, a great many prominent live stock producers from New Mexico, Oklahoma, Indian Territory and Kansas, and quite a number of cattlemen from Colorado.
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"The prime object of this organization at its birth was solely a pro- tective and detective association. Nearly all of its members were raising cattle on open range, which created an inviting field for cattle rustlers and brand defacers. Through this organization and its methods of protection, it was enabled to render the sheriffs of the counties embraced within the territory of this association great service, and the effective work done by this organization in bringing to justice those unlawfully handling cattle and defacing brands resulted in great benefits of the cattle raisers in general.
"One of the first rules of this association was to put as many inspectors in the field as its finances would admit. These inspectors in many cases were officers of the law. Where they were not they did great service in helping officers in discovering depredations upon cattle belonging to the members of the association.
"In the evolution of time open ranges disappeared and the invention of barbed wire and the practical use of same by the cattlemen resulted in the open ranges merging into large pastures. This method of course made depredations by thieves more difficult. Nevertheless, this did not in any way prevent or diminish the ardor with which these veteran cowmen, who organized this association and who are entitled to great credit, pushed this organization and increased its membership and usefulness each year.
"It soon became necessary to place inspectors at all the market centers in order to protect the membership from losing cattle that might have been shipped to the market centers, some by intention and others by mistake.
"As the necessity for ranch protection diminished it became apparent to the members of this great organization that other and equally as important matters should claim their attention, until in recent years they have become a large factor in shaping such legislation, both state and national, as is of vital importance to the live stock interests of the entire country.
"It is due as much or more to the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas that the railway rate bill was finally passed by the United States Congress. The president of the Cattle Raisers' Association was chair- man of the Live Stock Transportation Association and an ex-president of the Cattle Raisers' Association was chairman of the executive com- mittee of said Live Stock Transportation Association, and it is due to this association that the twenty-eight hour limit in which stock should
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remain on the cars was extended to thirty-six hours by the National Congress.
"The Cattle Raisers' Association took an active interest and did as much or more than any other organization in the country towards defeat- ing a clause in the meat inspection bill compelling packers to pay for the inspection instead of the government. Had it not been for the Cattle Raisers' Association and the active interest it took this measure would no doubt have passed as originally introduced, and the live stock interests would have indirectly been made to pay for the inspection.
"We must not overlook the fact, however, in these great services performed by the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas, we have been ably and enthusiastically supported in every instance by the National American Live Stock Association. It has joined with us and we have joined with it in every undertaking, and it is indeed gratifying to observe the harmony with which these two organizations work together for the mutual benefit of all.
"I mention these facts to show what a benefit the Cattle Raisers' Association has been to all live stock producers, whether they are mem- bers of its organization or not, and it is the duty of those who are not members to join and contribute their part towards the great work being performed by this organization. I could enumerate many benefits the Cattle Raisers' Association has been directly and indirectly instrumental in bringing about that have resulted in great good to the live stock industry.
"Our experience and success attained in securing beneficial National legislation for the interest we represent should encourage us to proceed by the same methods to secure still more benefits, the principal one of which is the extension of our foreign trade in live stock and its products, which should mean better prices, a more stable condition of our markets and permanent prosperity to the great West.
"In this movement we should avoid partisan politics, making such demands as will command the favorable attention of both political parties, thus securing the undivided support of this entire western country."
A writer in Texas Stockman-Journal, in 1907, speaks of the future prospects of stock farming as follows: "While there is a great deal of talk concerning the passing of the big ranches and the decadence of the cattle industry in this state, the real facts in the case do not warrant any such conclusions. It is true the big ranches are passing-that hundreds of the large pastures in the state have been sold and cut up into small tracts during the past year, but that does not signify that
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Texas is preparing to go out of the cattle business. Any man who takes the trouble to figure the least bit on the situation must realize that Texas must always remain a great cattle producing state. No other state in the Union is so well adapted to the production of good cattle, and the time will never come when Texas will not be engaged in turning out just as good stuff as can be found in the Union.
"The big ranches are going, that is true, but in lieu of the single · ranch owners, the land affected is passing into the hands of many. It is simply the natural evolution that accompanies the growth and devel- opment of the country, and instead of one man owning many cattle, we are going to see many men owning a few cattle. By the term a few cattle is meant smaller numbers in comparison with the former large herds held by individual ownership. There will be just as many cattle and there will be more owners. That will be about the only change.
"One well informed cowman was discussing this point with the writer only a few days ago. He has been identified with the range country sections of Texas for more than a quarter of a century, and still owns large ranch and cattle interests in that section, steadfastly resisting all temptations to sell. He gave it as his opinion that the time was near at hand when Texas must produce more cattle than ever before. He said as the West settled and developed every man who made his home in that section must gather about him a small bunch of good cattle. As feed crops flourish throughout that portion of the state, they will continue to be cultivated, and the man who produces feed crops must have stock to feed it to. Good stock must always command good prices, and so long as good prices prevail men will continue to produce good stock. As one man succeeds others will feel incited to follow the example, and he believes the cattle business in Texas is just now on the eve of its greatest development.
"Another thing that is going to stimulate the renewed production of cattle in Texas is the general improvement in conditions. Prices this spring are highly suggestive of the good old days embraced in the boom period, and when prices show this stiffening tendency the man who has been sitting back waiting for the return of prosperity invariably proceeds to get busy. It may be that the days of large cattle speculation are gone in Texas, for the business is getting on a different basis, but there need be no apprehension as to the future production of cattle in this state. Opportunity is at hand and Texas cattlemen have not been slow in the past to take advantage of opportunity.
"There is not much real difference after all between ranching and
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stock farming. The stock farm is simply an evolution of the ranch. The demand was first made for improved cattle, and when these were provided it was discovered the provision did not go far enough. Improved cattle involved improved methods, including protection and feed. It was found that feed was cheaper when produced on the ranch than when hauled from the feed store, and the ranches began to produce feed. In contra- distinction to the practice of agriculture, this was dubbed stock farming, and stock farming it will always remain. The ranchman could never consent to become a straight agriculturist, for consistency is one of his virtues. But it does not hurt very deep to call him a stock-farmer, and he is content to let it go at that. It may be he feels a mistake has been made in the cutting up of the old range and would be glad to see a return to old conditions. But the thinking stockman of the day realizes these things are impossible. The man who would stay in the procession is compelled to get in line with those who are traveling in that direction, and this is just exactly what the great majority of the cattlemen of Texas are now doing."
SHEEP HUSBANDRY AND WOOL BUSINESS.
It is recorded that a home market for wool was established, the first wool bought and warehoused in San Antonio in April, 1859. Pre- vicus to that time George Wilkins Kendall had established his sheep ranch above New Braunfels and had published his successful results with sheep husbandry. From this time the sheep industry assumed increasing importance in Southwest Texas. The vast ranges were occupied by sheepmen and cattlemen alike, and though their relations were not always harmonious, they recognized that they stood in close relation to each other as concerned outside dangers that threatened their occupation.
The position of San Antonio as a wool market is still well remem- bered, for until a few years ago it boasted the high honor of being one of the largest and most important wool markets in the world. The rapid rise of the wool market was noted over thirty years ago, when the total wool brought into the city for the year 1874 was 400,000 pounds, and the total for 1875 was 600,000; the price of the latter year ranging from 28 cents for the best grade to 17 cents for the poorer Mexican grade. In short, San Antonio soon became the market center for one of the great- est wool-producing countries of the world, and continued as such until the reduction of the high protective tariffs during Cleveland's second administration. This was a blow to the city's commercial prosperity and to the prosperity of Southwest Texas as well, the full results of which
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it would be difficult to estimate. Suffice it to say that hundreds of sheep- raisers were forced out of the business; that one of the greatest sources of commercial profit was taken from San Antonio; and that the sheep industry has never since attained the proportions that it had before the lowering of the tariff wall. The last result, it should be stated, has been partly due to changing conditions in Southwest Texas during the period since 1895.
Perhaps the most interesting phase of the wool business, aside from its general features, was the part it played in politics during the early eighties. The discussions attendant upon free trade are very illuminating
SHEEP GRAZING
of the conditions of the sheep industry at that time. It is especially noteworthy that here, in the Democratic state of Texas, the principles of high protection found some of their stanchest allies and defenders in the persons of the wool growers.
The depth of the sentiment for protection among the sheepmen and their influence with the great body of live-stock producers, is illus- trated in the remarks of the president of the Stock Raisers' Association in his annual address in January, 1882. He said :
We are naturally interested-that which conduces to the prosperity of the grower, breeder, and dealer of sheep in one section of the state, either directly or indirectly, aids the sheep men of every section. United we are a power to accom- plish any desired worthy purpose we may elect, whether it be in the enactment of
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laws for our protection and development, the enforcement of laws already in existence, or as benefactors to our race in our state and nation. We have reason for gratitude because our efforts as growers of wool and breeders of sheep have been so signally blessed during the past few years.
That our climate. soil and grasses are not excelled for the production of superior sheep for both wool and mutton has been fully proven. Though the prices paid for our wools have generally been satisfactory, yet the attempts of inter- meddlers to tamper with and reduce the import duties has at various times de- pressed the markets, lessened the prices of wools and produced uncertainty, both to the manufacturer and producer. It is not the expectancy or desire of the wool- growers of the United States to build up and protect their own industry at the expense or injury of other vocations, but they believe (and the results of a wise protective system in the past proves this belief to be the correct one) that by placing themselves on a firm foundation with other producers and with the manu- facturers every class of laborers will be the beneficiaries, and capital will find ready and profitable investments.
The great tariff convention recently held in New York, where all the indus- tries of the nation were represented, has spoken and given no uncertain sound. Congress is asked to legislate for the protection of home, not foreign industries. It now seems quite certain that the tariff laws are to be acted upon in a manner that will put them to rest for many years to come.
If a just and equitable protective tariff and revenue laws are made permanent, the future of the woolgrowers of the United States will be as bright and certain as the past few years have been prosperous and progressive. I suggest that this association take such action as shall make known to our representatives in Congress our desires, and also provide our qnota of means to aid the executive board of the National Woolgrowers' Association in bringing the woolgrowers' interests promi- nently forward at Washington at the proper time.
Some of our sheep men insist that our state legislators have enacted laws discriminating 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 figuring 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, making a
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
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, or 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.
COTTON WAITING TO BE GINNED
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 appropriator 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 in the state in 1909, as rendered by the assessors, was about 1,500,000.
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
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
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 half.
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 weighs 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 exceptions, but we speak of ruling conditions. Men who have bred good sheep have found always a good market for them and for their wool."
A BRIEF HISTORY OF RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION.
Every important town and city of Texas, with its adjacent country, owes a large share of its growth and prosperity to the railroad. A rail- way station was the point of beginning for many flourishing towns, and in the case of those centers of population that were founded before the railroad era, the subsequent fate of such places has usually depended on their success in obtaining railroad communication. Some of the old towns of the state have long since been decadent merely because the railroads passed them by. Not only have the railroads exercised such influence over centers of business and population, but also have changed or given new direction to all the industrial activities. The development of certain localities has been delayed, while that of other places has been corre- spondingly advanced, by the necessary inequality of progress in railroad building. These general assertions are so abundantly proved in the his- tory of the different localities contained in this work, and in every county the railroad has been such an important factor, that a brief history of railroad building in Texas needs no further apology in these pages.
FROM 1850 TO THE CIVIL WAR
In 1850 Texas had not a mile of railroad track, engine nor cars. Fourteen years before, December 16, 1836, the first railroad charter had been granted in the republic, but this, with many others, had been for- feited.
The first Texas railroad originated at Harrisburg, and was the Buf- falo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railway, which was incorporated by the act of February 11, 1850. Harrisburg was the center of railroad enter- prise for many years. In 1840 some citizens undertook the construction of what was known as the Harrisburg & Brazos Railroad, and an item in the Houston Star (May 16, 1840) says: "Laborers are said to be grad- ing and preparing for laying of rails." This road was chartered (Janu-
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