Waggoner Ranch
After the XIT series readers highly recommended doing a post on the Waggoner Ranch. I did a little research and discarded the suggestion because the Waggoner Ranch story didn’t fit the nineteenth century focus of these pages. Once we decided to do this series on great American ranches, I added it back to the mix because the Waggoner story may not be a nineteenth century story; but it is certainly an interesting American ranch story.
The story begins about 1850 when Dan Waggoner established a small ranch on Denton Creek near Decatur Texas. The ranch grew over the next twenty years. In 1870 Waggoner drove a herd to Kansas that he sold for $55,000, serious money in the nineteenth century. Dan began an expansion program that grew Waggoner herds and range land. By the 1880’s the Waggoners owned several banks, a cotton processing plant and a coal company. The family lived in a mansion in Decatur known as El Castile.
During that period Dan and son W.T. developed an informal business relationship with the Comanche chief Quanah Parker. The Waggoners wanted a huge parcel of Indian land to pasture their ever growing herds. Parker persuaded tribal elders to deliver the land. The Waggoners rewarded him with wealth and fame, establishing him in an opulent home that became known as the Comanche Whitehouse.
Dan died in 1903, leaving W.T. a ranch of more than 500,000 acres with leases extending it to more than a million. That was the end of the nineteenth century Waggoner Ranch story; but it was only the beginning to the rest of the story. W.T. continued to build the ranch in true cattle baron style. He had three children, a daughter Electra and two sons Guy and E. Paul. Raised in privilege, W.T.’s offspring showed little interest in ranching and the newly developing oil business. In 1923 W.T. formed the W.T. Waggoner Estate as a structured way to pass the ranch along to his children and to make something of their lives. The best laid plans. . .
W.T. divided the ranch in four parcels, one for himself and one for each of his children. He decided to determine which parcel each got by drawing cards. Seems reasonable unless you have a predetermined outcome in mind, which W.T. did. Clearly he was a better rancher than card player in a game given two out of three chances to come out wrong- which it did. When W.T. declared ‘misdeal’, the seeds of deep-seated family discord were sown for generations to come.
Next Week: Remembering Dallas
Ride easy,
Paul
The story begins about 1850 when Dan Waggoner established a small ranch on Denton Creek near Decatur Texas. The ranch grew over the next twenty years. In 1870 Waggoner drove a herd to Kansas that he sold for $55,000, serious money in the nineteenth century. Dan began an expansion program that grew Waggoner herds and range land. By the 1880’s the Waggoners owned several banks, a cotton processing plant and a coal company. The family lived in a mansion in Decatur known as El Castile.
During that period Dan and son W.T. developed an informal business relationship with the Comanche chief Quanah Parker. The Waggoners wanted a huge parcel of Indian land to pasture their ever growing herds. Parker persuaded tribal elders to deliver the land. The Waggoners rewarded him with wealth and fame, establishing him in an opulent home that became known as the Comanche Whitehouse.
Dan died in 1903, leaving W.T. a ranch of more than 500,000 acres with leases extending it to more than a million. That was the end of the nineteenth century Waggoner Ranch story; but it was only the beginning to the rest of the story. W.T. continued to build the ranch in true cattle baron style. He had three children, a daughter Electra and two sons Guy and E. Paul. Raised in privilege, W.T.’s offspring showed little interest in ranching and the newly developing oil business. In 1923 W.T. formed the W.T. Waggoner Estate as a structured way to pass the ranch along to his children and to make something of their lives. The best laid plans. . .
W.T. divided the ranch in four parcels, one for himself and one for each of his children. He decided to determine which parcel each got by drawing cards. Seems reasonable unless you have a predetermined outcome in mind, which W.T. did. Clearly he was a better rancher than card player in a game given two out of three chances to come out wrong- which it did. When W.T. declared ‘misdeal’, the seeds of deep-seated family discord were sown for generations to come.
Next Week: Remembering Dallas
Ride easy,
Paul
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