The Halsells and Waggoners were twice related by marriage. Daniel Dale “Dan” Waggoner was the husband of Sicily (sometimes spelled Cicily) Halsell and Dan’s son W. T. “Tom” Waggoner was married to Ella Halsell, sister of Sicily. Dan’s first wife and Tom’s mother was the former Nancy Moore. Nancy had died in 1853. She is buried in a small family cemetery in Hopkins County along with Dan’s father Solomon and one of Dan’s sisters. Around 1858, Dan married Sicily Ann Halsell (Ella’s older sister). No known children were born to Dan and Sicily. Nineteen years later in 1877, Tom Waggoner married Sicily’s younger sister Ella. It may sound more complicated than it is, but as a result of the marriage, Tom’s step-grandparents and all of their children became his inlaws. The Waggoner father and son had each married one of two Halsell sisters. This is not all that uncommon an occurrence, since back in the day families were often much larger and children might be stretched out over a number of years.
Ella and Sicily were two of the daughters of Electious and Elisabeth Mays Halsell. Electious Halsell had been born in Danville, Kentucky in 1816 and married Elisabeth Jane Mays in 1837. Elisabeth was born in South Carolina. Their children were James Thompson (born 1839), Sicily Ann (born 1842), John Glenn (born 1845), George Washington (born 1848), William Electious (born 1851), Ida (born 1854), Roswell Keach (born 1856), Ella (born 1859) and Edward I. (born 1861). An older son named Edward F. (born 1833) is also noted as a son of the couple.
Dan had been born in Tennessee in 1828 and came to Texas with his family. He and Nancy were married in 1851 when he was about twenty-three and she was about eighteen. Very little seems to be known about Nancy and her family even after all these years, but Tom was born to the couple in 1852. Nancy died the following year while the couple was still living around Sulphur Springs. Dan’s father had passed away a few years earlier and after Nancy’s death, he relocated to what is now Wise County. He became acquainted with Sicily Halsell and they were married in 1858 when Dan was around thirty and Sicily was about sixteen.
The Halsells had arrived in Wise County in the mid 1850s. Electious operated a tavern, one of the first constructed buildings in Decatur where the Halsells were early residents. All of their children lived beyond their twenties except for son George Washington Halsell. George was working on a ranch for the Waggoners in the summer of 1866 when he and another young man were set upon by Indians (tribe not identified). The Indians gave chase and young men took fire. One survived, but George was killed. His body was recovered a few days later and buried in Decatur.
The Waggoners and Halsells both lived in or around Decatur for a number of years. Tom was raised up on the ranch and learned the cattle business from Dan and the hands. At some point, Tom became acquainted with Ella Halsell. In 1877, Tom is said to have brought two horses and a wagon to the home of Electious Halsell (Ella’s mother Elisabeth having passed away in 1870), where he asked for Ella’s hand, after which they were married. Tom was about twenty-five and Ella was about eighteen.
Dan’s cattle brand was originally one capital D. Later Dan adopted the familiar 3 D brand that has been in use since then. The Ds on the brand are reversed. There is a legend about the design that a blacksmith had misread Dan’s sketch of what he wanted made, but this is likely just a persistent rumor. The brand as is would have been difficult for rustlers to alter. However, there is one story that Dan had recovered some of his stolen cattle and that the Waggoner brand had been altered with a box around the former brand. No images of this are known to exist but this was called the box D and supposedly Dan registered this brand as well.
Dan constructed a palatial home in Decatur for his family. It is called “El Castile” or simply the Waggoner Mansion. The multistory home has sixteen rooms and six bathrooms and was completed in 1883. It is now privately owned, but is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is a Texas Historic Landmark. Dan and Sicily lived there for many years. After Dan passed away, the home sat unoccupied for over twenty years before Tom and Ella renovated it and used at as a weekend and summer home.
Dan was the first of the four to pass away in 1902 at the age of seventy-four. He is interred in Oaklawn Cemetery in Decatur. His will provided for Sicily to have a life interest in their home and a to receive a certain amount of cash outright. The various ranches were to pass to W. T. and his sons. The following year, there was a somewhat different family settlement between Sicily and Tom which, oddly enough, was publicized in the newspapers.
Sicily passed away in the spring of 1928 at the age of eighty-six. By then she was living in Fort Worth, where she had relocated after Dan’s death. Her interesting obituary told a bit more about herself and the Halsell family. Sicily had been born in Kentucky and came to Texas in 1844, one hundred years after her great grandfather had come to America from England in 1744. She is buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Decatur.
Tom and Ella were the parents of Electra (born 1882), Guy Leslie (born 1883) and Edward Paul Waggoner (born 1889). Two other sons named Daniel and William did not live to become adults. Tom was the next of the four to pass away. He died in 1934 at the age of eighty-two after having suffered a stroke. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth. His obituary noted that he had been influential in establishing Arlington Downs, a North Texas horse racing track and that his ranch amounted to 500,000 acres. The article also noted the often told story of how oil was found on the ranch as they were trying to complete a water well.
Ella was the last of the four to pass away. She died in Fort Worth in May of 1959 after reaching the age of one hundred. Her obituary recounted that she had gone to school in Decatur and attended Baylor University in Waco and that she was married to Tom in a dress that she had made herself. She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth.
The ranch headquarters were eventually moved to Sachueista, south of Vernon. There are a couple of theories about the name. One is that it is derived from an Indian word meaning good grass. The word spelled sacahuista refers to a Texas native rangeland lily plant. Regarding the ranch division, the Sachueista was one of the four divisions of holdings in Wichita and Wilbarger counties. The Waggoner Ranch remained in the family until it was sold in 2016.
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