John George Adair was born in the United Kingdom. His date of birth is thought to have been around 1823 in Ireland and his date of death was March 4, 1885 in St. Louis, Missouri at around the age of 62. Adair had started out as a land owner in Ireland, having invested in parcels that he acquired during and after the Irish potato famine drove real estate prices down. Adair continued in business there until he visited the United States in 1866 where he became engaged in a banking business, primarily making loans to American businesses with an expectation of earning higher interest rates than could be achieved in the United Kingdom.
A few years later he met Philadelphia born Cornelia Wadsworth, born in 1837. Cornelia’s father was James Samuel Wadsworth who had served in the Union Army during the Civil War until he was mortally wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness in May, 1864. Comments about Wadsworth note that he was wealthy and that he had declined to accept any pay during the war. He had entered the war as a volunteer aide during the First Manassas campaign, later served as military governor of the District of Columbia, and that he was promoted to Brigadier General at the time of his death. He he received a posthumous brevet promotion to Major General. Two monuments stand in his honor, one at Gettysburg and the other at the battlefield in Virginia where he received his fatal head wound.
Cornelia had first married Montgomery Richie, an American from Boston, in 1857 when she was about twenty years old. The couple had two children. Her husband died in the 1860s from an unnamed illness he contracted during the Civil War. A few years after Richie’s death, Cornelia met John Adair, who was working at his own investment firm in New York City. The couple married in 1869. Dividing their time between the United States and the United Kingdom, around 1874, the couple took a memorable trip to the West after which Adair decided to relocate his financial business to Denver, Colorado.
Adair became acquainted with rancher Charles Goodnight in 1876 through an agent when Goodnight sought to obtain a loan for his cattle business. At the time, the economic recession known as the Panic of 1873 had begun to lessen its grip on the American and world economy. Adair had weathered it and entertained the idea of getting into the cattle business as well. Goodnight was recommended to Adair. The two corresponded resulting in Goodnight inviting Adair to visit the Palo Duro area in Texas. In the spring of 1877, the two men accompanied by their wives, cowboys and a few others traveled from Colorado to Texas by wagon as they drove a herd of about 100 Durham bulls with them. Durham was a shorthorn breed developed in England several decades earlier.
In his biography of Goodnight, J. Evetts Haley quotes the old rancher as saying when the party reached Palo Duro Canyon with their bulls, Goodnight caught sight of 1,000 to 1,500 bison watering there. Cowboys began building crude roads into the canyon and constructed a log cabin for shelter. The Adairs remained with the Goodnights for a few weeks before heading away.
The two men formalized their agreement in the summer of 1877. Goodnight was to furnish the herd and Adair was to provide capital in the form of an investment and a loan. Among other provisions, Goodnight was to receive a modest salary and the initial agreement was to last five years. At the end of the five year term, Adair would receive 2/3 of the cattle and the land and Goodnight would receive 1/3. The ranch name and brand were based on the first letters of Adair’s first and last name, styled with the interlocking letters JA.
Goodnight initially purchased twenty-five thousand acres but added other parcels to it. The partnership went well during its initial term and was renewed for a second five years. Goodnight’s salary was increased. John Adair died in 1885 leaving his holdings to Cornelia Adair who honored the remaining two year term of the agreement. At the end of the second term in 1887, the assets were divided. At that time, the JA Ranch owned or leased an estimated 1,000,000 acres in Floyd, Hall, Briscoe, Donley, Armstrong and Randall counties.
The ranches were mainly operated under the JA and Lazy F brands. Other brands were used but the JA ranch is usually applied to the Palo Duro and Tule divisions whereas the Lazy F brand seems to have been mostly applied to holdings in the Quitaque area. The Lazy F properties had been started by two brothers, George and Jim Baker. Around 1882, Goodnight had acquired this property under his agreement with Adair.
The Adair-Goodnight relationship lasted ten years until the properties were divided. Goodnight selected the Quitaque division and Mrs. Adair received the other properties, namely the Palo Duro and Tule divisions. Cornelia continued to be the owner of her properties for the rest of her life. The San Antonio Gazette referred to her as a “Ranch Queen” in its article of July 13, 1907. The article compared and contrasted her with her with Henrietta King, whose husband Richard King had also died in 1885. It also notes that the Adair ranches’ 50,000 cattle produce an estimated 10,000 calves each year and that Cornelia continues to travel extensively and entertain in Texas while she is on the property. It also refers to her charitable work in America and elsewhere.
During her ownership, the ranch imported Hereford, other English cattle and breeds. Cattle from the ranch won first prize in a 1901 International Stock Show in competition with cattle from all over the world. Cornelia was a regular visitor to the ranch as she shifted more of her time to live in England.
Cornelia and John Adair had no children of their own. Cornelia passed away in London on September 22, 1921 at the age of 84. Her ashes were spread in Ireland. Texas friends commented that despite her age, she had intended to visit the ranch again in 1922. Various members of the Adair family had continued to be involved in managing the ranch over the years. In 1969, a grandson, Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth “Montie” Ritchie, made arrangements to donate an outbuilding of the ranch to the Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock. It was one of the first historic buildings to be assembled on acreage owned by the Center. The milk and meat house was originally built by Goodnight in 1880 on the Palo Duro ranch and was in regular use for many years. Articles about this gift describe its unique construction and how it was operated, noting that at one time, some fifty people were fed daily on the ranch. The structure was disassembled, transported to the Heritage Center and reassembled there. At this writing, the core of the ranch is still owned by descendants of Cornelia Adair.
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