Henry Sanborn

Henry Bradley Sanborn was born on September 10, 1845 in Parishville, New York to Edmund S. Sanborn and Harriet Rand White Sanborn and was the fourth of five children. His father was a farmer. He left home when he was about 19 years old, relocating to DeKalb, Illinois.

In Illinois, he began to work in the hardware company of Joseph F. Glidden, the Barb Fence Company. around 1864. Glidden owned a patent for the manufacture of barbed wire that eventually made him wealthy. Sanborn initially resided with the Glidden family as a boarder. While living there with the Gliddens, he met and later married Mrs. Clarissa Foster Glidden’s niece, Ellen Wheeler Sanborn. Some accounts incorrectly assume that Glidden was Ellen’s father, but Ellen was the daughter of Phoebe Foster Wheeler, Mrs. Glidden’s sister. Why she came to live with her aunt and uncle is unknown. After Henry and Ellen married in 1868, they continued to live with the Gliddens. Their only son, Ellwood Bradley Sanborn, was was born in 1869. Ellwood is named after Isaac L. Ellwood, a business associate.

Sanborn worked for Glidden in Illinois for a number of years. Glidden had built a small factory for the production of his fencing products around 1874. In September of the following year, after Sanborn had made an exploratory trip to the Texas, Glidden suggested that Sanborn relocate there to try and expand the market for his barbed wire. Sanborn and Glidden felt that the Texas ranch market would prove to be vast. He encouraged Glidden to ship carloads of product to Sherman, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. Sanborn and an associate named Judson P. Warner were also able to place a rail car load of the wire in the Houston/Rockport area. For the next several years, they continued to expand and by the mid to late 1880s, a headquarters was established in Houston. As noted in another article here, Glidden’s and Sanborn’s success was interrelated with that of Isaac Ellwood. They had numerous connections in the fencing and ranching business.

Sanborn was encouraged by his prospects and bought 2,000 acres in Grayson County which he stocked with cattle and horses. He had a special interest in Percheron and French coach horses. What might have begun as a sideline became a successful horse operation that produced a nice annual income for him.

He and Glidden went into a partnership together in 1881 and acquired a lot of land in Randle and Potter counties. Their first acquisition was 95 sections, or around 60,000 acres, soon building up to 250,000 acres, though at the time none of their holdings was within 250 miles of rail lines. They fenced it all with their own product and called it the Pan Handle or Frying Pan Ranch. A newspaper article around the time of Sanborn’s death said that this fencing cost an estimated $39,000 at the time.

The story of the founding of Amarillo involves Sanborn. The local legend is that an early town site had been started with a few buildings in the late 1880s by other businessmen, specifically excluding Sanborn at a time when he was traveling out of state. When he returned he was motivated to start a competing town site nearby, arguing that his location was superior to the earlier one, furthermore that the earlier one was on low land, prone to flooding. Both locations might have had chances of success, since the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad had reached the area by around 1887. Sanborn had financial resources and was able to prevail in the competition. The initial name of the community was Oneida, but the name Amarillo was chosen by majority vote. Amarillo is Spanish for yellow, after a certain variety of wild flowers that grew in the area. The initial location of the town is near the current central business district.

As the town continued to grow, Sanborn was deeply involved in its development. Accordingly, he came to be called the “Father of Amarillo.” Articles note that he developed two hotels (one of which became the unofficial center for cattlemen and their dealings), created a loan company, donated land for an early hospital and land for a park. Sanborn is also credited for developing Amarillo’s first waterworks system. The Ellen and Henry also donated a building that helped to found Amarillo College in the late 1890s.

Ellwood Sanborn, the only son of Ellen and Henry Sanborn died in late 1890 at the age of 21. In 1889, Ellwood had begun to work with his father and seemed to have an aptitude for the various business interests. In the summer of 1890, Ellen was on a trip to Europe. She had just reached Europe when she received word that Ellwood had taken sick and was not doing well. Ellen returned as soon as possible on the next ship available. When she reached home, she found him gravely ill. Ellwood was moved to seek treatment in Denver, Colorado but died the following December 1. His cause of death was said to be consumption, usually a reference to complications of tuberculosis. One of the parks of Amarillo is Ellwood Park. It was named after Ellwood Sanborn and is located west of the central business district. Ellwood was buried in Kansas City, Missouri where they had a residence until the early 1900s.

Ellen and Henry Sanborn made their home in Amarillo and built a residence there. It was later moved and is now located about one block south of the Ellwood Park. Their home is listed as a Texas Historic Landmark and is also in the National Register of Historic Places.

Henry Sanborn died May 19, 1912 while in Battle Creek, Michigan at the age of 66. Ellen donated land to create Sanborn Park a few years later. The Frying Pan Ranch had been previously sold to other ranchers. Mrs. Sanborn disposed of the remaining ranch land over the next few years, including the 120,000 acre Bravo Ranch, the sale of which was widely reported in newspapers when it was sold in 1912. Ellen survived Henry until her own death on January 18, 1920 at the age of 76. Both Ellen and Henry are interred with Ellwood at Forest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.

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