Texoso

Ranger Dan L. McDuffie

Dan Lafayette McDuffie was born February 16, 1883 to James C. McDuffee (1844 – 1915) and Emily Mahalah Hays McDuffee (1855 – 1911). James was born in Tennessee and Emily was born in Alabama. It is not recorded how they met but they were married in 1877 in Arkansas where many of their children, including Dan, were born. By 1888, they had relocated to North Texas where all three of Dan’s younger siblings were born. Dan married Willie Lemuel “Lemmie” McCright in 1907 in New Boston, Bowie County, Texas in 1907 and a daughter was born to the couple the following year. Both of his parents had passed away by 1920 and in the federal census, Dan was living on the family farm.

6666 Barn

For more than seventy years, this barn was in everyday use on the Guthrie, Texas ranch of the 6666. It is believed to have been completed by Samuel Burk Burnett around 1908. It became a landmark, symbolic of the ranching activities carried on there. The structure was a common sight as it sat just off Highway 82 as the highway looped around Guthrie. In later years, the quarter horses owned by the operation were housed there. Within ten years of its completion, Burnett built his ranch house that stood nearby for so many years until the barn was moved.

Margaret “Peggy” McCormick

Peggy McCormick was the owner of the land where the Battle of San Jacinto took place. Her husband was Arthur McCormick. Peggy’s maiden name is unknown. Arthur was born in Ireland in the late 1780s and Peggy is believed to have been about the same age, also born in Ireland. Arthur and his young family had first settled in Louisiana in 1818 before coming to Texas around 1822 as part of the Austin Colony’s “Old 300” group of settlers. Arthur had been trained as a lawyer, but tried to establish himself as a stock raiser after he received his land grant in 1824. He was the head of his family unit and his was one of three Old 300 family groups with the same last name, though the three families do not appear to be closely related. All three families were farmers. Arthur and Peggy had two sons, Michael (1818 -1874) and John (1820 – 1839).

David Lee “Tex” Hill

David Lee Hill was the youngest son of Pierre Bernard “P. B.” Hill (1877 – 1958) and Ellen Lee Thraves Hill (1875 – 1958). David Lee was born in Korea on July 13, 1915 while his parents were serving as Presbyterian missionaries there. His three older siblings were born in Virginia between 1906 and 1912.

Maxime Faget

Maxime A. “Max” Faget was a NASA engineer. He served as Director of Engineering and Development at the Houston facility then known as the Manned Spacecraft Center and was instrumental in the development of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo manned space flight systems.