cattle brands – Page 2 – Texas History Notebook

Thomas Loyd Burnett

Thomas Loyd Burnett was the son of Samuel Burk Burnett (1849 – 1922) and Ruth Bottom Loyd (1853 – 1913), and was born to the couple on December 10, 1871 in Denton County, Texas. Burk and Ruth had both a son and a daughter after Tom was born, but neither child survived beyond one or two years of age. They were followed by another daughter, Anne Valliant Burnett (1876 -1914). Burk and Ruth divorced in 1892 and Burk subsequently married Mary Sue Couts (1857 – 1924). Their union produced a son, (half brother to Tom and Anne) Samuel Burk Burnett, Jr. (1895 – 1916). Burk, Jr. died of cancer when he was almost twenty-one years old after a short illness. Tom’s sister Anne had previously died in 1914.

The Shoe Bar Ranch (1880s – 1980s)

The Shoe Bar Ranch name is believed to date back to the late 1880s when Leigh R. Dyer settled in North Texas with a herd of cattle. Some accounts say that the Dyer connection to the brand included Leigh Dyer’s brother Walter Dyer and their well known sister Mary Ann Dyer Goodnight, wife of Charles Goodnight.

Mallet Ranch

The Mallet Ranch has had a long life in West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico for many years. The core of the property originated in the holdings of D. P. Atwood who once held the cattle brand. We have seen the name either spelled with one t and two ts at the end. We will assume that “Mallet” is the correct spelling for purposes of this article for entities after Atwood’s.

The Mallet brand somewhat resembled the head of a hammer or mallet. Some call it a croquet mallet. The brand was acquired around 1885, after the Atwood group had begun to dispose of its interests, by David DeVitt and John Scharbauer who incorporated their own entity in 1903.

Dan Waggoner and His Descendants

Daniel Waggoner was born in 1828 in Tennessee to Solomon and Martha McGaugh Waggoner. Daniel was the second of the siblings to be born in Lincoln County, Tennessee before the family moved to Missouri where most of the other siblings were born. The family finally settled in Hopkins County, Texas. Daniel married Nancy Moore in 1851 in Hopkins County. The following year their only son William Thomas Waggoner was born. Nancy passed away in 1853. Five years later, Daniel married Sicily Ann Halsell, daughter of Electious and Elizabeth Jane Mayes Halsell. Sicily was from a large ranching family, also of Wise County. The couple had no children.

Kokernot o6 Ranch

Herbert Lee Kokernot, Sr. was born in 1867 to Levi Moses and Sarah Littlefield Kokernot. Levi had been born in 1836 in Louisiana and lived most of his adult life in Gonzales County where he was a cattle rancher. Levi had first married the former Sarah E. Littlefield with whom he had a number of children including Herbert Lee. Sarah died in 1878 at around the age of thirty. He later married Hulda Jane Carnes. Hulda had also been born in Louisiana and lived most of her life in the Gonzales area with Levi and her family.