livestock diseases – Texas History Notebook

Dr. Mark Francis

Dr. Mark Francis was born in Shandon, Ohio on March 19, 1863 to Abner Francis (1829 – 1894) and Martha Ann Vaughn Francis (1832 – 1905). He was the fourth child of eight born to the farming family, likely considered to be a wealthy family at the time. Two of his siblings, John and Edward Francis, became medical doctors.

Texas Fever

In the mid 1800s a disease began to infect southern cattle and had the potential to devastate the entire United States cattle industry. It was called tick fever, Texas fever or Texas cattle fever. Other names were Spanish fever, redwater or splenic fever. The comments below represent our best effort to understand the history of this malady and how the treatment developed over the years.