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. About that same time, the couple moved to Wise County, Texas. 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.
Category Archives: ranches, ranch families
Kokernot 06 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.
King Ranch
The King Ranch lies between Corpus Christi and Brownsville and is currently the largest ranch in Texas. Historically, it was even larger when it was known as the Santa Gertrudis under a land grand from the King of Spain to José Domingo de la Garza. It was later conveyed to José Pérez Ray whose descendants conveyed it in turn to Richard King.
Electra Waggoner Biggs
Electra was a well known sculptor in addition to being one of the heirs to the Waggoner Ranch holdings. She was born in Fort Worth on November 8, 1912 and died in Vernon on April 23, 2001 at the age of 88. Her father was E. Paul Waggoner, a familiar name to residents of North Texas, and her mother was Helen Buck Waggoner. She was the granddaughter of W. T. Waggoner, who with his father Dan was a founder of the ranch. She was the great granddaughter of Solomon Waggoner who first came to the plains.
The Goodnight Ranch
Goodnight is a name that calls to mind cattle drives from North Texas to Wyoming or Montana and also the start of ranching in the Panhandle. Charles Foxwing Goodnight, Jr. was born in Illinois, not too far north of St. Louis, Missouri to farmers Charles and Charlotte Collier Goodnight in 1836. His father died five years after this and his mother married Hiram Henry Daugherty, a farmer who lived nearby. A few years later in 1845, the family headed for Texas, settling between what is now Milam County between College Station to the east and Austin to the west. Charles did not receive much formal schooling and began working as a cowboy to help the family get by. His first stepfather Daughterty also died not long after arriving in Texas. His mother then married a minister by the name of Adam Sheek in 1853. Goodnight and a step brother, John Wesley Sheek, began a ranching operation and around 1857 they relocated it further up the Brazos to what is now Palo Pinto County. Once they got settled, they brought the family with them.
Yturria Ranch
During its ownership and control of Texas, Spain had attempted to colonize the areas along the Rio Grande to take advantage of its fresh water system. The King of Spain granted ownership of blocks of land to certain private individuals who had shown an interest in colonization and had resided in the area for a number of years. After Mexico declared its independence from Spain, most of the Spanish grants were upheld. Similarly, most were also recognized under the Texas Republic, following its establishment.
YO Ranch
This famous ranch was founded by Charles Armand Schreiner, who was born in 1838 in Alsace-Lorraine, an area that lay between Germany and France. He came to the still young United States of America with his parents and family in 1852, settling in Bexar County. In an unexpected turn of events, both of his parents died shortly thereafter. His father Gustav passed as the result of a rattlesnake bite within a year from their arrival, followed by his mother Charlotte’s death four years later. His family was dispersed at that point, with his only sister getting married, one brother leaving for California to find gold and two other brothers remaining in San Antonio where they had found employment.
