This historic ranch was started in 1881 as a partnership of D. B. Gardner and Col. J. S. Godwin. The holding company Pitchfork Land and Cattle Company was formally organized in Missouri in 1883 and the founding shareholders were A. P. Bush Jr., Sam Lazarus, D. B. Gardner, W. H. Carroll, E. F. Williams and A. D. Brown. Gardner and Williams had been boyhood friends from Mississippi. Prior to the 1883 formation of the holding company, Williams had been a sales manager for Hamilton Brown Shoe Company, and Gardner had been a surveyor in Texas.
Continue reading Pitchfork RanchCollin McKinney
Collin McKinney was a early settler in North Texas. He was born in 1766 in New Jersey to a Scottish couple, Daniel and Mercy McKinney, making him 10 years old at the height of the American Revolution. Near the end of the war, the family first moved to Virginia and then again on to Kentucky around 1780.
The Old 300 and Family Ties
The Old 300 refers to settlers in Moses Austin and Stephen F. Austin’s colony in Texas. Moses Austin petitioned the Spanish government to be allowed to settle in Texas in late 1820 and received his grant in early 1821. Shortly thereafter, Moses Austin died in Missouri and his son Stephen F. Austin elected to replace his father in the arrangement. This was later confirmed by the Spanish governor who formally recognized Stephen F. Austin as the person to succeed Moses and complete the grant.
Creed Taylor
It is hard to imagine reading about any of the key events surrounding the Texas Revolution and the times surrounding it without encountering the name of Creed Taylor. Taylor was the son of a family of early Texas settlers. Despite his youth, he is thought to have taken part in the following battles: the “Come and Take It” battle in Gonzalez, the Battle of Concepción, the Grass Fight, the Siege of Bexar, the Battle of San Jacinto and others.
Burleson, Texas
The town of Burleson (32°32′9″N 97°19′38″W) now sits along the border of Tarrant and Johnson counties. It was originally founded by a rancher and minister by the name of Henry Carty Renfro. Born in 1831, Renfro came from a Tennessee family who had originally settled in Cass County, Texas when he was about 20 years old. In 1853, he entered Baylor University when it was located at Independence, in Washington County. One of his mentors there was Rufus C. Burleson, a religiously conservative professor who had become President of the university in 1851.
Texas History Notebook 