Texas History Notebook

Rex Cauble and Cutter Bill

Rex Cauble was born August 15, 1913 in the Hill County town of Vaughan, Texas. His parents were Fred C. Cauble and Lou Butts Cauble who were cotton farmers. One of his first jobs was in the oilfield where he worked as a roughneck. He tried his own hand at drilling and was successful at that, as well. Always fond of ranch life, Cauble invested in horses, was a very good competitive rider in the 1960s and came to own a prize stud named Cutter Bill. Settling in North Texas, Cauble founded two western wear stores, named after his cutting horse. The stores were branded Cutter Bill’s Western World with locations in Houston and Dallas in the late 1960s. At the opening of the Houston store, the horse was brought in and his hoof prints were imprinted in the wet cement of the sidewalk.

Gaines de Graffenried

Gaines de Graffenried was born August 10, 1905 in Chilton, Falls County, Texas. His parents were Fleming Taylor de Graffenried and Lousie Gaines de Graffenried. A few words about the spelling of the last name: In the same family tree, we have seen it spelled degraffenried, degraffenreid and degraftenreid. These may not even be all of the variations in the name. Sometimes the first two letters are separated from the rest, sometimes they are not. The G may or may not be capitalized. Despite the variations, they all may be members of the same family. We note a few of the members of the extended family below.

Anne W. Marion

Anne Burnett Windfohr Marion (1938 – 2020) was the last Burnett descendant to own the Four Sixes Ranch. Her mother was Anne Valiant Burnett Tandy. Her grandfather was Thomas Loyd Burnett, son of Samuel Burk Burnett and his first wife Ruth Bottom Loyd Burnett.

Jim McIntyre & Jim Courtright

As unlikely as it might seem, the Saturday, May 16, 1885 edition of the Stratfordshire (England) Sentinel Daily and Weekly carried an article with the title “A Pair of American Desperadoes” about the search for two criminals, Jim Courtright and Jim McIntyre, the latter of whom had just been apprehended.

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.