ranch families – Texas History Notebook

William Hittson

William Bedford Hittson was born October 14, 1834 in Mount Pleasant, Tennessee to Jesse J. Hittson (1801 – 1861) and Mary Ann Beck Hittson (1798 – 1879). His father, Jesse J. Hittson, was born in Virginia but came to Texas with his family in 1855. The Hittsons were a farming family but began raising cattle after settling in Texas. The family consisted of the parents, Aaron H. Hart (possibly a child from a previous marriage of the former Mary Ann Beck). The couple had two sons of their own, John Nathan Hittson and William Bedford Hittson. Both John and William were married by the time that the whole family moved to Texas. Jesse and the families of Aaron, John and William were all living in Palo Pinto County at the time of his death in 1861 at around the age of 60. No cause of death is noted.

After Jesse died, son John is said to have managed the cattle operation for their mother. None of the immediate family appear to have actively served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War though William Hittson was apparently on the roster of a local militia.

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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