ranches, ranch families – Texas History Notebook

Pérez Ranch

This ranch was the oldest ranch in Texas for the better part of two hundred years. The original grantee was Don Juan Ignacio (or Ygnacio) Pérez de Casanova in 1794 from Spain during its control of the area. The ranch operated continuously under a number of names including Rancho de Purisima Conceptión, Stone Rancho, Perez Ranch, Linn Ranch, Rancho de Leon and Walsh Ranch until about 22 years ago. Some of the ranch names come from family names of spouses in marriage.

Spade Ranches

The Spade Ranch (also referred to either as the Spade Renderbrook or the Renderbrook Spade Ranch) takes its name from J. F. “Spade” Evans, who was an early co-owner of the property with Henry Sanborn, who was called the “Father of Amarillo.” Their first property was in Donley County east of Clarendon and amounted to twenty-three sections of land, about 15,000 acres more or less. This property, livestock and Spade brand were all sold to Isaac Leonard Ellwood in 1889.

Swenson Ranches

Multiple sources credit Svante Magnus Swenson as being the first Swedish immigrant to come to Texas. He was born February 24, 1816 in Sweden to Sven Israelsson Swenson and Margareta Andesrsdotter Swenson, both of whom lived their whole lives in Sweden. He left his family and his home in Sweden when he was about twenty years old and came to America. S. M. briefly lived in New York before he relocated to the South. After he worked in New York as a railroad bookkeeper for a while, S. M. traveled to Galveston from New York in 1838. According to a biography of Swenson written by A. Anderson, the ship he traveled in experienced a shipwreck as it arrived in Texas, though the details are unknown. Swenson survived the ordeal and operated a mercantile business for a few years. It appears that for some time, he remained in the coastal area working for his own account before later joining in a partnership with a Dr. Long from Fort Bend County.

Iron Mountain Ranch

In 1881, a retired sea captain by the name of Albion Shepard came to the Big Bend area while working as a surveyor for the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway. In newspaper and other articles, his last name might be spelled Shepard, Shepherd, Shepperd or some other variation. In this article we will use the spelling Shepard.

John and Cornelia Adair

John George Adair was born in the United Kingdom. His date of birth is thought to have been around 1823 in Ireland and his date of death was March 4, 1885 in St. Louis, Missouri at around the age of 62. Adair had started out as a land owner in Ireland, having invested in parcels that he acquired during and after the Irish potato famine drove real estate prices down. Adair continued in business there until he visited the United States in 1866 where he became engaged in a banking business, primarily making loans to American businesses with an expectation of earning higher interest rates than could be achieved in the United Kingdom.