ranches, ranch families – Page 2 – Texas History Notebook

The C. C. Slaughter Family

C. C. Slaughter was the oldest son of George Webb Slaughter (1811 – 1895) and Sarah Mason Slaughter (1818 – 1894). C. C. was born to the couple February 9, 1837. He was married to Cynthia Ann Jowell on December 5, 1861. To this union were born six children:

George Morgan Slaughter (1862 – 1915)
Minnie Slaughter (1864 – 1955)
Dela Slaughter (1866 – 1956)
Eugene Ewell Slaughter (1868 – 1870)
Robert Lee Slaughter (1870 – 1938)
Edgar Dick Slaughter (1873 – 1935)

C. C. and Cynthia had moved their family to Dallas in 1873. Two to three years later, Cynthia Ann became ill and passed away in her sleep on May 17, 1876. Her obituary was not specific on the cause, calling her death “unexpected” and saying that she had been ill with “a complication of diseases.” This left C. C., then about thirty-nine years old, to take care of his five surviving children who ranged from around three to about fourteen years old.

In his excellent biography (1) of C. C. Slaughter, author David J. Murrah relates how C. C. and his second wife, Carrie Averill met at a church social in Kansas later in 1876. Carrie was the twenty-four year old unmarried daughter of a local Baptist minister and his wife, Alexander McCormick Averill and Rebecca F. Morton Averill. After a long and somewhat methodical courtship, the couple was married on January 17, 1877. To this union were born the following children:

Christopher Columbus Slaughter (1879 – 1940)
Walter Webb Slaughter (1880 – 1881)
Alexander Averill Slaughter (1881 – 1931)
Carrie Rebecca Slaughter (1883 – 1958)
Nelle Louise Slaughter (1892 – 1964)

John B. Slaughter

John Bunyan Slaughter was born December 15, 1848 in Sabine County, Texas to Rev. George Webb Slaughter and Sarah Mason Slaughter. John was the fifth child and fourth son born to the couple. In their birth order, the children of George Webb and Sarah Jane were Christopher Columbus, Nancy Ann, Peter Eldridge, George Webb Jr., John Bunyan, William Baxter, Francis Ann, Sarah Jennie Mary Permille and Mason Lee, born from 1837 to 1863.

Lambshead Ranch

Usually the names of three people are mentioned in the early history of the land that later became the Lambshead Ranch. They are Randolph Marcy, Jesse Stem and Thomas Lambshead. Marcy (1812 – 1887) well might be the better known of the three. He was an 1832 West Point graduate who served extensively in the American West during his thirty year Army career. His service included the Mexican-American War, Texas, the Pacific Northwest and the territories that later became the states of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. Marcy retired in from the United States Army in 1881. One of his daughters had married General George C. McClellan. Marcy was the author of “The Prairie Traveler” published in 1859, which became widely known and used for its maps, illustrations and itineraries of the West. Marcy had mapped and described the area where the ranch is now located. Fort Marcy in New Mexico was named for him and was active from the time of the Mexican-American War until it was decommissioned in 1890.

6666 Barn

For more than seventy years, this barn was in everyday use on the Guthrie, Texas ranch of the 6666. It is believed to have been completed by Samuel Burk Burnett around 1908. It became a landmark, symbolic of the ranching activities carried on there. The structure was a common sight as it sat just off Highway 82 as the highway looped around Guthrie. In later years, the quarter horses owned by the operation were housed there. Within ten years of its completion, Burnett built his ranch house that stood nearby for so many years until the barn was moved.

Dr. Glenn Blodgett

Dr. Glenn Paul “Doc” Blodgett was the horse division manager of the 6666 Ranch for many years. He was born December 31, 1948 in Perryton, Texas and died November 20, 2022 in Fort Worth, Texas. His parents were Clarence Ralph Blodgett, Jr. and Helen Johanne Studer Blodgett. Dr. Blodgett grew up in Spearman where his father operated a grain elevator business called B & B Grain. The family also operated a farm and cattle operation for their own account. There they also raised wheat and leased their grassland. They lived in town but Dr. Blodgett grew up working on the farm and ranch. He was a third generation Texan. Both his father and paternal grandfather were not only born in Texas, but born in the Panhandle. Dr. Blodgett was the oldest of two children.