February 6, 2024 • 31 mins
In this episode, co-host Scott Sosebee gives us an intimate look at the Mallet Ranch, a beacon of the South Plains' history. His latest work, More Than Running Cattle: The Mallet Ranch of the South Plains (TTU Press 2023), weaves a narrative that's as vast as the Texas horizon, detailing the DeVitt family's trials and triumphs on their storied ranch. Scott's publication is a tapestry of ranching life, enriched by Wyman Meinzer's striking photographs.
Find a copy of Scott's books he discusses on this episode at Amazon:
More Than Running Cattle: The Mallet Ranch of the South Plains https://a.co/d/1GA0bgn
Henry C. "Hank" Smith and the Cross B Ranch: The First Stock Operation on the South Plains https://a.co/d/hRwdqr0
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast is not sponsored by.
It does not reflect the viewsof the institutions that employ
us.
It is solely our thoughts andideas, based upon our
professional training and studyof the family.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to Talking Texas History, the podcast that
explores Texas history beforeand beyond the Alamo.
Not only will we talk Texashistory, we'll visit with folks
who teach it, write it, supportit, and with some who've made it
and, of course, all of us wholive it and love it.
Well, welcome to anotheredition of Talking Texas History
(00:38):
.
I'm Gene Price.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I am Scott Sowsby.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Scott.
Look, we are going to see a lotof new books coming out.
We're already seeing new bookscome out from our presses.
You know we talked to FredAllison last time about my
Darling Boys, that new book thathe came out with, and you know
he's an old friend of ours fromTexas Tech.
(01:03):
Another old friend of ours fromTexas Tech wrote a book that I
just got in the mail last week.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Me too.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
You know what.
You may be familiar with thisbook.
It's called More Than RunningCattle A History of the Mallet
Ranch.
Well, it's the Mallet Ranch ofthe South Plains, and it's by
some fellow named M Scott Sowsby.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, it seems to ring a bell.
It rings a bell.
It rings a bell.
I can remember.
I can actually remember workingon it, that is true.
But yes, gene, it is my latestbook to come out Just came out
from Texas Tech University Pressthat I'm very proud of working
on.
It's a result of a somewhat ofa collaboration, if you will,
between the DH Foundation, whichis the foundation established
(01:55):
by Christine DeVitt, who was thematriarch, the inheritor of the
Mallet Ranch from her father,and then the Helen Jones DeVitt
Foundation, both of those inLubbock.
Helen DeVitt Jones is thesister of Christine DeVitt, so
they were the two daughters ofthe founder of the ranch, that
of the DeVitt family and alsothe National Ranching Heritage
(02:18):
Center in Lubbock.
Also, all these were results ofgrants.
From that that they got withthem and they had me write this
book, which I had a lot of funwriting, I learned.
I learned a lot about it, morethan more than I knew before.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, I want to just say congratulations on the book
coming out in print.
I know you've been working onit.
I remember I think I went up toLubbock with you once you did
when we were, when you wereworking on the book, and so I
know I know you had a deepinterest and and actually let's
wanted to give a shout out.
You're not the only personwho's written on the DeVitt
(02:52):
family.
In fact, one of our formerprofessors up at Texas Tech
University and he was in chargeof the Southwest Collection,
david Murrah, david Murrah, whowas the founder of the DeVitt
Foundation, david Murrah alsowrote about the DeVitt family.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Right, it was the first one to write on the DeVitt
family, His book Oil Taxes andCats, which is one of the best
titles of a book ever.
Probably when you read the bookand know about it, you know
exactly what he's talking aboutin oil taxes and cats.
Yeah, you know, everywhere Iwent researching this book and
doing this I found David'sfootprints there already, so I
love him.
In fact, when I was writing andI would start off said you know
(03:35):
, David's done this.
I'm going to take a different,take a different tone, a
different side, and I would bewriting and I'd go along and
then I'd say, oh, let me look atDavid's book.
Well, he said, I said thanks,that's the same thing.
David said I sound just likesomething he did already.
So so yes, there aresimilarities, there are
differences.
We had different, you know, wehad somewhat different, if you
(03:56):
will, approaches.
David is more writing about theDeVitt family and the DeVitts
themselves, where this book ismore about the ranch and the
workings of the ranch and how it, and particularly how it,
became one of the most valuablesingle land holding pieces in
Texas.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, you know this.
This is a really pretty book.
It's, it's, it's heavy and it'sit.
Would you be offended if I saidit was a coffee table book?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
No, that's exactly what it was set out to be.
To some extent you know a moreexpanded, more narrative based
coffee table book.
But yes, and the reason whythat, of course what she's
talking about is it's the waythe book has come out in the
format and the shape.
But also, you may have heard ofWyman Meinzer, who is at one
(04:50):
point he was the greatphotographer of Texas, I believe
he's based in Lubbock very,very well known and very
talented photographer.
Many of this book is full ofphotographs.
There's well over 100photographs in this book and
some of them historic that werecome from archives, but some of
them are current, contemporaryphotos of the mallet ranch that
(05:14):
Meisner went out and took onthis.
So you get to look at the ranchas it looks like now.
In fact, the cover a lot.
The way the cover is becauseit's so indicative of Ranch
lands on the South Plains,because it has a kind of an old
dirt road that runs through themiddle of the ranch.
I've driven on that road withDavid Murrow, by the way, on
(05:34):
that road and it runs off intothe horizon and you can just see
it disappearing in the sky ofblue and it's just that typical
flat range perfect cattlecountry photograph of what you
see on the South Plains.
The Mallet Ranch for people whodon't know is located near
Lubbock.
It's west of Lubbock, it's in.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Sundown is the capital right.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Sundown is the nearest city to the Mallet Ranch
.
On this.
It's not far from Levelland,for example.
A lot of it's in Cochran County, a little bit of it is in Lamb
County and my mind is justrunning away the county that
level is it in?
Hockley County.
Most of it is in Hockley County.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
South Hockley.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
County.
It's 60,000 acres, a littleover 60,000 acres today.
At its height it was 81,000acres of land, which was a.
You know, at the time it wasestablished, mallet Ranch was,
you know, the South Plains ofTexas.
We think of that, as you know.
We think of maybe far west outof El Paso or, you know, well up
(06:42):
into the Panhandle in the lastplaces, as Texas was somewhat
occupied, but really it's theSouth Plains when you talk about
things coming out there,although Hank Smith had the
first operation on South Plains,who I've written about, of
course.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
He's gonna say you know a little bit about him.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
But most of the operations out there were later.
They were Smith was in 1878, alot of them were in the 1880s
but the Mallet is not founded bythe David family until 1890.
The kind of started putting ittogether in the mid 1890s.
(07:19):
On this, david DeVitt whofounded the ranch is really an
interesting character.
You know you always thinkyourself how much of this do I
want to tell?
Because I tell the whole storynobody's gonna buy the book and
you know I have things to payfor in my life that I like to
have.
So I want people to buy thebook.
But David DeVitt is aninteresting character because
(07:41):
his first life you know in hisfirst life what he did.
He was in Brooklyn, new York,and he was a.
He was a newspaper reporter andnewspaper man before he where
he came to Texas.
And he came to Texas andsettled in central Texas in the
roughly Kerville, mason, menardbetween there and operated a
sheep ranch and set up a sheepranch.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Scott, let me, let me let me throw a question in here
, because I, you know, I livedout in West Texas when to school
up a tech with you and and Ilearned about this.
But this is something I thinkwe're getting.
You're getting into some thingsthat maybe a lot of people
don't know about Texas ranching.
(08:28):
First of all, you know you'reyou're talking about Texas
ranching.
A Texas ranches are really lateron in Texas history.
A lot of them come about afterthe Texas revolution, right, you
know, you talk about peoplelike the Kings and the Kennedys,
(08:49):
with the King Ranch down inSouth Texas, the first big ranch
, but that was a post civil warranch.
And now you're talking aboutsomebody who's coming in from
New York, right, not a nativeTexan who comes in, buys land in
(09:09):
the late 19th century, you know, 20 years later on, kind of
after or towards the end of thecattle drives, and so this, this
is maybe something that peopledon't understand.
And then now you're talkingabout Kerville and this whole
thing.
A lot of people don't know this, but one of the big industries
(09:31):
in the Texas, cattle and theTexas agriculture and ranching
is not cattle but sheep andgoats.
So you're this, this is adifferent history, I think, than
than most people imagine whatTexas ranching is about.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Well, absolutely, I mean, jean.
I mean we, our perception, ourpopular perception of ranching
and everything else.
Of course it's been shaped bypopular culture and the legend
in the myth of cowboys and allthis.
And this is where you knowyou're almost always fighting
that image when you're writingabout Texas ranching.
Texas ranching is first andforemost, like you know say to
(10:12):
me, listen people it was abusiness, is what it was.
It was a business, it was a wayfor people to make money and it
was an agricultural enterpriseis what they did.
And people like David DeVittentered into it.
And the people he encountersout here, like you know, he runs
into a legal, big legal fightthat sometimes turned actual
fight with the CC slaughter andthe, you know, in his ranch and
(10:37):
that was adjacent to the malletranch.
And you think of the thingslike the, the Espoir Leland and
cattle company and the, theMatador in West Texas.
These are all businessenterprises that were generally
owned by, some of them bycorporations.
You know the Matador, takenover by the Dundee syndicate out
of Scotland and run out of thatin the 1880s.
(10:58):
These were things where peoplecame and this was a way for
investors to make money thatthey set up with.
So that's not this romanticimage.
David DeVitt, let's look at him.
He owned a ranch.
If I could show you we're on apodcast you can see a photo of
David DeVitt, of what DavidDeVitt ranch owner wore every
day.
I guess when you say he wasgoing to work, he wore a snap
(11:20):
rim fedora, a full three-piecesuit with a tie with it, with a
fancy stick pin on it, and Spats.
You know, in the old 1920s ofAlexi Spats, like her Culepoirau
war and the Agatha Christiethings.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
He didn't look like a cowboy.
He was not a cowboy.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
He was a ranch manager.
He operated it that way.
Some of his hands probablydressed that way.
But that's not in fact DavidDavid, except in the DeVitt
family.
Except for a Short period whenthey had to establish a stretch
of headquarters for a homeless.
They didn't live on the MalletRanch, they lived in.
Fort Worth is where they lived.
David DeVitt Lived it where helive.
(12:00):
I had the most time he'smanaging that.
He lived in Lava, in the topfloor of the Hilton Hotel in a
suite, is where he left duringthis time and he drove out to
the ranch every day.
C C Slaughter we mentioned him.
He never lived on his ranch.
C C Slaughter lived in Dallas.
These were, listen, the best Ican say.
Well, they're absolutelylandowners, but they were like
(12:22):
at the same period.
They're like Carnegie J PMorgan.
They're Industrialists to someextent.
It's just that their factory isthe ranch.
Is what they, what?
It was?
Good point.
So it's not.
Anyway, it's our romantic image, what's we know?
We probably need to to takethat out of our mind for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Well, you know, you know, well, you know.
What do I know about ranchingis it's what I grew up with and
remember bonanza with the.
You know boss, not boss.
But boss.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Heartride, you know, and little Joe and everybody
wanted to be little Joe, right,nobody wanted to be Hawes.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I like toss, speaking of which was was Haas from the
Mallet Ranch.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
No, he did not.
As far as I know, he didn'tever go to the mall.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
He lived in O'Donnell .
You grew up in O'Donnell, whichis not far from the Mises.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So what so you?
So how did you Get involved inthis project?
You need to talk, mention aboutall these grants in the
ranching heritage center andgive us a little background
About what interested you in.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Okay, what's up?
This is different, I suppose,different than many people come
to a Project, many historianscome to a project in this and
that I was approached by TravisSnyder at Texas Tech Press and
Jim Brett Campbell, who is theDirector of the National
(13:56):
Ranching Heritage Center, andsaid that that, but they had
heard, you know, they'd heard ofme and I'd worked on ranching
history before With up and andthe co-editor of a ranching
heritage center and a press, andbecause of that they said we
want to have this, we have thisbook project in mind and we
would like you to write on themall at ranch.
And so they recruited me.
(14:17):
It's a, you know, it was a paidgig to do it, but that doesn't
mean that I have any lessinterest.
As I researched it and got intoit, it became fascinating to me
because I saw it as sorepresentative of Texas ranches
and how they evolved out of theromantic ranching period Into
the 20th century and the malletsvery representative of how that
(14:39):
happened.
And so it became and that'ssomewhat how I framed the book
this way Well, we can get anidea, a snapshot, as good
historians do, of how thisevolution took place.
Of course, the mallet ran cattleand David DeVitt was a Manager
who managed cattle on his ranch.
He had a unique idea for themost part that he ran a complete
(15:00):
steer or Operation.
He did not run a cow capoperation in this.
He bought steers and stockedhis range with just steers, as
he's raising them Solely for thefor the beef market.
I mean, this is that's what hedoes.
He's not.
He was not interested inproducing offspring From the cow
cap and he increases her.
(15:21):
He essentially bought cattle,raised cattle and sold the
cattle and bought more cattle.
He raised them is what he did.
So it's essentially this andthis is what in the early 20th
century to some extent that'swhat cattle one way that cattle
ranching had to evolve.
It was solely for this meatoperation and this was a good
way and and David hit on it verywell and became very profitable
(15:43):
at it.
The slowdown in the glut of thebeef market after World War one
and particularly into the 1920s,begin to, in the late 19th,
beginning to devastate themallet.
He, david, ran them out.
He ran the mallet veryconservatively.
He was a conservativebusinessman and how he ran the
mallet now would point to youthat he probably was not a
(16:06):
conservative in his lifestyle,david.
David could spend some moneyand his personal lifestyle, but
he ran the mallet very certainly, but still the the, the glut
and the fall and beef prices inthe 20s hit them hard and the
mallet ranch was close to beingliquidated when David died and
passed away in 1930s and it whenit passed to his heirs,
(16:31):
christine and Helen, and hiswife Florence was still alive at
that time and they struggledwith the ranch and the.
And he wasn't the only owner.
He had a board of directors andpeople who own the ranch with
him and they were ready toliquidate the ranch by the mid
1930s with the depression andthen, like everything else in
Texas, oil Saved it, as oil wasdiscovered on the mallet.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Well, let me go back to the.
Let me go back to thedepression here.
Did what did the depressionaffect the ranch, or was it
other issues?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Well, it's other.
You know, genius, like manythings in agriculture in Texas
at that time.
You know, I like to always say,when you talk about the Great
Depression, agriculturalproducers, farmers and ranchers
and various other razors inTexas, when the depression came
and everybody started screaming,oh there's a depression,
there's a pressure.
Well, the depression inagriculture started much earlier
(17:26):
than the supposed 1929 crash.
It started in Texas and by 1925and so a lot of them would say
welcome to our world.
We've been doing this for along time.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So I mean I was post World War one.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yes, and it was the slowdown after that.
So I guess you could say thedepression caused that, but not
in the traditional time periodthat we think of the depression.
It had already started.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
What about the the dust ball and I know that that
that Lubbock heights and and andSouth Plains are.
It's like to say, well, wereally weren't in the dust ball,
but there's got to be a lot ofwind and dust coming through.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Well, the dust ball did affect the mallets revenues
to some extent.
Part of the mallet, like manyof the other Ranches on the
South Plains at that time, hadgotten into this, breaking up
and selling it for farmoperations and selling for the
land for farm operations, andthe mallet had done that where
they were.
What they were doing was wasleasing, raining a lot of Some
of their land out to people toraise crops on as farmers and,
(18:23):
of course, when the dust bow andthat ecological disaster hit,
that hits the revenues from thefarmlands very, very hard and
that just contributed to thedemise of the range as it was.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Well, let me go, let's let's go back to what you
were talking about before I sorudely interrupted you, and
that's oil.
I mean, this is another issueor another topic that a lot of
people don't associate withcattle ranching and, especially
in West Texas, the oil industry,and the discovery and
(18:58):
exploration of oil has reallychanged a lot of that industry
and that business.
So let's go down that road alittle bit.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, there was.
You know, there's the old wetadage for those of us from West
Texas and I was definitely.
You talked to people on ranchland, sir that they say oh yeah,
having oil discovered on myland has allowed me to continue
ranching, because you can doother things and of course you
think about big, large expansesof land in West Texas.
There's gonna be oil underneathit, and that was the case with
(19:28):
the mallet, as it was the startof a huge pool of oil that was
discovered there at its height.
The mallet, the first ranch onthe first fresh ranch, the first
oil well on the mallet ranchwas was drilled in 1935.
But they don't really discovera great amount of oil there till
1938 it's when it comes about.
But by the mid 1960s the 60,000acres of land on the mallet
(19:56):
contained more than 1600 oilwells on it, holy smoke and it
was one of the biggest producingpieces of land in the oil in
the world and this is what madethe David family very wealthy In
this regard and it's most.
In this wealth almost all comes.
No oil was produced, what DavidDavid was still alive.
(20:18):
It all comes afterwards.
The big central part of thebook is this fight over the oil
lands and you know you could saythat Christine DeVitt, in her
stubbornness, held out and gotthe most profit from oil that
the for the lands that she did.
(20:39):
I don't know that that's thecase.
I think Christine was stubborn.
Just because Christine wasstubborn, she was just a
stubborn woman On this and shewas a very frugal woman despite
her great wealth.
Of course, the biggest story ofthe wealth of the of the David
family and through the eyes oftheir foundations, is their
(20:59):
philanthropy.
She became Christine DeVitt andthen her sister Helen.
They came Probably the wellstay off the biggest
philanthropists in the SouthPlains, they.
The amount of their fortunethat they essentially gave away
is unbelievable.
Certainly they weren't startingfrom the highs of a man like
(21:22):
Carnegie, but you know Carnegiekept a whole lot of his fortune
Most I mean the David fortunetoday that was made.
Every bit of it is in thosefoundations.
They're giving that money awayand and they're enriching things
all over.
You go to Lubbock today, forexample, and you see one of
their big prizes is the newBuddy Holly Center that's been
(21:42):
built there.
It's a fantastic performingarts place.
The CH Foundation and the HelenJones DeVitt Foundation they
funded a big good portion, agood portion of the building of
that and for their philanthropythey there's a new 1970 tornado
Memorial.
But mostly the Helen JonesDeVitt Foundation and the CH
(22:03):
Foundation have given I forgetthe exact number but it's in the
tens of a millions of dollarsto educational initiatives.
They fund scholarships,particularly the Texas tax.
They gave a lot of money toTexas tax, the National Ranching
Heritage Center, that's most.
The biggest donor to that wasthe DeVitt family.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
So, scott, let's run him back up a little bit here.
And you know, of course I knowthis, and many of our listeners
do know this, but not everybodydoes.
We get new listeners from timeto time, so let's listeners Wow.
We do and we and we and we lovethem.
Thank you for listening.
So, scott is actually ranchinghistory is something that you're
(22:48):
very familiar with and you weretalking about Hank Smith
earlier.
So how did you get interestedin doing ranching history and
Hank Smith was your dissertationand you have a book on Hank
Smith.
So tell me how did you getinterested in ranching history
and a little bit about HankSmith.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Well, it's like a whole lot of things and when
I've done office, paul Crossan'sfault, I don't know if I can
say I had.
Yeah, I don't think that.
I don't think that's aimed withan interest in ranching history
court group in West Texas.
You have an interest inranching history, don't you?
But it was in a, actually inhis seminar class.
It is a Western US seminarclass and I was taken with him
(23:34):
and you have to write a you knowresearch paper.
And Dr Crossan called me intohis office and he said I got a
research project.
You know, if you know Paul, youknow exactly.
I got a research project foryou.
I've been trying to getsomebody to do something on Hank
Smith for a long time.
Oh, I don't know, that's thebiggest.
That'd be good one for you todo.
You know, I'm somebody who youknow, if you're, you know, if
(23:55):
you're a mentor, if yourinstructor tells you to do
something, you're going tofollow orders, so whatever.
So I did that for a paper.
Well then I became veryinterested in Smith and and who
was he?
coming.
Hank Smith was.
I call it the book.
It's called, you know, hankSmith.
I call him a Western man.
He also has some I mean afantastic, interesting story.
(24:17):
He was born in Bavaria, so hewas, he was German, heinrich
Schmidt.
He was born as when he was just16 years old, after the death
of his father, he gets on a boatin Hamburg so and Goes to the,
comes to the United States.
He lands in New York, mateshe's by himself, he's 16 years
(24:40):
old Makes his way overland toOhio where his sister had come
to live, and he lives with hissister for just a year.
I think there was somecontentionists with his
brother-in-law, so then heleaves his sister on.
By this time he's reached thebrop old age of 17.
He goes to work as a deck handon a ship in Lake Erie and the
(25:01):
first time he goes out in LakeErie the ship sinks and he
almost drowns and he barelymakes it to shore and I think he
decides well, I don't want todo this.
So, like a whole lot of peopleat that time, he began moving
west.
You know, it's the.
You know, at this time it's inthe 1850s.
He makes his way out toMissouri, goes to work on the
Mormon trail.
He makes his way all the wayout to California where he but
(25:23):
he, you know, he breaks horsesfor a man in a ranch by Santa
Barbara and then he startsmaking his way back.
He goes to Arizona where hemines, he goes into New Mexico
where he's also a minor.
Then the Civil War breaks out.
He fights on both sides of theCivil War and then finds himself
in Texas where he gets a job,essentially as a hauler.
He's a, you know, he's haulinga and wood, mostly the forts and
(25:46):
but he's kind of someprosperity.
He makes his way.
He sets a business up in AlbanyFort Griffin and the Albany
South Bound and Jed at FortGriffin when he loans a man
money to this man.
It was a near do well, rich guy, but he wanted rich as
everybody thought to build agrand ranch out on the South
(26:07):
Plains, the what was going to,you know, be eventually called
the cross, be, as Hank Smithwill name it, and not far from
the present-day town acrossbetween and Smith loaned him
money and was selling limber.
Well, the guy goes broke andSmith's like number 25 in line
of creditors waiting up to pickthis guy's carcass of everything
(26:27):
and all he can do is takePossession of the land that he
has.
So he doesn't ever set out tobecome a rancher, but he takes
it over.
He's the first person on theSouth Plains.
He moves in to start the crossbeing just.
I mean less than a year After,really after a round of McKinsey
and the Calvary of thoughtbattles of Yellow House Canyon
against the Comanche, and hesets up the cross view operation
(26:50):
.
He finally dies in 1912 andhe's he's a small operator.
He's not anywhere near.
His neighbors are the Matador,the Kentucky Land and cattle
company, the, the, the twobuckle ranch.
That are huge operations.
He's nowhere near the big opera.
Smith never had more than40,000 acres of that time, but
(27:12):
he made his way and made adegree of wealth On this, and so
my point being that he is, he'stypical of someone in that time
In West ring and trying to find.
You know, it's all aboutopportunity, moving west of
40,000 acres is 38,000 acresmore than I've ever had well,
that is true, but and, and youknow, 40, that would be 39,999
(27:36):
more than I've ever had problemswell, you know, this is here.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Here's the, the, the director, executive director of
the East Texas HistoricalAssociation and who's a
specialist in ranches of thesouthern plains on the other
side of the state, isn't that?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
something.
It just shows you thatmigration ever stops right.
You know there's more cattle inEast Texas now than there is in
West Texas and has been thatcase for a long time.
The actual the the biggestcattle raising area of Texas is
in the East, not the West.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Huh.
Well, scott, let me we're.
We're running short of timehere and I think it's really
interesting.
I'm gonna.
First of all, I want to saycongratulations on the book.
It's beautiful and We'll leteverybody at Texas test John
Brock and everybody know thatwe've done this podcast and to
tune in so that we're pushingwe're pushing their book in
(28:32):
order the book.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
You can order the book through Texas Tech Press.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Well, and it's a beautiful book, folks, it's.
If you're, if you want to knowsomething about Texas ranching
history, get this book you.
You won't regret it.
Scott, we, we normally ask our,our victims, I mean our guests
what do you know?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
so I don't know anything right?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
well, I know that, but you do know something about
ranching history.
So what do you know about themallets that you would share
with us?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Interesting thing about the mallets that I wish.
I love this story, this I liketo end up found on this, because
it just fascinated me that 1600oil wells, hens of millions of
dollars coming out on the groundand Pusting to vet running it.
This is in the 1960s and she'sa multi-millionaire.
(29:28):
Her ranch foreman was beggingher for years to put in a phone
at the mallet ranch because hesaid, sometimes I need to touch
it.
Christine lived in Lava andNeed to talk to you.
I can't get a hold of you untilyou happen to come out here
somewhere.
And she wouldn't do it.
She didn't want to put in aphone because it was too
expensive and she don't spendthat money.
And all these people startusing the phone.
Well, he finally talked herinto it.
(29:50):
So she finally puts a phone in.
And I found it.
There was this thing that's setnext to the phone, is just a pad
, and if you're one of the handsand you came to use the phone,
you had to put down how long youuse the phone.
So she knew.
And then Christine would gothrough the bill at the end of
every month and Tally up what ifthis hand use the phone for
(30:13):
three minutes on this day andthat cost 15 cents and she would
tally it up and take thatamount out of their check every
month for what they use the.
And I'm like going is this notpicture her?
Give you a great example whoChristine the bill was, but just
that story.
So there you go.
That's that.
There's a tidbit, that that isa story.
That's a great story, scott.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
So once again, this book, more than running cattle
the mallet ranch of the SouthPlains by our very own M Scott.
So's be beautiful book, not alot of people.
A great book.
It just came out by Texas TechUniversity Press.
I ordered it through Amazon.
(30:56):
For some reason I wasn't onthat.
A free book by the authors list?
That I'll have to check with,john.
Well, you know, I'm not sure Iwas on that list either.
You know, didn't get very manycopies either.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Thanks a lot and we're gonna be talking to some
other people in the UnitedStates.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Scott thanks a lot and we're going to be talking to
some other authors in the nextcoming episodes, so stay tuned
as we talk about Texas historywith people who are writing
about it.
Scott, thank you again andthank everybody for listening.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Bye, everybody Bye.
This podcast is not sponsored by.
It does not reflect the viewsof the institutions that employ
us.
It is solely our thoughts andideas, based upon our
professional training and studyof the family.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to Talking Texas History, the podcast that
explores Texas history beforeand beyond the Alamo.
Not only will we talk Texashistory, we'll visit with folks
who teach it, write it, supportit, and with some who've made it
and, of course, all of us wholive it and love it.
Well, welcome to anotheredition of Talking Texas History
(00:38):
.
I'm Gene Price.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I am Scott Sowsby.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Scott.
Look, we are going to see a lotof new books coming out.
We're already seeing new bookscome out from our presses.
You know we talked to FredAllison last time about my
Darling Boys, that new book thathe came out with, and you know
he's an old friend of ours fromTexas Tech.
(01:03):
Another old friend of ours fromTexas Tech wrote a book that I
just got in the mail last week.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Me too.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
You know what.
You may be familiar with thisbook.
It's called More Than RunningCattle A History of the Mallet
Ranch.
Well, it's the Mallet Ranch ofthe South Plains, and it's by
some fellow named M Scott Sowsby.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, it seems to ring a bell.
It rings a bell.
It rings a bell.
I can remember.
I can actually remember workingon it, that is true.
But yes, gene, it is my latestbook to come out Just came out
from Texas Tech University Pressthat I'm very proud of working
on.
It's a result of a somewhat ofa collaboration, if you will,
between the DH Foundation, whichis the foundation established
(01:55):
by Christine DeVitt, who was thematriarch, the inheritor of the
Mallet Ranch from her father,and then the Helen Jones DeVitt
Foundation, both of those inLubbock.
Helen DeVitt Jones is thesister of Christine DeVitt, so
they were the two daughters ofthe founder of the ranch, that
of the DeVitt family and alsothe National Ranching Heritage
(02:18):
Center in Lubbock.
Also, all these were results ofgrants.
From that that they got withthem and they had me write this
book, which I had a lot of funwriting, I learned.
I learned a lot about it, morethan more than I knew before.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, I want to just say congratulations on the book
coming out in print.
I know you've been working onit.
I remember I think I went up toLubbock with you once you did
when we were, when you wereworking on the book, and so I
know I know you had a deepinterest and and actually let's
wanted to give a shout out.
You're not the only personwho's written on the DeVitt
(02:52):
family.
In fact, one of our formerprofessors up at Texas Tech
University and he was in chargeof the Southwest Collection,
david Murrah, david Murrah, whowas the founder of the DeVitt
Foundation, david Murrah alsowrote about the DeVitt family.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Right, it was the first one to write on the DeVitt
family, His book Oil Taxes andCats, which is one of the best
titles of a book ever.
Probably when you read the bookand know about it, you know
exactly what he's talking aboutin oil taxes and cats.
Yeah, you know, everywhere Iwent researching this book and
doing this I found David'sfootprints there already, so I
love him.
In fact, when I was writing andI would start off said you know
(03:35):
, David's done this.
I'm going to take a different,take a different tone, a
different side, and I would bewriting and I'd go along and
then I'd say, oh, let me look atDavid's book.
Well, he said, I said thanks,that's the same thing.
David said I sound just likesomething he did already.
So so yes, there aresimilarities, there are
differences.
We had different, you know, wehad somewhat different, if you
(03:56):
will, approaches.
David is more writing about theDeVitt family and the DeVitts
themselves, where this book ismore about the ranch and the
workings of the ranch and how it, and particularly how it,
became one of the most valuablesingle land holding pieces in
Texas.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, you know this.
This is a really pretty book.
It's, it's, it's heavy and it'sit.
Would you be offended if I saidit was a coffee table book?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
No, that's exactly what it was set out to be.
To some extent you know a moreexpanded, more narrative based
coffee table book.
But yes, and the reason whythat, of course what she's
talking about is it's the waythe book has come out in the
format and the shape.
But also, you may have heard ofWyman Meinzer, who is at one
(04:50):
point he was the greatphotographer of Texas, I believe
he's based in Lubbock very,very well known and very
talented photographer.
Many of this book is full ofphotographs.
There's well over 100photographs in this book and
some of them historic that werecome from archives, but some of
them are current, contemporaryphotos of the mallet ranch that
(05:14):
Meisner went out and took onthis.
So you get to look at the ranchas it looks like now.
In fact, the cover a lot.
The way the cover is becauseit's so indicative of Ranch
lands on the South Plains,because it has a kind of an old
dirt road that runs through themiddle of the ranch.
I've driven on that road withDavid Murrow, by the way, on
(05:34):
that road and it runs off intothe horizon and you can just see
it disappearing in the sky ofblue and it's just that typical
flat range perfect cattlecountry photograph of what you
see on the South Plains.
The Mallet Ranch for people whodon't know is located near
Lubbock.
It's west of Lubbock, it's in.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Sundown is the capital right.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Sundown is the nearest city to the Mallet Ranch
.
On this.
It's not far from Levelland,for example.
A lot of it's in Cochran County, a little bit of it is in Lamb
County and my mind is justrunning away the county that
level is it in?
Hockley County.
Most of it is in Hockley County.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
South Hockley.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
County.
It's 60,000 acres, a littleover 60,000 acres today.
At its height it was 81,000acres of land, which was a.
You know, at the time it wasestablished, mallet Ranch was,
you know, the South Plains ofTexas.
We think of that, as you know.
We think of maybe far west outof El Paso or, you know, well up
(06:42):
into the Panhandle in the lastplaces, as Texas was somewhat
occupied, but really it's theSouth Plains when you talk about
things coming out there,although Hank Smith had the
first operation on South Plains,who I've written about, of
course.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
He's gonna say you know a little bit about him.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
But most of the operations out there were later.
They were Smith was in 1878, alot of them were in the 1880s
but the Mallet is not founded bythe David family until 1890.
The kind of started putting ittogether in the mid 1890s.
(07:19):
On this, david DeVitt whofounded the ranch is really an
interesting character.
You know you always thinkyourself how much of this do I
want to tell?
Because I tell the whole storynobody's gonna buy the book and
you know I have things to payfor in my life that I like to
have.
So I want people to buy thebook.
But David DeVitt is aninteresting character because
(07:41):
his first life you know in hisfirst life what he did.
He was in Brooklyn, new York,and he was a.
He was a newspaper reporter andnewspaper man before he where
he came to Texas.
And he came to Texas andsettled in central Texas in the
roughly Kerville, mason, menardbetween there and operated a
sheep ranch and set up a sheepranch.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Scott, let me, let me let me throw a question in here
, because I, you know, I livedout in West Texas when to school
up a tech with you and and Ilearned about this.
But this is something I thinkwe're getting.
You're getting into some thingsthat maybe a lot of people
don't know about Texas ranching.
(08:28):
First of all, you know you'reyou're talking about Texas
ranching.
A Texas ranches are really lateron in Texas history.
A lot of them come about afterthe Texas revolution, right, you
know, you talk about peoplelike the Kings and the Kennedys,
(08:49):
with the King Ranch down inSouth Texas, the first big ranch
, but that was a post civil warranch.
And now you're talking aboutsomebody who's coming in from
New York, right, not a nativeTexan who comes in, buys land in
(09:09):
the late 19th century, you know, 20 years later on, kind of
after or towards the end of thecattle drives, and so this, this
is maybe something that peopledon't understand.
And then now you're talkingabout Kerville and this whole
thing.
A lot of people don't know this, but one of the big industries
(09:31):
in the Texas, cattle and theTexas agriculture and ranching
is not cattle but sheep andgoats.
So you're this, this is adifferent history, I think, than
than most people imagine whatTexas ranching is about.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Well, absolutely, I mean, jean.
I mean we, our perception, ourpopular perception of ranching
and everything else.
Of course it's been shaped bypopular culture and the legend
in the myth of cowboys and allthis.
And this is where you knowyou're almost always fighting
that image when you're writingabout Texas ranching.
Texas ranching is first andforemost, like you know say to
(10:12):
me, listen people it was abusiness, is what it was.
It was a business, it was a wayfor people to make money and it
was an agricultural enterpriseis what they did.
And people like David DeVittentered into it.
And the people he encountersout here, like you know, he runs
into a legal, big legal fightthat sometimes turned actual
fight with the CC slaughter andthe, you know, in his ranch and
(10:37):
that was adjacent to the malletranch.
And you think of the thingslike the, the Espoir Leland and
cattle company and the, theMatador in West Texas.
These are all businessenterprises that were generally
owned by, some of them bycorporations.
You know the Matador, takenover by the Dundee syndicate out
of Scotland and run out of thatin the 1880s.
(10:58):
These were things where peoplecame and this was a way for
investors to make money thatthey set up with.
So that's not this romanticimage.
David DeVitt, let's look at him.
He owned a ranch.
If I could show you we're on apodcast you can see a photo of
David DeVitt, of what DavidDeVitt ranch owner wore every
day.
I guess when you say he wasgoing to work, he wore a snap
(11:20):
rim fedora, a full three-piecesuit with a tie with it, with a
fancy stick pin on it, and Spats.
You know, in the old 1920s ofAlexi Spats, like her Culepoirau
war and the Agatha Christiethings.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
He didn't look like a cowboy.
He was not a cowboy.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
He was a ranch manager.
He operated it that way.
Some of his hands probablydressed that way.
But that's not in fact DavidDavid, except in the DeVitt
family.
Except for a Short period whenthey had to establish a stretch
of headquarters for a homeless.
They didn't live on the MalletRanch, they lived in.
Fort Worth is where they lived.
David DeVitt Lived it where helive.
(12:00):
I had the most time he'smanaging that.
He lived in Lava, in the topfloor of the Hilton Hotel in a
suite, is where he left duringthis time and he drove out to
the ranch every day.
C C Slaughter we mentioned him.
He never lived on his ranch.
C C Slaughter lived in Dallas.
These were, listen, the best Ican say.
Well, they're absolutelylandowners, but they were like
(12:22):
at the same period.
They're like Carnegie J PMorgan.
They're Industrialists to someextent.
It's just that their factory isthe ranch.
Is what they, what?
It was?
Good point.
So it's not.
Anyway, it's our romantic image, what's we know?
We probably need to to takethat out of our mind for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Well, you know, you know, well, you know.
What do I know about ranchingis it's what I grew up with and
remember bonanza with the.
You know boss, not boss.
But boss.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Heartride, you know, and little Joe and everybody
wanted to be little Joe, right,nobody wanted to be Hawes.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I like toss, speaking of which was was Haas from the
Mallet Ranch.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
No, he did not.
As far as I know, he didn'tever go to the mall.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
He lived in O'Donnell .
You grew up in O'Donnell, whichis not far from the Mises.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So what so you?
So how did you Get involved inthis project?
You need to talk, mention aboutall these grants in the
ranching heritage center andgive us a little background
About what interested you in.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Okay, what's up?
This is different, I suppose,different than many people come
to a Project, many historianscome to a project in this and
that I was approached by TravisSnyder at Texas Tech Press and
Jim Brett Campbell, who is theDirector of the National
(13:56):
Ranching Heritage Center, andsaid that that, but they had
heard, you know, they'd heard ofme and I'd worked on ranching
history before With up and andthe co-editor of a ranching
heritage center and a press, andbecause of that they said we
want to have this, we have thisbook project in mind and we
would like you to write on themall at ranch.
And so they recruited me.
(14:17):
It's a, you know, it was a paidgig to do it, but that doesn't
mean that I have any lessinterest.
As I researched it and got intoit, it became fascinating to me
because I saw it as sorepresentative of Texas ranches
and how they evolved out of theromantic ranching period Into
the 20th century and the malletsvery representative of how that
(14:39):
happened.
And so it became and that'ssomewhat how I framed the book
this way Well, we can get anidea, a snapshot, as good
historians do, of how thisevolution took place.
Of course, the mallet ran cattleand David DeVitt was a Manager
who managed cattle on his ranch.
He had a unique idea for themost part that he ran a complete
(15:00):
steer or Operation.
He did not run a cow capoperation in this.
He bought steers and stockedhis range with just steers, as
he's raising them Solely for thefor the beef market.
I mean, this is that's what hedoes.
He's not.
He was not interested inproducing offspring From the cow
cap and he increases her.
(15:21):
He essentially bought cattle,raised cattle and sold the
cattle and bought more cattle.
He raised them is what he did.
So it's essentially this andthis is what in the early 20th
century to some extent that'swhat cattle one way that cattle
ranching had to evolve.
It was solely for this meatoperation and this was a good
way and and David hit on it verywell and became very profitable
(15:43):
at it.
The slowdown in the glut of thebeef market after World War one
and particularly into the 1920s,begin to, in the late 19th,
beginning to devastate themallet.
He, david, ran them out.
He ran the mallet veryconservatively.
He was a conservativebusinessman and how he ran the
mallet now would point to youthat he probably was not a
(16:06):
conservative in his lifestyle,david.
David could spend some moneyand his personal lifestyle, but
he ran the mallet very certainly, but still the the, the glut
and the fall and beef prices inthe 20s hit them hard and the
mallet ranch was close to beingliquidated when David died and
passed away in 1930s and it whenit passed to his heirs,
(16:31):
christine and Helen, and hiswife Florence was still alive at
that time and they struggledwith the ranch and the.
And he wasn't the only owner.
He had a board of directors andpeople who own the ranch with
him and they were ready toliquidate the ranch by the mid
1930s with the depression andthen, like everything else in
Texas, oil Saved it, as oil wasdiscovered on the mallet.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Well, let me go back to the.
Let me go back to thedepression here.
Did what did the depressionaffect the ranch, or was it
other issues?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Well, it's other.
You know, genius, like manythings in agriculture in Texas
at that time.
You know, I like to always say,when you talk about the Great
Depression, agriculturalproducers, farmers and ranchers
and various other razors inTexas, when the depression came
and everybody started screaming,oh there's a depression,
there's a pressure.
Well, the depression inagriculture started much earlier
(17:26):
than the supposed 1929 crash.
It started in Texas and by 1925and so a lot of them would say
welcome to our world.
We've been doing this for along time.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So I mean I was post World War one.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yes, and it was the slowdown after that.
So I guess you could say thedepression caused that, but not
in the traditional time periodthat we think of the depression.
It had already started.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
What about the the dust ball and I know that that
that Lubbock heights and and andSouth Plains are.
It's like to say, well, wereally weren't in the dust ball,
but there's got to be a lot ofwind and dust coming through.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Well, the dust ball did affect the mallets revenues
to some extent.
Part of the mallet, like manyof the other Ranches on the
South Plains at that time, hadgotten into this, breaking up
and selling it for farmoperations and selling for the
land for farm operations, andthe mallet had done that where
they were.
What they were doing was wasleasing, raining a lot of Some
of their land out to people toraise crops on as farmers and,
(18:23):
of course, when the dust bow andthat ecological disaster hit,
that hits the revenues from thefarmlands very, very hard and
that just contributed to thedemise of the range as it was.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Well, let me go, let's let's go back to what you
were talking about before I sorudely interrupted you, and
that's oil.
I mean, this is another issueor another topic that a lot of
people don't associate withcattle ranching and, especially
in West Texas, the oil industry,and the discovery and
(18:58):
exploration of oil has reallychanged a lot of that industry
and that business.
So let's go down that road alittle bit.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, there was.
You know, there's the old wetadage for those of us from West
Texas and I was definitely.
You talked to people on ranchland, sir that they say oh yeah,
having oil discovered on myland has allowed me to continue
ranching, because you can doother things and of course you
think about big, large expansesof land in West Texas.
There's gonna be oil underneathit, and that was the case with
(19:28):
the mallet, as it was the startof a huge pool of oil that was
discovered there at its height.
The mallet, the first ranch onthe first fresh ranch, the first
oil well on the mallet ranchwas was drilled in 1935.
But they don't really discovera great amount of oil there till
1938 it's when it comes about.
But by the mid 1960s the 60,000acres of land on the mallet
(19:56):
contained more than 1600 oilwells on it, holy smoke and it
was one of the biggest producingpieces of land in the oil in
the world and this is what madethe David family very wealthy In
this regard and it's most.
In this wealth almost all comes.
No oil was produced, what DavidDavid was still alive.
(20:18):
It all comes afterwards.
The big central part of thebook is this fight over the oil
lands and you know you could saythat Christine DeVitt, in her
stubbornness, held out and gotthe most profit from oil that
the for the lands that she did.
(20:39):
I don't know that that's thecase.
I think Christine was stubborn.
Just because Christine wasstubborn, she was just a
stubborn woman On this and shewas a very frugal woman despite
her great wealth.
Of course, the biggest story ofthe wealth of the of the David
family and through the eyes oftheir foundations, is their
(20:59):
philanthropy.
She became Christine DeVitt andthen her sister Helen.
They came Probably the wellstay off the biggest
philanthropists in the SouthPlains, they.
The amount of their fortunethat they essentially gave away
is unbelievable.
Certainly they weren't startingfrom the highs of a man like
(21:22):
Carnegie, but you know Carnegiekept a whole lot of his fortune
Most I mean the David fortunetoday that was made.
Every bit of it is in thosefoundations.
They're giving that money awayand and they're enriching things
all over.
You go to Lubbock today, forexample, and you see one of
their big prizes is the newBuddy Holly Center that's been
(21:42):
built there.
It's a fantastic performingarts place.
The CH Foundation and the HelenJones DeVitt Foundation they
funded a big good portion, agood portion of the building of
that and for their philanthropythey there's a new 1970 tornado
Memorial.
But mostly the Helen JonesDeVitt Foundation and the CH
(22:03):
Foundation have given I forgetthe exact number but it's in the
tens of a millions of dollarsto educational initiatives.
They fund scholarships,particularly the Texas tax.
They gave a lot of money toTexas tax, the National Ranching
Heritage Center, that's most.
The biggest donor to that wasthe DeVitt family.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
So, scott, let's run him back up a little bit here.
And you know, of course I knowthis, and many of our listeners
do know this, but not everybodydoes.
We get new listeners from timeto time, so let's listeners Wow.
We do and we and we and we lovethem.
Thank you for listening.
So, scott is actually ranchinghistory is something that you're
(22:48):
very familiar with and you weretalking about Hank Smith
earlier.
So how did you get interestedin doing ranching history and
Hank Smith was your dissertationand you have a book on Hank
Smith.
So tell me how did you getinterested in ranching history
and a little bit about HankSmith.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Well, it's like a whole lot of things and when
I've done office, paul Crossan'sfault, I don't know if I can
say I had.
Yeah, I don't think that.
I don't think that's aimed withan interest in ranching history
court group in West Texas.
You have an interest inranching history, don't you?
But it was in a, actually inhis seminar class.
It is a Western US seminarclass and I was taken with him
(23:34):
and you have to write a you knowresearch paper.
And Dr Crossan called me intohis office and he said I got a
research project.
You know, if you know Paul, youknow exactly.
I got a research project foryou.
I've been trying to getsomebody to do something on Hank
Smith for a long time.
Oh, I don't know, that's thebiggest.
That'd be good one for you todo.
You know, I'm somebody who youknow, if you're, you know, if
(23:55):
you're a mentor, if yourinstructor tells you to do
something, you're going tofollow orders, so whatever.
So I did that for a paper.
Well then I became veryinterested in Smith and and who
was he?
coming.
Hank Smith was.
I call it the book.
It's called, you know, hankSmith.
I call him a Western man.
He also has some I mean afantastic, interesting story.
(24:17):
He was born in Bavaria, so hewas, he was German, heinrich
Schmidt.
He was born as when he was just16 years old, after the death
of his father, he gets on a boatin Hamburg so and Goes to the,
comes to the United States.
He lands in New York, mateshe's by himself, he's 16 years
(24:40):
old Makes his way overland toOhio where his sister had come
to live, and he lives with hissister for just a year.
I think there was somecontentionists with his
brother-in-law, so then heleaves his sister on.
By this time he's reached thebrop old age of 17.
He goes to work as a deck handon a ship in Lake Erie and the
(25:01):
first time he goes out in LakeErie the ship sinks and he
almost drowns and he barelymakes it to shore and I think he
decides well, I don't want todo this.
So, like a whole lot of peopleat that time, he began moving
west.
You know, it's the.
You know, at this time it's inthe 1850s.
He makes his way out toMissouri, goes to work on the
Mormon trail.
He makes his way all the wayout to California where he but
(25:23):
he, you know, he breaks horsesfor a man in a ranch by Santa
Barbara and then he startsmaking his way back.
He goes to Arizona where hemines, he goes into New Mexico
where he's also a minor.
Then the Civil War breaks out.
He fights on both sides of theCivil War and then finds himself
in Texas where he gets a job,essentially as a hauler.
He's a, you know, he's haulinga and wood, mostly the forts and
(25:46):
but he's kind of someprosperity.
He makes his way.
He sets a business up in AlbanyFort Griffin and the Albany
South Bound and Jed at FortGriffin when he loans a man
money to this man.
It was a near do well, rich guy, but he wanted rich as
everybody thought to build agrand ranch out on the South
(26:07):
Plains, the what was going to,you know, be eventually called
the cross, be, as Hank Smithwill name it, and not far from
the present-day town acrossbetween and Smith loaned him
money and was selling limber.
Well, the guy goes broke andSmith's like number 25 in line
of creditors waiting up to pickthis guy's carcass of everything
(26:27):
and all he can do is takePossession of the land that he
has.
So he doesn't ever set out tobecome a rancher, but he takes
it over.
He's the first person on theSouth Plains.
He moves in to start the crossbeing just.
I mean less than a year After,really after a round of McKinsey
and the Calvary of thoughtbattles of Yellow House Canyon
against the Comanche, and hesets up the cross view operation
(26:50):
.
He finally dies in 1912 andhe's he's a small operator.
He's not anywhere near.
His neighbors are the Matador,the Kentucky Land and cattle
company, the, the, the twobuckle ranch.
That are huge operations.
He's nowhere near the big opera.
Smith never had more than40,000 acres of that time, but
(27:12):
he made his way and made adegree of wealth On this, and so
my point being that he is, he'stypical of someone in that time
In West ring and trying to find.
You know, it's all aboutopportunity, moving west of
40,000 acres is 38,000 acresmore than I've ever had well,
that is true, but and, and youknow, 40, that would be 39,999
(27:36):
more than I've ever had problemswell, you know, this is here.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Here's the, the, the director, executive director of
the East Texas HistoricalAssociation and who's a
specialist in ranches of thesouthern plains on the other
side of the state, isn't that?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
something.
It just shows you thatmigration ever stops right.
You know there's more cattle inEast Texas now than there is in
West Texas and has been thatcase for a long time.
The actual the the biggestcattle raising area of Texas is
in the East, not the West.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Huh.
Well, scott, let me we're.
We're running short of timehere and I think it's really
interesting.
I'm gonna.
First of all, I want to saycongratulations on the book.
It's beautiful and We'll leteverybody at Texas test John
Brock and everybody know thatwe've done this podcast and to
tune in so that we're pushingwe're pushing their book in
(28:32):
order the book.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
You can order the book through Texas Tech Press.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Well, and it's a beautiful book, folks, it's.
If you're, if you want to knowsomething about Texas ranching
history, get this book you.
You won't regret it.
Scott, we, we normally ask our,our victims, I mean our guests
what do you know?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
so I don't know anything right?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
well, I know that, but you do know something about
ranching history.
So what do you know about themallets that you would share
with us?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Interesting thing about the mallets that I wish.
I love this story, this I liketo end up found on this, because
it just fascinated me that 1600oil wells, hens of millions of
dollars coming out on the groundand Pusting to vet running it.
This is in the 1960s and she'sa multi-millionaire.
(29:28):
Her ranch foreman was beggingher for years to put in a phone
at the mallet ranch because hesaid, sometimes I need to touch
it.
Christine lived in Lava andNeed to talk to you.
I can't get a hold of you untilyou happen to come out here
somewhere.
And she wouldn't do it.
She didn't want to put in aphone because it was too
expensive and she don't spendthat money.
And all these people startusing the phone.
Well, he finally talked herinto it.
(29:50):
So she finally puts a phone in.
And I found it.
There was this thing that's setnext to the phone, is just a pad
, and if you're one of the handsand you came to use the phone,
you had to put down how long youuse the phone.
So she knew.
And then Christine would gothrough the bill at the end of
every month and Tally up what ifthis hand use the phone for
(30:13):
three minutes on this day andthat cost 15 cents and she would
tally it up and take thatamount out of their check every
month for what they use the.
And I'm like going is this notpicture her?
Give you a great example whoChristine the bill was, but just
that story.
So there you go.
That's that.
There's a tidbit, that that isa story.
That's a great story, scott.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
So once again, this book, more than running cattle
the mallet ranch of the SouthPlains by our very own M Scott.
So's be beautiful book, not alot of people.
A great book.
It just came out by Texas TechUniversity Press.
I ordered it through Amazon.
(30:56):
For some reason I wasn't onthat.
A free book by the authors list?
That I'll have to check with,john.
Well, you know, I'm not sure Iwas on that list either.
You know, didn't get very manycopies either.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Thanks a lot and we're gonna be talking to some
other people in the UnitedStates.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Scott thanks a lot and we're going to be talking to
some other authors in the nextcoming episodes, so stay tuned
as we talk about Texas historywith people who are writing
about it.
Scott, thank you again andthank everybody for listening.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Bye, everybody Bye.
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