Carole Sikes Artist / Writer in Austin, Texas

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about the XIT Ranch? Because Texas had been a republic prior to statehood, it owned its land that was abundant especially in the relatively unpopulated western areas. The first primitive capitol building was destroyed by fire. So in 1882, the State Legislature appropriated three million acres of state land in the panhandle of Texas to finance a new capitol. Mathias Schnell of Rock Island, Illinois formed the Capitol Syndicate (*) of wealthy investors from Chicago to London to purchase the vast amount of undeveloped range land. Many never intended to be ranchers but that is what they became.__________ It was U.S. investor, Col. Amos C. Babcock’s party that went to survey the property on the border of New Mexico. At Fort Elliott he was given a four mule ambulance, a wagon to haul camping equipment and a small tent. With him was his surveyor, a county clerk, several cowboys and a Mexican cook. They traveled 950 miles and it took 36 days to inspect the land. Babcoc...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about the King Ranch? Cattle comes to mind of course, but so much else! It is one of the largest privately held corporations in the U.S. It covers 1,300 square miles and six south Texas counties. It has world-wide cattle operations; owns more than 50,000 acres of timberland; operates hundreds of oil and gas wells; is a major player in agribusiness, cotton, pecans, leather, farm equipment, Ford’s King Ranch truck, etc. Quarter horses are raised and raced. Assault won the Triple Crown in 1946 and in 1950 Middle Ground won the Derby and Belmont.________________ Richard King came to the coast of Texas from Pennsylvania. He and his friend Mifflin Kenedy started as traders, then dominated commerce in south Texas by shipping goods in their steamboats. Eventually both became ranchers. In 1852, King started a cattle camp on Santa Gertrudis Creek in South Texas. He bought several land grants to which he added acreage that became home to 100 men, woman and children from Mexico kn...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Quanah Parker? Quanah Parker was one of a kind. The son of a Comanche war chief and a white woman, he grew to become a man of two worlds.___________________ On a day when the tribesmen and boys were out hunting, their village was raided by Texas Rangers. Only the women and a few braves were there and most were killed except Quanah’s mother who fled on horseback with her infant daughter. However she was chased, captured, and identified as a white woman named Cynthia Ann Parker. She was returned to a white settlement where Parker relations lived. It is believed that Peta Nocona, Quanah’s father, lived another 3 or 4 years before his two sons became orphans.___________________ The vast area called Comancheria had an eastern boundary through Austin and Llano north to the Red River. It included all of the Panhandle of Texas and the south plains to approximately Interstate 10. Before 1860, it was half of Texas plus parts of New Mexico and Oklahoma. Quana...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Cynthia Ann Parker? PERHAPS you have heard her tale. She was abducted twice. First when nine years old, she was taken by a Comanche band that had raided her parents’ ranch near Ft. Parker and bludgeoned her father to death in 1836. Thirty-three years later, Texas Rangers rescued the blue eyed squaw and her infant daughter but it was actually a second abduction. She had completely assimilated into life in the tribe. Later a son named Quanah would become a chief but that is another story for later. ____________________ The U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Texas had attempted to establish reserves where Native Americans could live and farm protected from aggressive white men and Indian fighters but it was complicated. Hatred existed between the lawless white men believing they were entitled to raw land in the new territory and the bands of Comanche who refused life on a reservation preferring the wild open plains. Some of the other tribes were aligned with Te...