JA Ranch
Encyclopedia
The JA Ranch, jointly founded by John George Adair
and Charles Goodnight
, is the oldest privately owned cattle ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon
section of the Texas Panhandle
southeast of Amarillo
. At its peak size in 1883, the JA, still run by descendants of the Adair family, encompassed some 1335000 acres (5,402.6 km²) of land in six counties and a herd of 100,000 cattle. The name "JA" is derived from the initials of John Adair, a businessman from Ireland
. Goodnight managed and expanded the ranch, while Adair provided the working capital
. Upon Adair's death, his wife, the former Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie
, took over Adair's interest in the JA. In 1888, Goodnight left the arrangement to establish his own ranch and in time ventured into other business
activities as well. The ranch was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Armstrong County, Texas in 1966.
, the seat of Livingston County
in western New York State. In 1857, she married Montgomery Harrison Ritchie (1826–1864) of Boston, a descendant of the Federalist Party leader Harrison Gray Otis
(1765–1848). During the American Civil War
, Ritchie served with the New England
Guard. After the Battle of the Wilderness
in Virginia
in 1864, he crossed Confederate
lines to retrieve the body of his fallen father-in-law, General
James Samuel Wadsworth, Sr.
, (1807–1864), and return it to Geneseo. Cornelia was reared near Geneseo on a farm
that her ancestors had purchased from the Senecas.
A few months later, Ritchie, who had fought earlier in the war under General
Ambrose E. Burnside in North Carolina
, died of an illness during the war.
Widow
ed Cornelia Ritchie took her two sons, Arthur Ritchie and James Wadsworth "Jack" Ritchie (1861–1924), to Europe
for their education
. There she met and married in 1867 the wealthy landowner John Adair (March 3, 1823 – May 4, 1885). The Adairs moved to New York City
, where Adair had established a brokerage office. His uneasy temperament led the family west in search of what Benjamin Franklin
had once described as the "safety valve" of economic prosperity through westward expansion. They reached Sidney, Nebraska
, and proceeded to Colorado
, where they joined Charles Goodnight's buffalo
hunt. Goodnight told the Adairs about the Palo Duro country of Texas
, where cattle could thrive by grazing on the plains in the summer and spending the winter in the shelter of the canyon. The hunting trip ended in misfortune. Adair's gun accidentally discharged and killed his horse
, and Adair himself was injured in a fall.
s and Comanche
s had been forced onto a reservation
, Goodnight became the first cattleman to bring herds onto the Llano Estacado
, or the South Plains
of West Texas
. He drove 1,600 head of longhorns
from Pueblo, Colorado
, to the Palo Duro to establish the "Old Home Ranch" near the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River
in southwestern Armstrong County
near the site where United States Army
Colonel
Ranald S. Mackenzie
(1840–1889) had fought the Indians in 1874 in what is called the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
. Goodnight's ranch consisted of corral
s and picket houses built from timber
cut in the canyon.
Goodnight outfitted his men and cattle for the winter and returned to Colorado to bring his first wife, the former Mary Ann “Molly” Dyer, a teacher
from Weatherford
in Parker County
west of Fort Worth
, to their new homestead. The Goodnights, the Adairs, and four cowboy
s, arrived at the Old Home Ranch with breeding bulls and ranching provisions. On June 18, 1877, Goodnight and Adair inked their five-year partnership, which stipulated that Adair would supply the capital
and, at Goodnight’s suggestion, the "JA" initials, and Goodnight would provide the daily management. The agreement called for Adair to receive two-thirds of the property and profits. Goodnight would receive the other one-third plus an annual salary of $2,500. Goodnight borrowed his third of the investment from Adair at 10 percent interest
. The ranch began with a meager 1,500 cattle and 2500 acres (10.1 km²).
, Old Blue, north to Dodge City
in western Kansas
, the nearest railhead. In 1879, he moved the ranch headquarter to the foot of the Caprock, some twenty-five miles east of the Home Ranch. He built a four-room house of cedar
logs and supervised construction of a bunkhouse
, a bookkeeper's residence, a wagon boss's house, a blacksmith
shop, a wagonyard, and a milk
and meat cooling shed. Later, the two-story, nineteen-room main house was added. The old Home Ranch house was then used as a line camp until it burned on Christmas Eve
1904, explains the historian
and archivist
H. Allen Anderson of the Museum
of Texas Tech University
at Lubbock
in The Handbook of Texas.
, as “religious and reverential by nature,” allowed no gambling
, whiskey, theft
, or fighting among the cowboys, nor would he hire a worker who had been dismissed elsewhere for those offenses. Goodnight's brothers-in-law, Walter and Leigh R. Dyer, worked temporarily for the JA during trail drives and roundups. Goodnight improved the quality of the cattle through the importation of blooded stock. In 1882, he built what is thought to have been the Panhandle's first barbed wire
fence across a canyon bed to separate the purebred cattle (with a JJ brand) from the regular JA stock. He also maintained a buffalo herd, which he bred with cattle to produce the “cattalo”, also known as the ”beefalo”.
By the time the Adair-Goodnight contract expired in 1882, the ranch had bought 93000 acres (376.4 km²). Goodnight acquired for Cornelia Adair the Quitaque Ranch, or the Lazy F, in Briscoe County. The ranch realized a profit of more than $512,000, a large sum at that time. The JA housed the Palo Duro post office
. The two planned to renew the contract. Goodnight fenced the Quitaque and added the Tule Ranch in Swisher County
. Other purchases brought the ranch to its peak 1350000 acres (5,463.3 km²)-size, covering portions of Randall, Hall, Donley
, Armstrong, Briscoe, and Swisher counties.
Adair died in 1885, after only his third visit to the JA. Cornelia, widowed for the second time after eighteen years of marriage
, continued the partnership but sometimes questioned Goodnight’s judgment. For the rest of her life, Cornelia took an intense personal interest in the growth and operation of the ranch though she was often in England or Ireland. She insisted on a remuda
of all bay horses, and imported purebred Hereford cattle from England. In 1887, Goodnight withdrew from the arrangement and limited his ranching activities. Falling beef prices, the arrival of farmers to the canyon, the decline of the open range, and the arrival of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway
were obstacles to continued large-scale ranching. In the dissolution, Goodnight acquired the 140000 acres (566.6 km²) Quitaque Ranch in Briscoe County with 20,000 head of cattle and remained manager of the JA for another year.
department.
Arthur Tisdale succeeded Farrington as JA manager in 1891 but was himself replaced in 1892 by Richard Walsh, an Irish immigrant who had been with the ranch since 1885. Improvements continued to be made through crossbreeding with blooded Hereford
and Angus
stock. Walsh soon built one of the finest-quality herds of cattle in the nation.
As the railroads brought more settlers, the JA began leasing and selling excess pasture
. In 1891, a school
(named the "Heckman school" after ranch homesteader John Heckman on whose camp the school was erected) opened near JA headquarters for the children of ranch employees and neighboring settlers. Over the years the ranch was gradually reduced in size as longtime employees began their own operations on former JA lands. In 1917, Edward D. Harrell purchased the acreage where the Old Home Ranch was located.
of Cornelia Adair. Cornelia came across Wadsworth in England and offered him the vacant position. He was the manager until 1915, when he was elected as a Republican
to the United States Senate
from his home state of New York. He was also a former Speaker
of the New York Assembly and a future member of the United States House of Representatives
, serving in the House after his Senate tenure, much in the tradition of Florida
's late lawmaker Claude Pepper
. Though Texas at the time was historically Democrat
, many of the Adairs were of Republican affiliation or sympathy.
to the Constitution of the United States, Timothy Dwight Hobart
(1855–1935), a Vermont
native living in Pampa
, the seat of Gray County in the eastern Panhandle, became the new manager. Hobart discouraged Cornelia’s young grandson, Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth "Montie" Ritchie
(1910–1999), from remaining at the ranch, perhaps because Hobart’s son wanted to become the manager. Montie, who held dual British and American citizenship, was hence given all the toughest horses to ride, and he was once abandoned by the hands after a bronco
bucked him.
Cornelia Adair designated Hobart and Dallas
lawyer
Henry C. Coke as executor
s of her estate. She died in England
in December 1921. Earlier in the year, Cornelia had been at the JA and posed for a picture with the ranch hands on the celebration of her 84th and last birthday. In her will, Cornelia left most JA properties to son Jack Ritchie, and his heirs, including Jack’s sons. Her estate also put a financial burden on the JA for payment of her other debts. Not until 1948 was the Adair estate, with its accompanying debts and inheritances, finally settled.
Cornelia at one point had ordered Jack to vacate the ranch, motivated by Goodnight’s allegations that Jack had been caught drinking and shooting craps with the cowboys. She intended for Jack to pursue a business career beyond “punching cows”, but instead Jack became a sportsman and worldwide adventurer. Jack had told Montie how his own brief time at the JA had been the happiest of his entire life, and he encouraged his older son to consider management of the JA.
Hobart had operated the White Deer Land and Cattle Company from 1903-1924 in Pampa and was more experienced in the sale of land than the management of cattle. He had recommended selling the ranch, as it sunk into financial problems stemming from the Great Depression
and a decade of drought
, but Montie Ritchie persisted with the first goal of paying off the debt. When problems persisted with Hobart, Montie Ritchie returned to England to secure power of attorney
from the then eight heirs to the ranch. When he returned in 1935, Hobart died, and Montie took over the ranch and remained there for the rest of his life. (The White Deer Land and Cattle Company maintains a museum in Pampa.)
Montie Ritchie’s brother was Richard Morgan Wadsworth “Dick” Ritchie (1912–1940). Dick was like their father Jack a sportsman but also an actor
. He died from inhaling carbon monoxide
, which leaked from a faulty heater on a yacht
while he was fishing
in the Gulf of Mexico
near Corpus Christi
. Montie married the former Julia Elizabeth "Betty" Barrell of Boston, who died when their only daughter, Cornelia Wadsworth "Ninia" Ritchie, was a child. Montie then married the former Hildegard “Hildy” Neill (August 23, 1917 – August 1992).
By 1945, after a decade of Montie’s management, JA operations had been reduced to 335000 acres (1,355.7 km²) in four counties—Armstrong, Briscoe, Donley, and Hall counties. Subsequently, a tract of 130000 acres (526.1 km²) was divided into eight leaseholds. The JA obtains its water from the Prairie Dog Town Fork
and its tributaries
, along with natural lake
s, dirt tanks, and fifty-eight wells, the JA had twelve winter camps and five farms on which to grow livestock feed. The winter range in the Palo Duro afforded maximum protection, and the summer range was singularly free from land waste, just as Charles Goodnight had first told John Adair in 1874. Nearly two-thirds of the JA properties was rolling pasture land.
In 1988, the JA comprised several ranch buildings, including a supply store and garage
. The centerpiece of the ranch remained the "Big House". In 1960, the house was designated a national historic landmark
. Ritchie in 1971 and 1988, respectively, donated two of the JA's historic buildings, the old milk house and an oat bin, to the National Ranching Heritage Center
on the campus of Texas Tech University
. A herd of longhorns, the animal once termed by the western
artist
Frank Reaugh
as the most beautiful of animal creatures, roams in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, courtesy of the JA.
By 1990, the JA was substantially fenced and known for pure-bred Herefords and Angus
bulls. Quarter horses were raised for ranch use, and a small buffalo herd was maintained; some commercial hunting of buffalo and deer was allowed. Tillable land continued to be leased. In 1998, the JA gave the state the last remaining wild herd of buffalo within Texas. The Ritchie family also owns ranch land near Larkspur
in Douglas County
north of Colorado Springs, where Montie's second wife, Hildy, spent most of her time.
Montie’s daughter, Cornelia "Ninia" Bivins, former wife of the late Texas State Senator Miles Teel Bivins
of Amarillo, himself a rancher, carried the JA into a relatively brief fourth generation. On Montie’s retirement in 1993, she formed a partnership with Jay O’Brien of Amarillo. They changed the herd to predominantly black Angus and Charolais
bulls. In 2005, a fifth generation took charge when Andrew Montgomery Bivins (born ca. 1969), son of Teel and Ninia Bivins, joined the JA management team.
Montie Ritchie attributed the success of the ranch to its employees, whom he described as “men of imagination, men of skill, men of courage, men who braved the elements day or night, men who took pride in their crafts, loved their horses and understood their cattle, and were eager to enhance the reputation of the JA and proud to be a part." Other than Montie Ritchie, the longest-serving JA employee as of 1940 was J. W. Kent, who retired that year after having worked a record fifty-seven years for the company. Ritchie was the manager for fifty-eight years until his retirement in 1993. However, in 1989, Tom Blasingame
, known as the "oldest working cowboy in the West." died after seventy-three years in the saddle
, most of it at the JA.
Montie Ritchie assembled an art
collection which has been donated to the Dixon Museum in Memphis, Tennessee
.
Though the JA was not a large or as famous as the XIT Ranch
to its west, which included parts of ten counties, it was the largest cattle operation solely in the Panhandle and one still in the hands of the heirs of one of the original founders, John Adair, after the passage of more than 130 years.
Harley True Burton
, ‘’A History of the JA Ranch’’, was first published in 1928 and renewed in 1966. It is now an out-of-print rare book. Burton divided the history of the JA into the (1) Indian, (2) Hunter, (3) Cowman, and (4) Farmer stages. He was also a former mayor
of Clarendon
in Donley, County.
J. Evetts Haley
, Charles Goodnight (Norman
: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1949).
Dorothy Abbott McCoy, Texas Ranchmen (Austin
: Eakin Press, 1987).
Pauline D. and R. L. Robertson, Cowman's Country: Fifty Frontier Ranches in the Texas Panhandle, 1876-1887 (Amarillo: Paramount, 1981).
John George Adair
John George Adair , sometimes known as Jack Adair, was a Scotch-Irish American businessman and landowner who provided the seed capital for the large JA Ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas Panhandle, a region of Texas...
and Charles Goodnight
Charles Goodnight
Charles Goodnight, also known as Charlie Goodnight , was a cattle rancher in the American West, perhaps the best known rancher in Texas. He is sometimes known as the "father of the Texas Panhandle." Essayist and historian J...
, is the oldest privately owned cattle ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon
Palo Duro Canyon
Palo Duro Canyon is a canyon system of the Caprock Escarpment located in the Texas Panhandle near the city of Amarillo, Texas, United States. As the second largest canyon in the United States, it is roughly long and has an average width of , but reaches a width of at places. Its depth is around...
section of the Texas Panhandle
Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east...
southeast of Amarillo
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
. At its peak size in 1883, the JA, still run by descendants of the Adair family, encompassed some 1335000 acres (5,402.6 km²) of land in six counties and a herd of 100,000 cattle. The name "JA" is derived from the initials of John Adair, a businessman from Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Goodnight managed and expanded the ranch, while Adair provided the working capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
. Upon Adair's death, his wife, the former Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie
Cornelia Adair
Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie Adair was the matriarch of Glenveagh Castle in County Donegal, Ireland, now an Irish national park, and the large JA Ranch southeast of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle, a still active cattle ranch...
, took over Adair's interest in the JA. In 1888, Goodnight left the arrangement to establish his own ranch and in time ventured into other business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
activities as well. The ranch was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Armstrong County, Texas in 1966.
Cornelia Adair
Cornelia Wadsworth was born in 1837 in GeneseoGeneseo, New York
Geneseo is the name of a town and its village in Livingston County in the Finger Lakes region of New York, USA, outside of Rochester, New York. The town's population is approximately 9,600, of which about 7,600 live in the village...
, the seat of Livingston County
Livingston County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 64,328 people, 22,150 households, and 15,349 families residing in the county. The population density was 102 people per square mile . There were 24,023 housing units at an average density of 38 per square mile...
in western New York State. In 1857, she married Montgomery Harrison Ritchie (1826–1864) of Boston, a descendant of the Federalist Party leader Harrison Gray Otis
Harrison Gray Otis
Harrison Gray Otis was the president and general manager of the Times-Mirror Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times.-Early life:...
(1765–1848). During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Ritchie served with the New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
Guard. After the Battle of the Wilderness
Battle of the Wilderness
The Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–7, 1864, was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Both armies suffered heavy casualties, a harbinger of a bloody war of attrition by...
in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
in 1864, he crossed Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
lines to retrieve the body of his fallen father-in-law, General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
James Samuel Wadsworth, Sr.
James S. Wadsworth
James Samuel Wadsworth was a philanthropist, politician, and a Union general in the American Civil War. He was killed in battle during the Battle of the Wilderness of 1864.-Early years:...
, (1807–1864), and return it to Geneseo. Cornelia was reared near Geneseo on a farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
that her ancestors had purchased from the Senecas.
A few months later, Ritchie, who had fought earlier in the war under General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Ambrose E. Burnside in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, died of an illness during the war.
Widow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
ed Cornelia Ritchie took her two sons, Arthur Ritchie and James Wadsworth "Jack" Ritchie (1861–1924), to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
for their education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
. There she met and married in 1867 the wealthy landowner John Adair (March 3, 1823 – May 4, 1885). The Adairs moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where Adair had established a brokerage office. His uneasy temperament led the family west in search of what Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
had once described as the "safety valve" of economic prosperity through westward expansion. They reached Sidney, Nebraska
Sidney, Nebraska
Sidney is a city in Cheyenne County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 6,282 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cheyenne County.-History:The city was named for Sidney Dillon, a railroad attorney...
, and proceeded to Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, where they joined Charles Goodnight's buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
hunt. Goodnight told the Adairs about the Palo Duro country of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, where cattle could thrive by grazing on the plains in the summer and spending the winter in the shelter of the canyon. The hunting trip ended in misfortune. Adair's gun accidentally discharged and killed his horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
, and Adair himself was injured in a fall.
Palo Duro country
In 1876, a year after the KiowaKiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
s and Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
s had been forced onto a reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
, Goodnight became the first cattleman to bring herds onto the Llano Estacado
Llano Estacado
Llano Estacado , commonly known as the Staked Plains, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas, including the South Plains and parts of the Texas Panhandle...
, or the South Plains
South Plains
South Plains is a vernacular term that refers to a region in West Texas consisting of the portion of the Llano Estacado extending south of the Texas Panhandle, centered at Lubbock. While prominent in the area of petroleum production, the South Plains is mainly an agricultural region, producing a...
of West Texas
West Texas
West Texas is a vernacular term applied to a region in the southwestern quadrant of the United States that primarily encompasses the arid and semi-arid lands in the western portion of the state of Texas....
. He drove 1,600 head of longhorns
Texas longhorn (cattle)
The Texas Longhorn is a breed of cattle known for its characteristic horns, which can extend to tip to tip for steers and exceptional cows, and tip to tip for bulls. Horns can have a slight upward turn at their tips or even triple twist. Texas Longhorns are known for their diverse coloring...
from Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The population was 106,595 in 2010 census, making it the 246th most populous city in the United States....
, to the Palo Duro to establish the "Old Home Ranch" near the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River
Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River
Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River is a sandy-braided stream about long, formed at the confluence of Palo Duro Creek and Tierra Blanca Creek, about northeast of Canyon in Randall County, Texas, and flowing east-southeastward to the Red River about east of the 100th meridian, south-southwest of...
in southwestern Armstrong County
Armstrong County, Texas
Armstrong County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas, and was formed in 1876 from Bexar County. It is part of the Amarillo metropolitan area. As of 2000, the population is 2,148. Its county seat is Claude. Armstrong is named for one of several Texas pioneer families named Armstrong...
near the site where United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Ranald S. Mackenzie
Ranald S. Mackenzie
Ranald Slidell Mackenzie was a career United States Army officer and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, described by General Ulysses S. Grant as its most promising young officer...
(1840–1889) had fought the Indians in 1874 in what is called the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon was a significant United States victory that brought about the end of the Red River War.-Background:Ever since the summer of 1874 the Comanches, Cheyenne and Kiowas had sought refuge in Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas panhandle. There they had been stockpiling food and...
. Goodnight's ranch consisted of corral
Corral
Corral is a town, commune and sea port in Los Ríos Region, Chile. It is located south of Corral Bay. Corral is best known for the forts of Corral Bay, a system of defensive batteries and forts made to protect Valdivia during colonial times. Corral was the headquarters of the system...
s and picket houses built from timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
cut in the canyon.
Goodnight outfitted his men and cattle for the winter and returned to Colorado to bring his first wife, the former Mary Ann “Molly” Dyer, a teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
from Weatherford
Weatherford, Texas
Weatherford is a city in Parker County, Texas, United States, and a western suburb of Fort Worth. The population was 19,000 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Parker County and is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.-Geography:...
in Parker County
Parker County, Texas
As of the census of 2003, there were 98,495 people, 31,131 households, and 24,313 families residing in the county. The population density was 98 people per square mile . There were 34,084 housing units at an average density of 38 per square mile...
west of Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, to their new homestead. The Goodnights, the Adairs, and four cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
s, arrived at the Old Home Ranch with breeding bulls and ranching provisions. On June 18, 1877, Goodnight and Adair inked their five-year partnership, which stipulated that Adair would supply the capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
and, at Goodnight’s suggestion, the "JA" initials, and Goodnight would provide the daily management. The agreement called for Adair to receive two-thirds of the property and profits. Goodnight would receive the other one-third plus an annual salary of $2,500. Goodnight borrowed his third of the investment from Adair at 10 percent interest
Interest
Interest is a fee paid by a borrower of assets to the owner as a form of compensation for the use of the assets. It is most commonly the price paid for the use of borrowed money, or money earned by deposited funds....
. The ranch began with a meager 1,500 cattle and 2500 acres (10.1 km²).
Expanding the JA Ranch
Goodnight then purchased 12000 acres (48.6 km²) from Jot Gunter and William B. Munson, Sr. for seventy-five cents per acre. In the next two years, he continued buying premium pieces of property in a peculiar arrangement around a 75 miles (120.7 km) stretch of the Palo Duro, careful to select the best grazing and watered land. In 1878, Goodnight drove the first JA trail herd, led by his oxOx
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
, Old Blue, north to Dodge City
Dodge City, Kansas
Dodge City is a city in, and the county seat of, Ford County, Kansas, United States. Named after nearby Fort Dodge, the city is famous in American culture for its history as a wild frontier town of the Old West. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,340.-History:The first settlement of...
in western Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, the nearest railhead. In 1879, he moved the ranch headquarter to the foot of the Caprock, some twenty-five miles east of the Home Ranch. He built a four-room house of cedar
Cedar wood
Cedar wood comes from several different trees that grow in different parts of the world, and may have different uses.* California incense-cedar, from Calocedrus decurrens, is the primary type of wood used for making pencils...
logs and supervised construction of a bunkhouse
Bunkhouse
A bunkhouse is a hostel or barracks-like building that historically was used to house working cowboys on ranches in North America. As most cowboys were young single men, the standard bunkhouse was a large open room with narrow beds or cots for each individual and little privacy...
, a bookkeeper's residence, a wagon boss's house, a blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
shop, a wagonyard, and a milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
and meat cooling shed. Later, the two-story, nineteen-room main house was added. The old Home Ranch house was then used as a line camp until it burned on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
1904, explains the historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and archivist
Archivist
An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...
H. Allen Anderson of the Museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
of Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
at Lubbock
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
in The Handbook of Texas.
Goodnight as ranch manager
Goodnight, who was described by his biographer, J. Evetts HaleyJ. Evetts Haley
James Evetts Haley, Sr., usually known as J. Evetts Haley , was a Texas-born political activist and historian who wrote multiple works on the American West, including an enduring biography of legendary cattleman Charles Goodnight...
, as “religious and reverential by nature,” allowed no gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
, whiskey, theft
Theft
In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...
, or fighting among the cowboys, nor would he hire a worker who had been dismissed elsewhere for those offenses. Goodnight's brothers-in-law, Walter and Leigh R. Dyer, worked temporarily for the JA during trail drives and roundups. Goodnight improved the quality of the cattle through the importation of blooded stock. In 1882, he built what is thought to have been the Panhandle's first barbed wire
Barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...
fence across a canyon bed to separate the purebred cattle (with a JJ brand) from the regular JA stock. He also maintained a buffalo herd, which he bred with cattle to produce the “cattalo”, also known as the ”beefalo”.
By the time the Adair-Goodnight contract expired in 1882, the ranch had bought 93000 acres (376.4 km²). Goodnight acquired for Cornelia Adair the Quitaque Ranch, or the Lazy F, in Briscoe County. The ranch realized a profit of more than $512,000, a large sum at that time. The JA housed the Palo Duro post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
. The two planned to renew the contract. Goodnight fenced the Quitaque and added the Tule Ranch in Swisher County
Swisher County, Texas
Swisher County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 8,378. Its seat is Tulia. The county is named for James G. Swisher, a soldier of the Texas Revolution and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence...
. Other purchases brought the ranch to its peak 1350000 acres (5,463.3 km²)-size, covering portions of Randall, Hall, Donley
Donley County, Texas
Donley County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 3,828. It is named for Stockton P. Donley, a frontier lawyer. Its county seat is Clarendon....
, Armstrong, Briscoe, and Swisher counties.
Adair died in 1885, after only his third visit to the JA. Cornelia, widowed for the second time after eighteen years of marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, continued the partnership but sometimes questioned Goodnight’s judgment. For the rest of her life, Cornelia took an intense personal interest in the growth and operation of the ranch though she was often in England or Ireland. She insisted on a remuda
Remuda
A Remuda is a herd of horses from which ranch hands select their mounts. The word is of Spanish derivation, for "change of horses" and is commonly used in the American West. The person in charge of the remuda is generally known as a wrangler.-Necessity:...
of all bay horses, and imported purebred Hereford cattle from England. In 1887, Goodnight withdrew from the arrangement and limited his ranching activities. Falling beef prices, the arrival of farmers to the canyon, the decline of the open range, and the arrival of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway
Fort Worth and Denver Railway
The Fort Worth and Denver Railway , nicknamed "the Denver Road," was a class I American railroad company that operated in the northern part of Texas from 1881 to 1982, and had a profound influence on the early settlement and economic development of the region....
were obstacles to continued large-scale ranching. In the dissolution, Goodnight acquired the 140000 acres (566.6 km²) Quitaque Ranch in Briscoe County with 20,000 head of cattle and remained manager of the JA for another year.
Later ranch managers
In 1888, Cornelia Adair named John Edward Farrington as manager though Goodnight had specifically trained Henry Webster Taylor for the position.. Jack Ritchie, Mrs. Adair's son by her first marriage, served briefly as foreman of the JA’s steer division in Tule Canyon before he returned to New York City to handle the purchase of JA horses for the municipal policePolice
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
department.
Arthur Tisdale succeeded Farrington as JA manager in 1891 but was himself replaced in 1892 by Richard Walsh, an Irish immigrant who had been with the ranch since 1885. Improvements continued to be made through crossbreeding with blooded Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
and Angus
Angus
Angus is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...
stock. Walsh soon built one of the finest-quality herds of cattle in the nation.
As the railroads brought more settlers, the JA began leasing and selling excess pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
. In 1891, a school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
(named the "Heckman school" after ranch homesteader John Heckman on whose camp the school was erected) opened near JA headquarters for the children of ranch employees and neighboring settlers. Over the years the ranch was gradually reduced in size as longtime employees began their own operations on former JA lands. In 1917, Edward D. Harrell purchased the acreage where the Old Home Ranch was located.
U.S. Senator James Wadsworth
After Walsh resigned as manager in 1910, John S. Summerfield served for a year in that capacity. His successor was James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr., a nephewNephew
Nephew is a son of one's sibling or sibling-in-law, and niece is a daughter of one's sibling or a sibling-in-law. Sons and daughters of siblings-in-law are also informally referred to as nephews and nieces respectively, even though there is no blood relation...
of Cornelia Adair. Cornelia came across Wadsworth in England and offered him the vacant position. He was the manager until 1915, when he was elected as a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
to the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from his home state of New York. He was also a former Speaker
Speaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...
of the New York Assembly and a future member of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, serving in the House after his Senate tenure, much in the tradition of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
's late lawmaker Claude Pepper
Claude Pepper
Claude Denson Pepper was an American politician of the Democratic Party, and a spokesman for left-liberalism and the elderly. In foreign policy he shifted from pro-Soviet in the 1940s to anti-Communist in the 1950s...
. Though Texas at the time was historically Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, many of the Adairs were of Republican affiliation or sympathy.
Troubles with Timothy Hobart
On Wadsworth’s popular-vote election to the Senate under the new Seventeenth AmendmentSeventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. The amendment supersedes Article I, § 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which senators were elected by state legislatures...
to the Constitution of the United States, Timothy Dwight Hobart
Timothy Dwight Hobart
Timothy Dwight Hobart was a Vermont-born businessman, landowner, surveyor, and civic leader in the Texas Panhandle. He lived primarily in Pampa, the seat of Gray County, which he had helped to establish in 1902. He was elected mayor of Pampa in 1927...
(1855–1935), a Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
native living in Pampa
Pampa, Texas
Pampa is a city in Gray County, Texas, United States. The population was 17,887 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Gray County.Pampa is the principal city of the Pampa Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Gray and Roberts counties....
, the seat of Gray County in the eastern Panhandle, became the new manager. Hobart discouraged Cornelia’s young grandson, Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth "Montie" Ritchie
Montie Ritchie
Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth Ritchie , known as Montie Ritchie, was a dual British subject and American citizen who became a leading cattle rancher and businessman in the Texas Panhandle during the 20th century. From 1935-1993, he was the manager of his family-owned JA Ranch southeast of Amarillo...
(1910–1999), from remaining at the ranch, perhaps because Hobart’s son wanted to become the manager. Montie, who held dual British and American citizenship, was hence given all the toughest horses to ride, and he was once abandoned by the hands after a bronco
Bronco
Bronco, or bronc is a term used in the United States, northern Mexico and Canada to refer to an untrained horse or one that habitually bucks. It may refer to a feral horse that has lived in the wild its entire life, but is also used to refer to domestic horses not yet fully trained to saddle, and...
bucked him.
Cornelia Adair designated Hobart and Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
Henry C. Coke as executor
Executor
An executor, in the broadest sense, is one who carries something out .-Overview:...
s of her estate. She died in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in December 1921. Earlier in the year, Cornelia had been at the JA and posed for a picture with the ranch hands on the celebration of her 84th and last birthday. In her will, Cornelia left most JA properties to son Jack Ritchie, and his heirs, including Jack’s sons. Her estate also put a financial burden on the JA for payment of her other debts. Not until 1948 was the Adair estate, with its accompanying debts and inheritances, finally settled.
Cornelia at one point had ordered Jack to vacate the ranch, motivated by Goodnight’s allegations that Jack had been caught drinking and shooting craps with the cowboys. She intended for Jack to pursue a business career beyond “punching cows”, but instead Jack became a sportsman and worldwide adventurer. Jack had told Montie how his own brief time at the JA had been the happiest of his entire life, and he encouraged his older son to consider management of the JA.
Hobart had operated the White Deer Land and Cattle Company from 1903-1924 in Pampa and was more experienced in the sale of land than the management of cattle. He had recommended selling the ranch, as it sunk into financial problems stemming from the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and a decade of drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
, but Montie Ritchie persisted with the first goal of paying off the debt. When problems persisted with Hobart, Montie Ritchie returned to England to secure power of attorney
Power of attorney
A power of attorney or letter of attorney is a written authorization to represent or act on another's behalf in private affairs, business, or some other legal matter...
from the then eight heirs to the ranch. When he returned in 1935, Hobart died, and Montie took over the ranch and remained there for the rest of his life. (The White Deer Land and Cattle Company maintains a museum in Pampa.)
The Montie Ritchie years
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He died from inhaling carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...
, which leaked from a faulty heater on a yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
while he was fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
in the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
near Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
. Montie married the former Julia Elizabeth "Betty" Barrell of Boston, who died when their only daughter, Cornelia Wadsworth "Ninia" Ritchie, was a child. Montie then married the former Hildegard “Hildy” Neill (August 23, 1917 – August 1992).
By 1945, after a decade of Montie’s management, JA operations had been reduced to 335000 acres (1,355.7 km²) in four counties—Armstrong, Briscoe, Donley, and Hall counties. Subsequently, a tract of 130000 acres (526.1 km²) was divided into eight leaseholds. The JA obtains its water from the Prairie Dog Town Fork
Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River
Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River is a sandy-braided stream about long, formed at the confluence of Palo Duro Creek and Tierra Blanca Creek, about northeast of Canyon in Randall County, Texas, and flowing east-southeastward to the Red River about east of the 100th meridian, south-southwest of...
and its tributaries
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
, along with natural lake
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
s, dirt tanks, and fifty-eight wells, the JA had twelve winter camps and five farms on which to grow livestock feed. The winter range in the Palo Duro afforded maximum protection, and the summer range was singularly free from land waste, just as Charles Goodnight had first told John Adair in 1874. Nearly two-thirds of the JA properties was rolling pasture land.
In 1988, the JA comprised several ranch buildings, including a supply store and garage
Garage (house)
A residential garage is part of a home, or an associated building, designed or used for storing a vehicle or vehicles. In some places the term is used synonymously with "carport", though that term normally describes a structure that is not completely enclosed.- British residential garages:Those...
. The centerpiece of the ranch remained the "Big House". In 1960, the house was designated a national historic landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
. Ritchie in 1971 and 1988, respectively, donated two of the JA's historic buildings, the old milk house and an oat bin, to the National Ranching Heritage Center
National Ranching Heritage Center
The National Ranching Heritage Center, a museum of ranching history, is located on the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. It features almost fifty authentic ranch buildings dating from the late 18th to the mid-20th century...
on the campus of Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
. A herd of longhorns, the animal once termed by the western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
Frank Reaugh
Frank Reaugh
Charles Franklin Reaugh , known as Frank Reagh, was an artist, photographer, inventor, patron of the arts, and teacher, who was called the "Dean of Texas Painters". He devoted his career to the visual documentation in pastel and paint, portraying the vast, still unsettled regions of the Great...
as the most beautiful of animal creatures, roams in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, courtesy of the JA.
By 1990, the JA was substantially fenced and known for pure-bred Herefords and Angus
Angus
Angus is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...
bulls. Quarter horses were raised for ranch use, and a small buffalo herd was maintained; some commercial hunting of buffalo and deer was allowed. Tillable land continued to be leased. In 1998, the JA gave the state the last remaining wild herd of buffalo within Texas. The Ritchie family also owns ranch land near Larkspur
Larkspur, Colorado
The Town of Larkspur is a Home Rule Municipality in Douglas County, Colorado, United States. The population was 234 at the 2000 census. Each year on weekends in June and July, the Colorado Renaissance Festival is held in the hills just west of the town...
in Douglas County
Douglas County, Colorado
Douglas County is the eighth most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado, in the United States. The county is located midway between Colorado's two largest cities: Denver and Colorado Springs...
north of Colorado Springs, where Montie's second wife, Hildy, spent most of her time.
Montie’s daughter, Cornelia "Ninia" Bivins, former wife of the late Texas State Senator Miles Teel Bivins
Teel Bivins
Miles Teel Bivins served as United States ambassador to Sweden between 2004 and 2006. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 21, 2004, and sworn in at Washington D.C., on May 26. He presented his credentials to King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm on June 9...
of Amarillo, himself a rancher, carried the JA into a relatively brief fourth generation. On Montie’s retirement in 1993, she formed a partnership with Jay O’Brien of Amarillo. They changed the herd to predominantly black Angus and Charolais
Charolais cattle
Charolais cattle are a beef breed of cattle which originated in Charolais, around Charolles, in France. They are raised for their meat and are known for their composite qualities when crossed with other breeds, most notably Angus and Hereford cattle...
bulls. In 2005, a fifth generation took charge when Andrew Montgomery Bivins (born ca. 1969), son of Teel and Ninia Bivins, joined the JA management team.
Montie Ritchie attributed the success of the ranch to its employees, whom he described as “men of imagination, men of skill, men of courage, men who braved the elements day or night, men who took pride in their crafts, loved their horses and understood their cattle, and were eager to enhance the reputation of the JA and proud to be a part." Other than Montie Ritchie, the longest-serving JA employee as of 1940 was J. W. Kent, who retired that year after having worked a record fifty-seven years for the company. Ritchie was the manager for fifty-eight years until his retirement in 1993. However, in 1989, Tom Blasingame
Tom Blasingame
Thomas Everett Blasingame, known as Tom Blasingame , was a Texas cowboy for seventy-three years. At ninety-one, he was still on the job at the JA Ranch south of Amarillo. Two days after Christmas in 1989, he dismounted his horse, Ruidosa, stretched out on the grass, folded his arms across his...
, known as the "oldest working cowboy in the West." died after seventy-three years in the saddle
Saddle
A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider or other load, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a horse, but specialized saddles have been created for camels and other creatures...
, most of it at the JA.
Montie Ritchie assembled an art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
collection which has been donated to the Dixon Museum in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
.
Though the JA was not a large or as famous as the XIT Ranch
XIT Ranch
The XIT Ranch was a cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle which operated from 1885 to 1912. Comprising over 3,000,000 acres of land, it ran for two hundred miles along the border with New Mexico, varying in width from 20 to 30 miles...
to its west, which included parts of ten counties, it was the largest cattle operation solely in the Panhandle and one still in the hands of the heirs of one of the original founders, John Adair, after the passage of more than 130 years.
Further reading
Armstrong County Historical Association, ‘’A Collection of Memories: A History of Armstrong County, 1876-1965’’ (Hereford, Texas: Pioneer, 1965).Harley True Burton
Harley True Burton
Harley True Burton was a Texas historian, college president, and small-town mayor. He was born in Decatur, the seat of Wise County, located north of Fort Worth....
, ‘’A History of the JA Ranch’’, was first published in 1928 and renewed in 1966. It is now an out-of-print rare book. Burton divided the history of the JA into the (1) Indian, (2) Hunter, (3) Cowman, and (4) Farmer stages. He was also a former mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Clarendon
Clarendon, Texas
Clarendon is a city in Donley County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,974 at the 2000 census. The county seat of Donley County, Clarendon is located on United States Highway 287 in the Texas Panhandle some sixty miles east of Amarillo. It was established in 1878 by Methodist clergyman L.H...
in Donley, County.
J. Evetts Haley
J. Evetts Haley
James Evetts Haley, Sr., usually known as J. Evetts Haley , was a Texas-born political activist and historian who wrote multiple works on the American West, including an enduring biography of legendary cattleman Charles Goodnight...
, Charles Goodnight (Norman
Norman, Oklahoma
Norman is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, United States, and is located south of downtown Oklahoma City. It is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, Norman was to have 110,925 full-time residents, making it the third-largest city in Oklahoma and the...
: University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
Press, 1949).
Dorothy Abbott McCoy, Texas Ranchmen (Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
: Eakin Press, 1987).
Pauline D. and R. L. Robertson, Cowman's Country: Fifty Frontier Ranches in the Texas Panhandle, 1876-1887 (Amarillo: Paramount, 1981).
External links
- JA Ranch Handbook of Texas OnlineHandbook of TexasThe Handbook of Texas is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Texas geography, history, and historical persons published by the Texas State Historical Association .-History:...
- Listing of JA Ranch resources and manuscripts at Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University