CHAPTER XI: A History of Jefferson County, Texas

Early Livestock Industry

By W. T. Block

The livestock industry in Jefferson County originated sometime during the eighteenth century. Although ranchers did not stake out land claims in the area until decades later, extensive herds of wild cattle were thriving long before the Anglo-Americans arrived, assuring a ready supply of meat and hides such as the buffalo herds provided elsewhere. While trade with Louisiana was long forbidden by the Spanish, the Texas-to-Louisiana cattle drives began in the same century.

Wild cattle herds, whose tracks were mistaken for those of buffaloes, existed on the Gulf Prairie as early as 1718. their presence attributed to Alonso de Leon, a Spanish explorer, who reputedly left breeding stock of horses and cattle on the banks of each Texas river.¹ Although it is not known when the herds reached Jefferson County, wild cattle were soon observed as far east as the bottomlands of the Trinity River. By 1770, the mission at Goliad claimed ownership of 40,000 branded and unmarked cattle.² In 1756, cattle and horses were brought to Mission San Augustin de Ahumada, near the mouth of the Trinity River,³ and in 1773, large herds were abandoned when the Spanish hurriedly evacuated the mission.⁴

Prior to 1760, French Louisiana sought to supply its cattle deficiency by trading with Texas, a plea which the Spanish denied.⁵ An illicit trade, however, soon began between the French and the East Texas Indians, who stole Spanish livestock.⁶ About 1778, when Louisiana was under Spanish control, official permission to trade was granted, and in 1779, “Francisco Garcia of San Antonio was commissioned to purchase two thousand cattle for export eastward.”⁷ Garcia’s herd may have been the first large drive along the Opelousas Trail, which crossed the Neches River at Beaumont and the Sabine River at Ballew’s Ferry.⁸

In time, large numbers of the “Spanish breed, small and spikehorned,” roamed the marshes of Southwest Louisiana as well.⁹ Spanish cattle were variously described as black or brown in color, occasionally so timid that they quickly vanished in the underbrush, but otherwise so aggressive that they sometimes charged at riders on horseback.¹⁰

As late as the 1840’s, one account stated that “enormous herds of wild cattle, or cattle which have grown wild, range on the Sabine . . .“ The writer added that “border settlers hunt them as game, and therefore seldom have to butcher any of their domestic cattle.”¹¹

The Anglo-American cattleman owed many of his practices, one of which was the marking or branding of cattle, to the Spanish “vaquero” who preceded him.¹² Range law gave ownership to the first person who applied his brand, provided the calf was weaned, motherless, or wild.¹³ The ownership of a brand and the herd marked with it were transferable. As an example, one Jefferson County herd sold in 1861 was marked with twenty-four brands which the owner had acquired.¹⁴

James Taylor White, who settled at Turtle Bayou near Anahuac in 1818, was the first significant cattleman along the upper Texas coast.¹⁵ An early, anonymous writer credited White’s herd as numbering 3,000 head in 1831,¹⁶ whereas another writer quoted the herd’s size at 10,000 head in 1840. This writer claimed that when White died in 1851, he had $150,000 banked in New Orleans, the proceeds of his cattle sales there.¹⁷

The anonymous author of 1831 noted that drovers from New Orleans came annually “to purchase cattle, which they take back in great numbers.”¹⁸ While fleeing from General Santa Anna’s armies in 1836, the diarist William F. Gray visited Taylor White’s home and encountered a French Acadian drover named Comarsac who was buying cattle.¹⁹ Two weeks later, while Gray stayed overnight at Comarsac’s residence on the Calcasieu River in Louisiana, Taylor White drove a herd of New Orleans-bound cattle across Calcasieu Parish.²⁰ In 1838, White drove another herd of steers to New Orleans,²¹ and within a few years, had driven “between 8,000 and 10,000” longhorns “over the Opelousas Trail.”²²

No information exists concerning the number of cattle in Jefferson County at the time of the Texas Revolution. By 1839, a total of 6,846 cattle were assessed on the county’s tax roll. The largest Jefferson County cattlemen of that year included Christian Hillebrandt, who owned 775 head; David Burrell, 627 head; William Ashworth, 520 head; David Garner, 500 head; Thomas D. Yocum, 500 head; John McGaffey, 275 head; Stephen Jackson, 275 head; W. D. Smith, 200 head; James McFaddin, 185 head; and William McFaddin, 150 head.²³

By 1850, David Burrell and Aaron Ashworth had emerged as the county’s largest ranchers, their herds numbering 2,350 and 2,570 head, respectively. Hillebrandt was third with 2,000 cattle. Other ranchers with large herds were: William McFaddin, 1,054 head; Ursin Guidry, 1,010 head; Richard West, 1,000 head; Abner Ashworth, 975 head; William Ashworth, 900 head; Joseph Hebert, 870 head; Stephen Jackson, 800 head; and McGuire Chaison and John Jirou, 700 each. The Jefferson County cattle reported in Schedule IV, Products of Agriculture, of the 1850 Federal census returns included 1,876 milk cows, 285 oxen, and 26,476 range cattle.²⁴

After 1850, Christian Hillebrandt built his cattle and horse empire at a rapid pace. In 1857, at age 64, the Danish immigrant bought 3,000 cattle and 100 horses. When he died in 1858, his livestock included 9,000 cattle and 1,000 horses, ranging over Liberty, Jefferson, and Orange counties. Probate records valued Hillebrandt’s cattle herds at $60,000 and his horses at $22,000. He and his sons greatly influenced the county’s early livestock industry.²⁵

The value of range steers locally fluctuated between $4 in 1840 and $6 in 1860.²⁶ About one-third of the animal’s value was its hide, worth $1.50 - $2.00 each.²⁷ An early criminal docket book indicates that the “taking of a hide,” a form of cattle theft, was the most frequent offense in early-day Jefferson County. A hide could be legally removed from a dead range animal only with the owner’s consent or if the steer was not branded.²⁸

The ratio of high hide value-low animal value helped launch an early Beaumont business, a riverside slaughterhouse, where beeves were killed for their hides and tallow. With minimal demand for the meat or the means to preserve it, carcasses were left floating in the Neches River, where the numerous gars and catfish soon devoured them.²⁹ Custom records confirm that cattle hides were shipped from Beaumont as early as 1842.³⁰

A greater profit could be realized if the cattleman were willing to risk his life and herd along the hazardous route to New Orleans. The county’s ranchers usually pooled their market-bound herds in March of each year before beginning the 30-day trek. In Louisiana, there were thirty or more streams to ford or swim, and at the journey’s end, the herd had to be ferried across the Mississippi River. The average steer brought from $10 to $15 in gold. In 1861, the Confederate army paid $22 per head. After April, 1862, cattle smuggled to the Union army in New Orleans brought “in good Yankee gold $40 to $60 a head.”³¹

By 1849, Jefferson County beeves were moving eastward by sea as well as land. In October of that year, the steamboat Ogden was loading cattle on the Sabine River for delivery at New Orleans.³² The overland drives and sea shipments apparently reached their peak between 1856 and 1859. The Sabine customhouse recorded 4,531 beeves as being shipped to New Orleans in l857,³³ followed by 5,669 head shipped by water in l859.³⁴

Beginning in 1855, the steamer Jasper, owned by an association of New Orleans butchers, carried 80 cattle weekly between June and December, and by June, 1858, had transported more than 8,000 steers to New Orleans.³⁵ The outcome of the Civil War had no apparent effect on the cattle shipments by water, for 4,760 beeves were exported at Sabine in 1866.³⁶ In that year, range cattle, which could be purchased in Texas from $3 to $5 each, were reported as selling in New Orleans for $25 - $30 a head.³⁷

That overland cattle drives through Beaumont in 1840 had reached proportions sufficient to create local problems is evidenced in the town council’s minutes of that year.³⁸ A newspaper reported that 15,000 eastbound cattle crossed the Neches River at Beaumont during October-November, 1856,³⁹ and another source stated that 32,400 Texas steers swam the Sabine at Ballew’s Ferry during ten months of the same year.⁴⁰ Large-scale cattle movements continued during the following year. The Galveston Weekly News reported that 109 droves of Texas cattle totaling 13,423 head passed through Lake Charles between February and April, 1857. In June, the number of cattle passing through Lake Charles indicated that 1857 would be the “largest year of all.”⁴¹

The Jefferson County livestock count soared during the late 1850’s. One record shows that 2,785 horses and 39,657 cattle were assessed for taxes in 1855.⁴² In 1856, the county’s tax tolls listed 5,162 horses and 53,957 cattle.⁴³ The same count for 1859, 4,276 horses and 55,639 cattle, may reflect to some degree the death of Christian Hillebrandt and the breakup of his cattle barony.⁴⁴ As recorded in the Schedule IV, Products of Agriculture, of the 1 860 Federal census, Jefferson County’s largest ranchers were Joseph Hebert, who owned 2,974 head; William McFaddin, 1,970 head; Sevan Broussard, 1,200 head; William Carr, 1,184 head; Eliza Chaison, 1,000 head; Patsy Jirou, 984 head; Alexis Blanchette, Sr., 684 head; and Joseph Trahan, 632 head.⁴⁵

Considerable evidence suggests that Jefferson County’s Schedule IV, Products of Agriculture, Eighth Census of 1860, was not completed, and hence, is of limited historical value. No pages are missing since the enumerator, George A. Pattillo, numbered the Orange and Jefferson County Schedules IV in numerical order. However, only 73 horses and mules, 455 milk cows, and 13,754 range cattle are recorded in the county’s agricultural census of 1860.⁴⁶

Visible discrepancies include five Hillebrandt children who were omitted from the Schedule IV census, although all five were listed in the county’s Schedule I, Population, returns. All were recorded as stock raisers, owning combined personal property worth $53,252, one-third of which was the value of their nineteen slaves.⁴⁷ The estate of Mrs. Sarah Herring, who died at Beaumont in November, 1860, included 100 horses and 2,308 head of cattle in Jefferson County, but her name is omitted from the County’s Schedule IV of that year.⁴⁸

Some indication of the extent of local slaughtering is visible in the export records. The customhouse recorded that 1,543 cattle hides were exported in l857,⁴⁹ 6,096 hides in l859,⁵⁰ and 10,000 beef hides in 1866.⁵¹ The latter count was presumably an accumulation for those years when the blockade was in effect. It is illogical to assume that so many cattle were slaughtered in the county in 1866, a time when the market price in New Orleans was relatively high.

The Jefferson County cattle count reached its peak in 1859, when 55,639 head were assessed for taxes.⁵² A gradual decline, presumably prompted by Confederate quartermaster beef requisitions, began in 1862, when 51,638 head were listed on the tax roll,⁵³ followed by 51,044 head on the tax rolls of 1863.⁵⁴ A significant drop appeared in 1865, when only 40,163 beeves were assessed for taxes.⁵⁵

County maintenance of the indigent families of Confederate soldiers added to the unprecedented demand for beef and corn. Apparently, the local beef supply was adequate, but occasionally, agents were sent to neighboring counties to purchase corn.⁵⁶ In 1864, county welfare agents slaughtered beeves wherever they could be found, posting public notices to the brand owners to come forward and collect the amounts that were due them.⁵⁷

By 1867, the number of cattle in Jefferson County had increased, with 46,682 animals recorded on the tax rolls.⁵⁸ During the 1870’s, the county’s cattle industry apparently remained static, for 47,358 head appeared on the tax assessments of 1882.⁵⁹

During the 1870’s, four Beaumonters, W. P. H. McFaddin, Valentine and William Wiess, and Dr. Obadiah Kyle, organized the Beaumont Pasture Company with the intention of buying south Jefferson County prairie lands and stocking them with cattle.⁶⁰ Shortly afterward, Kyle died, the Wiess brothers devoted their time to sawmilling, and the Beaumont Pasture Company gradually became the domain of the McFaddin family, who remained the county’s undisputed leaders of the cattle industry thereafter. In 1880, William McFaddin owned 900 horses and 3,000 head of range cattle. His son, W. P. H. McFaddin, began upgrading the quality of the county’s beef cattle when he purchased a Brahma bull from a circus. Gradually, a sleek crossbred animal began to replace the longhorn steer which had previously predominated.⁶¹

After 1890, a reduction in the amount of grazing lands and cattle resulted when barbed wire penetrated the open range. Thereafter, tillable acreage was constantly fenced off as the rice industry and large irrigation companies came into existence. By 1910, the county’s open range was limited to the approximate area that exists at the present time, a twelve-by-thirty mile strip of coastal marsh and prairie between Sabine Pass and High Island.⁶²

Between 1850 and 1900, cattle epidemics and periodic natural disasters claimed a large toll of Jefferson County livestock. An outbreak of the dreaded anthrax, known locally as charbon, decimated the county’s beef population in 1855 and was followed by other epidemics in 1886 and 1899.⁶³ Several major hurricanes inundated the coastal grazing strip during the fifty-year period. A raging storm in September, 1865, drowned 25,000 cattle in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, destroyed Orange, and badly-damaged Beaumont and Sabine Pass.⁶⁴ In 1886, eighty-five persons drowned when a storm destroyed Sabine Pass.⁶⁵ During 1895 and 1899, Jefferson County residents ice-skated on Sabine Lake, and the snow drifted to the height of fence posts.⁶⁶

Oxen were popular as draft animals throughout the nineteenth century. In 1850, sixty-six farmers owned one or more yokes totaling 285 head. In 1880, ninety-three farmers owned a total of 330 oxen. By contrast, only 56 mules were listed in the county’s Schedules IV for both 1860 and 1870. After 1880, oxen were widely used in the logging operations along the Neches and Sabine Rivers.⁶⁷

It is probable that the poor quality of the early roads discouraged wheeled traffic in Jefferson County and limited draft animal usage principally to the farms. During his Southeast Texas travels of 1854, Frederick Olmsted observed that “steamboats land their coffee and salt on the Sabine and Trinity at irregular intervals, but no wheeled vehicles traverse the region. In two weeks’ ride, we met with but one specimen, the ‘mud-cart’ of a grocery peddler . . . A traveler other than a beef-speculator was a thing unknown.”⁶⁸

While the peak quantity of Jefferson County’s beef cattle arrived before the Civil War, the horse population reached its apex, 8,711 head, in 1861.⁶⁹ Confederate cavalry and quartermaster requirements quickly made inroads, for the number of horses in 1862 had decreased to 4,212 animals.⁷⁰ After the war, 4,365 horses were on the tax rolls of 1865,⁷¹ 6,420 head in 1867,⁷² and 5,912 head in l882.⁷³ Consequently, it does not appear that the increase of horses is in direct proportion to the improvements of roads, the greater use of wagons and buggies, and the population increase.

Jefferson County’s high humidity discouraged sheep-raising beyond the quantity of wool and meat needed for home consumption. Between 1850 and 1882, the number, of sheep increased from 562 to 1,110 head, the average value being $2 each.⁷⁴ Lambs, like pigs, were easy prey for the timber wolves. In 1857, eighteen bales of wool were shipped from Sabine Pass, but no other wool or live sheep shipments are recorded in the export statistics of that era.⁷⁵ The 1857 shipment probably originated in an upland county, for according to the census schedules, Jefferson County produced only 800 pounds of wool in 1850 and 377 pounds in 1860.⁷⁶

Each Jefferson County pioneer engaged in hog-raising to some degree if his farm location permitted it. While visiting Liberty County in 1854, the traveler Frederick Olmsted reported that “hogs do not flourish upon the grass or beneath the pines.’’⁷⁷ He meant that the successful mast-feeding of hogs required the oak or nut-bearing hardwood forests common to bayou and river lowlands. There is no indication that corn was ever used to supplement the mast-feed diet prior to the slaughtering season.

In antebellum days, the county’s lowland forests abounded with swine in a semi-wild state, and hogs with un-cropped ears were public property. Consequently, tax rolls and census returns are of minimal value for computing the count of hogs within the county. However, these returns list 4,384 hogs in Jefferson County in 1850,⁷⁸ 2,710 hogs in 1860,⁷⁹ and 2,324 hogs in 1882.⁸⁰

Except for wild game, smoked pork provided subsistence farmers with their main supply of meat and lard. The killing process did not vary from that in frequent use today. Hogs were slaughtered, emboweled, and the carcasses were placed in vats of boiling water prior to scraping the bristles from the hides. Hams, bacon, and sausages were then hickory-smoked to preserve them. If purchased, smoked pork cost from 5¢ to 8¢ a pound in 1867, which was double the cost of beef.⁸¹

Although its heyday ended with the fencing of the open range, the cattle industry is still an important ingredient of Jefferson County’s economy. In 1970 cattle sales totaled $2,400,000.⁸² Fortunately, cattle and rice production blend well together for those farmers owning 500 acres or more. Modern rotation methods create fallow lands each year which are used for grazing. The by-products of rice production include baled rice straw and rice bran which are inexpensive and nutritious winter feeds.⁸³

For fifty years, until the emergence of large-scale lumbering, the pioneer stockman was the economic backbone of Jefferson County’s economy. Like the cotton planter elsewhere, the rancher had a merchantable product which went to market annually and resulted in a cash return in gold. The cattleman’s financial stature made him either the pioneer merchant’s best customer or the banker’s most dependable borrower.

However, to a frontier unaccustomed to frills, the possession of livestock was one necessity which made life in a wilderness endurable. The role of meat, butter, milk, wool, tallow, and leather in the frontier household is well-known and requires no elaboration.

Endnotes

¹ Charles W. Hackett (ed.) Pichardo ‘s Treat Lse on The Limits of Louisiana and Texas (4 volumes; Austin: University of Texas Press, 1934), II, pp. 525-526; Francisco Celiz, The Diary of The Alarcon Expedition Into Texas, 1718-1719 (Los Angeles: Quivera Society, 1935), P. 52.

² Wayne Gard, The Chisholm Trail (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954), p. 6.

³ H. E. Bolton, “Spanish Activities on The Lower Trinity River, 1745-1771 ,“ Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XVI (April, 1913), p. 360.

⁴ H. E. Bolton, “The Spanish Abandonment and Re-Occupation of East Texas, 1773-1779,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, IX (October, 1905), pp. 84, 86.

⁵ Hackett, Pichardo ‘s Treatise, II, Pp. 204-205.

⁶ Bolton “Spanish Abandonment and Re-Occupation of East Texas,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, p. 104.

⁷ Sandra L. Myers, “The Spanish Cattle Kingdom in The Province of Texas,” Texana, IV (Fall, 1966), p. 244.

⁸ Ruth Garrison Scurlock, “The Unsung Opelousas Trail,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, V (November, 1969), p. 8.

⁹ J. Frank Dobie, “The First Cattle in Texas and The Southwest,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XLII (January, 1939), pp. 184-185.

¹⁰ Dobie, “The First Cattle in Texas,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, pp. 183-185; Viktor Bracht, Texas in 1848 (San Antonio: Naylor Printing Company, 1931), p. 42.

¹¹ Bracht, Texas in 1848, p. 42; Nancy N. Barker, The French Legation In Texas (2 volumes; Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1971), I, p. 155.

¹² Myers, “Spanish Cattle Kingdom,” Texana, p. 242.

¹³ Frederick L. Olmsted, Journey Through Texas: A Saddle-Trip On The Southern Frontier (reprint; Austin: Von Boeckman-Jones Press, 1962), p. 231.

¹⁴ Title Transfer, S. Shaw to W. Maas, March 8, 1861, Volume C, p. 58, Personal Property Record, Jefferson County, Texas.

¹⁵ Scurlock, “The Unsung Opelousas Trail,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, p. 9.

¹⁶ Anonymous, Visit To Texas: Being The Journal Of A Traveler Through Those Parts Most Interesting To American Settlers (reprint; Ann Arbor: University Micro­films, Incorporated, 1966), p. 91.

¹⁷ Letters of David Carlton Hardee, 1838-1848, location unknown, as quoted in Ed. Kilman, “Five Generations of James Taylor Whites,” Houston Post, June 3, 1934; Liberty (Texas) Vindicator, July 16, 1897.

¹⁸ Visit To Texas, p. 92.

¹⁹ William F. Gray, From Virginia To Texas, 1835: The Diary of Colonel William F. Gray (reprint: Houston: Fletcher Young Publishing Company, 1965), p. 165. Orsene LeBleu de Comarsac, who was formerly one of Jean Lafitte’s ship captains, knew White from the buccaneer period of Galveston Island.

²⁰ Gray, From Virginia to Texas, p. 171.

²¹ Gard, Chisholm Trail, p. 23.

²² Scurlock, “The Unsung Opelousas Trail,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, p. 9.

²³ Gifford White (ed), The 1840 Census of The Republic of The Republic of Texas (Austin: Pemberton Press, 1966), pp. 94-98.

²⁴ Manuscript Returns of Jefferson County, Texas, Schedule IV, Products of Agriculture, Seventh Census of The United States, 1850; “Analysis of The 1850 Census,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, VII (May, 1972), P. 68.

²⁵ Petition, 0. L. Hillebrandt No. 323 Versus Espar Hillebrandt, December 4, 1858, Jefferson County District Court, and Agreement, C. and U. Hillebrandt heirs, June 21, 1860, recorded in Volume B, pp. 301-307, Personal Property Record, Jefferson County, Texas; W. T. Block, “Christian Hillebrandt, Cattle Baron,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record. VII (November, 1971), pp. 38-41.

²⁶ Files 162 (for 1813) and 97 (for 1860), Probate Records, and Volume C, p. 94, Personal Property Record, Jefferson County, Texas.

²⁷ Manuscript Returns of Jefferson County, Schedule V, Products of Industry, 1850.

²⁸ Criminal Docket Book, April, 1839-Arpil, 1851, Jefferson County, Texas.

²⁹ Scurlock, “The Unsung Opelousas Trail,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, p. 11; Florence Stratton, The Story of Beaumont (Houston: Hercules Printing Company, 1925),p. 128.

³⁰ “Quarterly Return,” N. F. Smith to the Secretary of the Treasury, October 31, 1842, Sabine Bay Customs Records, File 4-21/10, Texas State Archives.

³¹ Scurlock, “The Unsung Opelousas Trail,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, p. 11. See also Gard, Chishoim Trail, pp. 24-25; Olmsted, Journey Through Texas, p. 232.

³² (Houston) Telegraph and Texas Register, September 6,1849.

³³ Texas Almanac, 1859 (Galveston: Richardson and Company, 1860), p. 150.

³⁴ Texas Almanac, 186!, p. 237.

³⁵ (Galveston) Weekly News, August 4, 1857; March 9 and June 8, 1858.

³⁶ Texas Almanac, 1867, pp. 124-125.

³⁷ Ibid. p. 197.

³⁸ F E. Willcox (compiler), “Records of the Hon. the Board of Aldermen of the Town of Beaumont,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, VIII (November, 1972), pp. 63-64.

³⁹ (Galveston) Weekly News, December 2, 1856.

⁴⁰ Gard, Chishoim Trail, p. 25.

⁴¹ (Galveston) Weekly News, April 28 and June 9, 1857.

⁴² The Texas Almanac For 1857 (reprint; Dallas: A. H. Belo, 1966), p. 69.

⁴³ Jacob DeCordova, Texas: Her Resources and Her Public Men (reprint; Waco: Texian Press, 1969), p.³¹⁰.

⁴⁴ Texas Almanac, 1860, p. 205.

⁴⁵ Manuscript Returns of Jefferson County, Schedule IV, Products of Agriculture, Eighth Census of the United States, 1860.

⁴⁶ Ibid.

⁴⁷ Ibid. Schedule I, Population, pp. 63-64, residences 487, 388, 382, and p. 80, residences 494, 498; and Schedule II, Slaves. The difference between the number of cattle recorded on the census schedule and the tax rolls approximates 40,000. Computing the value of range cattle at $6 a head, the writer believes that each of the Hillebrandt heirs owned between 1,000 and 2,000 head in 1860.

⁴⁸ File 97, Estate of Sarah Herring, December 4, 1860, Probate Record, Jefferson County, Texas.

⁴⁹ Texas Almanac, 1859, p. 150.

⁵⁰ Texas Almanac, 1861, p. 237.

⁵¹ Texas Almanac, 1867, p. 211.

⁵² Texa.s Almanac, 1860, p. 205.

⁵³ Texas Almanac, 1862, p. 32.

⁵⁴ Texas Almanac, 1863, p. 44.

⁵⁵ Texas Almanac, 1867, p. 211.

⁵⁶ Volume C, pp. 102, 119, Commissioners’ Court Minutes, Jefferson County, Texas.

⁵⁷ Ibid. p. 150.

⁵⁸ Texas Almanac, 1868, p. 219.

⁵⁹ Ashley W. Spaight, The Resources, Soil and Climate of Texas (Galveston: A. H. Belo and Company, 1881), p. 164. It is not clear as to why the tax rolls and Schedule IV census returns varied so greatly at times. Only 20,700 range cattle appeared on the county’s Schedule IV for 1880.

⁶⁰ Volume T, p. 119, Deed Records, Jefferson County, Texas.

⁶¹ Manuscript Returns of Jefferson County, Schedule IV, Products of Agriculture, Tenth Census of the United States, 1880; Beaumont Enterprise, October 4, 1931.

⁶² Frank W. Johnson and Eugene C. Barker, A History of Texas and Texans (5 volumes; New York: American Historical Society, 1914), II, p. 698.

⁶³ (Galveston) Weekly News, July 24, 1855; Dr. D. J. Millet, “Some Notes on The History of Cameron Parish, Louisiana,” unpublished manuscript, April, 1972, copy owned by the writer.

⁶⁴ (Galveston) Weekly News, May 30, 1866; Beaumont Enterprise, April 23, 1922; Dr. David Hewson, “History of Orange,” unpublished manuscript, N. D., but circa 1890, copy owned by the writer.

⁶⁵ House Bill No. 383, “Relief of Citizens of Sabine Pass,” reprinted in H.PJ’L Gammel (compiler), The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 (10 volumes; Austin: Gammel Book Company, 1898), IX, pp. 15-16; (Orange) Tribune, October 22, 1886.

⁶⁶ Sabine Pass News, February 16, 1899.

⁶⁷ Manuscript Returns of Jefferson County, Schedules IV, Products of Agriculture, Federal Censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880.

⁶⁸ Olmsted, Journey Through Texas, p. 228.

⁶⁹ Texas Almanac, 1862, p. 32.

⁷⁰ Texas Almanac, 1863, p. 44.

⁷¹ Texas Almanac, 1867, p. 211.

⁷² Texas Almanac, 1868, p. 219.

⁷³ Spaight, Resources, Soil, and Climate of Texas, p. 164.

⁷⁴ “Analysis of The 1850 Census,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical’ Record, p. 68; ‘Spaight, Resources, Soil, and Climate of Texas, p. 164; Manuscript Returns of Jefferson County, Schedules IV, Products of Agriculture, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Censuses of the United States, 1850-1880.

⁷⁵ “Analysis of the 1850 Census,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, p. 68; Texas Almanac, 1859, p.150.

⁷⁶ Manuscript Returns of Jefferson County, Schedules IV, Products of Agriculture, 1850, 1860.

⁷⁷ Olmsted, Journey Through Texas, p. 228.

⁷⁸ “Analysis of the 1850 Census,” Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, p. 68.

⁷⁹ Manuscript Returns of Jefferson County, Schedule IV, Products of Agriculture, 1860.

⁸⁰ Spaight, Resources, Soil, and Climate of Texas, p. 164.

⁸¹ Texas Almanac, 1867, pp. 124-125.

⁸² Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide, 1972-1973 (Dallas: A. II. Belo Corporation, 1971), p. 293.

⁸³ Francis A. Scanlon, “The Rice Industry of Texas,” unpublished Master’s Thesis, The University of Texas, 1954, PP 53, 90-91.