Cattle, Cotton, Corn: A History of Central Texas Middle-Class Ranches, 1880–1930 by Watson C. Arnold (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Cattle, Cotton, Corn: A History of Central Texas Middle-Class Ranches, 1880–1930by Watson C. Arnold
• Richard B. McCaslin

Cattle, Cotton, Corn: A History of Central Texas Middle-Class Ranches, 1880–1930. By Watson C. Arnold. (Texas Tech University Press, 2022. Pp. 277. Appendices, notes, bibliography, index.)

Watson C. Arnold was a medic in Vietnam and then became a prominent physician in Fort Worth, in his native state of Texas. Approaching retirement, he took courses in history at TCU and wrote a dissertation about his family members who operated farms and ranches in Central Texas. That study became this book, which should become an essential building block for broader studies of agriculture in the Lone Star State.

Arnold discovered that some of his relatives had kept the daily business records of their operations, as well as those of their fathers and grandfathers. Others were eager to talk, adding their personal stories to bring the dry records to life. He quickly amassed a “mother lode” (p. xi) of information on the Caufields, Cavitts, Footes, and Youngs, but this is not a family history. Instead, it is a case study of how these families coped with economic and social change in a state [End Page 465]and region shifting its primary financial focus from agriculture to technology. Arnold’s ancestors mostly began as subsistence farmers, then became ranchers, cotton farmers, grain producers, and finally livestock raisers again. Different family members raised sheep, cattle, pigs, cotton, corn, wheat, milo, and maize. Many of these choices marked changes in epochs as the railroad came, markets fluctuated, and technology advanced. The shift from cotton to grain after World War II, of course, was also greatly influenced by negative factors such as boll weevils, cotton root rot, and droughts.

The story begins when, as part of a broader migration of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians across the South, Arnold’s ancestors began arriving in Texas about 1834, with other relatives joining them over the next two decades. Some did well, investing in land, slaves, and cotton, as well as sheep, cattle, pigs, and horses. Others focused more on livestock, either cattle or sheep, and subsistence crops, representing the other end of the southern antebellum economic spectrum. After the Civil War, during which most of them stayed in Texas, cattle provided the means for economic recovery. Arrival of the railroads, with the building of new towns such as McGregor in McLennan and Coryell counties, led to the installation of barbed wire fences and windmills as beef production changed. It also led many more to plant cotton. Meanwhile, some of Arnold’s ancestors continued to raise sheep, aided by connections with textile mills in New England. And the Caufields added to their profits as mule breeders by introducing Shetland ponies to Texas and becoming the largest producers of such animals west of the Mississippi River.

Hard work and careful management brought prosperity for some, which allowed their children to get more advanced educations, leave the farms, and pursue enterprises in nearby communities. Those that stayed home bought machinery to tend their fields and automobiles to go to town. An economic depression, which began for Texas farmers in the 1920s (if not earlier), ended the cotton boom and undercut the rural economy. Oil became a salvation for some Texas farmers, but Arnold’s people never found any on their land. Most but not all of them lost or sold their land and became urban dwellers during the agricultural downturn, but some retained family properties, which their descendants continue to tend.

Arnold is careful to provide sound historical contexts for the production of cattle, sheep, cotton, and other goods, which enhances his analysis of his ancestors’ activities. Readers will find much interesting material on sheep herders, ranch hands, and tenant farmers, and the impact of railroads on individuals and towns. Those who study education, religion, and other aspects of life in Texas and the South will also discover this work to be valuable. While it lacks illustrations and offers no map, the book is profusely annotated, has a substantial bibliography, and includes useful appendices compiled from primary sources. As a fine discussion of a lost era in Texas, it...