Cattle Kings of Texas!

Claude LeRoy Douglas was a newspaper man in Fort Worth, back when people expected newspapers to give them the who, what, where, when and why without telling them how to feel about it.

He loved the history of his state and wrote a number of books about it. He wrote a book on the Texas Navy, another on Texas feuds, and a biography of Governor Pappy O'Daniel.

He even wrote the first book to chronicle the history of the Texas Rangers from Jack Hays to Frank Hamer. Claude beat Walter Prescott Webb to the punch by a year.
In this book he set out to chronicle the history of the great cattlemen of Texas.

I love books that give you an enjoyable way to absorb a lot of information on a subject, and Cattle Kings of Texas checks that box for Texas ranching and cattle raising. It gives you a solid base of information and provides a strong armature on which to build your knowledge.

Claude had a dream team of advisors who helped him with Cattle Kings of Texas. J. Frank Dobie assisted with the chapters on Shanghai Pierce and the other coastal cattle kings. John Mackenzie of the Matador Land and Cattle Company gave him exclusive access to company records.

Tad Moses, editor of The Cattleman Magazine offered technical advice and wrote the foreword.  Phil Maverick, John Hendrix, J. Frank Norfleet, W. D. Smithers and Erwin E. Smith also lent a hand.

Here's what's between the covers:

• Panorama: The First Beef Barons
• Don Martin De Leon: Spanish Rancheros cleared way for American Stockmen
• Grimes and the Trespalacios: Texas Costal Plains cradled the Cattle Industry
• King of the Sea Lions: Shanghai Pierce-"as uncouth as the cattle he drove, but at heart, one of the best men in this or any other land"
• The Mavericks of Matagorda: How the term 'maverick' originated
• The Santa Gertrudis - King and Kenedy: They created a buffer state between two nations
• Bos Indicus: How Abel Borden, Shanghai Pierces' Nephew, brought India's Sacred cattle to America
• The Jingle-Bob King: How John Chisum fought Apaches and Thieves to found a 200-mile Cattle Empire
• Boss of the Palo Duro: The JA Ranch of today stands as a monument to a man who faced frontier perils
• The Odyssey of Oliver Loving: The Saga of the man who blazed the trail to outside markets in the 'Fifties
• A Cattleman in the Pulpit: Parson Slaughter fought Indians, branded calves, and preached with a pistol in his belt
• Reynolds of the Long X: Carved out an Empire in the trans-Pecos in midst of gun smoke and Indian raids
• An Androcles of the Plaines: How the gift of a gun to an Indian saved the life of a Cattleman from the fate of a white prisoner
• Bugbee of the Quarter Circle T: He scooped a dugout in the plains and from it built a 450,000 acre cattle kingdom
• A Calf Starts a Kingdom: Henry Campbell, founder of the great Matador, left a lasting mark on the Llano Estacado
• Mackenzie of the Matador: A cowman from Scotland assumes management of Matador from Campbell, organizes 10,000,000 acre Brazilian cattle kingdom, but returns to his old love the Matador
• Ike Pryor of the 77: From plowhand to cowhand, an orphan boy becomes one of the major kings and ace trail drivers of the Nueces
• Trails and Troubles: Longhorns From Texas on the hoof to the Platters of the World
• Barb'd Wire and the Frying Pan: Sales from the profits of new-fangled 'Devil Rope' started ranch which caused the moving of an entire city
• The Hall Brothers - Empire Builders: They bossed the Cimarron range and gathered the loose ends f the prairies to build their empire
• Protection Men: Fast thinking, quick drawing, straight shooting-they were the nemesis of cattle thieves and an important factor in private law and order
• Ten in Texas: The largest state capitol in the United States was built by the XIT ranch in exchange for 3,000,000 acres of land
• D. Waggoner and Son: "A man who doesn't admire a good beef steer, a good horse, and a pretty woman... well, something is wrong with that man's head" - Tom Waggoner.
• Burk Burnett of the Four Sixes: A friend of Chief Quanah Parker, he was king of the Kiowa and Comanche country
• Cowtowns and Cowboys: How the range riders went to town and of what transpired when they arrived

It is our privilege to bring Cattle Kings of Texas back to life for today's Texans.

Physical Details

• Cattle Kings of Texas 
• Standard Edition Hardcover
• 376 pages
• Satin finish jacket