LEGENDS OF RANCHING Kiosks tell the story of Texas’ legendary cattle raisers, men and women who established an industry
Cattle King — Col. C.C. Slaughter Born in 1837, Christopher Columbus Slaughter,
a rancher often called the “Cattle King of Texas,” tended cattle as a youth and at age 17 purchased an interest in the family herd with money raised from hauling timber and selling fl our. In 1856 he helped drive 1,500 head to Palo Pinto County, on the edge of Western settlement. During the Civil War, Slaughter tended his herd
while serving the Frontier Regiment, which was mustered to protect exposed settlements from In- dian raids. After the war, he drove cattle to Kansas rail-
heads for several years, and used the profi ts to help launch the Long S and Running Water ranch- es in West Texas in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In 1898, he added the Lazy S Ranch in Cochran and Hockley counties to land holdings that ap- proached a million acres. By this time, Slaughter had begun to upgrade his
cattle herd, estimated at 40,000 head with expen- sive purebred Shorthorns imported from Kentucky and Herefords acquired from Panhandle rancher Charles Goodnight. Slaughter’s purchase of the grand champion bull at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, and later the famed Hereford sire Sir Bredwell, for which he paid a near record $5,000, made headlines. Slaughter directed his far-fl ung operation
from Dallas, where he established his home and banking interests in 1873. A leader of the beef in- dustry, he helped organize the Northwest Texas Cattle Raisers Association in 1877 and served as its president in 1885. As the fi rst president of the National Beef Producers and Butchers Associa- tion in 1888, Slaughter battled the meat packing monopoly in the interest of fair trade. A generous civic benefactor and church lead-
er, C.C. Slaughter supported many charities, in- cluding several Baptist medical and educational institutes. He died in Dallas in 1919.
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tscra.org May 2014 The Cattleman 31
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