Santa Rosa Ranch

The Santa Rosa Ranch Papers (1890-1910) take the researcher into a time in Texas history when acres of land, head of cattle, and sums of money were counted in minimum denominations of thousands. Furthermore, it was a time when fortunes were made, lost and regained in often very short spans of time by men and women whose formidable legacies remain quite visible in the twenty-first century.

The story of the Santa Rosa Ranch begins with a pioneering trail-driver named Dillard Rucker Fant, born 27 July 1842, in South Carolina, son of W. N. Fant and Mary Burriss Fant . When D. R. Fant was 11 years old, his family moved to Goliad, Texas where his father set up a merchant enterprise and eventually served as county judge.

D. R. Fant began his career freighting with ox teams in South Texas and, during the Civil War, enlisted in Col. George Washington Carver 's 21st Texas Cavalry, seeing duty in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and eventually achieving the rank of orderly sergeant. After the war Colonel Fant returned to Goliad, where he married Lucy A. Hodges on 15 October 1865, and became a farmer and rancher.

Fant soon began driving cattle to Rockport, Texas and selling them to packing houses (1867-1869). Learning that some North Texas cattlemen drove small herds of cattle through Indian Territory to Kansas at good profit, Fant decided in 1869 to redouble the effort by taking a large herd from Southwest Texas to Kansas . So successful was this adventure, that others eagerly followed Fant 's lead.

In 1874, Fant began improving his own cattle stock with Durham and Hereford breeds. For fourteen years he held government contracts to supply thousands of beeves to various military posts and agencies in Dakota and Indian Territory, and wintered herds on pastures in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho . During the fifteen years he was in business, Fant herded between 175,000 and 200,000 cattle up the trail, reportedly never losing more than three percent.

So extensive were D. R. Fant 's operations that he had several tremendous herds on the trail in a single season. In 1884, he employed 200 cowboys to drive one of the largest herds on record-42,000 cattle, requiring 1,200 saddle horses to keep the cowboys in mounts-to Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming, selling them for almost $1 million. D. R. Fant was still driving cattle as late as 1889, long after rail service has been extended northward from the Texas interior.

Fant is credited with extending the Chisholm Trail to Corpus Christi, Tex. and financing the construction of Texas public schools and railroads. By the 1890s he was regarded as one of the barons of the Texas cattle industry, and his extensive ranch holdings totaled more than 700,000 acres, including the 225,000 acre Santa Rosa Ranch in Hidalgo county .

D. R. Fant died 15 January 1908 and his widow, Lucy Fant, died soon afterwards in March 1909. The Fants are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Goliad, Texas .

From the guide to the Inventory of The Santa Rosa Ranch Papers, Dykes MSS 00134., 1890-1910, (Cushing Memorial Library)