The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928 Page: 90

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Duro Canyon (now spelled Paloduro, since the establishment of
a post office at Paloduro, Texas). This ranch was located in
what is now Armstrong, Briscoe, Donley, Hall, Randall and
Swisher Counties. The main ranch was divided into two ranches,
the J A Ranch and the J J Ranch, when the ranch was first
established. A little later, 1884, the holdings got so large that
still another ranch was located, known as the Tule Ranch. In
1882 the Quitaque Ranch, better known as the F Ranch, was
established and managed by Colonel Goodnight for Mrs. Adair.
It was located in Briscoe, Floyd, and Motley Counties. The
land holdings were gradually increased by purchase and lease
until at one time the land actually grazed by the combined in-
terests reached a total of more than a million acres. The herd
was increased until at one time there were about nine thousand
head of high-grade Hereford cattle and over 60,700 in the main
herd with a calf branding of sixteen thousand head, not includ-
ing the F Ranch cattle. Today the J A Ranch includes part of
the original holdings of the J A and J J Ranches only, and there
are only 397,800 acres of land and about 25,000 head of cattle.
The writer wishes to acknowledge his gratitude to the follow-
ing named persons who made this thesis possible: Colonel
Charles Goodnight, Mr. Henry W. Taylor, Mr. J. W. Kent, Judge
0. H. Nelson, Mr. T. D. Hobart, Mr. M. E. (Mitch) Bell, Mr.
M. T. (Doc) Howard, Mr. J. W. (Johnnie) Martin, Mr. Joe
Horn, Mr. Fain (Huck) Kent, Mr. Ernest (Tunnie) Kent, Mr.
Clinton Henry, Mr. Jim Wilson, Mr. Jimmie Moore, Honorable
James Wadsworth, Jr., and Mrs. Rex Rogers.
In order that the reader may know that these persons are com-
petent to speak authoritatively about the J A Ranch, a word of
explanation is necessary with reference to each one of these
persons.
Colonel Goodnight, now of Clarendon, established the J A
Ranch and managed it for ten years. Henry W. Taylor (nephew
of Colonel Goodnight), a retired hardware merchant and the
present Mayor of Clarendon, came to the J A Ranch in the early
eighties and lived on it for six years. J. W. Kent, present super-
intendent of the J A Ranch, has been connected with the ranch
about forty years. Judge 0. H. Nelson came to the Panhandle
in 1878 and was manager of the Shoe Bar Ranch owned by Lea