Levelland, Texas

In 1879 the Sixteenth Texas Legislature appropriated three million acres of land to finance a new state Capitol building and appointed a Capitol Board composed of the governor, comptroller, treasurer, attorney general, and land commissioner to sell the land and contract for the building. The destruction of the old capitol building by fire on November 9, 1881, made construction of the new building urgent, and early in 1882 Mathias Schnell of Rock Island, Illinois, accepted the contract in return for the land. In turn, Schnell transferred three-fourths interest to Taylor, Babcock, and Company of Chicago, which organized the Capitol Syndicate, in which Charles B. Farwell, John V. Farwell , Col. Amos C. Babcock, and Col. Abner Taylor of Illinois were leading investors. Several months later Schnell assigned the rest of his contract to the syndicate after rumors surfaced that he had bribed one of the capitol commissioners and had tried to bribe designing architect Elijah E. Myers . Since the land that the syndicate was to receive as payment was in the unsettled Panhandle area, the syndicate established the XIT Ranch to utilize the land until it could be sold. Total cost of erecting the state capitol, which was completed in April 1888, was $3,744,630.60. Of this amount, the Capitol Syndicate's expenditures were $3,224,593.45; about $500,000 was assumed by the state. Babcock went to Texas to conduct a survey of the property. He arrived at Mobeetie in March 1882 and sought transportation facilities to the tract from nearby Fort Elliott. On the strength of a letter he carried from Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to the post commander, he was furnished a four-mule ambulance, a wagon to haul camp equipment, and a small wall tent. William S. Mabry , surveyor from Tascosa, and C. R. Vivian, the Oldham county clerk, accompanied Babcock, along with several area cowboys and a Mexican cook. From Buffalo Springs, near the northern boundary, to Yellowhouse Creek in Hockley County, the odd entourage took thirty-six days to inspect the vast ranges, traveling over 950 miles in all. Babcock returned to Chicago to report that claims for the spread, which extended some 220 miles north to south on the New Mexico border, were accurate in regard to soil, grass, water, timber, rock, and shelter. He recommended that it be immediately stocked with cattle and fenced. During the inspection tour the party had discovered a mistake in earlier surveys, notably that made by John H. Clark in 1859; subsequently the syndicate took measures that eventually saved for Texas a strip of land on the New Mexico line measuring a half mile or more in width and 310 miles long. To secure the enormous amount of finances necessary for developing the ranch, John Farwell went to England and late in 1884 succeeded in forming the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company of London. By attracting wealthy British investors like the Earl of Aberdeen and Henry Seton-Karr, a member of Parliament, Farwell returned with the equivalent of roughly $5 million in American currency. From the first, the Capitol Syndicate had intended to run cattle only until the land could be utilized for agriculture; long-range goals were to promote settlement, eventually subdivide the acreage, and gradually sell it off piecemeal. On the strength of Babcock's suggestions, it was decided to fence the entire range and erect windmills . B. H. (Barbecue) Campbell of Wichita, Kansas, was chosen by Farwell to be the XIT's first general manager. An experienced rancher and breeder and longtime friend of Taylor and the Farwells, Campbell received his nickname from the Bar BQ brand he used at his ranch on Medicine Lodge Creek in the Indian Territory. Under his direction, Mabry surveyed a fence line for a horse pasture at Buffalo Springs, the ranch's first designated headquarters, and late in the spring of 1885 the first pasture fence was completed. Campbell, in the meantime, set about contracting for longhorn cattle in Central

Hockley County is in northwestern Texas, south of the Panhandle and on the Llano Estacado , bordered on the east by Lubbock County, on the south by Terry County, on the west by Cochran County, and on the north by Lamb County. The center of the county lies at approximately 33°36' north latitude and 102°21' west longitude, thirty miles west of Lubbock. The county, named for George W. Hockley , comprises 908 square miles of generally flat land that drains to numerous playas, the Yellow House River, and Yellow House Lake. Elevations range from 3,300 to 3,650 feet above sea level. Soils vary from clay loam to sandy loam, with most of the latter in the western and southern regions. Grasses include buffalo, grama, and mesquite. Yellow House Canyon cuts into the northern part of the county and is mostly grass-covered, although sand hills and gravel deposits occur. The canyon, once a tributary of the Brazos River, is one of the most salient landmarks on the South Plains; it takes its name from high, yellow bluffs near its head. The annual rainfall in Hockley County averages 16.6 inches; the temperature varies from average minimum of 24° F in January to an average maximum of 93° in July; the growing season lasts 196 days. The county's economy produces an average annual income of $71 million from agriculture, 70 percent of which comes from crops that include cotton, sorghums, wheat, soybeans, corn, hay, and sunflowers. The rest comes from cattle, hogs, and sheep. Irrigated land totals about 200,000 acres. In 1982 oil production in Hockley County totaled more than 39,000,000 barrels, worth $1,203,962,293. Petroleum processing, the manufacture of oilfield equipment, processing of vegetable oil, and cattle feeding are industries complementing the area's large oil production. Major roads are U.S. Highway 385 and State Highway 303 (north to south), and State Highway 114 (east to west). In prehistoric times Folsom man hunted in the area. Spanish explorers ventured into or near Hockley County during the sixteenth century, and in the early eighteenth century the Comanches displaced the Apaches in the region. Much of the history of the area revolves around Yellow House Canyon. The Comanches, hunting buffalo and attacking enemies, watered at the springs in the canyon for decades before White men took an interest in the region; the canyon lay along a north-south trail between New Mexico and Mexico. In 1879 a squad of Texas Rangers led by Capt. George W. Arrington found Yellow House Canyon during a fierce blizzard. Without the help given them by John and Thomas L. Causey , who were hunting buffalo in the area, the soldiers might have starved. In 1881 the canyon lay on a mail route from Colorado City to Fort Sumner, New Mexico; by this time the Indians had been removed by the United States Army. In 1876 the Texas legislature formed Hockley County from lands formerly assigned to Bexar and Young counties. Because settlers were slow to move into the area, however, the county was assigned to Lubbock County for administrative purposes until 1920. Until the early twentieth century, the area was dominated by a few large cattle operations. The Causeys were the first settlers in the area; after several years of buffalo hunting in Kansas and Texas, they established a base at Yellow House Canyon in 1877 and built the first house in the county. When the buffalo herds were depleted, the Causeys went into the bone business , and in 1882 they established a ranch. In 1885, however, the XIT Ranch , one of the state's largest cattle-raising ventures, was founded in the area, and the Causeys were forced to move. The XIT expanded to include the northern third of Hockley County; meanwhile, other sections of county land were bought by such ranchers as F. G. Oxsheer (1884), David M. Devitt (1885), John Gordon (1886), and the Snyder brothers, Dudley H. and John W. (1885), who sold to Isaac L. Ellwood ; Ellwood bought the Spade Ranch (1889). C. C. Slaughter a

Surveyed and platted in 1912 as "Hockley City" by cereal magnate C. W. Post. Although only a barren townsite, place won race for county seat in 1921. The first meeting of county officers was held at future courthouse site-- in a Cadillac automobile. Soon city square boasted a temporary courthouse (16 by 32 feet), a well, and a community black-eyed pea patch. When a post office opened, in 1922, city was renamed Levelland, for its topography. Prosperity arrived with the coming of the railroad in 1925 and discovery of oil in the county in 1937. (1972)

The Mallet Ranch was named for its peculiar brand, which resembles a croquet mallet. The brand was first used in the early 1880s by D. P. Atwood on his ranch, which straddled the Texas-New Mexico line. In 1885, as the Atwood interests were preparing to dispose of their land and cattle, David M. DeVitt and John Scharbauer purchased the brand and formed the Mallet Cattle Company, with home and business offices in Midland and later in Fort Worth. At first they ranched near Midland and Big Spring but soon established headquarters in southwestern Hockley County, where the brand was registered. Over the next several years the Mallet Company expanded its ranges into portions of Hockley, Terry, Cochran, and Yoakum counties. Much of this land was obtained from small homesteaders. The Mallet Ranch was divided into four pastures, each of which was watered by windmills and tanks. During the winter months only a handful of cowboys, usually around six, were kept at the headquarters. These, along with the foreman, a windmill man, and his wife manned the five-room ranchhouse, at which the employees ate their meals. The windmill man's wife cooked. The headquarters also had several bunkhouses, sheds, barns, and corrals. At the start of the spring roundup, the foreman often went to the nearest towns to seek extra help. Dipping vats to prevent scabs were built in a pasture about six miles north of the headquarters, near the site of present Whiteface. The cowboys usually took six weeks in the spring to dip all the cattle designated to be sold. Pat Ross, George W. Green, and Wadkie Fowler served successively as foremen. The Mallet's chief competitor was Christopher C. Slaughter 's Lazy S Ranch. The rivalry nearly came to blows in the early 1900s as a result of a land dispute following Slaughter's purchase of 34,000 acres in Hockley County. Some of this acreage was being leased for grazing by DeVitt and his partner, Charles H. Flato. To curtail the Lazy S purchases, DeVitt and Flato filed lawsuits against the Slaughter interests for some of the county school lands. Slaughter sought a momentary compromise by suggesting that both ranches share the leased tracts, but in 1903 the Lazy S took possession of one of the disputed tracts and fenced it. Over the next three months the fence was cut at least six times. A small-scale range war nearly erupted when the Lazy S men blamed the Mallet cowboys and prepared for action. DeVitt obtained an injunction against the Slaughter occupation of the land, but the Lazy S cowboys refused to vacate it until faced with a contempt-of-court threat. Cooler heads prevailed in the end, and a Lubbock district court ruled in favor of the Mallet interests. Although Slaughter took the fight before a federal judge, he was unable to win a reversal, and his employees had to go around the five-mile stretch of DeVitt's land. Later, Slaughter attempted to buy for $26,000 some of the land the Mallet was using under lease agreements, but the Hockley County commissioners who owned the leases firmly retained their commitments to DeVitt. As a result of the controversy DeVitt incorporated his land into the Mallet Land and Cattle Company in 1903. Under the terms of the agreement the Mallet lands were to be held in common by the company, with W. D. Johnson as president. DeVitt retained controlling interest in the cattle and other livestock. That arrangement lasted for the next forty years. Between 1905 and 1907 some 4,500 Hereford cattle bearing the Mallet brand grazed 200 sections in four counties. DeVitt kept most of his stock cows for three years at a time, selling only the calves annually, generally for twenty dollars each. At the end of every third year he sold the cows and started with fresh stock. In 1925 and 1926 about 6,000 acres of Mallet land were put into dry-land farming for cotton and feed crops. DeVitt's favorite feed came to be cottonseed cake, with which he fattened cattle before shipment. After the Santa Fe Railroad built th

City of Levelland Cemetery Established ca. 1924 Historic Texas Cemetery - 2010

[Spade brand in title] Founded by Isaac L. Ellwood (1833-1910), inventor who made a fortune in barbed wire, and bought (1889) from veteran cattlemen D. H. and J. W. Snyder an 8 x 25-mile range (128,000 acres) in Hale, Hockley, Lamb and Lubbock counties. This range was used for Spade-branded calves from Renderbrook Spring, his southmost ranch, in Mitchell County. He continued buying South Plains land until Spade Range was 54 miles long. Headquarters (originally in Lamb County) was moved to South Camp (3/10 mi. N of here) after farm-land sales in 1920s. Ellwood's descendants still own and operate the Spade. (1972)