Matador, Texas

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History of Matador

Matador, TX RoadyGoat

Matador sits high on the plains, a little over two thousand feet above sea level. You can feel it in the air, drier and crisper than down closer to the Gulf. This is ranch country, defined by the rolling grasslands and the deep red earth that stains everything it touches. The land here isn't gentle; it's a place of extremes, where droughts can parch the soil and sudden storms can flood the gullies. The nearby Caprock Canyon State Park gives you a sense of how dramatic this landscape can be, with its steep cliffs and hidden springs. This land shapes everything. The Matador Ranch, a sprawling operation that started it all, needed a central point, and so the town grew as a supply hub for the cowboys and cattle. The people who settled here were tough, resilient, and used to making their own way. They built their lives around the rhythm of the seasons, the needs of the cattle, and the unpredictable nature of the weather. Even now, with the slow pace and quiet charm of the town, you can still feel that spirit – the enduring connection to the land and the independent streak that runs deep in the heart of West Texas.

Campbell, Elizabeth Bundy [Lizzie]

1879

Elizabeth Bundy (Lizzie) Campbell, Panhandle pioneer, daughter of Williamson and E. Vance Bundy (Hamilton) Campbell, was born on October 25, 1852, in Navarro County, Texas. Her mother was the daughter of James Hamilton, a descendent of Alexander Hamilton. She married Henry H. Campbell in Ellis County in 1871. They had a son and a daughter. Their first home was in Ennis. In 1879 Campbell founded the Matador Ranch . Lizzie lived in Fort Worth until she decided to join him on their new ranch. In 1880 she rode to Matador, about 300 miles from Fort Worth, with a load of freight for the ranch. When she arrived, she slept in a tent because she refused to sleep in a dugout as her husband had been doing for the last year. She was one of only two women living in that area at the time, and the other woman was twenty miles away. On March 25, 1880, the Campbells finished building a white, two-room house with supplies shipped from Fort Worth and Fort Griffin by wagon. They enlarged the house after the Texas and Pacific Railway laid track within about twenty miles of the Matador, thus making supplies more accessible. Lizzie was known for the big Christmas parties she held every year from 1883 until they left the Matador in 1891. The parties lasted for two or three days, and the ranchhands from the surrounding area would come. She took good care of them at all times. Her work as cook, seamstress, doctor, and surgeon, even though she had no medical training, earned her the nickname "Angel of the Matador." She also arranged for preachers to come to the ranch at least once a month for the spiritual wellbeing of the ranchhands. Her son Harry was born in 1881, the first White child born in Motley County. Lizzie loved ranching as much as her husband. She rode unaccompanied all over the ranch, exploring, analyzing water, and examining the vegetation. She discovered a hill covered with petrified wood; on the old county maps it was labeled "Mrs. Campbell's Petrified Hill." She was the Matador Ranch postmistress from 1883 to 1891. When the county was organized in 1891 Matador became county seat; she was Matador postmistress from 1891 to 1911. Though she lost her eyesight in her latter years, she remained a respected member of the community known for her intelligence and interest in city, state, and national affairs. She died on October 8, 1931.

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Campbell, Henry Harrison

1879

Henry Harrison (Hank) Campbell, rancher, son of F. and Effie (McLean) Campbell, was born on August 31, 1840, in Cumberland County, North Carolina, where his father was a planter. The family moved to Texas in 1854 and lived successively in Waller, Grimes, and Ellis counties. During the Civil War Campbell served with the Twentieth Texas Regiment in Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory; he was wounded three times before he was mustered out in Houston. He returned to Ellis County, where he contracted to drive his neighbors' cattle to market in California, New Orleans, or Chicago for wages, shares, and later investment. In 1879, as working partner-manager, he secured $50,000 from Alfred M. Britton of Chicago, a Mr. Cato of New York, S. W. Lomax, and John Nichols of Fort Worth to establish the Matador Cattle Company at Ballard Springs on the Pease River. The ranch began operations with a small herd of some 1,300 cattle. Steers sold for seventy-five dollars a head in 1881, and within a few years the Matador under Campbell was branding from 15,000 to 20,000 calves a year. In 1882 the ranch was sold to a group of Scottish investors and became the Matador Land and Cattle Company . By the time of Campbell's resignation from the post of superintendent in 1890, the ranch had grown to include a million and a half acres in three different ranges and a total herd of some 90,000 head. Campbell married Elizabeth Bundy of Navarro County in 1871, and they had two children. His first home on the ranch was in an old buffalo hunter's dugout at Ballard Springs; he later built a frame home there. By the time he left the ranch in early 1891, he had bought a section of land a mile northeast of Ballard Springs. On this he founded the town of Matador. Also in 1891, in order to organize the county formally, he brought in cowboys from the ranch who set up temporary "businesses" so that a patent could be obtained from the land office. Campbell was appointed the first county judge of Motley County and served two one-year terms. He then bought another ranch and operated it for several years before turning it over to his son. He lived in Matador until his death, on May 23, 1911. He was buried at the Myrtle Cemetery in Ennis, Texas.

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Matador Ranch

1878

The Matador Ranch, with its headquarters in Motley County, just below the Caprock on the rolling plains of northwest Texas, was started in the fall of 1878 when banker Alfred M. Britton entered a partnership with Henry H. (Hank) Campbell . Campbell purchased a small herd and range rights from Joe Browning, who in early 1878 had made his headquarters at an abandoned dugout at Ballard Springs in Motley County. The dugout had been built by a buffalo hunter named Andrew Jackson Ballard. Campbell's next purchase was 8,000 "jinglebob" cattle that had recently been brought into the region from the Pecos. Soon afterwards Spottswood W. Lomax and John W. Nichols of Fort Worth and a Mr. Cata of New York became associated with Britton and Campbell in financing the enterprise, which they reorganized as the Matador Cattle Company with capital stock of $50,000. The amount of stock suggested a brand, 50M, which was used one year and then replaced by the Matador V. Lomax, an enthusiast in Spanish literature, gave the ranch its name. On December 4, 1882, the Matador Cattle Company sold out to the Matador Land and Cattle Company of Dundee, Scotland. Approximately 100,000 acres of land and 40,000 cattle located in Motley, Dickens, Cottle, and Floyd counties were involved in the sale. However, before the property was formally transferred in early 1883, Britton and Campbell, the former retained as the company's manager and the latter as ranch superintendent, convinced the company's board of directors to purchase an additional 203,000 of acres lying within the range and to acquire 22,000 more cattle. After Campbell's resignation in 1891, the board assigned a new manager, Murdo Mackenzie , who adopted a program of grading up the herd and of sending steers to northern pastures for maturing. A severe drought in 1892 on the Matador range caused the company to lease the White Deer pasture of 348,000 acres in Carson County from Francklyn Land and Cattle Company . The lease was retained until 1902. That year the Matador purchased 210,000 acres of the XIT Ranch from the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company and established the Alamositas division of the ranch along the Canadian River in Oldham County, Texas. Subsequent purchases adjacent to Alamositas increased the size of the division to 800,000 acres. From 1904 until 1914 it leased 500,000 acres from the United States government on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, a Sioux preserve in South Dakota, and another of 150,000 acres in Canada was leased from 1905 to 1921. The original ranch was enlarged by purchases, and by 1910 the company owned 861,000 acres in Texas and had 650,000 acres under lease in the two northern pastures. The company also leased 500,000 acres in northern Montana from 1913 to 1928 and 300,000 acres on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota from 1921 to 1926. Since 1910 the average number of cattle on hand has been 55,000. Through the first quarter of the twentieth century the Matador used its ranch in Motley County as a breeding ground. Yearling steers were sent to Alamositas until they were two years old, then shipped to the northern leases for double-wintering, and then to markets in Chicago or Kansas City. By the 1930s the company restricted the major portion of its activities to the Texas ranches. Headquarters of the ranch in 1946 was at Denver, Colorado. On July 31, 1951, the ranch was sold to an American syndicate, Lazard Brothers and Company of London. Their property included 400,000 acres at the Matador Division, 395,000 at Alamositas, 4,600 acres in Montana, a herd of 1,400 horses, and 46,000 cattle. The Lazard Brothers divided the land and cattle among fifteen corporations they had formed. The various cattle corporations took over operations at different divisions of the ranch, and the Matador division went to ten of them. During the 1950s different individuals and groups bought the corporations and either started their own ranching operations or sold t

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Bob's Oil Well

1932

Greenville, Texas native Luther Bedford "Bob" Robertson (1894-1947), a veteran of World War I, came to Matador in the 1920s. He was a gas station attendant in 1932 when he decided to open a service station here. To promote his new business, he built a wooden oil derrick over the station. He patented his design, and in 1939 replaced the wooden derrick with one of steel that reached 84 feet in height and included lights. Robertson was a gifted businessman and promoter, and he used any opportunity to advertise his operation and attract customers. He kept a cage of live rattlesnakes for the amusement of tourists, and from that initial attraction grew a zoo that included lions, monkeys, coyotes, a white buffalo and other animals. He paid long distance truckers to place advertising signs at strategic points across the nation noting the mileage to Bob's Oil Well in Matador, and they became well known to the motoring public. As a result of his success, Robertson enlarged his operation to include a grocery, café and garage. In addition to his business skills, Robertson was an active civic leader in Matador. He was particularly interested in recognizing the efforts of those who served in the military during World War II. Bob Robertson died in 1947, and two weeks later a high wind toppled the steel derrick that had been the trademark of his business. His widow, Olga (Cunningham) (d. 1993), restored it two years later with even larger lights. The business did not continue long after, however, and closed in the 1950s. Later efforts to reopen it were short-lived. Today, the site serves as a reminder of a time when such bold roadside architecture was in its infancy and of a man who, through his business, widely promoted his adopted hometown. (2005)

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Motley County

1836

Formed from Young and Bexar territories; created August 21, 1876, organized February 5, 1891. Named in honor of Dr. Junius William Motley, 1812-1836, signer of the Texas declaration of Independence, aide to General Rusk at the Battle of San Jacinto where he was mortally wounded. Matador, the county seat.

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Traweek House

1915

Dr. Albert Carroll Traweek, Sr. (1875-1959) and his wife Allie (Rainey)(1881-1963) came to Matador from Fort Worth soon after their marriage in 1897. Dr. Traweek began his medical practice, and the couple bought a small frame house. They eventually were the parents of six children. A prominent and respected physician, Dr. Traweek first traveled on horseback or by horse and buggy to visit his patients. He was known as the "Pneumonia Doctor" because of his success in treating people with that illness. He established a hospital and was the county's first public health officer. In 1915, after a previous dwelling on this site was destroyed by fire, construction began on this house. Designed by Dr. Traweek's uncle, noted West Texas builder Charles Stephens Oates, the house was completed in 1916 at a cost of $14,000. The two-story stuccoed masonry structure reflects a combination of architectural styles, exhibiting Italian renaissance, prairie and classical revival detailing. Among those who visited the Traweek home were Baldwin Parker (son of Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanche Indians) and many state and national officials. The home, which has remained in the Traweek family, received an official historical medallion in 1964 and is a Recorded Texas Historical Landmark. (1990)

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Everything Near Matador

38 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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