Stamford, Texas

Harley Herman Sadler, Texas legislator, oilman, and "the first man to make a million dollars from a tent show," son of Junius and Lula T. Sadler, was born near Pleasant Plains, Arkansas, on September 4, 1892, the fourth of six children. He evinced an early interest in show business, to the consternation of his father, who, after several years of marginally successful farming, had settled down to the life of a general merchant in Stamford, Texas. The stagestruck youth, with no training beyond participation in high school plays and the town band, left home before completing high school to join a small carnival. By the age of twenty-two, Sadler had worked in repertoire in Fort Worth and Waco; barnstormed to the West Coast; failed in Chicago variety; appeared in tableaux and a medicine show, and on a Mississippi River showboat; and played under canvas for twenty-six weeks with Rentfrow's Jolly Pathfinders in Texas City. A year past his majority, he joined Roy E. Fox's Popular Players as second comedian and baritone horn player and toured much of Texas. He remained with Fox for several seasons and became first comedian with the company, entitled to top billing. In 1917 he married Willie Louise (Billie) Massengale of Cameron; the couple left to join Brunk's No. 1 show, with Harley serving as principal comedian and stage director for this Kansas-based company. When Glen Brunk was drafted during World War I , Sadler became manager of the company. Upon Brunk's return, Sadler entered into a partnership with the Brunk organization, thus becoming manager and equal owner of the newly constituted Brunk's No. 3. Sadler took the show into Texas, where he proved an immediate success as an independent manager. "I really believe that Sadler would do business on the Sahara Desert," a correspondent wrote to Billboard after visiting the show. In 1922, after completing his contractual obligations with the Brunks, the thirty-year-old Sadler bought out their interest and embarked upon a career as the owner, manager, and principal comedian of Harley Sadler's Own Show. Like most tent shows , Sadler's was a family affair. Billie, in addition to duties as business manager, became the leading lady of the troupe. Gloria, the Sadlers' only child, born in 1922, performed in the vaudeville as soon as she could walk on the stage. Sadler's mother-in-law worked backstage; his brother-in-law was boss canvasman; Ferd, his brother, served as advance man; and Ferd's wife worked in the box office. Numerous nephews and nieces spent summer vacations working in their uncle's show. The show prospered, and Sadler quickly became a favorite in the sixty-odd communities of West Texas and eastern New Mexico that he visited biennially. His popularity, both onstage and off, was phenomenal. It was prompted in part by his memory for names, faces, and local events, but more by a sympathetic understanding of the people who made up his audiences. His generosity both with his talent and his money assured his popularity. No amount of prodigal expenditure seemed to affect Sadler's prosperity until the coming of the Great Depression . In 1931, instead of cutting back, he purchased a new tent that seated 2,500 spectators and enlarged his company to over fifty. But he quickly found that his audience no longer had the price of admission. An attempt to manage a circus resulted in financial disaster, and a Texas Centennial pageant entitled The Siege of the Alamo proved equally unrewarding. His very substantial holdings quickly melted away. Rather than declare bankruptcy, Sadler sold off all his remaining properties, paid what bills he could, and promised eventual payment on those remaining. Within two years, operating a tiny tent show in the Rio Grande valley, the showman had paid off some $25,000 in debts and returned to a state of solvency. Around 1940, with the tent-show audiences eroded by the air-conditioned movie houses and drive-in theatres, Sadler branched out to become an independent

The SMS Ranches occupy considerable portions of twelve counties in the lower plains area of West Texas and comprise more than 300,000 acres. They were named the initials of the founder, Swante M. Swenson , who moved to Texas from Sweden in the 1830s. A man of many interests, Swenson introduced to the Texas Navy and thereafter to the army the Colt revolver , invented by his friend Samuel Colt of New York; began shipments of the Texas pecan to the North and East; and in 1850 established himself in the general merchandise and banking business at Austin. Swenson's thrift, sound ethics, and business acumen produced a high financial success. His greatest interest lay in the accumulation of land. He traded saddles, boots, blankets, and many of the manifold supplies carried by his large frontier trading post for Texas railroad land certificates. Under the privilege then accorded to holders and owners of such certificates to file on any untaken state land, Swenson in 1854 began acquiring some 100,000 acres of unclaimed properties in Northwest Texas. By 1860 he owned over 128,000 acres around Austin, in addition to his West Texas holdings, which had increased to nearly 500,000 acres. Swenson staunchly opposed secession , and at the outbreak of the Civil War he found himself unpopular with many of his old friends and customers. He exiled himself for a time in Mexico and, with William Perkins, established a mercantile business in New Orleans and also invested in sugar plantations. With the chaos of the Reconstruction period, however, he disposed of his Austin holdings and moved his family to New York City, where he founded a private banking house known as S. M. Swenson and Sons, a precursor to the present First National City Bank of New York. Even then, Swenson continued an active interest in Texas; before leaving he purchased the school sections, which alternated with the railroad lands in West Texas, in order to have his holdings in solid blocks. By 1882 Swenson was seeking to develop his West Texas holdings in order to produce sufficient revenue to help pay taxes. After inspecting the properties with his sons, Eric Pierson and Swen Albin Swenson, he decided to establish three ranches, which he named for each of his children. The largest of these, the Throckmorton Ranch, named for the county in which it was located, was originally dubbed Eleonora for his daughter. Mount Albin, which covered portions of Jones, Stonewall, and Haskell counties, contained a prominent, flat-topped mesa; for that reason it soon became known as Flat Top Ranch. Ericsdahl Ranch, which contained 50,000 acres, was located nine miles east of the site of future Stamford. It was among the first in that part of Texas to be fenced; the Flat Top and Throckmorton ranches were fenced during the next three years. Swenson's nephew, Alfred Dyer, was hired as the first manager of the overall operations; he stocked the virgin ranges and supervised the construction of ranch headquarters, barns, and corrals and the drilling of wells. The first cattle herd that Dyer bought consisted of 1,800 high-grade Durham shorthorns and 180 Hereford-shorthorn crosses from Indiana, along with several registered Hereford bulls. The ranches' first horse herds were of mixed Spanish and Arabian stock from Williamson County. Before returning to New York, S. M. Swenson leased his holdings to his sons, who operated them under the name of Swenson Brothers Cattle Company. The SMS brand, consisting of an extended M sandwiched between two reversed S's, was registered by the Swensons in the spring of 1882. In 1883 they bought an additional 5,700 acres in Jones and Haskell counties that became the Ellerslie Ranch. The early years of the SMS Ranches were characterized by intermittent periods of drought, and in 1886 Alfred Dyer committed suicide. Joe Ericson, a Swedish immigrant, succeeded him temporarily as superintendent. Despite discouraging prospects, the elder Swenson renewed his lease in January 1890.

Stamford is on U.S. Highway 277, State Highway 6, Farm roads 1420 and 2834, and the Burlington Northern Railroad, in northern Jones County. Part of Stamford is in Haskell County. H. McHarg, president of the Texas Central Railroad, named the site in 1900 for his hometown in Connecticut. The Texas Central and the Swenson brothers, local ranchers who owned the townsite and the surrounding area, cooperated to market lots and develop business. The first post office opened in December 1899 in a railroad boxcar. The Stamford and Northwestern Railway Company was organized to link Stamford and Spur, then leased to the Wichita Valley Railway Company in 1908. Growth was rapid. By 1910 the population was 3,902. R. L. Penick, called the "Father of Stamford," established a bank and helped to guide development; he was elected mayor in 1903, 1917, and 1919. He was also first president of the Texas Cowboy Reunion Association. A flour mill was a leading industry from 1906 until its destruction by fire in 1946. A cottonseed oil plant, an iron foundry, gins, brick manufactures, and a railroad roundhouse were other significant employers. Stamford College, originally called Stamford Collegiate Institution, was opened by the Methodists in 1907. By 1909 a faculty of sixteen taught 346 students. The drought of 1910, World War I , and a fire in 1918 affected enrollments and finances, and in 1920 the college closed, as the Methodists established McMurry College in Abilene. From farming and ranching Stamford broadened its economic base after the discovery of oil in 1935. Apparel manufacturing was also important. Arledge Field, a flying school for army pilots run by a private civilian contractor, was established in 1941 and maintained until September 1944. For virtually all of the town's first half century, George G. Flournoy kept order as police chief. A small, crippled, cigar-chewing man, Flournoy began each day's work with target shooting at a stump outside city hall. Whether because of these demonstrations of marksmanship or for other reasons, Stamford remained an orderly place with a low crime rate. The Texas Cowboy Reunion, an annual event on the Fourth of July, has thrived since 1930. Rodeos are held in a natural amphitheater west of town adjacent to the Swenson Ranch. Federal Bicentennial funding in the 1970s helped found the Cowboy Country Museum in Stamford. The population of Stamford was 4,810 in 1940, 5,805 in 1950, 4,259 in 1960, 4,558 in 1970, and 4,542 in 1980. An industrial park was opened in 1964 with a large new building, and a modern hospital extension dates from 1977. Lake Stamford, in Haskell County, provides recreation and the town's water supply. In 1990 the population was 3,817. The population dropped to 3,636 by 2000.

(1.5 mi. E), On May 18,1871, Kiowas and Comanches from the Fort Sill Reservation, in present Oklahoma, attacked a train of 12 wagons owned by Capt. Henry Warren, a contractor of supplies for U.S. forts in this frontier region. Seven teamsters were killed. The chiefs who led the raid were soon arrested, and Satank committed suicide. In a nationally spotlighted trial at Jacksboro, Satanta spoke with great eloquence on behalf of his people. Texas' Governor, E. J. Davis, later commuted the death sentences given by the court. (1977)

Businessman Swen (Svante) Magnus Swenson (1816-1896), first Swedish settler in Texas, is closely associated with Sam Houston and his effort to keep Texas in the Union prior to the Civil War. In 1854 Swenson purchased large land tracts here which he greatly expanded by the mid-1880s with school tracts and railroad scrips. A a result of new state taxes on land Swenson leased his West Texas land to his sons Eric Pierson and Swen Albin in 1882. Eric and Swen formed the Swenson Brothers partnership and by 1885 their ranching operations consisted of 1800 shorthorn and 180 Indiana pure crossbred Hereford-shorthorn cows bearing a distinctive reversed (SMS) cattle brand still in use today. Initially comprised of the Flat Top, Ericksdahl, and Throckmorton ranches, the Swenson family holdings were expanded to include the Tongue River Ranch in 1900 and the Spur Ranch in 1906, making it one of the largest ranches in Texas with over 500,000 acres. Swenson Land & Cattle Company, incorporated in 1926, established its headquarters here in 1927. It is noted for its introduction of an innovative mail-order system for selling cattle, brush management programs, and integrated ranching operations. The ranch was divided into four separate family-owned corporations in 1978. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995.

Founded 1930, jointly with Texas Cowboy Reunion - to "hand down to posterity, customs and traditions" of early cattle people who lived in dugouts and fought drouths, die-outs, heat and freeze-ups, raising the longhorns that finally brought settlement to the southwest. Here (1930) were 335 men who had been cowboys prior to 1895. Besides regular cowmen, early members included musician Paul Whiteman, editor Amon Carter, Ranger Captain Tom Hickman and Will Rogers, ex-cowhand, internationally famous entertainer and columnist. Colonel R. L. Penick was first president. In 1932, donation of a bull started building fund for bunkhouse and roundup hall standing nearby. Ranch donated site. The interior and exterior of the bunkhouse feature ranch brands of many members. Oldtimers' Reunion and Rodeo held 3 days annually (including July 4th) features chuckwagon meals, square dancing, and oldtimers' memories and songs. Town celebrates with cowboy parade and thousands come to see what is called "world's largest amateur cowboy show," with actual cowhands performing. These oldtimers represent the end of the open range and beginning of the era of barbed wire. They opened Texas' last frontier. (1969)