Cattle Raisers Association Oak

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Somewhere in Young County, there stands an oak tree, and that oak has a story worth pullin' over for. On February fifteenth and sixteenth, eighteen seventy-seven, forty men gathered under the shade of that tree, and what they did under those branches would echo across the whole of Texas cattle country for generations.

They organized. They built something. Right there under that oak, those forty men formed the Cattle Raisers Association of Texas.

Think about that for a second. Forty men, one oak, two days, and an institution born right out of the dirt and the shade. They didn't waste any time getting organized either.

When they walked out from under those branches, they had officers. C. L.

Carter stepped up as president. J. D.

Smith took the role of vice president. J. C.

Loving came on as secretary, and S. J. Connor filled the post of assistant secretary.

Four names, clear as a brand on fresh cowhide. Now here's the thing about a good organization, a real one. It grows.

By nineteen thirty-six, that same association counted two thousand five hundred members. Two thousand five hundred. From forty men under an oak tree to two thousand five hundred strong.

That oak is still out there in Young County, and if trees could talk, that one has got quite a tale to tell.

What the marker says

In commemoration of the organization under this oak by 40 men of the Cattle Raisers Association of Texas on February 15-16, 1877. Its first officers were: C. L. Carter, President; J. D. Smith, vice president; J. C. Loving, secretary: S. J. Connor, assistant secretary. Its membership in 1936 is 2,500.