Colonel C. C. Slaughter

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker has to say about Colonel C. C. Slaughter, and I'll do my best to do the man justice.

Christopher Columbus Slaughter. Now there's a name that arrives with its own echo. The first native-born cattle king of Texas.

Not a king who rode in from somewhere else and planted his flag; born right here, to this land, and then he went out and claimed as much of it as a man reasonably could. We're talking over one million acres. Say that slowly.

One million acres. The Long S ranch. The Lazy S ranch.

An empire stitched together out of west Texas frontier and sheer force of will. Before he was a cattle king, though, he was just a man doing hard work in hard country. He rode as a ranger.

When the Civil War came, he served as a Confederate beef supplier; feeding an army is no small thing, and somebody had to do it. He drove cattle up the trail, one of those men who understood that getting a herd from here to there was as much about nerve as it was about horsemanship. Then, in the early 1870s, he made a pivot that might surprise you.

This man of open ranges and cattle dust moved to Dallas. And once he got there, he didn't slow down; he founded banks. Three of them, early ones, and he served as an officer in each.

He helped initiate the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, which tells you he wasn't just building his own empire; he was thinking about the whole industry. And then there's the side of C. C.

Slaughter that the cattle kingdom alone doesn't capture. He gave. Baptist schools, Baptist churches, Baptist hospitals; he supported them all.

Baylor Hospital especially felt the weight of his generosity. A man who could count a million acres and still count his blessings. Christopher Columbus Slaughter: cattle king, banker, builder, and benefactor.

The first of his kind that Texas ever made its own.

What the marker says

Christopher Columbus Slaughter was the first native born cattle king of Texas. While living on the west Texas frontier he was a ranger, Confederate beef supplier, and trail driver. His ranching empire, including the Long S and Lazy S ranches, totaled over one million acres. In the early 1870s he moved to Dallas, where he founded, and was an officer in, three early banks. An initiator of the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Assn., he was also noted for his philanthropy to Baptist schools, churches, and hospitals, especially Baylor Hospital.