DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Henry B. Sanborn, right there in Potter County. Now, before barbed wire was king, Texas was a battleground of a different kind — not guns and soldiers, but farmers and ranchers locked in a great controversy over open ranges versus closed fields.
Into that fight walked a man from New York, of all places, who would help settle the argument once and for all. Henry B. Sanborn was born in 1845, and by the time he was a young man he'd found himself boarding with a family in DeKalb, Illinois — the Glidden family.
In 1868 he married Ellen Wheeler, Joseph F. Glidden's niece. So when Glidden came around with a newly patented invention called barbed wire, Sanborn wasn't exactly a stranger at the table.
In 1875, Sanborn became the Texas sales agent for that invention. Now think about that timing. Glidden and his partner, Judson P.
Warner, were shipping the first four carloads of wire into a state that hadn't quite decided whether it wanted fencing at all. Farmers wanted protection for their fields. Ranchers wanted the open range to stay open.
And here comes Sanborn, a New Yorker, riding straight into the middle of it. He didn't just talk the talk. He bought 10,000 acres of ranch land in Grayson County and set out to prove — on the ground, with his own land and his own wire — that barbed wire could be successfully used in fencing large acreages.
That's not a salesman's pitch. That's a man putting his money where his marker is. Then in 1881, Sanborn and Glidden formed a partnership and started what is now known as the Frying Pan Ranch, out in the Texas Panhandle.
They wrapped that operation in 120 miles of barbed wire fence. A hundred and twenty miles. And it proved to be a very successful ranching operation.
The argument, you might say, was settling itself. But Sanborn wasn't finished. He turned his attention to the promotion of the major Amarillo townsite, and his efforts there earned him a title that stuck — Father of Amarillo.
His ranching and promotional ventures became major factors in making Amarillo and the Panhandle one of Texas' leading cattle and ranching centers. Henry B. Sanborn died in 1912.
A New Yorker who learned the wire business in Illinois, married into the family that invented the thing, and then came down to Texas and helped build a city out of open range. Some men leave a fence line. This one left a whole town.
What the marker says
In 1875 Henry B. Sanborn (1845-1912) began a long association with the state of Texas when he became the Texas sales agent for Joseph F. Glidden's newly patented invention, barbed wire. A native of New York, Sanborn had become acquainted with Glidden in DeKalb, Illinois, where he had boarded with the Glidden Family and in 1868 had married Glidden's niece, Ellen Wheeler. At the time Glidden and his partner, Judson P. Warner, shipped the first four carloads of wire to Texas, farmers and ranchers of the state were in the midst of a great controversy over the preservation of open ranges versus closed protection of fields. Sanborn bought 10,000 acres of ranch land in Grayson County on which he sought to prove that barbed wire could be successfully used in fencing large acreages. In 1881 he and Glidden formed a partnership and began what now is known as the Frying Pan Ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Surrounded with 120 miles of barbed wire fence, it proved to be a very successful ranching operation. Sanborn was involved in the promotion of the major Amarillo townsite, earning him the title "Father of Amarillo." His ranching and promotional ventures were major factors in making Amarillo and the Panhandle one of Texas' leading cattle and ranching centers. (1984)