J. D. Hudgins Ranch

Duane's take

The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Here's the story of the J. D.

Hudgins Ranch, out in Wharton County. It starts the way a lot of great Texas stories start: with somebody leaving somewhere else and deciding this was the place. Joel Hudgins, born in 1800 in North Carolina, came to the Republic of Texas in 1839 and put down roots in the Hungerford area.

In 1847 he married Rachel Ann Northington McKenzie, and together they built something worth building. Joel got himself elected county commissioner in 1854, which tells you people around those parts took notice of him. He passed in 1873.

Now, that could have been the end of it. It wasn't. Rachel, who would live until 1903, and her four sons did not fold up the operation.

They started buying more land. They started expanding. And out front of all that effort stood Josiah Dawson Hudgins, J.

D. for short. He ran the family's interests, and he did not run them small. Beyond the cattle, J.

D. owned a store, a cotton gin, a sawmill, and he grew rice. The man kept busy. In 1897, the four brothers divided the family property and each went to work independently.

But the story keeps pulling back together. In 1915, J. D. and his children purchased their first purebred Brahman cows, descendants of the herd that A.

P. Borden had brought over from India in 1906. That was a decision that would echo for generations.

J. D.'s son Walter Hudgins helped organize the American Brahman Breeders Association in 1924. Walter would pass in 1943, but the work he helped set in motion kept going.

Then came the bull. In 1933, the Hudgins Ranch acquired a bull by the name of Manso, and that name matters. Manso's descendants became the cornerstone stock from which the ranch's American Gray Brahman herd was developed, and that herd is now one of the largest registered American Gray Brahman herds in the world.

Cattle from this ranch have been exported to more than 42 countries and 34 states across the U.S. In 1962, the ranching partnership was reorganized into five separate entities, each one operated by descendants of J. D.

Hudgins. One man came from North Carolina to the Republic of Texas in 1839, and what grew out of that is still growing. Some roots run deep, and some run wide, and every now and then you find a family that managed both.

What the marker says

Joel Hudgins (1800-1873) of North Carolina came to the Republic of Texas in 1839 and settled in the Hungerford area. He married Rachel Ann Northington McKenzie (d. 1903) in 1847. He was elected county commissioner in 1854. After Joel's death, Rachel and their four sons began to buy more land and expand the ranching operation. Josiah Dawson (J. D.) Hudgins (d. 1928) headed the family's interests. He also owned a store, cotton gin, sawmill, and grew rice. In 1897 the four brothers divided the family property and operated independently. In 1915 J. D. and his children purchased their first purebred Brahman cows, descendants of the herd brought from India by A. P. Borden in 1906. J. D.'s son Walter Hudgins (d. 1943) helped organize the American Brahman Breeders Association in 1924. The Hudgins Ranch acquired the bull "Manso" in 1933. Manso's descendants are the cornerstone stock from which the ranch's American Gray Brahman herd was developed, now one of the largest registered American Gray Brahman herds in the world. Cattle from this ranch have been exported to over 42 countries and 34 states in the U.S. In 1962 the ranching partnership was reorganized into five separate entities, with each division operated by descendants of J. D. Hudgins.