J. D. "Ikard" Sugg

Duane's take

The way the marker in Cooke County tells it, here's the story of J. D. Ikard Sugg.

Born Joseph D. Sugg in Mississippi in 1854, the youngest of thirteen children. The youngest.

Thirteen kids in that family, and he came in last. After his mother's death, young Joseph did what a lot of men have done when the world shifts under their feet. He headed west.

In 1868, he was working a cattle drive heading north from the Red River. He was just getting started, and Cooke County is where that start took hold. He never forgot it.

Later he partnered up with his brother Cal in the ranching business, leasing lands in Indian Territory, over in Oklahoma, and in Texas. He sold horses to the government of Mexico. The man had range, in every sense of the word.

But through all of it, Cooke County stayed home. That's not a small thing. A man who leases across two territories and trades horses across an international border, and he still points back to one county and says, that's where I belong.

Joseph D. Sugg, known to everyone as Ikard, died in Chickasha, Oklahoma, in 1925. And when he went, he left money behind for the Cooke County Poor Farm, and for the maintenance of the very cemetery where this marker stands.

The man came in last among thirteen children, and when it was all over, he made sure nobody around him was left without.

What the marker says

J.D. “Ikard” Sugg (1854-1925) Joseph D. Sugg was born in Mississippi, the youngest of 13 children. After his mother’s death, he headed west, working on a cattle drive heading north from the Red River in 1868. Later a rancher in partnership with brother Cal, he leased lands in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and Texas, and sold horses to the government of Mexico. He maintained close ties to Cooke County, where he got his start in ranching, and considered it home. Upon his death in Chickasha, Oklahoma, he left money to the Cooke County Poor Farm and to the maintenance of this cemetery. Recorded - 2006