Milton Faver Ranches

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Milton Faver Ranches out in Presidio County. Now settle in, because this is the story of a man who came from somewhere in the midwest United States and ended up controlling just about everything that mattered in one of the most unforgiving stretches of West Texas; and what matters most out here, as any rancher will tell you, is water. Milton Faver, born around 1822, had already made himself useful before he ever pushed into this part of the county.

He'd been down in Presidio del Norte, runnin' a general store and haulin' freight along the Chihuahua Trail. That's no small operation; the Chihuahua Trail was serious commerce, and Faver was in the thick of it. But sometime in the 1850s, he moved into this area, and that's when things got interesting.

By the time the 1880s rolled around, Milton Faver didn't just own land; he controlled vast acreage, and crucially, most of the best permanent water sources in that part of the county. Out here, that's not just an advantage. That's an empire.

And empire is exactly the right word, because what Faver built was a cattle, sheep, and goat ranching operation that the census records and the tax records both confirm was the largest livestock herd in the county in the late nineteenth century. Three ranches made up this kingdom: El Fortin del Cibolo, El Fortin de la Cienega, and La Morita. Together they comprised the largest single-owner landholdings in all of Presidio County.

The structures Faver raised across those ranches (dwellings, work rooms, fences, corrals, irrigation systems) were built the old way, with adobe and stone, the kind of construction that doesn't argue with the land, it negotiates with it. Now, empires don't last forever, and this one began to come apart the way most do; not all at once, but death by death. Milton Faver himself died in 1889.

His wife Francisca followed in 1893. Their son Juan held on until 1913. After that came a lawsuit, and after the lawsuit came the sale; the Faver heirs letting go of the ranchlands that Milton had spent decades assembling.

But the land didn't go empty. Other pioneer ranching families moved in and carried on. George and Juliana Dawson (and Juliana was a niece of Francisca Faver, so the family connection didn't vanish entirely) they ranched out there.

J. A. Pool, Sr. and J.

W. Pool and their heirs did the same. The Greenwood family, too.

These families worked those former Faver lands all the way into the late twentieth century. One man from the midwest came out here in the 1850s, found the water, built the walls, and left a footprint so deep that it took more than a hundred years to fully fade. That's Presidio County for you; it keeps score in its own way, and it keeps it a long time.

What the marker says

Milton Faver (ca. 1822-1889), a native of the midwest United States, moved to this area in the 1850s from Presidio del Norte, where he owned a general store and operated a freighting business on the Chihuahua Trail. By the 1880s, Faver controlled vast acreage in this part of the county, including most of the best permanent water sources, which he built into a formidable cattle, sheep, and goat ranching empire. Faver's three ranches-- El Fortin del Cibolo, El Fortin de la Cienega, and La Morita-- comprised the largest single-owner landholdings in the county. Structures on the ranches, including dwellings, work rooms, fences, corrals, and irrigation systems, were built with traditional adobe and stone building methods. Census and tax records show that Faver owned the largest livestock herds in the county in the late 19th century. Following the deaths of Milton Faver in 1889, his wife Francisca in 1893, and his son Juan in 1913, and after a lawsuit, the ranchlands were sold by the Faver heirs. Other pioneer ranching families in the area, including George and Juliana Dawson (niece of Francisca Faver), and J. A. Pool, Sr. and J. W. Pool and their heirs, the Greenwood family, operated ranches on the former Faver lands until the late 20th Century. (1995)