Old Surratt Territory

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Old Surratt Territory, out in Cochran County. Now, some of the most interesting Texas land stories are the ones where the man whose name is on the map never once set foot on the ground. This is one of those stories.

Marshall Surratt was born in 1849, an East Texas native who made his way to Waco, where he built himself a real reputation as an attorney and a district judge. A man of standing. A man of property.

And in 1885, he went ahead and purchased fifty-three sections of land out in what would become Cochran County. Fifty-three sections. More than thirty-three thousand acres of Texas Panhandle grassland, flat and wide and reaching out toward the horizon like it had no intention of ever stopping.

And yet, Judge Surratt never lived there. Not a single night. He leased every bit of that acreage to the Jumbo Cattle Company, and the Jumbo Cattle Company got to work.

The Jumbo was operated by brothers Nick and John Beal, along with John Beal's brother-in-law, a man named F. G. Oxsheer.

They were running cattle out on those plains alongside some of the most famous names in the cattle business. C. C.

Slaughter. George Littlefield. This was big ranching country, and the Jumbo held its own among them, even as the Panhandle threw everything it had at those herds.

Winter blizzards. Summer droughts. Year after year of weather that had no interest in making things easy.

Still, the Jumbo and its neighbors thrived. Wells were sunk and windmills went up all across the Surratt Territory, pulling water up from the earth so those cattle had something to drink on those wide, dry plains. Now here is where the numbers start to tell the real story of this land.

In 1890, the census found exactly zero permanent residents in Cochran County. Not one. By 1900, ranchers working the county had pushed that number all the way up to twenty-five people.

Twenty-five souls across all that territory. By 1920, it had climbed to sixty-seven. But then something shifted.

The free range gave way to fenced pastures. Large syndicates moved in. Smaller family farms and ranches started claiming their pieces.

The great open ranch lands began to be divided up, and people followed the fences in. By 1930, the census counted one thousand nine hundred and sixty-three residents in Cochran County. As for the Surratt Territory itself, it passed through a succession of absentee landowners after 1900, just as its founder had held it from a distance.

All those years, all those owners, and that land stayed together. It remained intact, in one piece, all the way until 1953. Judge Surratt, born 1849, died 1927, never saw any of that later chapter.

His name stayed on the land long after he was gone, attached to more than thirty-three thousand acres he never walked, worked by men he hired to do it for him. Out here in the Panhandle, sometimes the land outlasts the legend by quite a stretch.

What the marker says

Once encompassing more than 33,000 acres, the area known locally as the Old Surratt Territory is representative of the late-19th century settlement and ranching history of the vast grasslands of the Texas Panhandle. Marshall Surratt (1849-1927), an East Texas native who settled in Waco and became a prominent attorney and district judge, purchased the 53 sections of land in 1885. Although the territory was known by his name, Judge Surratt never lived in Cochran County; he leased the acreage to the Jumbo Cattle Company. Operated by brothers Nick and John Beal and John Beal's brother-in-law, F. G. Oxsheer, the Jumbo was one of a number of large ranching operations, including those owned by such famous cattlemen as C. C. Slaughter and George Littlefield, that thrived despite several years of winter blizzards and summer droughts. Wells and windmills were located throughout the Surratt Territory to provide reliable water sources for the herds of cattle roaming its plains. The early history of Cochran County settlement is the history of its ranching. The census of 1890 revealed no permanent residents; in 1900 ranchers working in the county accounted for its population of 25, and by 1920 the figure had risen to 67. As free range ranching gave way to the fenced pastures of large syndicates and smaller family farms and ranches, the once vast ranch lands were divided. These smaller operations resulted in a division of lands and a surge in population, as reflected by the 1930 census figure of 1,963. Purchased by a succession of absentee landowners after 1900, the Surratt Territory remained intact until 1953. (1999)