DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way back on February 15, 1877, a large number of stock raisers from northwest Texas saddled up their concerns and rode them straight to the Young County Courthouse in Graham. Now, these weren't men who gathered lightly.
They had a problem — and the name of that problem was cattle rustling. So they did what Texans have always done when things go sideways: they organized. Right there in Graham, they hammered out the Stock-Raisers' Association of North-West Texas, and they meant business from the first gavel strike.
The association set up a system for tracking stray or stolen cattle — names, marks, brands, ranch locations, addresses of individual stock raisers, all of it made available to every single member. You steal a cow in this network, word traveled. C.L. — Kit — Carter of Palo Pinto County stepped up as the association's first president.
And he had some company worth noting: C.C. Slaughter, Samuel Burk Burnett, James C. Loving — prominent cattlemen, every one of them, all part of those formative years.
Then came the 1893 Annual Convention, and things got bigger. Membership was opened to the entire state of Texas, and the name was changed to the Cattle Raisers Association of Texas. That same year, Fort Worth became the location of its permanent headquarters.
The association kept growing, and in 1921 the Panhandle and Southwestern Stockmen's Association joined the Texas organization — and that is when the current name was adopted: the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. Started with a rustling problem in a Young County courthouse. Ended up representing the cattle industry of an entire region.
That's not just an organization. That's a Texas institution.
What the marker says
On February 15, 1877, a large number of stock raisers from northwest Texas assembled in the Young County Courthouse in Graham to address the problem of cattle rustling. Their solution was the creation of the "Stock-Raisers' Association of North-West Texas." The organization worked to promote the interests of stock raisers and initiated a system of tracking stray or stolen cattle. Names, marks, brands, locations of ranches, and addresses of individual stock raisers were made available to each member. C.L. (Kit) Carter of Palo Pinto County served as the association's first president. Other prominent cattlemen involved in the group's formative years were C.C. Slaughter, Samuel Burk Burnett, and James C. Loving. During the 1893 Annual Convention, membership in the organization was opened to the entire state, and its name was changed to the "Cattle Raisers Association of Texas." In the same year, Fort Worth became the location of its permanent headquarters. The current name was adopted in 1921, when the Panhandle and Southwestern Stockmen's Association joined the Texas organization. Throughout its history, the association has provided significant service and leadership to the cattle industry of Texas.