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George
Washington Saunders
from Goliad. On his tenth birthday his father
gave him ten calves, branded with the Half-circle Ten to distinguish his
cattle from those of his brothers. He attended Covey's College at
Concrete. George began driving cattle in 1871 to Kansas and drove many
more to the Texas Gulf Coast, New Orleans, Mexico, and northern markets.
In 1874-75 he became a member of Henry Scott's Minute Company of Refugio,
which patrolled the Mexican border. In 1873 Saunders served as deputy
sheriff under James Burk of Goliad. On July 15, 1874, he married Rachel
Reeves; they had two daughters and a son who died in infancy. Within six
years the family had moved from Clip to San Antonio, seeking special
medical attention for Rachel, who died on February 8, 1883. During his
wife's illness Saunders operated a hack line in San Antonio and did a
prosperous business. Soon after her death he sold the line and, with Harry
Fawcett, purchased the Narcisso Leal Live Stock Commission business, with
offices opposite the Southern Hotel on Dolorosa Street. After a year of
profitable business Saunders sold the commission company and began driving
horses to northern markets. He returned to San
Saunders's personal letters of that
time included communication with Queen Marie of Romania, Will Rogers, J.
Marvin Hunter,qv J. Evetts Haley, and
artists Will James and John Gutzon Borglum.qv
All recognized his expertise on the cattle industry. He was largely
responsible for bringing Borglum to San Antonio in 1925 to sculpt the
Trail Drivers' Memorial, Borglum's major Texas work. The model of the
Trail Drivers' monument, unveiled in January 1926, was cast in bronze in
1940 and displayed outside Pioneer Hall near the Witte Museum.qv
Saunders initiated one of the rodeo's most popular competitive events,
roping, at the San Antonio Fair of 1892. He was instrumental in the
construction in 1889 of the Union Station Stock Yards of San Antonio,
which he later served as a director and general manager. As alderman of
Ward Two in San Antonio in 1913 and 1914 he authored several beneficial The Old Trail Drivers Association of
Texas was organized with Saunders as vice president on February 15, 1915.
He was elected president in 1917 and served several years. He is
recognized for having the foresight and initiative to be the driving force
in publishing The Trail Drivers of Texas (1925), a book that has
been called the principal source book on cattlemen and cattle drives. He Buy The Trail Drivers of Texas BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ellis A. Davis and Edwin H. Grobe, comps., The New Encyclopedia of Texas (4 vols., 1929?). Frontier Times, May 1928, August, September, 1933. J. Marvin Hunter, Trail Drivers of Texas (2 vols., San Antonio: Jackson Printing, 1920, 1923; 4th ed., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985). D. J. Lightfoot, Trail Fever: The Life of a Texas Cowboy (New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1992). A Twentieth Century History of Southwest Texas (2 vols., Chicago: Lewis, 1907). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Roland S. Jary This article reproduced
from The Handbook of Texas Online: |
Hallmark Hall of Fame: |
1999-2001
©
Sam Sanders. All Rights Reserved |
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(1854-1933).
George W. Saunders, cattleman, the son of Thomas Bailey and Elizabeth
Emily (Harper) Saunders, was born in Rancho, Texas, on February 12, 1854,
the sixth of eleven children. His father, Thomas, had moved from Fayetteville,
North Carolina, to Gonzales in 1850. By December 1859 the family had
resettled in Goliad County, where young George helped run the family
ranch, located twelve miles 
Antonio in 1886 and entered
the livestock-commission business in a company registered as Smith,
Oliver, and Saunders. Two years later he started his own firm, and by 1910
incorporated the George W. Saunders Livestock Commission Company with
offices in San Antonio, Fort Worth, Kansas City, and St. Louis. His
company grossed $5 million each year. On January 1, 1889, he married Ida
Friedrich; they had one daughter. When the George W. Saunders Live Stock
Commission Company dissolved in 1958, it reportedly was the oldest
livestock-commission firm operating continuously under the same name in
Texas. In addition to his business interests Saunders supervised the
management of four ranches and a farm of 700 acres.
Photo:
George Saunders (left) in Dodge City, 1884.
ordinances regulating the affairs of the city and was an outstanding
participant in its improvement when more than $3.5 million of bonds were
sold for that purpose. During World War I he served on the local exemption
board, supported war activities, and encouraged war-bond drives.
