Isaac Ellwood: The Barbed Wire Partner Who Bought the Spade Ranch

Who Was Isaac Ellwood?

Isaac Leonard Ellwood was born August 3, 1833, in Salt Springville, New York, and died September 11, 1910, in DeKalb, Illinois. He was a hardware merchant, a barbed wire manufacturer and the owner of the Spade Ranch in West Texas.

The Texas ranch grew out of the Illinois business. He sold fencing that helped end the open range, and then bought land to put that fencing to work. His Wikipedia biography sets out the basic timeline.

The main arc is consistent across sources: a return to DeKalb in 1855, a half interest in Glidden's wire in July 1874, and the 1886 purchase from the Snyder brothers that became the heart of the Spade. The Illinois business and the Texas ranch were separate operations, but the first supplied the money and the reputation for the second.

From DeKalb Hardware to Barbed Wire

Ellwood returned east in 1855 to DeKalb, Illinois, where he opened a hardware and implements store. He married Harriet Augusta Miller on January 27, 1859, and the couple had seven children. He later helped bring the Northern Illinois State Normal School, now Northern Illinois University, to DeKalb by donating money and land.

His brother, Reuben Ellwood, served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

How Did Ellwood Get into Barbed Wire?

In 1874 Ellwood patented his own barbed wire design, but that July he bought a half interest in Joseph Glidden's better design. They formed the Barb Fence Company. Per the Glidden biography on Encyclopedia.com, Glidden sold his half to Washburn and Moen about a year later for more than $60,000 plus royalties.

Ellwood kept manufacturing. His company, Ellwood Manufacturing, became the Superior Barbed Wire Company in 1881 and later merged into American Steel and Wire, a predecessor of United States Steel.

How Did the Spade Ranch Come Together?

The Spade was two ranches before Ellwood. John F. Spade Evans began a Panhandle ranch on August 25, 1880, after buying 23 pieces of land in Donley County. J. Taylor Barr started what became the Renderbrook Ranch in Mitchell County, which John and Dudley Snyder bought in 1882 and had enlarged to 300,000 acres by 1887.

During the January 1886 blizzard the Snyder brothers sold land to Ellwood. He combined the Panhandle Spade with Renderbrook and renamed the whole Spade Ranch. Sources describe the Snyder tract as 128,000 or 130,000 acres, so the number differs by account. Ellwood registered the Spade brand in 1889, and J. Frank Norfleet became the first foreman that year. Details are in the Spade Ranch entry.

Spade After Ellwood

Ellwood's sons, William Leonard and Erwin Perry Ellwood, inherited the ranch. They fenced the land with barbed wire and in 1919 replaced the cattle with Herefords, which suited the dry climate better.

In 1924 the northern part of the land went on sale, and 6,300 cattle were sold that October. About 5,200 more were sold later, and by 1926 roughly 80 percent of the northern land had been sold.

Legacy

The town of Spade, Texas, is named after the ranch, and Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, is named after Ellwood. For more ranching history see the ranching section on farm.FM or read a story about barbed wire and the range.