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Cattle Drive Heroes and Trail Bosses

George W. Saunders: Trail Driver, Commission Man and Founder of the Old Trail Drivers

A Goliad County rancher's son became San Antonio's best-known livestock commission man and the force behind the book that preserved trail drivers' stories.

Who was George W. Saunders?

George Washington Saunders went up the trail to Kansas as a teenager and ended his career as the man who made sure the trail drivers' stories were written down. The Handbook of Texas entry describes him as a cattleman, but his work covered commission selling, stockyards, rodeo, civic office and publishing.

He was born February 12, 1854, in Rancho, Texas, the sixth of eleven children. His family settled in Goliad County, where he helped run the family ranch twelve miles from Goliad.

A ranch boy with his own brand

On his tenth birthday his father gave him ten calves, branded with the Half-circle Ten to distinguish them from his brothers' cattle. He attended Covey's College at Concrete, and in 1873 served as a deputy sheriff under James Burk of Goliad.

He began driving cattle in 1871, going to Kansas, and drove many more to the Texas Gulf Coast, New Orleans, Mexico and northern markets. In 1874-75 he belonged to Henry Scott's Minute Company of Refugio, which patrolled the Mexican border.

San Antonio and the livestock commission business

Saunders married Rachel Reeves in 1874, and when her illness required special medical care the family moved to San Antonio. While she was ill he ran a hack line and did a prosperous business. After she died in 1883 he sold it and, with Harry Fawcett, bought the Narcisso Leal Live Stock Commission business.

After a profitable year he sold out and drove horses north, then returned in 1886 to join a firm called Smith, Oliver, and Saunders. Two years later he started his own company, and by 1910 incorporated the George W. Saunders Livestock Commission Company with offices in San Antonio, Fort Worth, Kansas City and St. Louis. The Handbook says the company grossed $5 million each year. When it dissolved in 1958, it was reportedly the oldest livestock-commission firm operating continuously under the same name in Texas. He also supervised four ranches and a 700-acre farm.

Stockyards, roping and city hall

Saunders was instrumental in building the Union Station Stock Yards of San Antonio in 1889 and later served as a director and general manager. The Handbook entry on John Thomas Lytle dates the Union Stock Yards to 1886 and names Saunders, Lytle and Jesse Presnall as founders, so the year differs between sources.

He also initiated roping as a competitive event at the San Antonio Fair of 1892, which became one of the rodeo's most popular events. As alderman of Ward Two in 1913 and 1914 he wrote several ordinances, in a period when more than $3.5 million in city bonds were sold for improvements.

The Key to Saunders's Success

Saunders's record shows a man who moved from producing cattle to the business of selling them, then into the institutions that keep an industry organized. Each step depended on relationships built on the trail.

The Handbook gives little detail on how his firm competed or treated customers, so the lessons below stick to documented choices.

  • He started early, with his own brand and cattle at age ten, and drove herds at seventeen.
  • He saw that the commission side of the business held steady income and built a firm with four offices by 1910.
  • He backed infrastructure, helping to build the San Antonio stock yards.
  • He joined the Southwestern and Texas cattle raisers' associations and led the trail drivers' group.
  • He used his network: his letters included Will Rogers, J. Evetts Haley and the sculptor Gutzon Borglum.
  • He treated memory as work, pushing for a book and a monument to preserve the era.

The Old Trail Drivers Association and the 1925 book

The Old Trail Drivers Association of Texas was organized on February 15, 1915, with Saunders as vice president. He was elected president in 1917 and served several years. He is recognized for having the foresight and initiative to be the driving force behind publishing The Trail Drivers of Texas in 1925, which has been called the principal source book on cattlemen and cattle drives.

For background on the drives the book records, see the BlackPast overview of the drives, which describes how herds went from Texas to railheads in Missouri, Kansas and Colorado.

The Trail Drivers' Memorial and death in 1933

Saunders was largely responsible for bringing Gutzon Borglum to San Antonio in 1925 to sculpt the Trail Drivers' Memorial, Borglum's major Texas work. The model was unveiled in January 1926 and cast in bronze in 1940, displayed outside Pioneer Hall near the Witte Museum. He gave objects from the range to the Witte Museum.

He died at home on July 3, 1933, after a heart attack a few months earlier. His body lay in state at the municipal auditorium. Explore more in the ranching section of farm.FM or in a farm.FM story about the trail drivers.

Timeline

  1. 1854Born in Rancho, Texas
  2. 1864Receives ten calves and the Half-circle Ten brand
  3. 1871Drives cattle to Kansas for the first time
  4. 1888Starts his own livestock commission firm
  5. 1892Initiates roping at the San Antonio Fair
  6. 1915Old Trail Drivers Association organized; Saunders is vice president
  7. 1925The Trail Drivers of Texas published
  8. 1933Dies in San Antonio, July 3
  9. 1958Company dissolves

Frequently asked questions

Who was George W. Saunders?

George Washington Saunders (1854-1933) was a Texas trail driver and San Antonio livestock commission merchant who led the Old Trail Drivers Association and helped publish The Trail Drivers of Texas.

What is The Trail Drivers of Texas?

It is a book of cattle drive reminiscences published in 1925, with Saunders as its driving force. The Handbook of Texas calls it a principal source book on cattlemen and drives.

What was the Half-circle Ten brand?

It was the brand Saunders's father put on ten calves he gave his son on his tenth birthday, so the boy's cattle were distinct from his brothers' cattle.

What is the Trail Drivers' Memorial?

It is a Gutzon Borglum sculpture in San Antonio. Saunders helped bring Borglum to the city in 1925. The model was unveiled in January 1926 and cast in bronze in 1940.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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