SMS Ranches: How a Swedish Immigrant's Land Became West Texas Ranches

Who Was S. M. Swenson?

Swante M. Swenson left Sweden for America in 1836 and moved to Austin in 1850, where he opened a mercantile business with his uncle, Swante Palm. According to his Wikipedia biography, he served as Travis County commissioner and became the first treasurer of the State Agricultural Society. He also helped bring Swedish families to Texas, who often worked for him to repay their fares.

He kept buying land. In 1854 he invested in the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway, which gave him land in northwest and west Texas, and he bought school scrip to acquire more. By 1860 he owned over 128,000 acres around Austin and nearly 500,000 acres in West Texas, per the same source.

How Did the SMS Ranches Begin?

Swenson's sons turned the land into working ranches. The SMS ranches entry says Swenson leased the holdings to his sons, who ran them as the Swenson Brothers Cattle Company from Stamford. A family history cited on a broker's Swenson ranch history says Eric and Swen Albin fenced and organized the northern lands in 1882 and began operations. The brand, an extended M between two reversed S's, was registered in spring 1882.

The Divisions and the Spur Ranch

The ranches covered parts of twelve counties and, per Wikipedia, topped 300,000 acres. Named divisions included Throckmorton in Throckmorton County, Flat Top in Jones, Stonewall and Haskell counties, Ericsdahl in Jones and Haskell counties, Tongue River in Cottle, King, Motley and Dickens counties, and Ellerslie.

The family also bought larger ranches. In 1900 it purchased the Scab 8 ranch, about 79,000 acres, and renamed it the Tongue River Ranch, and in 1906 it bought the Espuela Ranch with partners, adding over 200,000 acres that became the Spur Ranch. Much of the Spur was sold in the 1920s.

The Cattle and the Swedish Crew

The first herds included 1,800 high-grade Durham Shorthorns and 180 Hereford-Shorthorn crosses, plus registered Hereford bulls. At one time most or all of the foremen were immigrant Swedes, and early ranch hands came from Swedish settlements such as Round Rock, New Sweden and Elgin. The first remuda was driven up the Chisholm Trail from Round Rock, per the broker history. Frank S. Hastings became manager in 1902 and made SMS among the first ranches in the mail-order calf business.

Stamford and the Texas Cowboy Reunion

The Swensons helped build Stamford, persuading the Texas Central Railroad to extend 38 miles from Albany and donating the initial 640 acres from Flat Top. The Swenson Land and Cattle Company headquarters was built on Swenson Street in the 1920s, and Swenson heirs founded the Texas Cowboy Reunion Rodeo in Stamford in 1930 on donated land.

Later Years of the Swenson Ranches

After the 1978 division, the Flat Top group was led by Bruce B. Swenson with brothers Rod and Perry, and the company is now chaired by Bruce's son Steve, with all board members and shareholders descended from Svante Swenson. A broker history reports that the operation twice passed Whole Foods animal-welfare audits, earned meaningful income from hunting leases and sold grass-finished beef through a family-owned company called Svante's Ranch Direct. The same source says the board voted to sell the Flat Top, the former Mount Albin ranch, as many shareholders had reached their mid-to-late 60s.

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S. M. Swenson was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners in 1972. For more on Texas ranches, see farm.FM's ranching pages and a farm.FM story about the SMS ranches.