Cattle Raisers Association Oak

The Handbook of Texas says the organizing meeting was held in the Graham courthouse rather than under an oak, as later legend had it. The group began as the Stock-Raisers' Association of North-West Texas and took the name on this marker in 1893, as its membership spread. In 1921 it merged with the Panhandle and Southwestern Stockman's Association to become the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. In 1943 it became the brand-inspection agency for Texas cattle, and its field inspectors served as specially commissioned Texas Rangers. Its monthly magazine, The Cattleman, began in 1914.

What the plaque says

In commemoration of the organization under this oak by 40 men of the Cattle Raisers Association of Texas on February 15-16, 1877. Its first officers were: C. L. Carter, President; J. D. Smith, vice president; J. C. Loving, secretary: S. J. Connor, assistant secretary. Its membership in 1936 is 2,500.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — steps away
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.
• Fort Belknap — 9.1 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.
• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 27 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.

More markers nearby

• An 1890 Bank Building — steps away
• Site of Third County Courthouse — steps away
• Morrison Funeral Home — steps away
• First National Bank in Graham — 0.2 mi