Granville E. Waters

Waters brought Herefords to the Ashtabula Stock Ranch just as the breed was displacing longhorns. The first purebreds in Texas came in 1876, when the Ikard brothers of Henrietta lost nine of ten animals bought at the Philadelphia Centennial. Charles Goodnight put twenty registered bulls on the JA Ranch in 1883 and imported forty more the next year, and between 1882 and 1888 several thousand Hereford bulls were trailed from Dodge City to the Panhandle. By 1885, when Waters stocked his place west of Moran, white-faced cattle were becoming the range breed of Texas.

What the plaque says

Granville E. Waters Born in Ashtabula County, Ohio in April 1852, Granville Eades Waters came to Texas in 1871. He settled in the north central part of the state before moving to Shackelford County in 1876. The next year, he wed Rennie Harris, daughter of a Waco mayor. The couple settled in a log cabin near Deep Creek, a few miles north of Hulltown (present Moran). With their five sons, they faced the hardships of frontier life; the closest post office was in Fort Griffin, and the nearest railroad connected Dallas to Fort Worth. For many years, on behalf of Ohio friend Cyrus B. Snyder, Waters operated the Ashtabula Stock Ranch west of Moran. Known by the honorary title of Colonel, he found success as a breeder and dealer of Hereford cattle, first bringing them to the ranch in 1885. He later served as president of the American Hereford Cattle Breeder's Association. The Waters Ranch became a social center for the area. The site of picnics, ballgames and other events, it provided a meeting place for many years until the house burned and the family moved into Moran, where their property became the Waters Addition to the town. Waters served as county commissioner (1884-1892) and vice-president of Moran National Bank. In the early 1900s, Waters worked in real estate, insurance, gas and oil leasing, and as a scout for the Texas Company (Texaco). He was also active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Freemasons and Knights Templar. Waters died at a Fort Worth hospital in 1927. He is remembered today for his contributions to the local community and for his influence on the area economy through the introduction of Hereford stock and the early exploration for oil and gas in Shackelford County. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Conrad Hilton Center and Mobley Hotel — 14 mi
  The 40-room oil-boom hotel in Cisco that Conrad Hilton bought in 1919 when a bank deal fell through, now a museum of the Hilton start and of Cisco's 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery.
• Old Jail Art Center — 15 mi
  An art museum in Albany's 1878 stone jail, where the masons carved their initials to be sure of pay, now holding Chinese tomb figures and works by Picasso and Klee.
• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — 21 mi
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.

More markers nearby

• Moran — 1.4 mi
• Ibex — 9.6 mi
• Hittson Ranch Headquarters on Battle Creek — 11 mi
• Burkett Pecan Tree — 11 mi