Historical Marker

John S. Chisum, Confederate Beef Contractor

Paint Rock vicinity, Concho County · Texas
Erected 1965

Chisum's father was probably the earliest settler in Paris, Texas, the Handbook of Texas says, and young Chisum clerked and ran small groceries there. With Stephen K. Fowler, a New Orleans investor, he filed on land in northwestern Denton County and went into cattle under the Half Circle P brand; by 1860 he ran 5,000 head and held six people in slavery. Early in 1862 he drove a herd across Arkansas to the Confederates at Vicksburg. On the Concho he and his partners soon had 18,000 head along the Colorado.

What the plaque says

(1824-1884) On this site during the Civil War and later, grazed by tens of thousands the Longhorns of cattle baron John S. Chisum. Ranch headquarters were 10 miles east. Here in 1863-1865, Chisum not only ranched but also was buyer of cattle to feed Confederate armies stationed west of the Mississippi River. Born in Tennessee, he came to the Republic of Texas in 1837. After a term as Lamar County clerk, started ranching in 1853. For room to expand, moved his well known "Jingle - Bob" herds to the Concho in 1863. Though he was not the man who gave the name to the famed northbound trail (this was Jesse Chisolm) John S. Chisum's drives were heroic. Herds bound in wartime for Louisiana army camps had to by-pass or to fight Indians, rustlers and occasionally a federal patrol. Concho cattle had to swim across the deep, cold Brazos River. Here cowboys would prod a heavy, wild bull till he was angry; then he would turn on men and horses. Or the Brazos itself killed men and horses. Still beef went through to the Confederates. After the war, Chisum developed ranches in New Mexico and was a bystander in the Lincoln County Wars of Billy the Kid and other desperados. (1965)

Where it stands

31.55463, -99.92095 · Directions

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