Milton Faver

The Handbook gives Faver a Virginia birth about 1822. As a young man he fought a duel in Missouri and, believing he had killed his opponent, fled to Mexico, where by 1840 he worked in Francisco De León's flour mill at Meoqui and married Francisca Ramírez. Raids during the Civil War, when Fort Davis stood empty, took most of his 300 cattle; he rebuilt from thirty-two corralled calves to more than 10,000 head. He paid hands 12 1/2 cents a day and took only hard money, counting coins at the gate as each animal passed.

What the plaque says

Milton Faver (ca. 1829 - December 1889) The earliest large-scale cattleman to settle in the Big Bend, Milton (Don Meliton) Faver prospered against seemingly impossible odds to become the first cattle baron west of the Pecos. While operating a freighting business on the Chihuahua Trail, he moved his family to Presidio del Norte and opened a general store about 1855 . After accumulating a large herd of cattle in Mexico he moved his family and vaqueros to the mountain country north of Presidio and made his headquarters on Cibolo Creek in 1857. He established two other ranches at nearby La Cienega and La Morita. Springs flowed abundantly on all three ranches, providing water for livestock and agriculture. In the fertile fields surrounding the ranches, Faver devised and installed irrigation systems that supplied water for vegetables, grain, and large peach orchards. El Fortin del Cibolo, ranch headquarters, served as a supply station for the U. S. Army quartermaster division at Ft. Davis. Troops used the ranch as a point of departure for forays into Indian occupied regions to the west and north. Celebrated for his hospitality, Faver was known as a gentleman of means who lived in style. He died in December 1889 and was buried on his ranch at Cibolo. (1992)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Leaton State Historic Site — 24 mi
  The adobe trading post on the Rio Grande below Presidio, where digging has rewritten the stories told about it and a self-guided walk leads through its rebuilt rooms.

More markers nearby

• Milton Faver Ranches — 0.7 mi
• Here Milton Faver — 5.6 mi
• Brooks Cemetery — 5.9 mi
• Site of Alamito — 15 mi