Page 49 - 2020 Remuda Catalog

Pitchfork

Land & Cattle

Company

Established 1883

From all accounts, the Pitchfork Land & Cattle Company
would not exist were it not for the life-long friendship of two
men–Daniel Baldwin Gardner and Eugene Flewellyn Williams.
Both men were born in the South in 1851 to plantation-owning
families.

In 1871, tales of abundant opportunity in Texas lured Gardner
to Fort Griffin, located near present-day Albany. In February of
1877, Gardner was one of 17 men who drafted plans for what was
to become one of the most powerful and prestigious livestock or-
ganizations in the world, which is known today as the Texas and
Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.

In the summer of 1881, Gardner learned that Jerry Savage,
who had been running cattle on the South Wichita River under
a Pitchfork brand, was interested in selling land, equipment and
stock. Needing capital, Gardner thought of his cousin and boy-
hood friend, Eugene Williams.
In 1881, Williams journeyed to Fort Worth and after a dinner
meeting announced he was ready to close the deal, without see-
ing either the land or the cattle. Williams said he was investing
in the venture solely because he had the highest regard for his
friend, Dan Gardner. Williams wrote a check and took the night
train back to St. Louis.
The property Gardner and Williams purchased included 2,600
longhorn cattle, 70 horses, wagons and camp equipment, but little
land. They did obtain rights to the ranch that bordered the South
Wichita River in eastern Dickens and western King counties.

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