ABRAHAM, NAHIM
(1885-1965)
Nahim Abraham, community builder, was born on February 15, 1885,
in Kafracab, Lebanon. He left his homeland in 1901 on the first
of three trips he made to America before deciding to immigrate
permanently. On his second return to Lebanon he was married to
Alia Abdullah Bulos Malouf, the daughter of a doctor.
After returning to America the third time in 1912, Abraham worked
as a traveling salesman. He settled briefly in Utah, then in
Amarillo, Texas, before moving to Canadian in the summer of 1913.
Later that year he brought Alia and his two sons to join him; the
couple had two more sons in Canadian. Abraham established a
mercantile business called the Fair Store, which he managed until
his retirement in 1955; the store was noted throughout the
Panhandle for its quality merchandise. Abraham was an elder in
the First Presbyterian Church of Canadian.
He and his wife visited Lebanon over the years, the last time in
the summer of 1939. In June 1950 Abraham purchased the old Moody
Hotel, which dated from 1903. After his son Edward died in 1961,
Abraham gave a gift to build the Edward Abraham Memorial Home, a
nursing facility. Abraham died of a heart attack on January 10,
1965. His surviving sons became prominent local businessmen;
Malouf (Oofie) served as mayor of Canadian and was a state
legislator.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Amarillo Daily News, January 11, 1965. Sallie B.
Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon,
Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L.
Crocchiola], The Canadian, Texas, Story (Nazareth, Texas, 1975).
H. Allen Anderson
ALLISON, ROBERT CLAY
(1840-1887)
Clay Allison, gunfighter, the fourth of nine children of John and
Nancy (Lemmond) Allison, was born on a farm near Waynesboro,
Tennessee, on September 2, 1840. His father, a Presbyterian
minister who was also engaged in the cattle and sheep business,
died when Clay was five.
When the Civil War broke out, Allison joined the Confederate
Army. In January 1862 he was discharged for emotional instability
resulting from a head injury as a child, but in September he
reenlisted and finished the war as a scout for Gen. Nathan
Bedford Forrest. He was a prisoner of war from May 4 to 10, 1865,
in Alabama.
After the war Allison moved to the Brazos River country in Texas.
At a Red River crossing near Denison he severely pummeled
ferryman Zachary Colbert in a fist fight. This incident
reportedly started a feud between Allison and the Colbert family
that led to the killing of the ferryman's desperado nephew,
"Chunk" Colbert, by Allison in New Mexico on January 7,
1874.
Allison soon signed on as a cowhand with Oliver Loving and
Charles Goodnightq and was probably among the eighteen herders on
the 1866 drive that blazed the Goodnight-Loving Trail. In 1867-69
Allison rode for M. L. Dalton and was trail boss for a
partnership between his brother-in-law L. G. Coleman and Irvin W.
Lacy.
During this time he befriended the John H. Matthews family in
Raton and accidentally shot himself in the right foot while he
and some companions stampeded a herd of army mules as a prank. In
1870 Coleman and Lacy moved to a spread in Colfax County, New
Mexico. Allison drove their herd to the new ranch for a payment
of 300 cattle, with which he started his own ranch near Cimarron.
Eventually he built it into a lucrative operation.
He is alleged to have had a knife duel with a man named Johnson
in a freshly dug grave in 1870. On October 7 of that year he led
a mob that broke into the jail in Elizabethtown, near Cimarron,
and lynched an accused murderer named Charles Kennedy. Allison
was a heavy drinker and became involved in several brawls and
shooting sprees.
On October 30, 1875, he led a mob that seized and lynched Cruz
Vega, who was suspected of murdering a Methodist circuit rider.
Two days later Allison killed gunman Pancho Griego, a friend of
Vega, in a confrontation at the St. James Hotel in Cimarron. In
January 1876 a drunken Allison wrecked the office of the Cimarron
News & Press because of a scathing editorial. He allegedly
later returned to the newspaper office and paid $200 for damages.
In December of that year Clay and his brother John were involved
in a dance-hall gunfight at Las Animas, Colorado, in which a
deputy sheriff was killed. For this Allison was arrested and
charged with manslaughter, but the charges were later dismissed
on grounds of self-defense. Allison was arrested as an accessory
to the murder of three black soldiers the following spring, but
evidence was sketchy and he was soon acquitted. In 1878 he sold
his New Mexico ranch and established himself in Hays City,
Kansas, as a cattle broker.
In September 1878 Allison and his men supposedly terrorized Dodge
City and made Bartholomew (Bat) Masterson and other lawmen flee
in fear. Later, Wyatt Earp was said to have pressured Allison
into leaving. Though Dodge City peace officers may have
questioned him about the shooting of a cowboy named George Hoy,
there is no evidence of any serious altercation.
By 1880 Clay and John Allison had settled on Gageby Creek, near
its junction with the Washita River, in Hemphill County, Texas,
next door to their in-laws, the L. G. Colemans. Clay registered
an ACE brand for his cattle. On March 28, 1881, he married Dora
McCullough. The couple had two daughters.
Though Allison served as a juror in Mobeetie, and though age and
marriage had slowed him down some, his reputation as the
"Wolf of the Washita" was kept alive by reports of his
unusual antics. Once he was said to have ridden nude through the
streets of Mobeetie. In the summer of 1886 a dentist from
Cheyenne, Wyoming, drilled the wrong one of Allison's teeth, and
Allison got even by pulling out one of the dentist's teeth.
In December 1886 he bought a ranch near Pecos and became involved
in area politics. On July 3, 1887, while hauling supplies to his
ranch from Pecos he was thrown from his heavily loaded wagon and
fatally injured when run over by its rear wheel. He was buried in
the Pecos Cemetery the next day. On August 28, 1975, in a special
ceremony, his remains were reinterred in Pecos Park, just west of
the Pecos Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carl W. Bretham, Great Gunfighters of the West (San
Antonio: Naylor, 1962). Norman Cleaveland, Colfax County's
Chronic Murder Mystery (Santa Fe: Rydal, 1977). J. Frank Dobie,
"Clay Allison of the Washita," Frontier Times, February
1943. Chuck Parsons, Clay Allison: Portrait of a Shootist
(Seagraves, Texas: Pioneer, 1983). Richard C. Sandoval,
"Clay Allison's Cimarron," New Mexico Magazine,
March-April 1974. F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], Clay
Allison (Denver: World, 1953).
C. L. Sonnichsen
ARRINGTON, GEORGE WASHINGTON
(1844-1923)
George Washington (Cap) Arrington, lawman and rancher, was born
John C. Orrick, Jr., in Greensboro, Alabama, on December 23,
1844, the son of John and Mariah (Arrington) Orrick. After his
father's death in 1848, his mother married William Larkin
Williams, who was later killed in the Civil War.
In 1861, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted in the Confederate
Army and rode with John S. Mosby's guerrillas, often doing
undercover work as a spy. After the war's end, Orrick went to
Mexico, but arrived too late to join Emperor Maximilian as a
mercenary.
After murdering a black businessman at his hometown in June 1867,
he made a brief trip to Central America before moving to Texas in
1870. At that time he adopted the name George Washington
Arrington to break with his troubled past. He worked for the
Houston and Texas Central Railway in Houston and later took a job
at a commission house in Galveston. In 1874 he farmed briefly in
Collin County; he was subsequently hired to help trail a cattle
herd to Brown County.
Arrington was in Brown County in 1875 when he enlisted in Company
E of the newly organized Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers.
During his first two years of service he distinguished himself in
the Rio Grande valley by tracking down fugitives and outlaws.
Maj. John B. Jones recommended his promotion from sergeant to
first lieutenant in 1877 because of his successful accomplishment
of difficult missions.
The following year Arrington was made captain of Company C and
stationed at Coleman. In July 1878 he was ordered to Fort Griffin
to restore peace in the wake of vigilante activities. In the
summer of 1879 his company was moved to the Panhandle to
investigate depredations at area ranches. His opposition to
federal Indian policy soon brought him into sharp conflict with
Lt. Col. J. W. Davidson at Fort Elliott.
In September Arrington established Camp Roberts, the first ranger
camp in the Panhandle, east of the site of present Crosbyton.
From there in January and February 1880 he led his men on a
successful forty-day search for the Lost Lakes in eastern New
Mexico; the troop also charted the area from Yellow House Canyon
to Ranger Lake, in eastern New Mexico, and located watering
places and Indian hideouts.
In 1880-81 Arrington and his men covered much of the Panhandle
and were stationed briefly at both Mobeetie and Tascosa. Because
of his rank he received the nickname "Cap."
Arrington resigned from the rangers in the summer of 1882 to take
advantage of Panhandle ranching opportunities. After helping area
ranchers break up a major rustling ring, he was elected sheriff
of Wheeler County and the fourteen counties attached to it. About
that time he met Sarah (Sallie) Burnette, who had come to visit
her sister Jane (Mrs. Henry L.) Eubank at the Connell-Eubank
ranch. They were married at her hometown, Westboro, Missouri, on
October 18, 1882.
They became the parents of three sons and six daughters; the
first son died in infancy. During Arrington's years as sheriff,
the family resided at the county jail in Mobeetie. His reputation
as the "iron-handed man of the Panhandle" increased
with his fatal shooting in November 1886 of John Leverton, who
was suspected of cattle rustling. Although murder charges were
filed against Arrington by Leverton's widow, he was acquitted on
grounds of self-defense.
Arrington served as county sheriff until 1890. During his service
he filed on choice ranchland on the Washita River in Hemphill
County. After first living in a dugout he erected two cabins as
his home and headquarters and in 1885 registered his CAP brand.
In 1893 he was appointed manager of the Rocking Chair Ranch by
its British owners. In that position Arrington made considerable
improvements by shipping cattle, paying off accounts due, and
interviewing prospective buyers. He remained manager until
December 1896, when the Continental Land and Cattle Company
bought the Rocking Chair lands.
Arrington resumed management of his own ranch after 1896. As a
Mason and Shriner he became involved in the civic affairs of
Canadian, where the family lived for seven years in the former
home of Cape Willingham so the older children could attend
school. In 1897 Arrington escorted George Isaacs, convicted
killer of Hemphill county sheriff Thomas McGee, to the Texas
State Penitentiary at Huntsville.
Later the Arringtons built a new house at the ranch and helped
establish a rural school in the vicinity. To the end of his life,
Cap was cautious about visitors because of enemies he had made as
a peace officer and was seldom seen in public without a gun. In
his last years he suffered from arthritis and made frequent train
trips to Mineral Wells for the hot baths. On one of these trips
in 1923 he was stricken with a heart attack. He was taken to his
home in Canadian, where he died on March 31. He was buried in the
cemetery at Mobeetie.
Sallie Arrington remained active in the Canadian WCTU and First
Baptist Church, of which she was a charter member, until her
death on June 1, 1945. In 1986 the Arrington Ranch, on which oil
was later discovered, was owned and operated by the heirs of
Cap's younger son, French; Arrington's older son, John,
established a ranch near Miami, in Roberts County. Arrington's
papers are in the Research Center of the Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Millie Jones Porter, Memory Cups of Panhandle
Pioneers (Clarendon, Texas: Clarendon Press, 1945). Jerry Sinise,
George Washington Arrington (Burnet, Texas: Eakin Press, 1979).
Estelle D. Tinkler, "Nobility's Ranche: A History of the
Rocking Chair Ranche," Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 15
(1942).
H. Allen Anderson
BAKER, BENJAMIN M..
(1850-1918)
Benjamin M. Baker, the seventh of ten children of Benjamin H. and
Eliza (Greer) Baker, was born on January 20, 1850, in Russell
County, Alabama. His father was a member of the Alabama Secession
Convention in 1861 and fought for the Confederacy as a lieutenant
colonel of the Sixth Alabama Infantry.
Baker received no formal education. He moved to Carthage, Texas,
at the age of nineteen and studied law in the office of A. W.
Deberry. He was admitted to the bar in 1871 and began his
practice at Carthage, where he married Emily Hull in 1872. They
had three daughters and a son, who died at the age of six.
Baker represented Rusk, Panola, and Shelby counties in the
Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth legislatures at Austin. In
the Seventeenth Legislature he chaired the committee on finance
and, in the Eighteenth, the committee on penitentiaries. In
January 1883, after practicing law for a short time in Decatur,
he became secretary of the State Board of Education, which
appointed him first state superintendent of education.
He was elected to that office in 1884 and served until 1887, when
he moved his family to the new rail town of Canadian, in the
Panhandle. There he resumed his private law practice and in 1891,
with John Pugh, founded the Canadian Enterprise, which under
later owners merged with the Canadian Record.
In 1890 Baker was elected judge of the Thirty-fifth Judicial
District, and he served in that position until 1917, when he
retired to his private practice. He died at Canadian on May 21,
1918, and is buried there. B. M. Baker School in Canadian is
named for him.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of
Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). Frank W.
Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (5 vols., ed. E. C. Barker
and E. W. Winkler [Chicago and New York: American Historical
Society, 1914; rpt. 1916]). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L.
Crocchiola], Rodeo Town (Canadian, Texas) (Denver: World, 1953).
H. Allen Anderson
BRAINARD, EDWARD HENRY
(1860-1942)
Edward Henry Brainard, early Panhandle rancher, the son of Mr.
and Mrs. Peter H. Brainard, was born on July 4, 1860, in Otis,
Massachusetts, and moved with his parents to Sparrowbush, New
York, in 1868. There he completed high school at the age of
fifteen and did such various odd jobs as clerking in local stores
and rafting on the Delaware River.
In the spring of 1880 he went to Colorado to work for the Pollard
and Piper cattle firm. He accompanied the Pollards to the Texas
Panhandle and worked for a time on Robert Moody's PO Ranch. After
a brief return trip to New York in the fall of 1882 Brainard went
to work for Joseph Morgan's Triangle Ranch, northeast of the site
of present Canadian. He always recalled Morgan's beneficence;
when Morgan was fatally stricken with smallpox Brainard rode
thirty-five miles to Mobeetie to get a doctor.
After Henry W. Cresswell added the Triangle to his Bar CC range
Brainard went to work for him, and in 1887 Cresswell promoted him
to range foreman. The following year Brainard acquired a 480-acre
tract on John's Creek in Roberts County. His parents and sister
Mary, who later became the first schoolteacher in Canadian, moved
from Sparrowbush to Canadian to be near him.
Although he had begun purchasing land and cattle of his own,
Brainard continued as foreman of the Bar CC until 1895. He
afterwards made his home in Canadian, where he became involved in
banking. In 1901 he married Kittie Belle Fullerton, daughter of a
family of Dutch and Irish extraction from Sparrowbush. They had
two children. Over the next several years Brainard took pride in
his high-grade Hereford cattle, which bore his Lazy B brand.
He served on the executive committee of the Texas Cattle Raisers
Association (now the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers
Association) and for eight years was a member of the Canadian
City Commission. By 1940 the Brainard family had acquired 50,000
acres of ranchland.
Brainard died on August 20, 1942, and was buried in the Canadian
cemetery. Decades later the family continued to operate the Lazy
B. The old Brainard home remained a landmark in Canadian.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of
Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). John M.
Hendrix, "Ed Brainard: 60 Years a Cowman," Cattleman,
July 1940. Lester Fields Sheffy, "Edward Henry
Brainard," Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 19 (1946). F.
Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], Rodeo Town (Canadian, Texas)
(Denver: World, 1953).
H. Allen Anderson