By Ross Hecox
Cows and calves encircle Johnny Hill’s ranch pickup, waiting to be fed on a droughty September morning in the Texas Panhandle. The 70-year-old cowboy manages a cow-calf operation south of the small town of Hedley.
The sound of bawling cattle has been Hill’s background music for the better part of 50 years. His cowboy career began when he, a local 20-year-old farm kid at the time, drove onto a division of the RO Ranch some 20 miles from Hedley and asked for a job. Looking back, he recalls how little he knew about ranching.
“I learned pretty much everything I know working there,” Hill says. “When you’re 20 years old, you think you know everything in the world. And I found out pretty quick I didn’t know much. But I had the pleasure of working with some really good, old-time cowboys. Those guys might not say anything, but you could just watch them and figure out they knew what they were doing.”
Johnny Hill dragging calves. He worked on the RO starting at the age of 11. | Photo: Ross Hecox
Hill’s teachable attitude and skills in observation paved the way for him to become a top hand for the RO—he even earned the Top Hand award at the prestigious Texas Ranch Roundup ranch rodeo in 1984. And just as he admits to being poorly versed in the vocation of cowboying as a young man, little did he know that he had joined a ranch with a history more colorful than a majority of Texas cattle outfits.
As one of the oldest ranches in the Texas Panhandle, the RO was established by Alfred Rowe in 1878. The Englishman had recently immigrated to the United States and began buying South Texas Longhorns during the Great Trail Drive era. Within
25 years, Rowe increased the size of his ranch to nearly 300,000 acres in four counties, improved the market for beef in the area, and was instrumental in establishing two bustling communities. In 1912, shocking news about the sinking of the RMS Titanic luxury steamship hit close to home in the Texas Panhandle, as cowboys and locals learned that Rowe had died in the icy Atlantic waters 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
Despite the tragic loss, the RO brand continued into the next century, operating from revenues drawn solely from cattle and other agricultural endeavors. The horseback outfit was respected for its savvy cowboys and handy horses, although it did not carry the same name recognition as other Texas ranches such as the Pitchfork, RA Brown, Swenson, Tongue River or Waggoner. Nevertheless, the RO crew bested those famous outfits in the first ranch rodeo ever held, winning the 1981 Texas Ranch Roundup in Wichita Falls, Texas.
But more important than winning competitions, Hill treasures the work, camaraderie and day-to-day experiences provided by the RO for so many years. It all started with Alfred Rowe, an adventurous young man fascinated with the cowboy life, at the time on the cusp of defining the American West.
British Cattle Baron
The original RO Headquarters near present-day McLean, Texas. |
Alfred Rowe was one of seven children of a prosperous English merchant who traded in South America. Consequently, Rowe was born in Peru in 1853. At age 23 he attended the Royal Agriculture College in Gloucestershire, England. Upon graduation, he traveled to Colorado in 1878 to learn more about the cattle business, then settled in Donley County, Texas. At first he camped in a dugout on Glenwood Creek, about 10 miles northeast of Clarendon, the county seat.
In an interview with Vera Back for the McLean News, Rowe’s son, Colonel Harry Rowe, said, “When he found the land he wanted to buy near Old Clarendon, he secured a loan from the family business and paid it off through the years.” The article also noted, “His first herd consisted of Longhorns trailed up from South Texas. Charles Goodnight helped Rowe choose his first cattle; and the first foreman on the new ranch was Green McCullum, one of Goodnight’s men, lent to Rowe as a favor.”
Rowe registered the RO brand and was soon joined by his younger brothers, Vincent and Bernard. They sent mature steers north to markets in Kansas, held on to breeding stock, and began buying land in Donley, Collingsworth, Gray and Wheeler counties. According to the book, “Donley County History,” their holdings soon reached approximately 300,000 acres and 12,000 to 20,000 cows. The Clarendon News in 1882 reported that, “Alfred and Bernard Rowe started a herd of 1,400 head of very fine beeves for Dodge City. They have now shipped about 3,500 head this season which will net them over $100,000.”
Around the turn of the century, the Rowe brothers dissolved their partnership, leaving Alfred as the sole owner of the RO Ranch. By that time, two railroad lines passed near the ranch. To the north, the Southern Kansas and Panhandle R.R., later named the Santa Fe, came from Kansas and through the Texas Panhandle town of Miami. To the south, the Fort Worth and Denver City R.R. connected Fort Worth and Clarendon.
Brothers (left to right) Vincent, Bernard and Alfred Rowe.
To help modernize shipping cattle for the RO and area cattle producers, Rowe convinced railroad commissioner William P. McLean to put a switch in the tracks several miles from headquarters, according to the McLean-Alanreed Area Museum. Rowe laid out the townsite around the McLean Depot, and by 1904 the new town, named McLean, featured a post office, three general stores, a bank, a lumber yard and a newspaper, according to the Texas State Historical Association.
Rowe had a hand in the start of another Panhandle town. He donated land for a townsite southeast of the RO headquarters, and it was named Rowe in his honor. Established in 1890 as a shipping point for the Fort Worth and Denver City R.R., it grew to include a church, a bank, several stores, a newspaper and a gin by the early 1900s. However, by 1907 townsfolk had begun relocating their community a couple miles to the southeast, and that was the launch of what is now the town of Hedley.
Rowe loved to travel and was known to always carry a black satchel, even while horseback, ready to catch a train on a whim and be gone for months sometimes. Although labeled eccentric by some, he was known to be personable and sincere.
According to Harry Rowe’s account, “Alfred won the affection and respect of all, cowboy and stockman alike. The Plains people liked his willingness to work and his enjoyment of living. He had dignity, a sense of responsibility, business principles and a genuine interest in the community.”
In 1901, Rowe married Constance Ethel Kingsley in England and brought her to the Texas Panhandle. They raised three of four children on the ranch (the first one, a girl, died as an infant). In 1910, Rowe and his family moved permanently to England, but he traveled to his Texas ranch twice a year.
Vincent Rowe aboard a horse in the early days of the RO Ranch.
In April of 1912, he boarded the RMS Titanic in Southampton, England, for the internationally hyped, “unsinkable” ship’s maiden voyage to New York City. One might assume he was returning to the Rowe Ranch for spring works.
When the Titanic struck an iceberg on the night of April 14, Rowe, a strong swimmer, refused to board a lifeboat until others were saved, according to the Texas State Historical Association. He was one of approximately 1,500 of the 2,220 passengers who died. His body was pulled from the water and transported to his family in England. According to legend, his body was found on an iceberg, with his black satchel still clutched in his hand and his watch ticking. Five months after his death, his fifth child, Alfred Rowe, Jr., was born.
Straight-Up Cattle Outfit
The RO wagon around the turn of the century.
The RO continued to operate for five years after Rowe’s death, although his family sold off portions of the land. Rowe had already downsized it from the nearly 300,000 acres it once spanned. In 1917, Constance Rowe sold the remaining 72,000 acres to William J. Lewis, who had previously worked as a cowboy on the RO.
Raised in Maryland, Lewis’s father moved his family to the Texas Panhandle when he became a partner on the Half Circle K Ranch in 1886. As a teenager, Lewis worked on the ranch and a year later hired on at the nearby RO. Rowe took a liking to the young cowboy, and soon he was given the responsibility of shipping RO cattle to Kansas City, according to the Texas State Historical Society.
Lewis was still in his 20s when he struck out on his own, buying and selling cattle throughout Kansas, New Mexico and the Panhandle. Later, he leased other ranches in Texas and New Mexico, including the Bell Ranch. In 1910 he bought 43,000 acres of the Shoe Bar Ranch. Buying the RO had been a dream of his youth.
Once he secured ownership of the RO for more than $500,000 (with a down payment of $350,000), Lewis continued to run cattle on his Shoe Bar, purchased the Shoe Nail, and leased ranches such as the Milliron and Word. For decades he ran cattle throughout the Panhandle and West Texas. His son, William, Jr., grew to become a savvy cow man himself, recalls his nephew, Bob Boston.
“Will and Will, Jr. bought and sold herds of cattle,” Boston recalls. “They were cow-and-calf men. They continued to grow their operation, operating on several hundred thousand acres of both leased and owned land. They never had any oil income and were able to do it without outside income.
“They were honest, hard-working and intelligent people. During the Depression, they kept all their men on. They said, ‘We can’t pay you, but we can furnish you tobacco and groceries and give you a place to live. And if we ever make it through this, we’ll be able to pay your back wages.’ And they did.”
Lewis’ operation, which included the RO and other ranches, either deeded or leased, came to be known as Lewis Ranches. In 1960, Lewis died at the age of 89. Shockingly, his son died a year later from a rare blood disease. That left Lewis, Jr.’s widow, Vera, and his three sisters in ownership of Lewis Ranches.
Hill began working for the ranch 11 years later.
“It was a straight-up cow operation when I started there,” Hill says. “There wasn’t any outside income, and they held it together by sheer will power and smarts.
“We were a young crew. But there was a lot of talent there, and everybody just got along. On a lot of ranches, people don’t get along. But they did on the RO.”
Johnny Hill dragging calves. He worked on the RO starting at the age of 11. | Photo: Ross Hecox
Hill adds that good camaraderie and teamwork was a key to the Lewis Ranches winning the Texas Ranch Roundup in 1981. The ranch repeated the feat in 1983, and Hill was named Top Hand at the event in 1984.
Despite the ranch rodeo accolades, the RO was approaching its demise at the time. Vera died in 1981, and through the years Lewis Ranches began to be divided up among the heirs. A multitude of factors—from estate taxes to market realities to differing management priorities led to a gradual dispersal of Lewis Ranches, including the RO. In 2014, the last parcel of the RO was sold.
Today, Hill works for another cow-calf operation several miles from the original RO headquarters. Although he would point out the differences, Hill shares important similarities with Rowe and Lewis: young men without a ranching background who learned to cowboy on the job and found a lifelong passion.
“For some reason, being a cowboy is what I wanted to do,” Hill says. “My dad wanted me to be a dentist, but I just couldn’t see being in the office all day every day. I’m pretty well satisfied with what I’ve learned and who I learned it from and what I can do. I’m 70 years old and I get to do what I want to do every day around here.”
It’s not an uncommon storyline for many ranchers and cowboys. But it’s a credit to men like Alfred Rowe who paved the way for generations of cowboys and ranchers. ★
Special thanks to the McLean-Alanreed Area Museum for the historical facts and images in this article.
This article appears in the Fall 2022 issue of the Ranch Record. Would you like to read more stories about NRHC and ranching life? When you become a member of the Ranching Heritage Association, you’ll receive the award-winning Ranch Record magazine and more while supporting the legacy and preservation of our ranching heritage. Become a member today.
