COL Christopher Columbus “C.C.” Slaughter Sr. (1837-1919)

Businessman. He was a ranching pioneer in the American west, a banker and philanthropist, who was noted as the "Cattle King of Texas". As a boy he worked cattle with his father and at age twelve helped drive the family's ninety-two-head herd to a ranch on the Trinity River in Freestone County, Texas, where the family moved in 1852. At age seventeen he was hauling timber and processing Collin County wheat into flour for sale and with the earned money he bought his uncle's interest in the Slaughter cattle herd. He persuaded his father to move farther west in 1856, selected a site in Palo Pinto County, positioned to provide beef to Fort Belknap, plus the nearby Indian reservations and he drove 1,500 cattle to the new ranch. During the American Civil War, he served as a Colonel in the Confederate Army Texas Rangers. After the war, he ventured to Mexico where he received a gunshot wound, which disabled him for years. Returning to Texas, he founded the C. C. Slaughter Cattle Company, plus co-founded the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in 1873. In 1884, he established the American National Bank, which is now part of the First National Bank chain. By 1905, he owned over 40,000 head of cattle and oversaw over a million acres of land in West Texas, specializing in breeding a fine stock of cattle. He was an active member of the Southern Baptist Church, serving as vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention and as president of the state Mission Board from 1897 to 1903. He also established the Baylor Hospital of Dallas, served on its Board of Trustees and was president of the United Confederate Veterans. Slaughter maintained strict control over his operations until 1910, when he suffered a broken hip that crippled him for the remainder of his life. After his death at age 81, his heirs divided his ranch and land holdings, and sold them.

Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith