The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968 Page: 48
686 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Castroville on the Medina River, stocked it with 1,500 Longhorns,
and became a rancher.'
While ranching in Medina County, he met and in 1867 married
Elizabeth Noonan, a member of a prominent local ranching family
and a sister of the influential San Antonio judge, G. H. Noonan. The
Lytles had two children, a boy, George, and a girl, Helen. A third
child was stillborn in 1875, and Elizabeth died of complications
shortly thereafter."
After Elizabeth's death, Lytle plunged with all his energy into his
already extensive cattle business. In 1871 he formed a partnership
in present Lytle, Texas, with Thomas M. McDaniel, whose daughter,
Sarah, had married Charles Lytle, William's oldest son.' In addition
to trailing their own herds to northern railheads and ranges, the
partners contracted to furnish hands and equipment for other ranch-
ers, and soon this service became the mainstay of the Lytle and Mc-
Daniel Cattle Company. Indeed, the business grew so rapidly that
Charles Schreiner, a Kerrville merchant, and John W. Light, owner
of the 6o,ooo-acre James River Ranch in Kimble and Mason counties,
purchased a half interest in the concern, thereby injecting needed
capital into the firm."
These businessmen were successful because it was considerably less
expensive to trail livestock to Kansas, where the beeves were either
sold or shipped to central livestock markets, than to ship direct by
rail from Texas. The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas and the Texas and
Pacific railroads charged $5.oo and $5.50 per head, respectively, from
Dallas to St. Louis, while the Santa Fe charged an average of $3.50
from Ellsworth, Kansas, to St. Louis-approximately the same distance.
7Alice Lytle Gidley to J. M. S., June 1, 1965; Lytle interview; "The Lytle Families," 94.
"Alice Lytle Gidley to J. M. S., June 1, 1965; Lytle interview; Ford (ed.), Texas Cattle
Brands, 212-213. Helen Lytle wrote the brief sketch of her father for Texas Cattle Brands;
the photograph she donated to be used in "The Hall of the Cattle Kings," Texas Cen-
tennial Exposition, 1936, is permanently housed along with the other photographs of the
cattle kings in the Agriculture Building, Texas Technological College, Lubbock.
*Walter P. Webb and H. Bailey Carroll (eds.), Handbook of Texas (2 vols.; Austin,
1952), II, 98; Hunter (comp.), Trail Drivers of Texas, 322; T. E. Williams, Mayor of Lytle,
Texas, to J. M. S., April 27, 1965; Alice Lytle Gidley to J. M. S., June 1, 1965. Although
the authoritative Handbook of Texas states that Lytle, Texas, was named in honor of
William Lytle, Mayor Williams reports that the community was named for John T. Lytle
when the latter donated land for public use. William Lytle's great granddaughter, Alice
Lytle Gidley, and Hunter (comp.), Trail Drivers of Texas, support Williams' contention.
10Hunter (comp.), Trail Drivers of Texas, 322; J. Evetts Haley, Charles Schreiner,
General Merchandise: The Story of a Country Store (Austin, 1944), 46; Mrs. William
J. Gidley to J. M. S., October 13, 1965.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968, periodical, 1968; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117145/m1/66/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.