C.C. Slaughter - Greenwood Cemetery - Dallas, TX - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Colonel Slaughter rests at peace with his two wives, a few of his children, and their spouses in this mausoleum that is a "site of interest" to visitors to Greenwood Cemetery.

He was born 1837 in Sabine County in East Texas. His father, George Webb Slaughter, was a prominent minister and successful cattleman in his own right, and as a boy, Christopher helped him drive his cattle to their ranch on the Trinity River in Freestone County. For his accumulated knowledge and experience, he was eventually hired to work on drives to Shreveport, LA, and later, a successful business deal provided him with enough cash to purchase an uncle's share of the Slaughter herd. He persuaded his father to relocate west to Palo Pinto County, not only because of better stock, but also to better position the family for business opportunities with Fort Belknap and local Indian* reservations. In 1860, while dealing with hostilities from some of those same natives, Slaughter found himself among the expedition that "rescued" Cynthia Ann Parker from the Comanche at the Battle of Pease River. The Civil War prompted a withdrawal of federal protection in Texas, so Slaughter found himself a colonel with the Texas Rangers in order to protect the frontier from both the natives and their opponents in blue.

After the war, Slaughter and other ranchers (including Charles Goodnight) pursued ranching options in Mexico, but ultimately, he returned to cattle driving, now with Kansas City as the destination. By 1871, he had sold his Texas ranching interests and had started C.C. Slaughter and Company, whose focus was to improve cattle stock through breeding. He moved his family to Dallas in 1873, eventually parting company with his father's business, and by 1877, not only had he founded the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, but he had also purchased and built up the Long S Ranch on the Colorado River in West Texas. At one point, his ranching interests spanned over a million acres of land and 40,000 cattle, and Slaughter was regularly paying the most taxes of anyone in the entire state.

Although he continued with ranching, Slaughter suffered a broken hip in 1910 that prompted him to turn over the management of the business to a son. He founded multiple banks and served as an officer for them while using some of his money in philanthropic pursuits for the First Baptist Church of Dallas and the Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium, which is now Baylor Hospital. He died in 1919, and family bickering was the result: By 1921, his heirs had divided up his holdings and sold them.

* - Despite the term's inaccuracy and having been deprecated as applies to Native Americans, it is understood in the historical context of the 19th century that "Indians" refers to members of any of the Native American tribes in Texas.

Description: A 1988 Texas Historical Marker in front of the mausoleum gives an overview of the life and career of this legendary cattle baron: Christopher Columbus Slaughter was the first native born cattle king of Texas. While living on the West Texas frontier he was a ranger, Confederate beef supplier, and trail driver. His ranching empire, including the Long S and Lazy S Ranches, totaled over one million acres. In the early 1870s he moved to Dallas, where he founded, and was an officer in, three early banks. An initiator of the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Assn., he was also noted for his philanthropy to Baptist schools, churches, and hospitals, especially Baylor Hospital. Date of birth: 02/09/1837 Date of death: 01/25/1919 Area of notoriety: Historical Figure Marker Type: Tomb (above ground) Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Daily, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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