A Special Thank You to Dona Worrell for sharing the photos and the history of The Poole Ranch
 

 

Marguerite Poole (Aunt Muggie) and Dona Barbour, age four, rides her beloved "Captain"  

 

History of the Poole Ranch, on the San Bernard River

By Dona Barbour Worrell
 

Thomas Jefferson Poole II, who was President of the Bay City Bank and Trust in Bay City from 1909 until 1929, owned a large ranch, about 20,000 acres, in Brazoria County. It bordered the San Bernard River and Cocklebur Slough and ran to the Gulf. He was married to Martha Elizabeth Keller Poole. (The Kellers were one of the first three hundred families that came to Texas.) They had eight children. He formed the Poole Cattle Co. With his two older sons, Thomas J. Poole III and Donald Keller Poole. They ran hundreds of head of cattle on the ranch. Donald Poole and his wife, Marguerite Huebner Poole lived on the Poole Ranch in the original house that was built around 1850. The house is still there and used by the family on weekends. Thomas Jefferson Poole's cattle brand was the Lazy 11 and Donald Poole's brand was the JH.

J. Frank Dobie, the author, came to the Poole Ranch to interview Jim Keller, who lived with Donald & Marguerite (Muggie).  He wrote about it in the forward he wrote for Charles Siringo’s book, “A Texas Cowboy”.   Jim Keller went up one of the last cattle drives to Dodge City.  He died on the ranch at 96 years old.  (James W. Keller, 1850-1946)

I spent a lot of time at the ranch while I was growing up. Uncle Donald took me on all the cattle round-ups. That was so fun for me -- a lot of work for everyone else. It took days to round up all the cattle and brand, cut their horns, vaccinate them, ship some of them, castrate the bulls, dip them, etc. Lots of people would come down for the round-ups just to watch. Some of the other ranchers would come to help--Steve Perry, Mr. Ducroz and others. We would have a wonderful meal prepared from the chuckwagon on the open fire in Dutch ovens. Sessia Wyche was the cook and boy, could he cook some fabulous meals! There weren't a lot of people that lived on the river in those days. There were no fences, except around the whole ranch. There was a cattle guard at F.M. 2918 and C.R. 306 - it was a shell road. The cattle were on the open range.

Donald Poole was also a pilot and had a couple of airplanes. He had a little Piper Cub that he flew over the ranch to find the cattle, so we'd know where to go round them up. He had an airstrip and a hanger at the headquarters on the San Bernard. I loved flying over the ranch and the Gulf.
 

The cowboys who worked the ranch were black and they lived on the ranch, with their families, in their individual homes. The houses were on County Road 306, down toward where the entrance to the wildlife refuge  is now. My parents, Dr. And Mrs. J. Lane Barbour (my mother was a Poole), moved one of those houses down on the river, on the ranch headquarters, in the 40's. My husband, Tommy, and I live part time in that house now. We restored and added on to it in the late 80's. Tommy worked on the ranch in the 60's.

 

We use to go down on the wharf, when I was a kid and throw the net in the river and bring it up full of shrimp to fish with. Those days are gone. There wasn't much activity on the river then----just a few fishermen. Lewis, a Mexican man, worked and lived on the headquarters in his own little house. He fished, milked the cows, took care of the chickens, etc. He would take me fishing with him in his little wooden skiff with oars.
 
The federal government bought a large portion of the ranch and made it into the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge. They brought in the alligators--I still can�t figure why in the world they would do that. What�s left of the ranch is still in operation. A member of the family runs his cattle on some of the land. Carl McElrath also leases some of the land for his cattle. We have a couple of horses, a miniature donkey and a couple of longhorns at the ranch headquarters.
 

                  

             
                                Jim Keller with J. Frank Dobie      Elizabeth Keller Poole     Thomas Jefferson Poole II
                                    (the famous Western Writer)      

                  
 

                                   The Poole Ranch, before Hurricane Carla                 Tommy & Dona's house 2008

 

Dona and Tommy Worrell