Spade Ranch (Texas)

Spade Ranch was the name of two separate West Texas ranches, both of which were invariably linked through the innovation of barbed wire. The two were under separate ownership.

The first Spade Ranch was begun in the Panhandle in 1880 by John F. "Spade" Evans, who had formed a corporation with Judson P. Warner, an agent who sold Joseph Glidden's barbed wire. On 25 August 1880 J.F. Evans and Company purchased 23 parcels of land in Donley County. Texas, near Clarendon, from J.A. Reynolds.

Their first camp was established near Glenwood Creek and they erected a log cabin on Barton Creek which they designated as their permanent headquarters. In the end, neither Evans nor Warner had the time to devote to active ranching. They turned over operations to such able ranchers as Baldy Oliver and Dave Nall. Alfred Rowe worked at Spade for a time before he started his own RO Ranch.

It is unknown who designed the ranch's distinctive brand. The brand, which resembles a shovel or a "spade," was first used on a cattle herd that Evans and Warner had gathered in Larmer County. The wranglers trailed the cattle to the open grasses of the Panhandle and turned the herd loose near Saddler Creek.

While Evans and Warner's startup ranch operated J. Taylor Barr was operating the Renderbrook Ranch. Renderbrook was near Renderbrook Springs in Mitchell County, about 25 miles south of Colorado City. In 1882 Barr was bought out by brothers Dudley H. and John W. Snyder. The Snyders enlarged the operation in the five years that ensued. By 1887 the Renderbrook Ranch encompassed 300,000 acres (1,200 km²) in four counties.

Isaac L. Ellwood came onto the scene after Texas was ravaged by terrible drought and blizzards during the late 1880s. Ellwood was co-owner of the barbed wire patent with Joseph Glidden. Ellwood bought the Spade Ranch from Evans and Warner during this time period, along with his purchase came the ranch's unique brand and 800 head of cattle. Ellwood then purchased the sprawling Renderbrook Ranch from the Snyders and began to stock it with Spade cattle. In 1889 Ellwood acquired the 128,000 acre (518 km²) north pasture of the Snyder Brothers ranch and renamed it Spade Ranch, the second Spade Ranch was born. Ellwood registered the ranch's distinctive brand in Mitchell County in 1889 and Hale and Lubbock counties in 1891.

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