Chuck wagon of the Renderbrook Spade Ranch about 1900. Photo from Betty Orbeck Collection.
W. L. Ellwood, owner of the ranch, is shown sitting just to the left of the chuck wagon. Others in the picture are, from left to right: E. "Ching" Enyart, Sid Rowe, unidentified man, U. D. Wulfjen, John Lane (nearest camera), W. L. Ellwood, Perry Bracy (cook, standing at chuck box), Sig Lane and D. N. Arnett, manager of the ranch from 1891 to 1912.
It is interesting to note that Ellwood, the ranch owner, and J. F. Glidden, both of De Kalb, Illinois, were the inventors of barbed wire and manufactured the wire. Ellwood realized the possibilities of the cattle industry in Texas because of the great quantities of wire being shipped to Texas. So it was that he came to look the situation over for himself and bought the Renderbrook Spade Ranch in 1889.
"Come and Get It" -- Chuck time for an unidentified West Texas outfit, no date. Photo from Betty Orbeck Collection.
Spring branding at the Renderbrook Spade Ranch in Mitchell County, Texas about 1900. Photo from Betty Orbeck Collection.
At this time, Colonel Isaac Ellwood of Illinois owned the ranch, which took its name from Renderbrook Springs. Operations had begun on the ranch about 1878 when J. Taylor Barr built a two-room house of chittim poles, with a thatched roof of tules overhead and no floor. Barr sold out to the Snyder brothers in 1882 and in 1889 the ranch was bought by Colonel Ellwood who held part interest in the first patent to manufacture barbed wire in the United States.
Identified in the branding scene are Sam Moreland, Sid Rowe, U. D. Wulfjen, E. "Ching" Enyart (holding the calf's head), Sig Lane (holding the calf's feet), John W. Cathey, George Latty and an unidentified man.
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