Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T15:14:45.743Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rural Gentrification and Livestock Raising: Texas as a Test Case, 1940–1995

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Mark Friedberger
Mark Friedberger
Affiliation:
Department of History, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One characteristic of an affluent society is that wealthy individuals often seek a place in the country to spend weekends and summer vacations. In the United States second homes in rural areas first became popular in the Gilded Age when elites in the northeast tried to ape English patterns of leisured country living. Americans, however, had to contend with hot and humid summers. As a result, access to water became a vital ingredient in any choice of a country retreat. An alternative motivation for migration to the countryside in the late nineteenth century came when elites desired to take part in field sports, especially foxhunting. In New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and of course, Virginia, where reasonably mild winters permitted activities to continue with some frequency throughout the winter, foxhunting became part of the yearly ritual of small numbers of urban based elites. Horse ownership went hand in hand with livestock raising. By the twenties cattle breeding had become another hobby pursuit of the gentry in northeastern states; herds of Angus or other breeds grazed in paddocks on either side of a long driveway which led up to a large country home.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , April 1996 , pp. 53 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. For elite country living in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, see Aslet, Clive, The American Country Home (New Haven, 1990), pp. 35–48, 135–153, 239–261Google Scholar; see also Thornton, Tamara Plakens, Cultivating Gentleman: The Meaning of Country Life among the Boston Elite, 1785–1860 (New Haven, 1989), pp. 21–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. The Hunting Dairies of W. Austin Wadsworth, MFH, Genesee Valley Hunt, 1876–1909 (Geneseo, New York, 1984)Google Scholar; Gaines, William H. Jr, ‘John Peel in Virginia,’ Virginia Cavalcade, Autumn 1953, 22–7Google Scholar; Sands, Oliver Jackson Jr, ‘Foxhunting in Virginia’ Virginia Cavalcade, Winter 1960–1961, 11–16Google Scholar; Winants, Peter, ‘Old Dominion Hounds’ Chronicle of the Horse, February 3 1978, 8Google Scholar; Idem ‘The Piedmont Foxhounds’ Chronicle of the Horse, 17 March 1978.

3. Even in the 1920s the midwest and the west remained the cattle breeding centers of the US. However, the affluent were beginning to invest in pure-bred herds in the northeast. See The Aberdeen-Angus Journal, 2 August 1926, 12 August 1929, for the New York gentrified breeding farm of Briarcliff whose owner had eliminated a large dairy to breed beef cows.

4. Danbom, David, ‘Romantic Agrarianism in Twentieth Century America’, Agricultural History 65: 4 (Feb 1991), 1–14Google Scholar; Haifeh, Steven and Smith, Gregory White, Jackson Pollock: An American Saga (New York, 1989), pp. 291–295Google Scholar; Perelman, S. J., Acres and Pains (New York, 1947).Google Scholar

5. Whitten, Nathan, Studies in Suburbanization in Connecticut: Wilton a Rural Town near Metropolitan New York City, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin, 230 (1939)Google Scholar. A straightforward definition of rural gentrification is ‘the displacement of low status individuals by the upper middle class’. See Philips, Martin, ‘Rural Gentrification and the Process of Class Colonisation,’ Journal of Rural Studies 9 (1993), 123–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6. Whitten, N. L. and Devereaux, E. C. Jr, Studies in Suburbanization in Connecticut: Windsor a Highly Developed Agricultural Area, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 212 (1936)Google Scholar; Whitten, N.L. and Field, R. F., Studies in the Suburbanization of Connecticut: Norwich an Industrial Part-time Farming Area, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin, 226 (1938).Google Scholar

7. Whitten, Wilton, p. 27.

8. Ibid, pp. 76–8. For status conflict between old-timers and newcomers in contemporary Connecticut, see Satron, Roberta, ‘New Yorkers in the Countryside: Status Conflict and Social Change,’ Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22: No 2 (07 1993), 227–48.Google Scholar

9. Spectorsky, A. C., The Exurbanites (Philadelphia, 1955)Google Scholar; Whyte, William H., The Last Landscape (Garden City, N.Y., 1968), pp. 21–3Google Scholar; Dorst, John D., The Written Suburb: An American Site, An ethnographic Dilemma (Philadelphia, 1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Lewis, Pearce, ‘The Urban Invasion of the Northeast,’ Northwest Rural Studies Proceedings (Corvallis, Or., 1991), pp. 18–20Google Scholar; Lubar, Steven, ‘West Old Baltimore Road’, Landscape 31 (1), 19–26.Google Scholar

11. Mellon, Paul, Reflections in a Silver Spoon (New York, 1992), p. 258Google Scholar; see also Tustian, Richard E., ‘Preserving Farming through Transferable Development Rights: A Case Study of Montgomery County, Maryland’, American Land Forum Magazine, Summer 1983, 63–76.Google Scholar

12. Piedmont Environmental Council Annual Report (Warrenton, Va., 1993), pp. 4, 7Google Scholar; Fleming, Ronald L., ‘A Tale of Two Villages,’ Places 7 (1991), 42–44Google Scholar; Healy, Robert G. and Short, James L., The Market for Rural Land: Trends, Issues, Politics (Washington D. C, 1985), pp. 129–138.Google Scholar For a general discussion of the explosion of the metropolis into rural areas, see Garreau, Joel, Edge City: Life on the New Frontier (New York, 1991).Google Scholar

13. Mellon, , Reflections in a Silver Spoon, p. 376Google Scholar; New York Times, June 19, 1994; Menassas Journal Messenger, July 20, 1994, A4, for local opposition to Disney for the foxhunting village of The Plains, Va.

14. Davis, Christopher S., ‘Life at the Edge: The Urban and Industrial Evolution of Texas, Frontier Wilderness-Frontier Space, 1836–1986’, Southwestern Historical Quarterly LXXIX (1986), 443–554.Google Scholar

15. White, G. Edward, The Eastern Establishment and the Western Experience: The West of Frederick Remington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Owen Wister (New Haven, 1968).Google Scholar

16. For change in Texas' orientation from the south to the west, see Buenger, Walter L., ‘Flight from Modernity: The Economic History of Texas since 1845’, in Texas Through Time: Evolving Interpretations (College Station, Tx., 1991), p. 339.Google Scholar

17. Atherton, Lewis, The Cattle Kings (Bloomington, 1961), pp. 13–28.Google Scholar

18. Webb, Walter Prescott, Flat Top: A Story of a Modern Ranch (El Paso, 1960)Google Scholar; Allred, D. W. and Dykes, J. C. (eds.), Flat Top Ranch: The Story of a Grassland Venture (Norman, 1957)Google Scholar; Sampson, R. Neil, For the Love of the Land: A History of the National Association of Conservation Districts (League City, Tx., 1985), pp. 32–37.Google Scholar

19. Oppenheimer, Harold, Cowboy Litigation: Cattle and the Income Tax (Danville, Il., 1968), pp. 221, 226, 541.Google Scholar

20. Progressive Farmer, May 1954, 42–3; The Cattleman, June 1954, 19; for the switch from commercial to consumption in cattle raising, see Smith, Arthur H. and Martin, William E., ‘Socioeconomic Behavior of Cattle Ranchers with Implications for Rural Development in the West’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 54 (05 1972), 217–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21. See Perry, George Sessions, Tale of a Foolish Farmer (New York, 1951)Google Scholar, for an early example of gentrification in southeast Texas.

22. McComb, David G., Houston: The Bayou City (Austin, 1969), pp. 220–222Google Scholar; Popper, Frank J., The Politics of Land-use Reform (Madison, 1981), pp. 211–12.Google Scholar

23. Interview with Ida Moran, Brenham, Tx. 7 July 1994.

24. Interview with Willie Weiss, Brenham, Tx., 5 January 1995; Graves, John, Hard Scrabble: Observations on a Patch of Land (New York, 1974), p. 58.Google Scholar

25. Interview with M. S. Allinson, Argyle, Tx., 24 November 1994; Baily's Hunting Directory, 1993–94 (Cambridge, England, 1993), p. 305Google Scholar; Argyle Sun, 25 January 1995. Horses produced ø29.7 million in revenue for the county in 1994. The country had the largest horse population in any county in Texas. For rural sprawl and especially the sale of small lots that promoted sprawl in Texas, see Healy and Short, The Market for Rural Land, pp. 142–4.

26. Houston Post, April 18 1983, D, 1–2.

27. Interview with Terry Shirely, Brenham, Tx., 12 July 1994.

28. U.S. Bureau of Census, Census of Agriculture, 1925 (Washington D.C., 1927), pp. 1181, 1204, 1214, 1237Google Scholar; U. S. Bureau of Census, Census of Agriculture, 1959, Vol 1, Part 37, Texas (Washington D. C., 1960), pp. 335, 393, 419, 439, 453.Google Scholar

29. Interview with Nathan Whitefield, Chappell Hill, Tx., 12 July 1994. Caesar ‘Dutch’ Hohn, , Dutchman on the Brazos (Austin, 1968), pp. 138–51.Google Scholar

30. Interviews with Esther Harris Thomas, Cecil Evans, Brenham, Tx., 4 January 1995.

31. Interview with Charles Gaskamp, Brenham Tx., 8 June 1993.

32. Interview with Pierre Roberts, Brenham Tx., 13 July 1993; Interview with Hugh Pitts, Chappell Hill, Tx., 5 July 1994.

33. Interview with Bill Thane, Brenham, Tx., 26 June 1993.

34. Interview with Weiss.

35. Interview with Ed. Duckworth, Brenham Tx., 7 July 1994.

36. Roberts interview; interview with Jack Fowler, Burton Tx., 8 July 1994.

37. Allinson interview.

38. The potential of worn out farm land and river bottoms for recreational use within the rural fringe came under the purview of Federal and state officials after World War II. The Army Corps of Engineers transformed low lying river bottoms and wetland into recreational lakes. Several large lakes north of Dallas and within Denton county were designed to provide the population of the metropolitan area with water recreation in the hot summers. The first, Lewisville lake, opened in 1957. Denton, therefore, became a recreational playground for the metropolitan area. Within the county there was room not only for aquatic recreation, but also for the upper middle class to seek excluded properties where they could follow equestrian pursuits. Interview with Glenn Floyd, Denton, Texas, 16 March 1995; see also Lapping, Mark B., ‘American Rural Planning, Development Policy and the Centrality of the Federal State: An Interpretative History,’ Rural History 3, 2 (1992) 231–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for the Federal government's intrusion, or lack of it, in the countryside.

39. American Hereford Journal, July 1946, 54–5; Aberdeen-Angus Journal, August 1945, 96 and March 1954, 62–3.

40. Interview with Jan Walling, Argyle, Tx., 31 October 1994; Barna, Joel Warren, The See- Through Years: Creation and Destruction in Texas A rchitecture and Real Estate (Houston, 1992), pp. 61–89Google Scholar, for the boom in Texas and its influence on housing and living styles.

41. Allinson interview.

42. Data provided by Banner, Robert L. Jr, publisher Chronicle of the Horse (Middleburg, Va.), July 1994.Google Scholar

43. Interview with Gabrielle Gordan, Argyle, Tx., 17 November 1994.

44. Interview with Robert Dunstun, Dallas, Tx., 29 December 1994.

45. Interview with Richard Long, Argyle, Tx. 15 October 1994; see also Cox, Graham et al. , ‘Hunting the Wild Red Deer: The Social Organization and Ritual of a “rural” Institution’, Sociologica Ruralis XXXIV (1994) 2–3, 190–205.Google Scholar

46. Allinson interview

47. Wadsworth, William P., Riding to Hounds in America: An Introduction for Foxhunters (Middleburg, Va., 1962).Google Scholar

48. Interview with Mike Tabachka, Argyle Tx., 15 January 1995.

49. For the anti-foxhunting movement in the United States see Foster, Dennis J., ‘Foxhunter Be “Ware”’, Covertside 1 (3) 1994, 7Google Scholar. One advantage of the isolated nature of the locale for foxhunting in Texas was that protesters had little opportunity to intrude. Hunts were held at unadvertised localities many miles from urban areas.

50. Oppenheimer, Cowboy Litigation, p. 221; Conner, J. R. et al. , The Impact of Federal Tax Laws and Economic Development on the Texas Cattle Industry, Tx. Ag. Experiment Station Bulletin, B 1593 (1987).Google Scholar

51. Interview with Shirely.

52. Interview with Matt Syler, Burton Tx., 18 August 1994. See Brangus Journal, April 1980, 71–83; Sept 1980, 69–80, for sale advertisements.

53. Syler Interview.

54. Perryman, M. Ray, Survive and Conquer: Texas in the '80s (Dallas, 1990).Google Scholar

55. Interview with Danny Joswiack, Brenham Tx., 16 August 1994.

56. Interview with Peter Baker, Brenham Tx., 12 August 1994.

57. Interview with Stanley Beard, Brenham Tx., 17 August 1994.

58. Interview with Ronnie Stanley, Burton Tx., 7 July 1994.

59. Interview with John Jacobs, Brenham Tx., 11 July 1994.

60. Philips, , ‘Rural Gentrification and the Process of Class Colonisation’, p. 124.Google Scholar

61. Fuguitt, Glen V. and Brown, D. L., ‘Residential Preferences and Population Redistribution, 1972–1988’, Demography 27 (1990), 584–600.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

62. Jackson, Kenneth T., The Crabgrass Frontier (New York, 1985)Google Scholar; for suburban sprawl in the sunbelt see Ebner, Michael H., ‘Defining Its Place in the Metropolis: Gwinnett County, 1945–1990’, unpublished paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Atlanta, 04 1994.Google Scholar

63. Walter Prescott Webb urged the elite to buy rural land in the 1950s. He once told a Houston audience that the purchase of a ranch had many advantages: ‘It gives … prestige, a place to invite guests, a place to boast about in Dallas, Houston, or New York, a place to take an income tax write-off, and eventually make a capital gain.’ (quoted in Furman, Necah Stewart, Walter Prescott Webb, His Life and Importance (Albuquerque, 1978), p. 161Google Scholar).

64. Interview with Ray Stephans, Denton Tx., 13 March 1995; interview with Floyd.