Lipscomb County Biographies
Source: The Handbook of Texas Online
LANDERGIN BROTHERS
Patrick H. and John Landergin, cattlemen, were the sons of
Irish
immigrants who immigrated to the United States as a result of
the
potato famine in the 1840s. They established a dairy farm near
Oxford, New York, where Patrick was born on March 3, 1854, and
John on March 26, 1856. The boys attended school and worked on
their father's farm. Later, Pat taught school while John
completed his education.
In 1870 the brothers went west to Indian Territory, where they invested their savings in a herd of longhorn cattle that they grazed along the Red River. The next year the Landergins drove 1,040 cattle over the Chisholm Trail and settled near Coffeyville, Kansas. In 1879 they purchased three small ranches totaling 2,600 acres near Eureka, in Greenwood County, where they made a fortune by fattening cattle and shipping them to markets in England.
In 1886 Pat Landergin returned briefly to Oxford, where he married Mary Louisa Corbin on November 28. The newlyweds then joined John in Eureka, where their two daughters were later born. As a result of their financial success, the Landergin brothers became directors in the Eureka Bank and were involved in the Kansas National Livestock Association, of which Pat served as a director.
In addition, Pat was on
the board of regents of Fairmount College (now Wichita State
University), and was a regent of Eureka College. In 1903 he
was
elected to the Kansas House of Representatives on the
Democratic
ticket.
The disastrous decline in the cattle market at the turn of the
century prompted the Landergins to seek out a new range in
which
to recoup their losses. The brothers had relied for some time
on
cattle from the Texas Panhandle to supply their ranches, so
they
sought to rebuild their business there. In 1904 they leased,
with
a five-year option to buy, the western portion of the LS Ranch
in
Oldham County.
When Frederick H. Kreismann put the LS up for sale in January 1905, he tried to persuade the Landergins to surrender their contract to the buyer, Swift and Company of Chicago. However, the brothers refused to release their option, and despite a lawsuit and other problems, they were able to clear their debts in three years. In April 1907 they purchased the 92,000-acre ranch for $203,448 and established their home at the old Alamosa Creek headquarters.
After buying some steers
from Charles Ewell, an Arizona rancher, they adopted his UL
(connected) brand as their own. In 1908 Pat Landergin became
director of the Vega Town Company, and both he and John were
instrumental in founding the town on the southern boundary of
their range. They established the First State Bank at Vega, of
which Pat was president for the remainder of his life.
In the spring of 1911 the Landergins expanded their operations
by
taking a five-year lease on about 100,000 acres of XIT Ranch
land
in Oldham and Deaf Smith counties, which they subsequently
bought. They acquired an interest in the Bravo Ranch in
Hartley
County, which they sold to John M. Shelton in 1915, and later
purchased an interest in the Double Circle Ranch near Clifton,
Arizona. In 1920 they bought land in Lipscomb County for use
as a
bull ranch and increased their herds with range cows from the
Bell Ranch near Logan, New Mexico.
The Landergins resided at the Alamosa headquarters until 1912,
when they moved to Amarillo and built a mansion at 1600 Polk
Street. In Amarillo they became officers in several
cattlemen's
associations on the local, regional, and national level. Pat
also
was president of the Tri-State Fair in 1916, and a director of
the American State Bank.
In 1921, faced with
another recession in the cattle market and mounting debts from
the XIT land purchases, the Landergins decided to incorporate
their business activities as the Landergin Brothers Company.
At
that time the brothers had stock in the Amarillo Oil Company
and
with Eugene S. Blasdel were involved in locating the
Panhandle's
first successful oil well. Nevertheless, in seeking oil and
gas
deposits on their own land, the Landergins were far less
fortunate and in the end profited little from the oil boom.
Attempts at sheep ranching likewise ended in failure.
Consequently the company throughout the 1920s sold much of its
vast range land to smaller farmers and ranchers.
John Landergin, who had never married, died on June 23, 1923.
His
loss as the stabilizing force in the family business was
keenly
felt, and the company was subsequently plunged deeper into
debt.
Patrick Landergin died on March 4, 1929, and was buried in the
Llano Cemetery, Amarillo. Frank Donegan, the brothers' nephew
and
executor, continued to manage the company's affairs. Although
he
continued to invest in oil and gas leases, losses mounted,
especially after the discovery of the East Texas oilfield
resulted in a drop in oil prices in 1930. What was more, the
severe drought of the depression era curtailed the
corporation's
agricultural output. After Donegan's death in 1942, Grady C.
Nobles began the process of selling the remaining cattle and
ranchlands and liquidating the company assets, which he
accomplished in April 1950.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gus L. Ford, ed., Texas Cattle Brands (Dallas:
Cockrell, 1936). Dulcie Sullivan, The LS Brand (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1968).
H. Allen Anderson
This page was last updated January 9, 2014.