Christopher Columbus Slaughter (also known as C. C. Slaughter or Lum Slaughter; February 9, 1837 – January 25, 1919) was an American rancher, cattle drover, cattle breeder, banker and philanthropist in the American frontier. After serving in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War of 1861–1865, he came to own 40,000 cattle and over one million acres of ranch land in West Texas. He became the largest taxpayer in Texas, and used his wealth to endow Baptist institutions. He was known as the "Cattle King of Texas".
Shortly after the civil war, Slaughter explored Mexico with Goodnight and four other companions.[6] However, the expedition came to an end as he was accidentally wounded by a gunshot.[6] Later, he became a cattle drover on the Chisholm Trail in Kansas.[2][7] In 1873, he founded C. C. Slaughter and Company, a cattle breeding firm.[2] Four years later, in 1877, he purchased the Long S Ranch from Plainview to Big Spring, Texas, on the Staked Plains, the largest ranch in West Texas.[2][5] That same year, he cofounded the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.[2] In 1873, he co-founded the City Bank, later known as City National Bank.[1] He served as its vice president of 1881.[1] Meanwhile, the town of Slaughter, Texas in Midland County, Texas was named after him in 1882.[8] In 1884, Slaughter established the American National Bank, later known as the American Exchange National Bank, now part of First National Bank.[1][2]
Slaughter served as president of the United Confederate Veterans.[13] He also served as vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention and a member of the executive board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.[9] Additionally, he served on the Texas Baptist Education Commission in 1897.[2] In 1904, he established the Baylor Hospital of Dallas in 1904, and he went on to serve on its board of trustees.[2][9] He was also a donor to the Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium and the Nurses' Home and Training School.[9][14] It has been known as the Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas.[4] Additionally, he served on the board of trustees of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.[15]
Personal life
Slaughter married Cynthia Anna Jowell (1849–1876) in 1861, at the beginning of the civil war.[1][2][4][9] They had five children.[2][9] He then remarried, to Carrie Averill (1861–1928) in Emporia, Kansas in 1877, and they had four children.[1][2][4][9]
In 1910, he became crippled after he broke his hip.[1] He also had a debilitating loss of eyesight.[1]
Death and legacy
Slaughter died on January 25, 1919, in Dallas, Texas.[3] He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Dallas. Shortly after his death, his son Bob Slaughter accused his uncle Bill Slaughter (C.C.'s brother), who managed the Long S Ranch, of trying to sell the Western S Ranch in Hudspeth County, Texas to Mexican ranchers, even though the ranch belonged to his son.[3][10] As a result, Bob shot his uncle; this resulted in a US$3 million slander suit filed by the uncle against his nephew Bob.[3][10] By 1921, his heirs divided his Long S Ranch and other land holdings, and sold them.[12]
One of his daughters, Nelle (Slaughter) DeLoache, married Ira P. DeLoache (1879–1965), the real estate developer who founded Preston Hollow.
Secondary sources
Clarke, Mary Whatley. The Slaughter Ranches and Their Makers. Austin: Jenkins, 1979.
Murrah, David J.. C. C. Slaughter: Rancher, Banker, Baptist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981; 2nd edition published by the University of Oklahoma Press, 2012.
^John R. Wunder, Working the Range: Essays on the History of Western Land Management and the Environment, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1985, p. 90 [4]
^ abDavid J. Murrah, Oil, Taxes, and Cats: A History of the Devitt Family and the Mallet Ranch, Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press, 2001, pp. 69-70
