JA Ranch - Goodnight As Ranch Manager

Goodnight As Ranch Manager

Goodnight, who was described by his biographer, J. Evetts Haley, as “religious and reverential by nature,” allowed no gambling, whiskey, theft, or fighting among the cowboys, nor would he hire a worker who had been dismissed elsewhere for those offenses. Goodnight's brothers-in-law, Walter and Leigh R. Dyer, worked temporarily for the JA during trail drives and roundups. Goodnight improved the quality of the cattle through the importation of blooded stock. In 1882, he built what is thought to have been the Panhandle's first barbed wire fence across a canyon bed to separate the purebred cattle (with a JJ brand) from the regular JA stock. He also maintained a buffalo herd, which he bred with cattle to produce the “cattalo”, also known as the ”beefalo”.

By the time the Adair-Goodnight contract expired in 1882, the ranch had bought 93,000 acres (380 km2). Goodnight acquired for Cornelia Adair the Quitaque Ranch, or the Lazy F, in Briscoe County. The ranch realized a profit of more than $512,000, a large sum at that time. The JA housed the Palo Duro post office. The two planned to renew the contract. Goodnight fenced the Quitaque and added the Tule Ranch in Swisher County. Other purchases brought the ranch to its peak 1,350,000-acre (5,500 km2)-size, covering portions of Randall, Hall, Donley, Armstrong, Briscoe, and Swisher counties.

Adair died in 1885, after only his third visit to the JA. Cornelia, widowed for the second time after eighteen years of marriage, continued the partnership but sometimes questioned Goodnight’s judgment. For the rest of her life, Cornelia took an intense personal interest in the growth and operation of the ranch though she was often in England or Ireland. She insisted on a remuda of all bay horses, and imported purebred Hereford cattle from England. In 1887, Goodnight withdrew from the arrangement and limited his ranching activities. Falling beef prices, the arrival of farmers to the canyon, the decline of the open range, and the arrival of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway were obstacles to continued large-scale ranching. In the dissolution, Goodnight acquired the 140,000-acre (570 km2) Quitaque Ranch in Briscoe County with 20,000 head of cattle and remained manager of the JA for another year.