Postwar Career
In 1866, Gano returned to Kentucky, where he was ordained a minister in the Disciples of Christ by his father and by Winthrop Hobson of the Old Union Church. By 1870, he had taken up residence in Dallas, where he resumed stockraising and preached regularly. Over the next thirty years, he was instrumental in establishing a number of churches, both in north Texas and in Kentucky, and was active in the Prohibition movement of the 1880s.
As a stockman in the later 19th century, Gano imported a number of important bloodlines into Texas, including cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs. He also was a general businessman, forming a real estate company with two of his sons, and serving as a director of the Bankers and Merchants National Bank in Dallas. These involvements led to his becoming a millionaire. He also was active in United Confederate Veterans.
With his sons, John T. Gano and Clarence M. Gano, he formed the Estado Land and Cattle Company, where he served as vice president. The company established the G4 Ranch in the Big Bend region of Texas in late 1880s and early 1890s. The G4 was one of the largest in the Trans-Pecos in that period. The G4 Ranch comprised 55,000 acres in survey Block G4 (hence the name of the ranch) and leased other watered sections nearby. Ranch headquarters were at Oak Spring or Ojo de Chisos, just west of the basin in what is now Big Bend National Park. The ranch extended from Agua Fria Mountain on the north to the Rio Grande on the south, and from Terlingua Creek on the west to the Chisos Mountains on the east; it thus covered most of what is now southwestern Brewster County, Texas. The Ganos persuaded James B. Gillett to resign as marshal of El Paso to manage the ranch. This was land that had never been stocked; at the time, recalled Gillett, "The Ganos had it all to themselves."
Richard Gano died March 27, 1913 at his home at the corner of Cedar Springs and Oaklawn Avenue in Dallas and is buried in Oakland Cemetery.
In 1974, the "dog-trot" house he purchased at Grapevine Prairie in 1857 was moved to Dallas's Old City Park, which is located on Gano Street, named for Richard Gano. The house was originally built of logs and was later covered with white clapboard siding.
Gen. Richard M. Gano Chapter #2433 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Texas Division, meets in Irving, Texas.
Read more about this topic: Richard Montgomery Gano
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