July 30, 2006

(The following are excerpts from Littlefield Lands, written by David B. Gracy II, grandson of Arthur P. Duggan and Governor Bill Daniel Professor in Archival Enterprise, PHD at the University of Texas. They begin with a discussion of the reasoning behind Maj. George Washington Littlefield’s decision in colonizing a portion of his Yellow House Ranch.)

"We may presume that from the time he first offered a bonus to the Santa Fe Major Littlefield had firmly in mind the immediate colonization of a portion of the Yellow House Ranch. He had failed in several attempts to sell the entire 312,000 acres in one transaction. Furthermore,(William P.) Soash’s activities, manifested in the growth of Olton to 150 people in 1910, graphically demonstrated that colonization could succeed. …..In any case, Littlefield committed himself to colonization by employing a sales manager in the summer of 1912. The man hired, Arthur Pope Duggan, had been born in String Town, Texas on September 21, 1876."

"Mild-mannered, reserved but cordial, Duggan was ‘an introspective man whose tough determination was not a surface characteristic.’ Because he was diligent and devoted to duty, he was an excellent choice to develop a community."

"Duggan had come to Littlefield’s attention in 1902 by marrying the Major’s niece, Sarah Elizabeth Harral. Since Littlefield had no living children of his own, he employed his nephews to manage various of his holdings. This he and his ‘family’ worked together for mutual benefit and he was able to direct far more extensive operations than he could have controlled personally.

"The general manager of the new Littlefield Lands Company, completing the initial organization, was another nephew, James Phelps White."

"Duggan had been spending the late summer and fall nights either in a tent on the townsite, at East Camp, or at the ranch headquarters. East Camp was five miles from his office, the ranch headquarters ten. He needed a more convenient place for himself and one to which he could bring his wife, daughter and son from Dallas. As a start, by late December (1913) General Manager White had had one room plus a lean-to dragged twenty miles from South Camp and placed at the demonstration farm for Duggan’s use.

Purchasers were also making improvements. On November 2 a man brought in two loads of lumber to build a home and a store. By mid-December, B. F. Smith had completed his home and moved in his family of eight. (This was the first home completed in Littlefield.) "

"Duggan’s accomplishments during the first six months of the Littlefield Lands Company were summed up best in an article inserted by (Don H.) Biggers, without Duggan’s knowledge, into the issue of the Littlefield News for December 12.

"By the spring of 1915 the company was in desperate need of a demonstration farm to show prospectors what a great variety of crops would thrive on Littlefield lands. The old demonstration farm had been assigned to grow feed for the ranch, and by October had degenerated into a blue weed patch that Duggan could not keep prospectors from seeing because the orchard trees on it attracted their attention. Major Littlefield finally had it cleaned up in December, 1915. The private farms could not serve adequately for demonstration purposes because they were devoted to the established crops. To fill this need, late in 1915, a ‘garden farm’ was created southeast of town.

"Even when a demonstration farm was flourishing, Duggan always took prospectors to see his own home, just south of town. Since July, 1913, his wife had been at work transforming the bare prairie there into a horticultural center. She brought trees, shrubs, flowers, and vegetables from a multistate area and made them grow in the face of predictions by old settlers of the plains that she would fail. The sight of her extensive garden, in bloom from early spring through late fall, materially assisted her husband’s efforts to sell Littlefield lands."