William Henry Day, son of Jesse Day, was born May 8, 1833 in Cassville, Georgia. For twelve years in Barry County, Missouri, Jesse freighted supplies into Texas and returned with longhorn cattle to sell in Missouri. One trip they came to stay and settled in Hays County. By 1858, William H. Day had gone to Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, receiving a degree in civil engineering. After his enlistment on July 1, 1861, in the 1st Regiment Texas Mounted Riflemen, later to be the 1st Regiment Texas Cavalry at Camp Colorado, he supplied the Confederate Army with beef. Next came sawmilling in East Texas, then cattle drives to Kansas that by the end of his life would total nineteen trips up the "trail". By 1876, Day had become such an extensive operator throughout Texas that he had gained the title of Colonel Day by which he was respectfully known the rest of his life.
In the 1860's, the fine quality open range grasslands, abundance of wildlife and water at the confluence of the Concho and Colorado Rivers much impressed W. H. Day. When the Brazoria County and Fort Bend County School lands came on the market, Day began buying. These were the first public lands put on the market in Coleman County. The year was 1876, the price 45 cents an acre with $500 down. Sales were held open two years for a higher bid. At this time, the entire frontier was open range and there was no incentive for a man to pay money for something everyone used free of charge. Finally, as no higher offer was made, the deeds were passed to Day in 1878. As other adjoining lands were offered, he continued acquiring property through his agents McCord and Lindsey of Coleman, upwards to 80,000 acres, later to be completely fenced with four strands of barbed wire. Until 1900, it was the largest ranch in Coleman County, bordered on the north by the Beck and Overall Ranches, east past Blackwell Hill to within a mile of Fisk and the Starkweather Ranch. Its southern boundary was the Colorado River and then up the west to Runnels County and the Coggin Ranch.
With the ranch forming up to hold large cattle herds ready for the trail the forty-four year old bachelor most needed a wife. He had been courting Miss Tommye Mabel Doss, a strong-willed music teacher from Denison. They were married January 26, 1879, in the First Presbyterian Church at Sherman. When W. H. Day had first arrived at the ranch, he found the Rich Coffey Post Office in the Trap Store on the Coleman side of the landmark Trap Crossing. Some distance from there was a rock house that had been built by Bill McAuley, and it was into this ranch headquarters Rock House that Colonel Day brought his bride. They were soon joined by her mother, Mrs. Frances Pope Monroe Doss.
The fencing had begun at the Red Wire pasture containing 7,500 acres, then the 40,000 acres of the Grape Creek pasture and continued under the Colonel's direction until one night, he was fatally injured in a stampede in front of the old Rock House. After several weeks, he died June 14, 1881, leaving no will. Widowed and with a six month old daughter, Willie Mabel Day, who had been born December 19, 1880 in Austin, Mrs. Mabel Day took personal charge of the Day Ranch and assumed the responsibility of paying off the $117,000 claims and debts against the estate. At a time when women were unwelcome in the business world, she developed into a most outstanding businesswoman. She refinanced her business by organizing a $200,000 Kentucky corporation known as the Day Cattle Ranch and Company in which she retained the controlling stock and management.
In the Fence Cutting War of 1883, Mabel Day lost more than 100 miles of fence. Through much concern, action and the passage of time she held on until 1884 the legislature finally made the penalty from one to five years for fence cutting which quickly ended the "war". By 1885, she was running 9,000 cattle. Although heavily in debt and sometimes paying interest as high as 18%, she survived when cattle kings went broke all around her.
In the 1860's, the fine quality open range grasslands, abundance of wildlife and water at the confluence of the Concho and Colorado Rivers much impressed W. H. Day. When the Brazoria County and Fort Bend County School lands came on the market, Day began buying. These were the first public lands put on the market in Coleman County. The year was 1876, the price 45 cents an acre with $500 down. Sales were held open two years for a higher bid. At this time, the entire frontier was open range and there was no incentive for a man to pay money for something everyone used free of charge. Finally, as no higher offer was made, the deeds were passed to Day in 1878. As other adjoining lands were offered, he continued acquiring property through his agents McCord and Lindsey of Coleman, upwards to 80,000 acres, later to be completely fenced with four strands of barbed wire. Until 1900, it was the largest ranch in Coleman County, bordered on the north by the Beck and Overall Ranches, east past Blackwell Hill to within a mile of Fisk and the Starkweather Ranch. Its southern boundary was the Colorado River and then up the west to Runnels County and the Coggin Ranch.
With the ranch forming up to hold large cattle herds ready for the trail the forty-four year old bachelor most needed a wife. He had been courting Miss Tommye Mabel Doss, a strong-willed music teacher from Denison. They were married January 26, 1879, in the First Presbyterian Church at Sherman. When W. H. Day had first arrived at the ranch, he found the Rich Coffey Post Office in the Trap Store on the Coleman side of the landmark Trap Crossing. Some distance from there was a rock house that had been built by Bill McAuley, and it was into this ranch headquarters Rock House that Colonel Day brought his bride. They were soon joined by her mother, Mrs. Frances Pope Monroe Doss.
The fencing had begun at the Red Wire pasture containing 7,500 acres, then the 40,000 acres of the Grape Creek pasture and continued under the Colonel's direction until one night, he was fatally injured in a stampede in front of the old Rock House. After several weeks, he died June 14, 1881, leaving no will. Widowed and with a six month old daughter, Willie Mabel Day, who had been born December 19, 1880 in Austin, Mrs. Mabel Day took personal charge of the Day Ranch and assumed the responsibility of paying off the $117,000 claims and debts against the estate. At a time when women were unwelcome in the business world, she developed into a most outstanding businesswoman. She refinanced her business by organizing a $200,000 Kentucky corporation known as the Day Cattle Ranch and Company in which she retained the controlling stock and management.
In the Fence Cutting War of 1883, Mabel Day lost more than 100 miles of fence. Through much concern, action and the passage of time she held on until 1884 the legislature finally made the penalty from one to five years for fence cutting which quickly ended the "war". By 1885, she was running 9,000 cattle. Although heavily in debt and sometimes paying interest as high as 18%, she survived when cattle kings went broke all around her.
After nine years a widow, in 1889, Mabel Day married Joseph Calloway Lea (November 8, 1841-February 4, 1904). At that time he was known as "The Father of Roswell" and she was mentioned by the press of Texas, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico as "the Cattle Queen of Texas". She and Capt. Lea then lived in New Mexico and along with running their separate ranches, they began the New Mexico Military Institute in their Roswell home.
About the turn of the century, Mabel Day Lea began the colonization of the southwest part of Coleman County. With the coming of settlers, she built a hotel and sought to establish towns (Leaday and Voss) as trading centers.
Mrs. Lea and daughter, Willie Day, made many business trips to Dallas and for years kept an apartment there. At the turn of the century, Willie met James Thomas Padgitt (March 6, 1880-March 21, 1942) of a conservative Dallas family; craftsmen and merchants celebrated Padgitt Bros. Co. fine leather goods, saddles and buggies. They were married June 15, 1904 in the Christian Church in Dallas. Tom continued his work with the saddle business, but by 1906 they were living both in Coleman and Dallas. April 4, 1906, Mabel Lea died and was buried in Dallas.
Through the colonization and the settlement of Mrs. Lea's estate, Willie and Tom were left enough to pass on a small fraction of the original W. H. Day Ranch. The name and much of the land were sold at that time to the Millers, a banking family from Kansas.
On August 8, 1906, a son, James Thomas Padgitt, Jr. was born in Temple. In the early years of James' life they lived in Dallas too. He was educated at Culver Military Academy in Indiana and received a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School of Business and Finance, University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, Tom Padgitt and son ran a herd of registered Herefords and started grazing some sheep as well.
While James was at a social gathering at the home of Dr. and Mrs. T. R. Sealy in Santa Ana, he met Lillian Williams Maverick (August 1, 1912-July 8, 2007), great-granddaughter of Samuel Augustus Maverick, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. They were married in Christ Episcopal Church in San Antonio on December 6, 1932, and had a honeymoon tour of Mexico. Making Leaday their home, they moved into a small two story house fondly called the Honeymoon House at the mouth of Grape Creek.
James and Lillian continued ranching but the Depression soon forced sale of the stock. James worked with the W.P.A. and then Sears in Port Arthur. For years, he served in Company B, 142nd Infantry, Texas National Guard, and in WWII, Major Padgitt was among the first of the 36th Division to land in the Salerno, Italy invasion. He retired a Lt. Colonel in 1946 and returned to Coleman with his wife.
February 3, 1947, Mrs. J. Tom Padgitt (Willie) died in Coleman and was buried next to her husband in Dallas. James continued with sheep and started irrigating the cotton. When the Coleman County Courthouse was torn down, they bought the rock and in 1954 built a house on the old cotton gin site at the Gin Crossing. By 1856 they had taken a second home in San Antonio at 333 Terrell Road that remains in the family. James, as well as a rancher, was something of a historian. For her part, Lillian led the Alamo Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas as well as the San Antonio Conservation Society, for which they raised a million dollars over a quarter century during Fiesta selling anticuchos at La Villita's Night In Old San Antonio.
James and Lillian loved traveling in Mexico, where they'd take their grandchildren, and when he was dying they went to Nuevo Laredo with Lillian's sister, Jane Maverick McMillan, and he passed away.
A History of Coleman County and Its People
About the turn of the century, Mabel Day Lea began the colonization of the southwest part of Coleman County. With the coming of settlers, she built a hotel and sought to establish towns (Leaday and Voss) as trading centers.
Mrs. Lea and daughter, Willie Day, made many business trips to Dallas and for years kept an apartment there. At the turn of the century, Willie met James Thomas Padgitt (March 6, 1880-March 21, 1942) of a conservative Dallas family; craftsmen and merchants celebrated Padgitt Bros. Co. fine leather goods, saddles and buggies. They were married June 15, 1904 in the Christian Church in Dallas. Tom continued his work with the saddle business, but by 1906 they were living both in Coleman and Dallas. April 4, 1906, Mabel Lea died and was buried in Dallas.
Through the colonization and the settlement of Mrs. Lea's estate, Willie and Tom were left enough to pass on a small fraction of the original W. H. Day Ranch. The name and much of the land were sold at that time to the Millers, a banking family from Kansas.
On August 8, 1906, a son, James Thomas Padgitt, Jr. was born in Temple. In the early years of James' life they lived in Dallas too. He was educated at Culver Military Academy in Indiana and received a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School of Business and Finance, University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, Tom Padgitt and son ran a herd of registered Herefords and started grazing some sheep as well.
While James was at a social gathering at the home of Dr. and Mrs. T. R. Sealy in Santa Ana, he met Lillian Williams Maverick (August 1, 1912-July 8, 2007), great-granddaughter of Samuel Augustus Maverick, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. They were married in Christ Episcopal Church in San Antonio on December 6, 1932, and had a honeymoon tour of Mexico. Making Leaday their home, they moved into a small two story house fondly called the Honeymoon House at the mouth of Grape Creek.
James and Lillian continued ranching but the Depression soon forced sale of the stock. James worked with the W.P.A. and then Sears in Port Arthur. For years, he served in Company B, 142nd Infantry, Texas National Guard, and in WWII, Major Padgitt was among the first of the 36th Division to land in the Salerno, Italy invasion. He retired a Lt. Colonel in 1946 and returned to Coleman with his wife.
February 3, 1947, Mrs. J. Tom Padgitt (Willie) died in Coleman and was buried next to her husband in Dallas. James continued with sheep and started irrigating the cotton. When the Coleman County Courthouse was torn down, they bought the rock and in 1954 built a house on the old cotton gin site at the Gin Crossing. By 1856 they had taken a second home in San Antonio at 333 Terrell Road that remains in the family. James, as well as a rancher, was something of a historian. For her part, Lillian led the Alamo Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas as well as the San Antonio Conservation Society, for which they raised a million dollars over a quarter century during Fiesta selling anticuchos at La Villita's Night In Old San Antonio.
James and Lillian loved traveling in Mexico, where they'd take their grandchildren, and when he was dying they went to Nuevo Laredo with Lillian's sister, Jane Maverick McMillan, and he passed away.
A History of Coleman County and Its People
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