[Photograph Album and Book of Family Histories Documenting Morris Ranch]

Morris Ranch, Texas, 1992. Very good. Two items: (1) Spiral-bound 11" x 8½" printed book + (2) Cloth over thin card commercial photograph album measuring 7" x 10½" with 32 cyanotypes and 43 B&W photos adhesive mounted to 32 pages; the remaining 68 pages are blank. Photos range from 1" x 1" to 3½" x 5½" and five are captioned; see description for further information. Album, book and photographs all very good: light edge wear to covers and some light scattered spotting.

This is a pair of items which provide a unique glimpse into the history of Morris Ranch, Texas.

The first item is a book, They Came To Morris Ranch, compiled in 1992 by the Morris Ranch Cemetery Association. Now a ghost town located just outside Fredericksburg, about two hours west of Austin, we learn from the book that "in its heyday, it was the largest breeding and training facility for thoroughbred race horses in the State of Texas and the second largest in the United States." Francis Morris, a wealthy breeder and trainer of thoroughbreds in New York and Maryland, purchased the ranch in 1856. He sold sections of it and willed the rest to his children, who did the same with their ownership interests. Antitrust racing laws passed in the 1890s devastated the racehorse industry in Texas and much of the ranch was sold, but Morris descendants kept many of the sections and continued to breed, train and race their own horses until 1945. Though not an incorporated town, Morris Ranch was a self-contained community. It had a schoolhouse, a hotel and a general store with post office, as well as a large jockey house, 17 horse barns, a one-mile race track, a mill and two gins. There were also numerous private residences for members of the Morris family and the employees of the ranch. When this book was written, it was still a thriving community of farms and ranches, and the old general store was maintained as a private vacation home.

The book also provides general ranch history, as well as detailed genealogy charts and 29 "family history stories" for 14 different families that lived at the ranch. There are also two maps. One points out the homes, barns, school and businesses and the other reveals plots owned by individuals. There are also photographic images interspersed throughout the book.

The photograph album contains 32 cyanotypes and 43 black and white photos, more than half of which show residents of the town, as individuals and in small and large groups. They also reveal buildings including the mill, general store and a few sprawling ranch houses. Horses appear in 22 of the images: one with women driving a buggy, three with children riding, and a few of the horses doing their work. There are also two photos of a woman riding a donkey. The women of the ranch are prominent, including one great shot of four women in fancy hats and another woman in an Indian headdress, facing away with her bow and arrow. Other photos depict the scenery and sweeping landscape, including one giant alligator stretched out in the sun and a shot of two people in what looks like too much snow to be Texas. Five photos are captioned in the negative, but don't provide much information; unfortunately we were not able to identify any of the subjects seen in the album.

A unique group of materials related to Texas ranching. OCLC locates no holdings of the book, though a Google search reveals one, at the San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society.