Eloise Lane

Surveys of the land grants were made by the railroad companies. Most of the area of Gray County was surveyed by the International and Great Northern Railroad (I. & G.N.R.R.) which later merged with the Houston and Great Northern Railroad (H. & G.N.R.R.). In the southern part of the county, surveys-were made by the Corpus Christi, San Diego, and Rio Grande Railroad (C.C.S.D. & R.G.R.R.) and the Pacific Railway (D. & P.R.).

In 1875, the consolidated International and Houston company sold its lands to the Texas Land Company. These lands were then conveyed to the New York and Texas Land Company, Ltd. in 1880. At that time, the New York and Texas Land Company had headquarters at Palestine, Texas, but in 1885, moved its headquarters to Austin for easier accessibility to official documents relating to its vast holdings.

The New York and Texas Land Company acquired approximately 6,000,000 acres of land extending from the Panhandle of Texas to the Gulf of Mexico. Its first big land sale was to the Francklyn Land and Cattle Company which was organized in 1882 by Charles G. Francklyn, a capitalist from New York and London. Francklyn’s company was backed by his father-in-law, E.F. Cunard of the Cunard Steamship Line.

Colonel B.B. Groom, a promoter from Kentucky, was employed to manage the Francklyn company. He was assisted in this ranching enterprise by his son, Harrison (Harry) Thomson Groom. With the approval of Charles Francklyn, the Diamond F cattle brand was worked out by B.B. Groom and filed in October 1882.

After four years the Francklyn company became insolvent, and the company known at first as White Deer Lands was organized in 1886.

One of the rarest documents in the White Deer Land Museum archives is a mortgage of the Francklyn Land and Cattle Company dated November 27, 1883. It is signed by Charles Francklyn, president of the company, and attached are signatures of E.E. Carhart and Newton F. Locke, clerks for Carson and Wheeler Counties .