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by Mary Walker Thomson, 1951, Dean of Women, Stephen F. Austin College, Nacogdoches, Texas
Maverick County is one hundred years old this year and is celebrating its centennial. The interest of its citizens has been very mild, stirred only when there was a political upheaval or some exciting personal confrontation. Few knew or cared about the county's age or the history of its beginnings. A centennial, however, is a time of awakening and of taking a long look back into the past.
Maverick County is not just the land within its political boundaries, dry and hilly, with an over abundance of mesquite and prickly pear - of rocks and sand. It is mainly the people who have lived here who came long ago to push aside the rocks and to build homes; who brought in mules and burros for the heavy work and were glad of the despised mesquite beans that fed them; who thanked God, in times of drought for the oft cursed prickly pear that kept cattle alive until the rains came and grass grew again.
Who were some of these early comers? One who came in 1874, close to the beginning, was Patrick Walker Thomson, a Scotsman from Aberdeenshire, Scotland - not Scotch, that is the name reserved for the native drink, which sometimes still takes precedence over the men. Few care that a man is a Scot but they want to know, for sure, that their drink is "Scotch."
An earlier Scotsman, whose name was Lytle, came to Texas, made his "pile" and returned home to Scotland to show off a little and to brag a bit. Being Scottish, his work was with sheep and he thought that none but a Scot knew how to handle the "beasties." So, he must find a Scot to go back with him to Texas.
While in Scotland, he met a youngster, "a likely lad", at that time just twenty years old and not long out of school. Patrick Thomson probably knew little more about sheep than "the dumb beasties" themselves. But he did recognize this as a bit of luck. Out of a stern Presbyterian home housing eleven children, how could he refuse such an offer.
The partnership flourished for both and, soon, Patrick was getting together a flock of his own, even beginning to think of himself as his own master. It was not long then before he and his sheep went off and settled down in a pretty spot near Spofford; "The Willow Ranch," he called his first home. Then feeling successful and settled, he went back to Scotland, to Huntly, a small town in Aberdeenshire, where his sweetheart was waiting for him. Young Janet Aitchison, putting all her trust in her man, followed him back to the cactus and the coyotes of his small and, probably, not very comfortable home.
Patrick prospered, so he and his Janet planned to build a big stone house. They, with the help of friends, laid out the plan right on the ground where the house was to be; they marked it off with string and stakes - the rooms, the halls, and even the "little red housie" out back. Then they put on a bit of "front" and got one of the men who had just finished the capitol in Austin to come to their place seven miles north of Eagle Pass to build their rock house with the stones all chipped, and fitted like those of the capitol. They called it "Rancho de Los Olmos" but that long name soon dwindled to "Olmos Ranch" or "Thomson Ranch", "Olmos" for the elms that grew along the banks of their creek.
It was not all easy going for the young couple. Indian raids were a thing of the past but the squabbles over the fencing in of private land was just beginning and, added to that, almost constant fighting in Mexico kept the whole border unsettled. Drought came, babies came - two boys and a girl. But the railroad had come through, rains finally came, and the sheep did well. Patrick had landed on his feet.
He wrote back to Scotland enthusiastically. First, brother John, the eldest, joined him; then Robert came, then James joined them. Robert went back to Scotland and married the beautiful Isabella Jane Deans in 1889, but James took a pretty Texas wife. He married May Harlan in 1895. Robert and James settled down and got ranches, got babies - two boys for Robert, two girls and two boys for James. Robert had two ranches, "The Guajolote" and "The Sauz". James called his "The Rosita" and named one of his children Rosita. Brother Charles came also, looked around, but went back to Scotland where reared a family of Scots. The others reared Texans. Only John, the old bachelor went off alone and settled on a sheep ranch in New Mexico. In 1883, after the others had been here for some time, Samuel Aitchison, Janet's brother, joined them, bringing his bride Helen Anne Thomson - no relation to the other Thomsons. They lived for a few years at the "Chacon Ranch"; but Samuel was an engineer who owned his own outfit for digging deep wells so they went to Mexico where he got plenty to do; and there they lived for most of their married life.
The day of the big sheepmen came to a sudden and tragic end. Patrick Thomson, at one time, had over 70,000 sheep with an average yearly clip of 200,000 pounds. However, President Cleveland, who was in office at that time, took the tariff off wool which caused its price to drop from 20 or 30 cents a pound to 7 cents. Naturally, sheepmen went broke, Some switched to cattle and then a big drought came which made it a case of "out of the frying pan into the fire."
No rain; cattle dying. Janet died too, leaving three small children. Patrick was in deep trouble, but he had a good head on those square Scottish shoulders. He watched the Rio Grande in its course, watched the flow of rainwater, and dreamed a big dream. He felt sure that an irrigation canal could be built that would, by gravity alone, bring water to that parched land. He went to Britain to raise capital to build his canal. Failing there, he traveled in Scotland and in this country, always working for it, always hopeful.
On one of his trips to Scotland, seeking funds, he visited Janet's brother, Walter Aitchison, in Huntly, and went with him one Sunday to the old Presbyterian Church. There he saw a lovely girl playing the organ; and once more from the little town of Huntly in 1903, he brought back a bride to Texas, Mary Ann Jamieson. No money for his canal but a happy home at "Los Olmos" and two more little girls.
Then, with recognition and success in sight, he died in 1910.
Patrick Thomson came to Texas alone. Now there is a big Thomson clan here: brothers and sisters and cousins of the first, second, and succeeding generations. Today, almost a hundred years later, the canal flourishes, for others with vision and imagination took Patrick's dream and made it a reality.