The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-11-30
SHE'S QUEEN OF
RANCH OWNERS
MRS. CoRNELIA AVAIR HAS A
HERD OF $4,000 CATTLE.

To few great land owners has fal-
len the princely kingdom OF acres that
was bequeathed by her husband to
Mrs. Cornelia Adair, society woman,
philanthropist and 0wner of 100000
acres in, the Panhandle of Texas,
ranch one-third the size of the State
of Massachusetts,.
The acknowledged leader of Lon
don's most exclusive American set, !"
Mrs. Adair is also business woman
of the first order. Witness her man
agement of the vast Adair estate, the
survival OIL her Texas ranch in these
days of modern methods and machin-
cry and Of combinationations of CAPT
tai which have driven hundreds of
smaller ranchers to the wall, making
-ranching Improbable to thousands.
Texas points with a certain pride to
the fact that two ofthe biggest ranch
es within her borders are owned and
controlled by women, That each is
managed with infinite care and with
success their survival of years of keen
est competition indicates.
Mrs. H. NJ. King is the other large
land owner, but her estate in South
west Texas cannot be compared to
the Adair tract There are 100000
acres, it is true, but that does not ap-
proach Mrs. Adair's 100000 acres, all
in one body
There are points of difference quite
as great between the two women. One
a woman of home instincts, of bust
ness application and entirely devoted
to the management of her estate, the
other quite as able, quite as proflc-
lent in management, but of wider
range of thought and viewpoint, fond
of society and travel. One of the
most remarkable things in Mrs.
Adair's remarkable success is that
she can combine her London social
duties and her annual travels with
her business to such an extent that
neither suffers,
Kingdoms of the Panhandle.
There is romance even in the pur-
chase of the great ranch Twenty
Adair bought 100000 acres near
Clarendon in Texas at about 20 cents
an acre That was when much land
in the Panhandle was regarded as
practically worthless, even for grazing.
With the flight of years these ideas
changed; deserted tracts of land be-
came the grazing ground of herds of
cattle. and the Adairf estate, if now
put up for sale, would easily bring $40
an acre-that is $4,000, 900 for land
alone, and the land is by no means
the only wealth there.
Mrs. Adair has in the Panhandle a
little kingdom of her own, of which
she is fairy queen. Across the wide
tracts within &c borders $4,000 cattle
roam at pasture; annually 10000
calves are branded at the great round
up. whose fame has spread over the
entire State. Each year from 5000 to
s 900 steers are marketed. In the
cattle alone the annul net profit Of
the Adair ranch during the last ten
years has been more than 100000.
This, too, in the face of opposition of
the strongest and Of leagues Of ranch
ers that promised for time to kill
all individual ranchers m Texas.
Where formerly raDchers let their
cattle Craze az will over the country,
wasting it's resources and their
own possibilities, prosperous farmers
now surround the Adair ranch. No
effort is made, however, to farm any
part Of the large tract composing Mrs. !
estate. Like an ancient ba-
ronial castle is the ranch-house, an
Imposing pile Of stone. There is moth
Ing about 1t to suggest the rough-and-