Name: San Saba, Texas
Address: San Saba, TX

The Father of the Pecan Industry RoadyGoat

San Saba's claim as the 'Pecan Capital' isn't just from nature; it's from science. The story belongs to Edmond E. Risien, an English cabinetmaker who stopped here in 1874 on his way to California and never left. Risien wasn't a botanist by training, but he was a meticulous observer. He noticed the wild pecans along the river varied greatly—some had thick shells and little meat, while others were superior. So he held a contest, offering a prize for the finest wild nuts anyone could bring him, then tracked the winning pecans back to their source: one battered tree with a single limb left. He bought the land it stood on and called it the Mother Tree. Then he perfected a technique called grafting. He would take a small branch, or 'scion,' from a tree with desirable nuts and surgically attach it to the rootstock of a hardy, common pecan tree. That essentially cloned the superior tree. He started the West Texas Pecan Nursery in 1888 and released his San Saba variety around 1893. His decades of experimentation seeded famous varieties, including the Western Schley, and turned a wild nut into a global commodity.

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San Saba, TX RoadyGoat

San Saba, Texas, is synonymous with pecans. You can’t drive far without seeing orchards stretching across the landscape, those majestic live oaks interspersed among pecan trees heavy with nuts in the fall. The pecan industry here isn’t some recent development; it's woven into the very fabric of the town. The fertile soil along the San Saba River, combined with a climate that offers just the right balance of sun and rain, has proven ideal for pecan cultivation for generations. It started small, of course, with early settlers recognizing the potential of native pecan trees. But through careful cultivation and grafting of improved varieties, pecan production quickly became a cornerstone of the local economy. Highway 16, running right through the heart of town, became a vital artery for transporting those pecans to markets far and wide. Even today, while the world changes around us, the rhythm of the seasons in San Saba still revolves around the pecan harvest, a tradition that continues to shape the community and define its character.

San Saba, TX RoadyGoat

San Saba. Even the name rolls off the tongue with a sense of history, doesn't it? It comes from the San Saba River, the lifeblood of this area. The Spanish, drawn by whispers of silver, were the first to give it that name. "San Sabá" honors Saint Sabbas, a 5th-century monk from Cappadocia, a figure known for his dedication and for establishing monasteries in the harsh Judean desert. It's a fitting namesake, really, when you consider the challenges faced here. The Spanish mission, Santa Cruz de San Sabá, stood further south, near present-day Menard, a testament to their ambition. They hoped to convert the local tribes and exploit the rumored silver, but the Comanche had other plans. The mission was eventually abandoned, but the name, "San Sabá," stuck to the river and later to this town. It speaks to the enduring allure of the land, a place of both promise and hardship. Even now, under the shade of the live oaks along the riverbank, you can almost hear the echoes of those early dreams—dreams of silver, of faith, and of a new life carved out of the Texas frontier.

Brown, James Madison

1876

James Madison Brown, lawman and horseman, son of John Humphrey and Jane Ann Brown, was born in Alabama in 1839. The Browns, with several other families, settled permanently in what is now San Saba County, Texas, where John Brown helped establish the town of San Saba. James, the eldest son, grew up to be an excellent judge of horses and in his later years became wealthy from winning on the turf. During the Civil War he served as a minuteman under the command of W. R. Wood and later under his father's command. In 1869 he was probably one of the trail hands that drove a large herd from the San Saba region to Roswell, New Mexico Territory. In 1870 he resided in Washington County, where he had already established a reputation as a gambler. In 1872–73 he served as a private in the state police force. He joined Washington County Volunteer Militia Company A, commanded by Capt. Leander H. McNelly , and served from April 30 to November 30, 1875. During this time he also was establishing a reputation as a horseman; he raced successfully in Gonzales County as well as Travis County. Lee County, separated from Washington County in 1874, was still a frontier area and needed strong law enforcement officials. James McKeown was the new county's first sheriff, and on February 15, 1876, Brown was elected to take his place. He served in that office during a very lawless era and established a reputation for being an energetic sheriff. But his years were not without controversy. He was involved in several personal feuds as well as several killings. His most notable act in office was the legal hanging of noted outlaw William P. Longley . After his career as sheriff, Brown developed his racing stables and raced on tracks in cities outside of Texas, including St. Louis, Nashville, and Chicago. On September 6, 1892, while at the Garfield Park in Chicago, police attempted to arrest him on an old murder charge from Texas. Brown resisted, and in the ensuing gunfight he was killed, along with two members of the Chicago police force. Chicago newspapers described him as a millionaire but also alleged that he may have murdered as many as fourteen men while he was sheriff. It was surmised that his position and the fear he engendered among his contemporaries protected him from prosecution. Brown was buried in Fort Worth. He was survived by his wife and five children.

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Hubbert, Marion King

1956

M. King Hubbert, geophysicist, son of William Bee and Cora Virginia (Lee) Hubbert, was born in San Saba, Texas, on October 5, 1903. When he was four his mother organized a school for neighborhood children, an undertaking that impressed him deeply. A year later the family moved to the vicinity of Fort Stockton, where William Hubbert worked as a ranch foreman and farmer. Not long afterwards the family returned to San Saba County. King attended country schools in both Fort Stockton and San Saba, then enrolled in a private high school. His fascination with such mechanical devices as steam engines and telephones, then first appearing in Texas, revealed his precocity. Between 1921 and 1923 he attended Weatherford Junior College. He then enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he received his B.S. in 1926 and his M.S. in 1928. While working towards his doctorate he was hired, in 1930, to teach geophysics at Columbia University, where he remained until 1940. He finished the Ph.D. in 1937. During the summer months Hubbert worked on geophysical problems for the Amerada Petroleum Corporation in Oklahoma, the Illinois State Geological Survey, and the United States Geological Survey. In 1943, after serving as a senior analyst at the Board of Economic Warfare in Washington, D.C., he joined the Shell Oil Company in Houston, where for several years he directed the Shell research laboratory. After retiring from Shell in 1964, Hubbert joined the United States Geological Survey as a senior research geophysicist, a position he held until 1976. He made numerous important contributions to geophysics, ranging from fundamental scientific research to extensive studies of oil and natural gas reserves in the United States and worldwide. In 1937 he resolved a standing paradox regarding the apparent strength of materials that form the crust of the earth, for such rocks, despite their evident strength, often show signs of plastic flow. Hubbert demonstrated mathematically that even the hardest of rocks on the earth's surface, subject to the immense pressures occurring across large areas, will respond in a manner similar to soft muds or clays. In the early 1950s he introduced important revisions in theories about the flow of underground fluids. His own research, which demonstrated that fluids can become entrapped under circumstances previously not thought possible, led to a major reassessment of techniques employed to locate oil and natural gas deposits. By 1959, in collaboration with William W. Rubey, a geologist at the USGS, Hubbert explained the puzzling displacement of enormous blocks of material, known to geologists as overthrust faults, as a consequence of fluid pressure between such blocks and underlying materials. Hubbert is perhaps best known for his studies of petroleum and natural gas reserves, a subject he became attracted to in the 1920s while a student at Chicago. In 1949 he employed statistical and physical methods to calculate the worldwide volume of oil and natural gas supplies, then documented their sharply increasing consumption. In 1956 he predicted that the peak of crude-oil production in the United States would occur between 1966 and 1971. Although Hubbert's interpretation was later judged as essentially correct, his figures of future reserves were much lower than those accepted by many American petroleum companies and leaders of the USGS. In 1958, partly to illustrate the limits of available oil and natural gas supplies and the important questions of national policy they raised, Hubbert published a report on the mineral resources of Texas. As a consequence of his studies of natural resources, he was invited to participate on various government panels, including the Committee on Natural Resources Advisory to President John F. Kennedy, organized by the National Academy of Sciences. Hubbert was also influential in promoting in American universities the study of geophysics, an area of research that well into the 1950s was more at home

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Ketchum Boys

1890

Thomas Edward (Black Jack) and Samuel W. Ketchum were members of a gang of outlaws that terrorized Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas in the 1890s. Sam was born on January 4, 1854, in Caldwell County, and Tom was born in San Saba County on October 31, 1863. They were the sons of Green Berry and Temperance Katherine (Wydic) Ketchum and grew up in San Saba, Texas. Their father had been coroner of Christian County, Illinois, before coming to Texas, where he may have been a doctor. His sons were ranch boys of little education. Sam married Louisa J. Greenlee in San Saba on February 4, 1874, according to family records; Tom never married. Tom left Texas about 1890, possibly because of a murder or a train robbery, and went to work for cow outfits in the Pecos Valley of New Mexico. By 1894 Sam had joined him, and the brothers began a career of crime, including killing a merchant near Carrizo, robbing post offices, and holding up stages, trains, and a railroad station. In 1897 they spent a good deal of time across the line in Mexico but stopped two trains in Arizona. On September 3, 1897, they held up the Colorado Southern passenger train near Folsom. In 1898 apparently there was some disagreement in the ranks, and Black Jack was not present when Sam and others again held up the Colorado Southern near Folsom on July 11, 1899. A posse caught up with them; Sam was wounded and captured and died two weeks later in the penitentiary at Santa Fe. Two peace officers and another of the robbers were killed in the battle. Not knowing of the outcome of Sam's last attempt, Black Jack determined to make one more raid and tried, singlehanded, to hold up the Colorado Southern, again near Folsom, on August 16, 1899. Wounded by the conductor, he was picked up beside the tracks next day. On October 5, 1900, he was sentenced to hang. The sentence was carried out at Clayton on April 26, 1901. The Ketchum gang was blamed for a good many crimes that they may not have committed. Apparently they had connections with a larger organization of outlaws. It is also possible that many of the crimes attributed to Black Jack Ketchum were committed by Will "Black Jack" Christian and his brother, and that Tom Ketchum inherited the name and reputation after Christian was killed; however, the facts of Tom Ketchum's career indicate that his notoriety outdistanced that of Christian.

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Risien, Edmond E., Pecan Pioneer

1870

(1853-1940) Cited by 42nd Texas Legislature and the public as a world leader in pecan industry. Spent lifetime upbreeding native San Saba pecans. Born in Dover, England. Came here in 1870s. Installed first San Saba water works. Some pecan varieties he originated were Onliwon, San Saba Improved and Western Schley. Mrs. E. E. Risien, born in Plymouth, England, 1853, died in San Saba 1953. The Risiens had four children: Doris, Norma, Winnie and E. Guy (son who carried on work with pecans). Erected 1969

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The Texas Rangers and the San Saba Mob

1850

Removed from major roads and railways, early San Saba County residents had limited access to law enforcement and government. Beginning in the mid-1850s, citizens in and around the county formed vigilante mobs to dispatch justice. Although initially formed to protect residents, these mobs often evolved into organized gangs, terrorizing the residents they had initially formed to protect. By the 1880s, a group unofficially called the San Saba Mob, or The Assembly, had killed numerous area settlers. Believed to have included religious leaders and elected officials, the Mob operated under strict ritual and secrecy, meeting clandestinely at places like Buzzards' Water Hole and Cottonwood Pond. Organized similarly to a fraternal lodge, the group used secret signs and gestures to identify membership. After meeting and deciding who to eliminate, the regulators would ride wearing black masks or hoods, and ambush their victims with a telling nine bullet holes. In 1896, in order to stop the violence, the state sent Texas Rangers led by Sgt. W. John L. Sullivan to investigate, and San Saba County News editor Uluth M. Sanderson began running editorials against the Mob. Sullivan was later replaced by Ranger Capt. William J. "Bill Jess" McDonald, who worked effectively with District Attorney W.C. Linden to expose as many Mob members as possible. To avoid interference from local officials believed to have ties to the group, they moved key trials to Austin and Llano. By 1900, the Rangers and Linden succeeded in breaking the Mob's control over county residents, although few members ever paid for their crimes. (2005)

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Sion Record Bostick

1835

About 276 yards to the west is grave of Sion Record Bostick (December 7, 1819 - October 15, 1902) A member of the party of young Texans who captured the escaping Mexican General Santa Anna after Battle of San Jacinto, during the Texas War for Independence. Migrated from Alabama in 1828. Served in Texas army at Gonzales and Bexar (San Antonio), 1835; at San Jacinto, 1836; and 1840 stand against Comanches, at Plum Creek. An American soldier in Mexican War, 1846; a Confederate in Hood's Brigade in the Civil War, 1860s. Married Susan Townsend; after her death, Mary Indiana Rhodes. Had several children. Became a leader in veterans reunions. He is buried in San Saba Cemetery. Recorded 1973

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San Saba, Texas

Music in San Saba

Songs About San Saba

Artists From San Saba

Rivers & Roads in Song near San Saba

History of San Saba

The Father of the Pecan Industry RoadyGoat

San Saba, TX RoadyGoat

San Saba, TX RoadyGoat

Brown, James Madison

Hubbert, Marion King

Ketchum Boys

Risien, Edmond E., Pecan Pioneer

The Texas Rangers and the San Saba Mob

Sion Record Bostick

Things to Do in San Saba

Everything Near San Saba