HISTORY SHEET PERTAINING TO FRANK AND MARJORIE WRAY ANTHONY.
THE FOLLOWING IS QUOTED FROM THE WARD COUNTY HISTORICAL BOOK
(1887-1977)
Marjorie Anthony wrote the following for the Historical Book
"Frank Anthony, though raised in Pecos where his father was a
long time rancher in southeastern Reeves County, has worked on
Ward County ranches since his early youth, due to his father's
association with the late Mr. Jim Tubb. When his father died in
1940 he was at that time partners with Mr. Tubb on a ranch south
of Pecos. Frank, like so many others that Mr. Tubb helped in
his lifetime, was helped to get his start in ranching. In the
Fall of that year he took another big step. He met and married
Marjorie Wray, a visiting city girl, and a Yankee at that! They
moved onto the Allen Ranch south of Pecos, remodeled the old
house, and went to work for Mr. Tubb at the princely salary of
$40 a month. Overnight Marjorie had to learn to ride a horse,
help fix fences and windmills, milk a cow, clean coal oil lamps,
cope with a wood stove and many other unknown and unheard of
things.
Two years later they became partners with Mr. Tubb in the T Bar
Ranch seventeen miles north of Kermit and remodeled another old
ranch house. Frank continued to come to Ward County to help
with ranchwork especially with the round-ups which took 30 days
in Spring and 30 days in the Fall. Ranching then was a
different story than at present times. Not many pickups were
used as they had a bad habit of getting stuck in the sand. Mr.
Tubb's various ranches had more than 50 windmills to be looked
after and with a permanent crew of from 5 to 7 men and 15 to 22
when they worked cattle it required a herd of 100 horses.
Chuckwagons were still quite necessary and you went to your
windmills on horseback or a wagon and team. There were no oil
field roads and no caliche roads north of Highway 80.
It was many years before they could afford to eat their own beef
but they lived very well on plenty of beans, cornbread,
home-cured bacon and hams. In those days there were lots of
hogs running in the sandhills and Mr. Tubb had plenty of pork to
cure every year. Day old chicks were a penny each so every year
they raised one hundred to two hundred fryers so when there were
15 to 18 to feed at cattleworking time or when unexpected
company drove up (and they were usually unexpected as very few
ranches had electricity or gas, let alone a telephone) you could
always run out and wring a few necks and with plenty of biscuits
no one ever complained. As they were allowed only $22 a month
groceries Frank didn't complain either, though he's not very
fond of chicken nowadays!
Marjorie drove their son, Jess, 17 miles to school in Kermit for
two years then ten miles to Jal till he was old enough to drive
to school in Wink, where he completed his high school education.
As Frank began to divide his time half and half between the T
Bar and Mr. Tubb's 5 ranches it became necessary to move closer
to this half of his work. They leased the China Ranch north of
Monahans from Mr. Tubb and Sealy-Smith Foundation and remodeled
another old ranch house! They remained partners with Mr. Tubb
until his death in November 1954.
The school bus driving started all over again for Marjorie as
their daughter Linda Lea started school in the Fall of 1955 in
Monahans and completed her education there and graduating from
Angelo State University in 1971.
In 1964 Jess took over the China Ranch and Frank and Marjorie
happily retired to a smaller ranch, the Libby Edwards Ranch, 3
miles south of Monahans where they built their first permanent
home. They are enjoying their semi-retirement and Frank divides
his time between the ranch here and the Jal Ranch (The Old
Beckham Ranch) and helping the grandchildren run their cattle on
the old ranch across the river where the grandparents first
started out......"
Frank and Marjorie were married in Pecos, TX. then moved to the
Allen (Place) Ranch located south of Pecos. They later moved to
the T Bar Ranch in Winkler Co., near Kermit, TX. China Ranch,
located on the Sealy-Smith Foundation property, was their next
living quarters. China Ranch is located north of Monahans, TX.,
east of State Highway 18. It was after their stay at China
Ranch that they purchased the Libby Edwards Ranch, south of
Monahans.
Frank was a cowman (not cowboy)! He knew his cattle. He raised
white face herefords only until about 1980 when he realized that
cross-bred cattle were bringing more per pound at the markets.
His grandsons showed some cross bred cattle at the Ward Co. 4-H
Stock Show and won with these cattle. Frank began to cross some
of his white face at that time.
Even though he went through a heart by-pass operation and had
cataracts pretty bad, that did not deter his ability to operate
his ranch and get around his old ranching grounds.
He assisted many people in Ward County when there was a need. He
built a house for his mother near the ranch house in Monahans
when she became invalid. He participated with the Men's Bible
Class, and was one of the organizers of this class, in Monahans.
They first met in the Board Room of 1st National Bank and then
later moved to the Ward County Community Center. The Bible
Class assisted many in the community who were in need.
