Over the Thanksgiving holiday Shannon and I got in a competition about who was more of a Texan. It was a lighthearted discussion that I won of course. I called her a Yankee and she stated back she was a natural born Texan. Her argument was though I was born in Texas I moved away to New Mexico at age eight and didn’t return until I was twenty-four. At that I told her she was nothing but a Yankee since her mom moved here from New York. We laughed about it but it really did get me thinking about my family heritage. I come from a long proud line of Texans. Most everyone has heard of the Kings and the King ranch but did you know that the second largest ranch in the United States belonged to a man named Francis Oral (F.O.) Masten.
F.O. is my great uncle and used to chase me around my grandma Alice’s house when I was a toddler. Not only was F.O. a rancher but also most notably he was a cotton farmer. One of the most successful farmers in the United States for many years as a matter of fact. My grandmur, Opal Norine (Frazier) Andrew, who I will be visiting in a few days grew up with her mom (Alice Cornelia Masten) and her dad (Arthur L Frazier) as well as F.O. During the depression it was common for family to live and work together. F.O. started from a very modest family and through hard work built the most successful cotton farm in U.S. history at the time. He created his own fertilizer and won many cotton growing competitions over his lifetime. He is a pillar of Texas history and was a great and humble man. I am very proud to say that my family has been helping to shape Texas history since the mid 1700’s. Please follow this link to read more about one of the great Texas families and part of my heritage. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmada and this is a link about the Masten ranch http://www.acu.edu/img/assets/3555/Ranches.pdf
