Biographies - Dillard Rucker Fant

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          For some years after the civil war Texas offered the best field for enterprise to men of push, energy and sound judgment, and many men who came out of the war without a dollar, had the sagacity and foresight to take advantage of the opportunities offered and succeeded in a few years in accumulating fortunes.

             The men best adapted to the kind of business that promised success were what is known as "self-made-men." Such men have a keenness of perception and self-reliance that triumphs over difficulties before which others with more educational methods would stand appalled.

             Such is the character, and such was the training of the subject of this biography, Dillard Rucker Fant, of Goliad, Goliad county, Texas.

             He is the son of William A. and Mary A. Fant. William A. Fant held the office of County Judge of Goliad county for many years, and was a most respectable and trusted citizen of that county.

             Dillard Rucker Fant was born July 27, 1841, in Anderson, South Carolina, but was removed to Texas with his father and family in 1852, the family settling in Goliad, Goliad county, when he was quite a youth. He received a limited education in the English branches, at Goliad, which, at that time was rather in advance of other places in the State in educational facilities; but early endowed with a desire to become an active business man, this youth did not avail himself of these advantages by prosecuting his studies to a thorough education, but having an eager and retentive mind and memory, he obtained a larger and more profitable fund of information than is contained in books, by association with intelligent men, and whetted by contact with others in the business affairs to which his ambition soon led him.

             Mr. Fant followed the example of some of our distinguished statesmen, and commenced business as the driver and helmsman of a "prairie schooner," or in other words, an ox team drawing a freight wagon between Indianola, then an important Texas port, and Goliad. In this occupation he soon discovered the methods and the facilities offered by a new country for an enterprising and industrious man to accumulate a fortune; but just about the time he was in condition by reason of maturity of judgment to branch out in trade the war came on, and he volunteered in the service of the Confederate States government, enlisting in Company "K," Twenty-first Texas regiment, under the command of Colonel Carter, who subsequently commanded the brigade. He attained the rank of Orderly Sergeant in his company in which he served until the close of the war.

             When he returned to Goliad he found he would have to commence life over again, and this time as before, with nothing but honest industry and a good name as a capital.

             D. R. Fant married Lucy A. Hodges, daughter of Colonel Jack Hodges, who came from Mississippi to Texas in 1838. The fruit of that marriage was a family of eleven children, only one of whom, an infant daughter, Lucy, of ten days of age, have they lost.

             The following are still living to-wit: George N., Virginia B., Dillard R., jr., Ophie, Robert W., Evans G., Lucile, Agnes M., Cooper and Sullivan.

             The first year after the war and also the first after his marriage, he commenced farming, but soon enlarged his business to raising, purchasing, selling and trading in stock, and since 1869, he has been an extensive driver and shipper of cattle and horses, with ranches in Idaho, Nebraska, Dakota and Wyoming, and at present in the Indian Territory.

             He has been very successful in driving stock North, never losing over three per cent, in any winter, which is attributable to his personal attention to his stock, and extraordinary care taken of his herds.

             Mr. Fant has had several contracts to furnish the government with beef, which he has filled to the letter of the contract, and which have been very profitable to him.

             Last year, 1889, he drove three herds North, and shipped two herds. A herd is composed of two thousand to two thousand five hundred head of cattle. He has also sent North eighty head of saddle horses.

             1884 was a fortunate year for cattle men. That year Mr. Fant drove more cattle North than other driver in the South. He purchased, at an average cost of $15 a head, forty-two thousand head of cattle. He had contracted to sell twenty-two thousand head to one firm in Wyoming—Swain & Bros. He also drove North thirteen hundred saddle horses. The cattle and horses were all delivered in good shape and fine order. The balance of the stock not contracted for by Swain & Bros, were sold in New Mexico, Kansas and Nebraska. The gross amount derived from the sales of cattle and horses, came to near one million dollars. The profits were in great contrast, that year and this. Cattle then were worth $20 a head, for which it would be hard to obtain $5 per head now, in 1890.

             Mr. Fant is a man of extensive observation and sound judgment, and predicts that in the course of three years there will a change for the better in the cattle market, and he also thinks that large ranches will be divided up within that time into farms or smaller ranches, but he hardly hopes for the extensive operations again that yielded a fortune in the stock business in one season.

             He has, however, been so prudent as to invest in valuable lands that will yield himself and large family, each a fortune, and having made hay while the sun shone, he can afford to take it easy the rest of his days and devote himself to rearing and educating his children.

             Mr. Fant has taken great interest in the public school system of the State, and has aided and been instrumental in erecting school buildings as well as railroads in the interest of the development of the vast resources of the State.

             He is both a member of a lodge of A. F. and A. M., and an Odd Fellow.

             As a citizen, he is public-spirited and patriotic, believing that Goliad is the garden spot of the world; in fact that the town and county combine all the qualities of soil, educational facilities, climate and society, that would invite and captivate the imigrant to Texas, and make his residence there pleasant and profitable.

             He is a large man, weighing 262 pounds, Saxon type, blue eyes, light auburn hair and beard; vigorous and healthy, with those social qualities that make the domestic circle delightful and happy—and with the promise of a long and useful life before him in the relations of head of a family and citizen of his county and State.