Pioneer sheep rancher Joseph Tweedy (1849-1928) was born in New York City in 1849. Tweedy helped run the family business, the clothing manufacturing firm Schepflin, Baldwin, and Tweedy, until 1876 when he, Joel Barlow Reynolds, and Morgan and Lawrence Grinnell sailed from New York City to Galveston. They purchased several herds of sheep and settled near Fort Concho in what became Tom Green County in 1877, eventually turning the area into an international wool production center. Tweedy’s ranch, The Knickerbocker Ranch on Dove Creek, eventually became the town of Knickerbocker. Tweedy founded the Wool Grower’s Association at San Angelo in 1881 and became its first president. In 1885, Tweedy started the San Jose Irrigation Company, one of the earliest irrigation enterprises in Texas. Additionally, Tweedy served as Tom Green County commissioner, a bank director, and a civic leader in San Angelo, Texas.
Correspondence, a diary, and photographs comprise the Joseph Tweedy Papers, 1876-1899, 1908, and relate to the activities of Tweedy’s Knickerbocker Ranch near San Angelo, Texas. The papers contain Tweedy’s letters from 1876 to 1885, pertaining to his migration to Texas and his establishment of a West Texas sheep ranch. Additionally, the papers include letters from his partner, E. M. Grinnell, and letters from Joel Barlow Reynolds’ son, Sam W. Reynolds. E. M. Grinnell’s letters concern his involvement in Tweedy’s sheep ranch. Sam W. Reynold’s letters, written to his parents in 1908, pertain to his work on the ranch during that summer. The papers also contain a transcript of Joel Barlow Reynolds’ diary, kept from 1876 to 1877, describing the boat voyage to Texas from New York and his first year raising sheep in Texas. The undated photographs depict Joseph Tweedy.
The collection is open for research use.
Joseph Tweedy Papers, 1876-1899, 1908, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
This collection was processed by Chester V. Kielman, July 1964. Subsequent revisions were made by Walter H. Richter, September 1965 and July 1966.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s