The only son of Bivil and Elizabeth McEntire, William Randolph McEntire was born in Buncomb County, North Carolina, in 1839. At the age of nineteen, William joined his uncle’s wholesale grocery business in Atlanta, Georgia, and married Catherine Danill three years later. Both his wife and daughter died in 1863. In 1862, McEntire enlisted in the 9th Artillery Battalion of Georgia Volunteers and was elected 2nd Lieutenant. His unit saw action in Tennessee, where McEntire was captured in 1863 and sent to a prison camp at Johnston’s Lake, Ohio where he was interred for 21 months. After the war, he returned to the grocery trade and married Missie Carmelar Burnett, with whom he had four children. In 1880, McEntire purchased the U Ranch outside Sterling City, Texas, and in 1906, passed the title to his son, George. William passed away in 1915.
Consisting of correspondence, account books, biographical material, memorandum books, a diary, a bank book, and printed materials, the George H. McEntire Papers, 1874-1920, document the operations of the U Ranch in the late-19th and early 20th centuries. The bulk of the documents are letters between William McEntire and business associates discussing prices, negotiating deals and other sundry ranch related issues between 1899 and 1903. Two brand books from 1872-1873 concern the branding of McEntire’s livestock. Ranch books discuss accounts with hands and other financial information between 1872-1883, and memorandum books also pertain to daily transactions between 1887-1906. Additionally, printed materials consist of the
This collection is open for research use.
George H. McEntire Papers, 1874-1920, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
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