"I am in the process of researching a fairly well known Border character named Graham Barnett. At an early period (c. 1912-13) in his career he worked for the TO Ranch which was, I believe, about 50 miles west of Pilares. Do you have any information on the TO? There is some in the Joyce Means book and in Bosque Bonito but I was hoping for a little more. Also, photos of Graham seem to be hard to locate. Do you have any suggestions for a possible source? Thanks, Jim Coffey"

Jim,
Other than the two sources you mentioned, Means and Keil, I can think of only a couple of other sources that briefly talk about the T.O. Ranch. that being J.J. Kilpatrick, aka the "King of Candelaria". Kilpatrick and his sons, who ranched and farmed in Candelaria did business with the T.O. Ranch. The T.O. Ranch in Chihuahua covered a huge expance of land streaching from a little north of Candelaria upriver almost to Juarez. From what I have been able to glean, the T.O. was owned by a number of North American cattlemen and some U.S. lawmen. At one time, about 1915, the T.O. had H.O. Robertson as foreman. See p. 456-457 of "The Texas Rangers and the Mexican Revolution: The Bloodiest Decade, 1910-1920" by Charles Harris and Louis Sadler. Robertson was a very shady character and the T.O. ran along the border making it an ideal place to smuggle cattle stolen during the Mexican Revolution into Texas. Cattle stolen by Pancho Villa's henchmen frequently brought cattle to the T.O. to be sold. Somewhere I have a file on the T.O. ranch, just can't lay my hands on it at the moment. I'll see if I can't locate it and see if there is anything about Graham Barnett. Hope this helps, Glenn Justice

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Comments

H.O.Robertson is the person responsible for the murder of my grandfather, Rodrigo Barragan and his friend, Febronio Calanche. Robertson was a cold blooded killer, worked the border as a river rider, was deputized as a Texas Ranger and when his friend, Joe Sitter was killed, he took revenged by killing every Mexican he came in contact with, to include the above named and also my uncle Anestacio Segura.

I pray that someday, someone will publish the real truth of who these people really were. Recently the Texas Ranger Association put a headstone on Joe Sitter's grave in Valentine, TX to "honor" his service as a Texas Ranger. This story appeared in the Marfa big Bend Sentinel, you could probably contact Marfa paper and view in their archives.

I will be away from computer for next 2 weeks, just in case you respond and not receive an answer right away.

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