02/13/2023
Longhorns gathered for branding on the LH7 ranch, 1929. The ranch WAS in western Harris County but, if I'm not mistaken, moved to Bandera some time ago. It was established by Emil Henry Marks in 1907. Marks's grandparents were Prussian immigrants; his father, A. T. Marks, was born as their ship arrived at Galveston in 1843. E. H. Marks was born on October 26, 1881, at Addicks, the youngest of A. T. and Elizabeth (Schulz) Marks's two daughters and three sons.
Orphaned at age ten, E. H. began working as a cowboy for an uncle who ranched at Pattison on the Brazos River. He later worked for other East and Southeast Texas ranchers. In 1898 he registered the LH7 brand in Harris County. The letters had no special significance; the seven represented the number in his family. In 1907 Marks married Maud May Smith of Fairbanks and started ranching on sixty-three acres east of Addicks. In December 1917 he moved the LH7 Ranch three miles west to 640 acres of prairie near Barker. To entertain neighboring ranchers who helped him with the spring branding of 1918, at a time of manpower shortages during World War I, Marks staged a small riding and roping contest. The branding party grew into an annual ranch rodeo that attracted large crowds from nearby Houston for thirty years. That's what you see here.
Courtesy the OUTSTANDING The Portal to Texas History
