George Littlefield White (1908 - 1978)

Born 14 Dec 1908 in Roswell, Chaves, New Mexico, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Hazel Ann Giles — married 1948 in Lamb Co., TX.

Died 27 Jul 1978 at age 69 in Littlefield, Lamb, Texas, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jade White [send private message]

Biography

George was buried in July 1978 in Littlefield Memorial Park, Lamb Co., TX.

Research Notes

Notes from external profile

Note: @NI06731@

@NI06731@ NOTE1910 census:Name: George L White

Birth: abt 1909 - New Mexico

Residence: 1910 - Roswell Ward 3, Chaves, New Mexico

1920 census:Name: George L White

Birth: abt 1909 - New Mexico

Residence: 1920 - Roswell Ward 3, Chaves, New Mexico

1930 census: Name: George L White

Birth: abt 1909

Residence: 1930 - Roswell, Chaves, New Mexico

Social Security Death Index

about George White

Name: George White

SSN: 456-09-5677

Last Residence: 79339 Littlefield, Lamb, Texas, United States of America

Born: 14 Dec 1908

Died: Jul 1978

State (Year) SSN issued: Texas (Before 1951 )

Texas Death Index, 1903-2000

about George White

Name: George White

Death Date: 27 Jul 1978

Death County: Lamb

Gender: Male

From The Handbook of Texas On-Line:

YELLOW HOUSE RANCH. The Yellow House Ranch, covering 312,175 acres inLamb, Hockley, Bailey, and Cochran counties, was established in July1901, when George Washington Littlefieldqv purchased the southern, orYellow Houses, division of the XIT Ranchqv for two dollars an acre. Inearlier times the Spanish called a nearby yellowish limestone bluffpitted with caves Las Casas Amarillas, the Yellow Houses. From adistance, and especially when there was a mirage, the bluff appeared tobe a city. Littlefield also bought 5,000 XIT cows with calves for $40apiece, along with 200 registered Hereford bulls, all of which were movedto the Yellow House that summer. The ranch headquarters, built around1905 out of native stone and imported lumber, was located at the base ofthe Yellow Houses bluff in Hockley County near its northern boundarybecause of the availability of spring water there. For the same reason,the Yellow Houses site had been a landmark and favorite campsite on theold military trail across the plains from the headwaters of the BrazosRiver to Fort Sumner on the Pecos River; in the 1870s a small adobeqv huthad been erected on the site by Sam Gohlson, who later established hisranch south of Tucumcari, New Mexico. To tap this source of waterfurther, eighty-one windmillsqv were constructed on the ranch. One, whichmeasured 128 feet from the base to the top of the fan, was reputed tohave been the tallest windmill in the world until it blew down in 1926and was replaced by a lower tower. The manager of the ranch wasLittlefield's nephew and partner, James Phelps White,qv who ownedone-quarter interest in the spread. Both White and Littlefield were knownas astute cattlemen, and they rarely suffered losses of cattle fromsevere weather or from prairie fires, such as the fire in 1906, whichburned off some 220,000 acres on the Yellow House Ranch. At the most theyran 27,000 head of cattle, branded LFD, the brand Littlefield hadintroduced in 1878 at his ranch on the Pecos north of Roswell, NewMexico. Although Hereford cattleqv were the principal stock, the ranchalso carried some Black Angus for a time, and in the 1920s White stockedthe ranch with a few buffalo.qv Jim Roberts served as foreman, a positionwhich his son Rue Roberts later filled. George Smith served asbookkeeper, and Henry Marchbanks was the last cowboy to work for theYellow House prior to its breakup in the 1920s.

Though little oil was found beneath the ranch itself, one of the firstwells in this oil region was drilled in 1912 at South Camp, about sixmiles northwest of Levelland. In June 1912 Littlefield contracted withthe Santa Fe Railroad to build a segment of its main line from Lubbock toTexico, New Mexico, across his land. In August he organized theLittlefield Lands Companyqv to sell the northeastern corner of 79,040acres for farms and to establish the town of Littlefield in Lamb County.By 1920 only 47,601 acres had been sold. In April 1923, afterLittlefield's death, the remainder of the ranch was sold by White and theLittlefield estate to the Yellow House Land Company and was subdividedfor sale as farms. The towns of Pep and Whitharral in Hockley County wereestablished by the company on this acreage. At that time the LFD brandwas dropped, but later some 23,000 acres surrounding the old ranchheadquarters was returned to cattle grazing. Tragically, Littlefield'sold ranch house was lost in a fire on September 9, 1930. After J. P.White's death in 1934 his son, George Littlefield White, owned andoperated the Yellow House and built a modern brick home at theheadquarters near the site of the Yellow Lakes. Here he bred high-gradeHerefords and fed out several hundred sheep annually. In 1966 Whitebecame one of the first West Texas ranchers to adopt the "cold branding"method utilizing dry ice and alcohol. Hospitable in many ways, White andhis wife hosted camps and class picnics for Boy Scoutsqv on the YellowHouse grounds and in 1966 allowed Marines to use the ranch for trainingpurposes for the war in Vietnam. In 1970 White sold the 20,000-acreremnant of the Yellow House Ranch to the Matador Land and CattleCompany.qv At that time the company's foreman, Bob Tapp, occupied theheadquarters.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lillian Brasher, Hockley County (2 vols., Canyon, Texas:Staked Plains, 1976). Gus L. Ford, ed., Texas Cattle Brands (Dallas:Cockrell, 1936). David B. Gracy II, Littlefield Lands (Austin: Universityof Texas Press, 1968). J. Evetts Haley, George W. Littlefield, Texan(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1943). John Lincoln, Rich Grassand Sweet Water: Ranch Life With the Koch Matador Cattle Company (CollegeStation: Texas A&M University Press, 1989).

David B. Gracy II

Lamb County Leader News Sunday, July 30, 1978

"George L White buried Saturday

Services for George Littlefield White, 69, longtime Littlefield residentand civic leader, were conducted Saturday morning in First PresbyterianChurch,

Rev. John Riches, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, officated andRev. Clem Sorley former minister of the church assisted.

Burial was in Littlefield Memorial Park under direction of the HammonsFuneral Home.

White died Thursday, July 27 at 10:05a.m. in the Littlefield hospital.

The Roswell N.M. native was the son of Mr. & Mrs. James Phelps White, aNew Mexico, pioneer ranching family.

He had attended school in Roswell and was graduated from New MexicoMilitary Institue.

White had owned the Yellow House Ranch near Littlefield and had let hisranch be used by the Boy Scouts for camping activities and by the MarineCorps Reserve for their maneuvers.

The George White district of the South Plains Council Boy Scouts, whichconsists of Lamb, Hockley, Cochran and Bailey Counties, was named in hishonor.

White was a veteran of World War II having served with the marines in theSouth Pacific.

He was a 32nd degree Mason and a Shiner and held a dual membership in theLittlefield masonic Lodge No. 1161 and the Roswell Lodge No. 18. Whitewas also a member of the Santa Fe, N. M. Scottish Rites.

White was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church inLittlefield and had served as an elder, trustee and treasurer in thechurch.

Survivors include his wife, Hazel Giles White; a daughter Mrs Larry(Donna)Rice of Houston; a son David of Lubbock; a brother, J. P. Jr. ofRoswell, N.M.; a sister, Mrs Zoa W McGee of Roswell, N.M.; and fourgrandchildren.

The family suggests memorials to the First Presbyterian Church ofLittlefield or to the George White District of the South Plains Councilof Boy Scouts.

Pallbearers wre Steve Walden, Dr Allen Williams, Mike Grissom, JimDavidson, Lewis Wilkinson and Jimmie McShan."

Sources

• "North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979 ," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLMS-3JPV : 21 July 2021), George L White and Hazel Ann Giles, 17 Mar 1944; citing Wake, North Carolina, United States, p. , North Carolina State Archives Division of Archives and History; FHL microfilm .

• "Texas Deaths, 1977-1986," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KH36-757 : 23 February 2021), George Littlefield White, 27 Jul 1978; citing Littlefield, Lamb, Texas, United States, 63509, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Austin; .