Ira Millington moved his family from Iowa to California by wagon train. They lived there for some time until they were forced to leave when the Spanish Grant took precedence over their California land title in 1872. They then moved by train to Texas and settled in Hood County, where they were able to purchase 160 acres at $1 per acre in 1873. At first, the family lived in a log cabin they built inside a stockade which stood on the land; three years later, they moved to the ranch headquarters. Ira built a schoolhouse and hired a teacher to educate his children and other children in the area. He served as land surveyor, county surveyor and tax assessor-collector. He and his wife Susan had ten children. Ira added 327 acres to the ranch and sold ten. He raised cattle, sheep, goats, feed grains, and cotton.

When Ira died in 1910, the land passed to his widow and children, and they continued raising the same livestock and crops. In 1945, the present owners acquired the land from the children. The ranch consists of 557 acres; 477 of those were owned by the founder. Today, Seth and his son Don, work the land, raising cattle, feed grain, and hay.

Source: Family Land Heritage Registry, Volume 2, 1975, Texas Department of Agriculture, John C. White, Commissioner

Transcribed by Mary Maxwell

2000 HOOD COUNTY TEXAS GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY