Daniel Lee Kutch

If anyone is capable of giving exact and definite information concerning the agricultural possibilities of Collingsworth County it is Daniel L. Kutch, who knows everybody and whom everybody knows and esteems in that section of the Panhandle. Mr. Kutch's own career as a farmer gives a striking evidence of the productivity and adaptability of this section of Texas to general farming. In his experience of a quarter of a century he has never made a complete crop failure. His home is in the Kelly community of Collingsworth County and his farm is in the midst of nature's prairie wilds. His house and barn and general surrounds furnish a beautiful environment for a comfortable homemaker.

He is one of the real pioneers of this section of Texas. He came to this community August, 1885 in on horseback from King County. He was than a young unmarried man, and his first work was as a ranch hand for the pioneer firm of Cattleman, Curtis & Atkinson on the Diamond Tail Ranch. During the four years on that ranch his wages ranged from $30 to $50 a month. He next transferred to the Rocking Chair Ranch and continued as one of their cowmen for three or four years.  With that experience of working for others Mr. Kutch settled down to independent farming. He filed on a half section, the north half section 78, block 10, and made his start with a team and wagon as his only equipment. Hauling lumber from Quanah, about forty miles away, he built himself a small 2-room boxhouse, with the cracks in the siding weatherstripped. His next operation was to break up some land and in 1890 he put in his first crop. His only yield that year was some sorghum, but he was one of the men who could not be discouraged by a few failures or by the pessimistic advice of his neighbors.

He early entered and has always continued a raiser of small grain, and his success serves to demonstrate the agricultural possibilities of the Panhandle. At the present time his is cultivating a half of his original half section, and his beast wheat crop yield per acre was thirty-five bushels. Cotton has provided the most reliable crop for this section, and for stock farming it is an ideal district indeed. Water is bountiful and abundant at from 40 to 100 feet in depth, and furthermore it is without a trace of "gyp," an unusual advantage in the Panhandle. As a stockman Mr. Kutch is raising the Duroc hog, the Hereford cattle and keeps all his stock in good grades.
When he settled in the Kelley community more than a quarter of a century ago there were no school and none was maintained for a number of years afterward. His children first attended school at Wellington less than a mile distant from his place and his children finished their preparation for citizenship in that institution.

A native of Texas, Daniel Lee Kutch was born south of Jacksboro in Jack County, January 25, 1864. The founder of the family in Texas was Daniel Kutch. He was of Scotch-Irish stock and is believed to have been born in Scotland. He died in Parker County, Texas, some twelve miles northeast of Weatherford, having moved to that county from Jack County when indians got to troublesome. His wife also died in Parker county. He was twice married and had eighteen children, seventeen of them reached maturity, including: William C.; Wesley of Bowie, Texas; Bowlen, who died in Parker County; Mode of Justiceburg, Texas; John who was killed in North Texas; Henry who died in West Texas; Rufus, who died at Old Doan's Station on Red River; Ira of Justiceburg; Jefferson, who died at Reid, Oklahoma; Mrs Frances Marderis, wife of a minister in Parker County; Mrs Dwight Townsend of Winnsboro, Texas; Susan, wife of William Godfrey of Parker County; Samantha; and Mary, Mrs. John Hackley of Jacksboro.

William C. Kutch, Father of Daniel L. came with Daniel Kutch to Texas from Tennessee, making the journey by water down the Mississippi. The boat on which the family were embarked blew up on the Mississippi River, and all the family possessions were lost except the clothing they had on. On coming to Texas the family first stopped in Smith County, and later moved to Jack County. William C. Kutch is still living at the age of eighty-seven, rugged physique, reflecting the vigor of frontier life, possesses a fine memory and is said to be a walking encyclopedia of events and incidents in Jack County since its early settlement. During the war between the state he served as a home guard, guarding the frontier from Indians, and has since been identified with ranching. He is one of the men who helped keep away the Indians and outlaws from the settlements along the northwestern frontier, and he personally had many encounters with Indians. At one time he was a member of a party of about a dozen settlers in a battle with some forty or fifty Indians. The whites and a negro were on an expedition hunting cattle, and their only arms were cap and ball 6-shooters. While riding along they were surprised by the Indians in daylight. During the battle that followed all their horses were shot down, and one white man was killed and all were wounded except one white man and the negro. After the horses were shot they protected themselves behind the bodies of the slain animals, and from those breastworks fought against the Indians, who were armed with guns and arrows, from 10 o'clock in the morning until just before daybreak the next morning, when the Indians left. Mr Kutch, who is a resident of Jacksboro, witnessed many of the early Indian raids, and has been a participant in the progressive life of Northwest Texas from pioneer times to
present. He was three times elected county treasurer of Jack County. He is a democrat and a member of the Methodist Church. William C. Kutch married Mrs. Narcissus Wall, whose maiden name was McElroy. Her father came to Texas from Missouri. Mrs. Kutch died in 1913. Her children were: Mary, who died in young womanhood; Amanda, who first married George Patton and is now Mrs. Rahter of Hastings, Oklahoma; Margaret, who died in Collingsworth County, the wife of Theodore Allen; Daniel L.; Ira B. of Ramah, Colorado; Emma, wife of Will Ruth of Jack County.

During his long residence in Collingsworth County Mr. Kutch has been not only a hard worker and a man who has developed his own property, but has taken interest in local affairs. He was elected and served two years as a sheriff and tax collector, succeeding L.G. Stall in that office. He and his wife and two older daughters are members of the Church of Christ. In the community where he now resides on January 8, 1890 he married Miss Rosa Hendricks. her father, John Hendricks, who now resides at Hollis, Oklahoma, has been a stock farmer lived in Midlothian, Texas, for a number of years and from there came to Collingsworth County. His first wife, Sarah Goodwin, was the mother of Henry, Mrs Kutch and her twin brother Lee. John Hendricks married for a second wife Martha Ellis, and their children were: Callie, deceased, who married Harvey Powers; Lizzie, wife of John Burleson of Vinson, Oklahoma; Maud, wife of Harry Hightower of Altus, Oklahma and John of Hollis, Oklahoma.

Mr and Mrs Kutch have a household of lively and interesting children, Ames Ethel, William Horton, Grace, James, Daniel, Anna, Inez, Elpie, and Valda. 
Source:, "A History of Texas and Texans" by Frank W. Johnson, Volume V, printed by the American Historical Society Chicago and New York 1916.
submitted by Mary Josefina Lafferty Wilson

 

Back to the Main Index Page ©Genealogy Trails