Waggoner-Hicks House
Vernon, Wilbarger County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Spottswood Lomax, a founder of the noted Matador and Espuela (Spur) ranches of Texas, built a Queen Anne house here in 1890. It was remodeled in the Colonial Revival style around the turn of the century by the prominent cattleman W. T. "Tom" Waggoner, who deeded it to his son, local banker Guy Leslie Waggoner, in 1904. Three years later, Vernon farmer and oil investor E. P. Hicks purchased the property and it remained in his family until 1967. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Spottswood Lomax, a founder of the famed Matador and Espuela (Spur) ranches, built a Queen Anne house on this spot in 1890, at the height of the great Texas cattle empires. Around the turn of the century the prominent cattleman W. T. "Tom" Waggoner remodeled it in the Colonial Revival style and deeded it to his son, banker Guy Leslie Waggoner. In 1907 it passed to farmer and oil investor E. P. Hicks, whose family held it for sixty years — a chain of owners tracing the region's shift from cattle to banking to oil.
Why it matters
The house links three pillars of North Texas fortune — the open-range cattle ranches, frontier banking, and the coming oil boom — in a single roofline.
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Related people
- · Spottswood Lomax
- · W. T. Waggoner
- · Guy Leslie Waggoner
- · E. P. Hicks
Themes & tags
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