 |
|
|
|
The loan exchange
business soon proved insufficient, and in March
1873, with a capital stock of $40,000, Captain
Loyd and an associate chartered the California
and Texas Bank of Loyd, Markley and Co. In January
1877, he and several associates pooled their
interests to create the First National Bank
of Fort Worth—the ninth national bank
to be chartered in the United States.
As a banker, Loyd developed
many lasting relationships with cattlemen. His
daughter, Ruth, married Samuel Burk Burnett,
a cattleman who held interests in several banks
in Texas. In 1883, Loyd named Burnett to the
Board of Directors of the First National Bank
of Fort Worth. The union joined the interests
of two influential Texas businessmen. The marriage
also produced children, one of whom was Thomas
Loyd Burnett.
|
| Along with
his extensive support for cattlemen, M.B. Loyd
made many loans for the purchase of racehorses.
The craze for ownership was a result of the construction
of a half-mile racetrack built two years prior
to the arrival of Loyd in Fort Worth. Owning racehorses
quickly became a symbol of status, and like many
other men of wealth, Captain Loyd began amassing
his own stable of fine racehorses. He branded
his stock with the single letter L. His interests
soon grew to incorporate breeding and selling
of quality race and cutting horses. With his death
in 1912, his interests in horses and the land
surrounding Wichita Falls passed through inheritance
to his grandson, Thomas Loyd Burnett. His L brand
remained on the Burnett horses and is still used
today. |
|
|
In addition to his passion for
racehorses, M.B. Loyd collected more than 130
weapons produced in the 18th and 19th centuries.
He acquired firearms from the United States,
Great Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Albania,
Spain, Belgium and Holland. Many of the weapons
reflect the history of America, including a
matched pair of Colonial-era flintlock dueling
pistols and an 1841 rifle manufactured by Eli
Whitney. Prominent in the collection is a pair
of large .45 caliber derringers with brass-tipped
ramrods that by all appearances have never been
fired. They are among the finest sets in existence,
according to experts.
The collection stayed in the
family until 2002, when M.B. Loyd’s great-great-granddaughter,
Anne W. Marion, a trustee of the Anne B. Tandy
Testamentary Trust, gifted the collection to
the National Ranching Heritage Center.
This is the first time items
from the M.B. Loyd Collection have been exhibited
to the public.
|
| |
|
Previous
Page
|
|
|
|
|
|
