Texas Blacks and Agriculture

The Rigsby Family

Hulen T. Rigsby, Sr., with most of his herd of 40 registered Jersey cows Date: December 1948 Photographer: Jack Sloan

"In about 1944 Hulen T. Rigsby, Jr., bought a 42-acre farm near Dickenson in Galveston County. The purchase was made possible by a G.I. loan available to veterans of World War II and was made by Citizens State Bank in Dickenson. He and his father Hulen T. Rigsby, Sr., operated a modern dairy with a herd of 40 registered Jersey bulls on those 42 acres until 1956, when financial problems resulting from a prolonged drought forced the dairy out of business. The Rigsbys leased an additional 100 acres for pasture and the growing of sorghum for silage to feed the cows during the winter. The silage was stored aboveground in an earthen storage area built with dirt that came from the construction of a pond for fishing. Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M assisted the Rigsbys in determining what grasses would grow in an oil-field area which tended to be marshy. A series of drainage ditches made it possible to have good pasture and fields in formerly unproductive land. Mr. Rigsby, Sr., was a member of both the Texas and the American Jersey Cattle clubs and showed his animals at the Texas Jersey Cattle Show and at livestock expositions in Houston and Dallas. He was also a 4-H club leader and a supporter of the Future Farmers of America. Over the years he gave several registered Jersey calves to boys in Galveston County."

Source: http://www.humanities-interactive.org/texas/rural/index.html

Related Links: http://www.public-humanities.org/resourcesforunderstanding/blkhistory2001.html