Farmers, Ranchers, the Land and the Falls - Texas Parks & Wildlife ...

A History of the Pedernales Falls Area, 1850–1970
Figure 33. Richard
Garcia, who worked as
a ranch hand for the
Wheatleys in the late
1950s or early 1960s,
poses with Sherill East.
Behind them are the
frame house and
outbuildings that were
built when J.B. Wenmohs
owned the ranch. Photo
courtesy of Sherill East,
Diana L. Cooper, and
Candace K. Sandefur.
C.A. and Harriet did some of the work around the ranch (Harriet liked to
remember that once she spent “14 hours in the saddle” during a roundup), but most
of the day-to-day work on the Circle Bar was done by hired hands, contractors, or
by the tenants who rented all or parts of the ranch during various years. For at least
several years, the Wheatleys also hired servants to maintain the “manse” in their
absence, and to cook and serve their meals when they were there. The hired hands
often lived with their families (when they had families) in the old Wenmohs house
on the northwest part of the ranch. After that house burned down in 1958, two
house trailers were brought in to replace it. The foreman and/or house servants
lived in the “foreman’s quarters” in the manse. Employees’ children took lessons at the
old A. Robinson School, just south and west of the ranch on A. Robinson Road. 93
The names of most of the people who worked at the ranch for the Wheatleys
have been lost. As noted earlier, much of our information about the Wheatleys
and the Circle Bar, comes from Sherill East, Harriet Wheatleys’ son-in-law, who
worked as the Circle Bar’s foreman from about 1961 to 1963. While East was
there, he and the Wheatleys grazed about 1,300 Angora goats and some cattle
on the Circle Bar. The names of several tenants are known. From 1939 to 1942,
H.M. Ulrich, a neighboring rancher, leased the north pasture (the area north of the
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