George Barnet Loving: Cattleman and Newspaper Publisher (1850–1903)

George Barnet Loving, stock raiser and newspaper publisher, son of Oliver Loving and Susan Daggett (Morgan) Loving, was born in Collin County, Texas, on June 10, 1850, and was the second youngest of nine children. His father was a famed cattle driver for whom the Goodnight-Loving Trail is named.

Around 1855 the Loving family moved to what became Palo Pinto County, where the family ranched. In the 1860s the family relocated to Weatherford. There, on October 21, 1869, George Loving married Helen Mary Shephard. The couple had two children, Joseph Lane and Royal Shepard. Loving followed in his father’s footsteps as a cattleman. He began a stock-raising business, George B. Loving & Bros., based first in Parker County, then in Denison. In 1876 Loving went bankrupt. Later that year he began serving as a hide and cattle inspector at Fort Worth. In 1878 he moved to a ranch in Jack County and drove his cattle to Fort Worth.

In 1880 Loving began publishing the Texas Live Stock Journal, a weekly publication covering agricultural news across the state. The paper, briefly published in Weatherford before Loving moved the operation to Fort Worth, was praised by the Fort Worth Daily Democrat as “one of the most valuable publications in the state.” In 1881 Loving published the Live Stock Manual, which catalogued the names, ranch locations, and marks and brands of “all the principal stockmen of western and northwestern Texas.” The following year he also began publishing the Texas Wool Grower, which was merged with the Live Stock Journal in 1884. In addition to serving as manager of the Stock Journal Publishing Company (later the Loving Publishing Company), Loving was also an organizer and general manager of the Texas Investment Company, a livestock and real estate business. By 1884 he had established his own venture, George B. Loving & Company.

In 1882 Stock Journal Publishing purchased the Fort Worth Democrat-Advance and changed the name to the Fort Worth Daily Gazette. The Gazette was the only daily newspaper in Fort Worth. Due to financial complications, ownership of the Gazette changed hands repeatedly in its first two years of publication. In 1885 Loving became the sole owner of the newspaper before selling it to the Gazette Company, headed by B. B. Paddock. Later that year he purchased the Fort Worth Mail, which later merged with the Fort Worth Telegram (see FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM). In late 1885 Loving was instrumental in organizing the Texas Afternoon Press Association and served as its first president. The following year, he sold the Mail and Loving Publishing to J. W. Burson of the Galveston Tribune for $7,000. He cited a desire to pursue a career outside of journalism. Nonetheless, after moving to El Paso in 1886, Loving published the El Paso Evening Inter-Republics and the El Paso Tribune. He also operated a real estate business.

In 1890 Loving returned to Fort Worth, where he served as the Texas manager of the Chicago-based Texas Livestock Commission Company. Later that year he resumed his duties as editor of the Texas Live Stock Journal. In 1892 Loving was a founding member of the Texas Live Stock Association, for which the Live Stock Journal was the official organ. He served as the association’s secretary for several years. He also reestablished his livestock and real estate business, George B. Loving & Company. In 1899 Loving became president of the newly assembled Fort Worth Press Club. He assumed editorial charge of the cattle department of the agricultural journal Farm and Ranch in 1901.

Loving became well-known for his efforts to organize a consolidated cattle company made up of a number of ranchers in western Texas and eastern New Mexico. He planned to acquire 25 million acres for the enterprise and sought financing primarily from New York investors for the purpose of buying cattle and ranch property. The “Loving Cattle Syndicate” was labeled a trust by its opponents, but Loving downplayed the accusation and called his efforts “nothing more than an immense cattle transaction.” Loving met with investors in 1899 and 1900, but the deal ultimately fell through amid concerns that the syndicate would conflict with Texas’s anti-trust laws.

George Loving died from locomotor ataxia in Fort Worth on February 19, 1903. At the time of his death, the El Paso Herald acknowledged him as “one of the best known cattlemen of Texas.” Loving was a Mason and a member of the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth.