MIDLAND For John Scharbauer, the Fifth Generation Rancher, the feeling might take a little bit longer to hit him that his family’s cattle business, the Scharbauer Cattle Company is in the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame.
He said it might not hit him until after he and his father and Scharbauer Cattle Company Owner Chris Scharbauer are accepting the award during the induction ceremony on Thursday in Fort Worth.
The Midland-based cattle company, which has been around for 139 years, was selected as part of the 2022 Hall of Fame class this past fall and will be honored along with three other inductees at a ceremony that will take place at Billy Bob’s.
“As an operation, going in as Scharbauer Cattle Company, it’s hard to explain because it really is an honor for 139 years of Scharbauers who have put in the time and effort to ranch,” Scharbauer said. “For me and my dad, who are going to accept the award, it’s an honor. I think it’s an unbelievable thing to be recognized for ranching.”
John comes from a long line of different operators from the family who have passed the company down from each generation. He is named after his great uncle, who was also named John Scharbauer, that helped started the company. “Ranching is such a behind the scenes thing that people drive by country and don’t realize there’s people out there producing that land and growing things,” Scharbauer said. “We’re just extremely honored. It’s hard to put into words just how grateful we are. Just to go in there and be recognized, we’re going to be in the hall of fame along with other inductees that have been honored there in Fort Worth”
For the Scharbauer family, it’ll be fitting returning to Fort Worth on Thursday.
That’s where their ancestors first arrived when they came to Texas from New York in 1883.
It was the family’s great uncle John Scharbauer who moved south. His journey soon took him further west as rail lines were laid, eventually making his way to Abilene and eventually Midland.
“He heard that land was plentiful,” John said. “You can get it for cheap. Our family was made up of entrepreneurs. They had businesses back in New York. A leather shop where they made handbags and things like that. They got to Fort Worth and followed the railroad tracks west as they were building them there.”
It was in Abilene where the first John Scharbauer first overheard a couple of ranchers discussing the sheep business as both men were trying to find a way out of it.
“John stopped in Abilene, waiting tables and that’s where he overheard guys talking about the sheep business,” John said of his great uncle. The ancestor John Scharbauer butted in and asked to get involved and both guys sold him their whole flock of the 500-head herd on the spot for $2,400.
The company’s founder would grow that operation a hundredfold and in 1888, shipped 49,000 sheep to Chicago which at the time was the largest livestock transaction ever recorded.
“He bought them out,” the younger John Scharbauer said. “Within the next year or so, that whole market shifted and became a big market.”
The first John Scharbauer’s brother Christian Scharbauer moved his family from New York to Midland. He was also a rancher and their third brother Phil Scharbauer would follow.
Together, all three founded the Scharbauer Cattle Company in 1901.
“They started settling in Midland,” the younger John Scharbauer said. “That’s where they started the first national bank and where the business took off. Midland became known as the midway because of the halfway distance between El Paso and Fort Worth on the railroad tracks. It became a hub for cattle and business.”
The Scharbauer Cattle Company would go from the first John and Christian Scharbauer in the 1800s to Clarence Scharbauer Sr. and Clarence Scharbauer Jr. to Chris and John today, being a big part in ranching and beef cattle for parts of three centuries.
The company remains active in ranching, operating the North Curtis Ranch in Martin County, just north of Midland as well as the Alamocitos Ranch in Oldham County of the Texas Panhandle.
(Fort Worth) is where it all started for us when we came to Texas,” John Scharbauer said. “We went to Fort Worth and then moved west. It’s a full circle, coming back to the stockyards there. I don’t know if it’s really hit me yet. I don’t know if it will when we get there and just see it in person.”
After receiving the call about his family’s company receiving hall of fame honors, John Scharbauer said he had to pause for a moment.
“The first person that came to mind was my dad because I wanted to talk to him and my late grandfather,” John Scharbauer said. “He maintained the ranch and his dad and my great great uncles. I think about them and the thousands of cowboys and cowgirls who have worked and roped for the figure 5 brand over that time period and the entire work that has gone into it to get us to this point. None of it could happen without those people and we’ve been riding for the brand.”
The Alamocitos Ranch would be added in 1952.
“Today, we’re running close to about 100,000 acres of ranch land and native grass land,” John Scharbauer said. We’re doing it on two ranches.”
Chris Scharbauer, who lives in Amarillo, assumed operations in 1979 from his father Clarence Scharbauer Jr. and introduced Angus genetics, creating a commercially-successful crossbreed program.
“I just say it’s a tremendous honor to be inducted into the hall of fame,” Chris Scharbauer said. “For the three generations before me and my generation and John’s generation, we each have a part in moving this thing forward to the next generation and it’s just a tremendous honor for us and our family. It’s been family-operated and family-owned and the family has worked together tremendously to get to where we are now.”
John Scharbauer introduced his family’s cattle company beef to the public in the form of the Midland Meat Company and Scharbauer Ranch Beef.
The Scharbauer-produced beef is served at restaurants across Texas and the country.
“I built Midland Meat Company six-and-half years ago,” John Scharbauer said. “Nearly every calf we produce, comes from Midland Meat Company now. It’s one of a kind and it’s integrated that the only beef we sell in our store comes off our ranches. That’s its own story. Midland Meats has done a lot in the meat industry in a short amount of time.”
John Scharbauer credits his family’s worth ethic for keeping the business going for so long. “We tend to do things a different way,” John Scharbauer said. “I know that gets said a lot. Our way might sometimes take a little longer. It’s not cutting corners. It’s doing everything throughout and doing it the best that you can do. My granddad always had a saying that it doesn’t matter if you own a radio station, a bank or a popcorn stand. Just have the best one on the street.”
But as much as John Scharbauer likes to talk about his family’s history, he said he tries not to think about the past too much.
“I look at our history a lot,” John Scharbauer said. “I respect it. I don’t live in the past. I try to learn from it because I’m as excited as our future as neat as our past is. I respect our past but all I see is the future. I have four kids and I think something that every generation of Scharbauers have is to make sure to leave something better than where you found it.”
The other Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees include cowgirl Patti Colbert, businessman Wilson Franklin and rodeo announcer Charles “Bud” Townsend.
In addition, country recording artist and performer Cody Johnson will receive the Spirit of Texas Award during the ceremony.
