The Canada Ranch

There is a serenity that envelopes you as you travel the Smith Point Road heading south of Anahuac, and a quietness floods your soul. Far from the hustle and bustle of community life you will find nestled in the peaceful country quietude, the Canada Ranch. The aged limbs of the massive oaks, standing guard since the 1880s, lock arms over the road, creating a shaded promenade at the entrance of the sprawling ranch. Being Canadian born, the Canada Ranch sign caught my eye many years ago as I traveled to Smith Point, however, it wasn’t until much later I came to realize the name belonged to a family, not a country. When Leroy Ezer agreed to chat with me about the history of the ranch, I was elated that I would finally learn more about the family behind the name and their place in Chambers County history. 

George Raymond “Ray” Canada was born in Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri in 1880 to John Jefferson Canada and Georgia Phillips. He lost his mother at the age of 10 and that same year his father relocated to Port Arthur, Texas. Being among the first settlers in the area, he quickly rose to a position of prominence. Ray joined his father in business there in 1900.

“Mr. Canada bought the Canada Ranch in partnership with Earl Cooper in 1927, which included all buildings, stock, and the HL brand.” Said Leroy Ezer, current owner of the ranch. “He bought it from D. L. Broussard who had inherited it from the White’s. Two or three years later, Mr. Cooper sold his portion to R. P. Smith,” continued Leroy. “Smith and Canada ran the 11,000 acres together for several years, then divided the ranch. Canada kept about 6,000 acres and Smith kept the lower land on East Bay, because he was interested in hunting, so the old-timers told me. Later, Mr. Smith sold his portion of the ranch to Roy Dawson, second husband of Berta Mary Jackson Wilborn. After a time, Roy leased the land for several years to Brown & Root as a hunting lease and eventually sold it to them. I now own the entire Canada Ranch and lease the grazing rights on the portion owned by Brown & Root,” explained Leroy giving a brief timeline of the ownership of the Canada Ranch. 

Desire Louis Broussard, in 1881, married Sarah Bonetta White, daughter of James Taylor White II and Amanda Speights. In 1889, he established a large cattle ranch, under the HL brand, on the Double Bayou land Sarah received from her father and there he built a beautiful stately home. Lumber for the home was brought by schooner from Lake Charles up Galveston Bay and into Double Bayou. It was hauled from Double Bayou a distance of about five miles by 3-yoke of oxen. Shingles for the building were made by a hand saw and were replaced in the latter part of 1927. Sarah died in 1899, either in childbirth or shortly after the death of their last child. This grand old home was the one Ray Canada and his second wife, Winifred Adair Barrows Canada moved into in 1927. The big oak trees on the property were planted around the early 1880s,” said Leroy. “The two magnificent magnolia trees that graced either side of the front view of the home were lost during Hurricane Carla along with fourteen other trees,” Leroy sadly proclaimed. 

This grand old home burned to the ground in 1934. “A pilot light on a butane stove was the source of the ignition,” Leroy noted sadly. “There was no fire department at that time, and they lost it all,” he concluded. A newspaper article at the time reported, “At 3 a.m. Wednesday morning the colored folks living in the rear of the Canada home heard an explosion and an investigation found that the rear portion of the huge home was ablaze, and immediately hastened to notify Mr. and Mrs. Canada and little Jimmy, who were sleeping on the front upstairs porch and unaware of the fire. When the negroes awakened the Canadas, the fire had gotten such a headway that it was only possible to save some of the furnishings in the front portion of the house.

Besides his cattle, Ray loved fine horses and his name was synonymous with good quarter horses, in the Gulf Coast area. The walls of his home were lined with ribbons and trophies giving credence to his reputation. Ray began raising quarter horses in 1935 when he obtained a registered thoroughbred stud, “Mr. Flowers,” from the veterinarian department of Texas A & M college. The Pride of the G. R. Canada ranch was his stud, “Texas Star”, who sired many of the top-quality quarter horses in the Gulf Coast area. Constantly close at hand were Ray’s beloved ranch dogs who were always eager to work the range with their master. “The Wilborns and Canadas also used to raise 75-100 sheep, they got rid of them in the 60s” added Leroy. “The Canada’s kept a large garden, which was very beneficial as they would have had to travel a long way to get fresh vegetables. In the fall, when they were working their cattle, they would put the sheep in the garden spot to fertilize it. By Spring it would have dried out and made good fertilizer. When it was time to shear the sheep, shearers came from West Texas. They had shearing equipment mounted on a trailer and were able to shear several sheep at one time.  Some of the wool was sold and some used to make saddle pads. The sheep kept them in food as they could keep it easily without spoilage due to their smaller size. The sheep were plagued with ticks in their ears and screw worms were a problem. I wasn’t fond of them,” declared Leroy, “Their meat was oily and their thick wool would get covered in grass burrs. I wasn’t sad to see them leave,” Leroy emphatically declared.

“My grandfather, John Ezer, was a carpenter,” said Leroy, “and he is the one who built the new house. Leroy’s grandfather, a 31-year-old fair-haired, blue-eyed Austrian young man, had emigrated from Austria along with his bride, Ernestina, and 17-month-old son, George “Charlie”, arriving at the Port of Galveston in August of 1911. He listed his profession as carpenter on his U.S. Declaration of Intention. Charlie was the father of Leroy and Russell Ezer. John and Ernestine had six more children after their arrival in Texas: Joe Alexander “Alex”, Antonia “Tony”, Annie, Rosa “Rosie”, John “Johnny” Jr., and Ernest Fredes “Sonny”. 

“My dad, as a young man, helped my grandfather build the house, he would saw rafters under the shade of the tree,” said Leroy. “When they brought in the Middleton Oil field, my dad went to work for Brown & Root and worked for them for forty plus years. 

“Ray and Winnie Canada had no children together, but they raised Winnie’s first cousin Jimmy. Ray also had one son from his first marriage who lived with Ray’s ex-wife. The father of James Nathan “Jimmy” Barrows was Robert Fletcher Barrows, brother of Winnie’s dad, John Appleton Barrows. When Jimmy was 4 years old his mother, Alice “Allie” Mary Mills Barrows died. After her death, Jimmy was raised by Winnie and Ray Canada at the ranch. On his 1945 draft card he listed G. R. Canada as his next of kin and his place of residence as the 7HL Ranch.

“When they put the Smith Point Road in the landowners gave a right-of-way for the road (the Canada Ranch lies on both sides of the Smith Point Rd.) The land was not purchased by the State and that was testified in court by Joe Lagow when they were trying to put a pipeline in the county right-of-way. They wanted to cut more trees down, but Mr. Canada only let them cut down the trees where the road would be. They left the four beautiful trees you see today near the entrance to the Canada Ranch. I’ve been told several times by the State that these trees are untouchable. To remove them they would have to go through the Historical Commission. How long that will last, I do not know,” stated Leroy. 

“Mr. Canada and Elwood A. Wilborn were the first directors of the Port City Stock Yards in Houston in 1931. At that time the Anahuac Road was still dirt, so they had to go through Devers whenever they shipped cattle. Regardless of the time of year, when they shipped to Houston Mr. Canada always had a man ride in the back with the cattle to make sure they didn’t get down. After the cattle were loaded, he would clean up and ride over in his car and spend the night. He had a commission company that worked at the stock yards. There was a gentleman by the name of Scott of Scott Commission Company. That’s who all of the people here assigned their cattle to sell them. Mr. Scott’s son is Dave Scott, whom we’re really close friends with. Dave was the president of the Texas Southwest Cattle Ranchers Association.

“It’s my understanding that in the mid-forties my dad worked out a deal with Mr. Canada where he put some cows on the ranch,” stated Leroy, “their relationship grew from there. I can remember driving cows from Anahuac, about where Russel lives now, to the Canada Ranch. They began hauling the cattle by truck in the 30s. The same truck was used to haul cedar. In the wintertime, they would peel the bark off the posts to keep them from burning so badly when they burned the pastures to promote new growth. Later on, at the Ranch, because of Daddy’s connection with Brown & Root, he would get old creosote pilings and split them to make fence posts. It was cheap, but they were worse than the cedar posts about burning,” Leroy exclaimed. “The only place I know where any of these posts are still standing is at Russell’s. We bought cotton seed meal in burlap sacks which we preserved and sold back to the feed company. Those we couldn’t we cut into strips, wrapped sticks with them, then soaked them in diesel or oil to make torches to burn the pastures, carrying extra strips on the back of our saddles to rewrap torches when needed. 

“From the time I got into ranching up to the 90s there were lots of cattle on the roadway because you didn’t haul them, you drove them down the highway. Locals who lived around here were used to driving through cattle. Because of Loins disease we had to rotate the cattle every two weeks which was a good practice,” Leroy clarified. “Loin disease would cause cattle to get down in their back end and you couldn’t get them up. There was nothing you could do for them. We always had a pasture resting and once the grass had grown sufficiently in the resting pasture, we would move the cows and calves into it so they would have the best grass. They needed good nutrition because the cow was nursing a calf. You would follow behind with your dry cows and that was kind of your rotation,” explained Leroy. “The Wilborns drove lots of cattle down the highway because their fields were spread out the most. We drove ours about 23 miles to a pasture I got from Harvey Haynes. We drove mostly on the highway, then through the Barrows on the back end. Jett Hankamer of Hankamer and Harvey Haynes of Monroe City drove their cattle to the marsh just like the whites, Barrows, and Mayes. 

“The Jackson’s had a pasture south of us and they drove their cattle from Oyster Bayou through our place. From the 30s through the 50s there were four major ranches in our area of Double Bayou: the Jackson Brothers, Elwood Wilborn, the Canada Ranch, and Roy Dawson Ranch. They would all work together. Every spring and summer if they had something really big to do, they would help each other. I was told back before they had the trailers, the ranchers would put their stock horses together. A day or two before the cattle work was to begin, they would drive them out to Jacksons and put them in a trap where they could easily get them. They kept them there in a group until they finished working at Jacksons. After a week or two, when they got through there, they would go to the Wilborns and work the Wilborn cattle. Then they would go to Mr. Canada’s and then Roy Dawson’s, not necessarily in that order,” clarified Leroy.

“An interesting thing that we still try to do, whatever ranch they were working at, the wives cooked a full meal, and it was not sandwiches, it was a roast dinner or something similar and a dessert. Norma always cooks a full meal to this day whenever we need extra help. That helps me to get people to come and work, because of her cooking,” he said with a smile.

“Wilborn’shad a pasture that would go through us down about 11 miles from the highway on East Bay. They would take the horses down there the day before the cattle work. There wasn’t a road, they would leave early that morning and drive them through the marsh to get down there to work the cattle and bring them out.” A twinkle gleamed in Leroy’s eye when he said, “The old timers told me, ‘if you want something to eat you better get a boiled egg, salt, and pepper, and wrap it up in foil ‘cause that’s all you’re gonna get ‘cause it’s impossible for them to get a meal to you” If it was a very wet winter, they had to go way around to Smith Point to bring the cattle out. It was quite an ordeal.

When asked how long he intends to continue ranching Leroy said, “I hope to go from ‘can-to-can’t.’ I’m fortunate to be able to work at my hobby . . . it’s a serious hobby,” he added earnestly. “My only problem is I’m 82 and I can’t do what I used to do,” he concluded wistfully. As I wrapped up my interview with this soft-spoken rancher, whose stature and carriage spoke of years of hard work and personal discipline, I concluded, Lord willing, he still has many good years left in him. With his strong work ethic and commitment to excellence, he can probably work circles around most young men of today. His brother, Russell said, “When the good Lord decides it’s time to call Leroy home, hopefully a long time from now, I hope He takes him right there at the ranch, because that’s where his heart is.”