 he scientific research of Dr. Mark Francis was so well respected
that his contemporaries dubbed him the "father of the Texas
cattle industry."
Born in Shandon, Ohio, on March 19, 1862,
Francis graduated from Ohio State University in 1887 with the
degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. Post doctorate work
at the American Veterinary College in New York enhanced his
knowledge and sharpened his skills. Accepting a position
with a veterinary hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, appeared to bind
Francis' career to his native state. But, a Texas fever
epidemic and the establishment of the agricultural experiment
stations would quickly change his path.
Following the Civil War, Texas quickly became
the chief supplier of the nation's beef. However, as scrubby
Texas longhorns moved north of the Red River and mingled with the
local cattle, the northern herds were soon devastated by a disease
that came to be known as Texas fever. Texas cattle, on the other
hand, were seemingly immune to the pestilence. Soon several
states prohibited Texas cattle from crossing their borders and
some foreign countries even enacted embargos against the
importation of all United States beef.
Something had to be done. The establishment
of the agricultural experiment stations by the federal government
under the Hatch Act of 1887 was one effort to solve the
problem. The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station was
established at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas
the following year with a directive to find a solution for the
Texas fever problem.
Francis arrived at Texas A&M that summer,
accepting appointments as associate professor of veterinary
science and veterinarian of the Texas Agricultural Experiment
Station. It is worth nothing that he was the first
college-trained veterinarian employed by the school even though
Texas A&M had veterinary courses prior to his arrival.
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Along with his many duties and avocations (he
was an avid collector of fossils), Francis toiled with the Texas
fever problem for the better part of the next two decades.
Initial experiments with inoculation against the disease were not
very promising. Indeed, his work was criticized in the press
as being a "wanton waste of public funds." But,
persistence, trial and error eventually began to pay dividends by
drastically reducing the death rate in some herds. And yet,
this was not the only answer.
As early as the 1870's, the ticks that infested
the longhorns had been suspected of having something to do with
the disease. Collaborative research with the Kansas and
Missouri experiment stations during 1893 and 1894 identified the
tick as the carrier. Francis, along with others, reasoned
that only by eradicating the ticks could the fever problem be
fully solved. In 1896, after more trials and many set backs,
Francis built a dipping vat based on an earlier King Ranch
design. Although the vat was effective, it would take years
of research to develop a dipping solution that would kill the
ticks and not harm the cattle. Not until the 1920's was victory
over the tick assured.
The Texas fever episode is but one part of the
life and times of Dr. Mark Francis. There is much
more. Ohio State President William Oxley Thompson, on the
occasion of that university's 75th anniversary said, "If Ohio
State University had trained but one man in the 75 years of its
existence, and that man was Dr. Mark Francis of Texas, it had
given back to its people more than they had expended upon it in
the three-quarters of a century of this existence." For
a more comprehensive treatment of Dr. Francis and veterinary
medicine in the state please see A Special Kind of Doctor: A
History of Veterinary Medicine in Texas, by Henry C. Dethloff
and Donald H. Dyal, published by the Texas A&M University
Press in 1991.
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