MAN, WILLIAM WHITAKER (1851–1901). William Whitaker Man, cattleman, was born to Robert and Eliza J. (Whitaker) Man on October 3, 1851, at Camden, South Carolina. In 1870 he moved to Mansfield, Texas, where he joined his uncle, Ralph S. Manqv-for whom, with Julian Feild, the town was named-and worked at a variety of occupations for the next five years. Having developed an interest in the cattle business, he decided in 1875 to move to a frontier region where he could gain practical knowledge of cattle ranching. Man chose to settle in Archer County, which was then in the process of organizing. Once there, he became active in the organization movement and was elected first county sheriff and tax collector. On March 25, 1879, he married Belle White in Ellis County. The couple raised six children. About the time of the county's organization, Man purchased 125 cattle. By 1886 he became a partner of Dr. J. T. Stevens and established the TIP Ranch, which he managed. In 1886 the partners moved a jointly owned herd of cattle to lands that they had purchased in Greer County, Oklahoma. The sale of this herd allowed Man to begin a large accumulation of land and cattle in various locations in North Texas and Oklahoma. Throughout this period he maintained his home in Archer City, where he and his wife helped to establish the county's first school and participated in social and religious affairs. He sold his ranch properties in the late 1890s and moved his family to Wichita Falls, where he died in 1901.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: James Cox, Historical and Biographical Record of the Cattle Industry (2 vols., St. Louis: Woodward and Tiernan Printing, 1894, 1895; rpt., with an introduction by J. Frank Dobie, New York: Antiquarian, 1959). Ruth Jones O'Keefe, Archer County Pioneers: A History of Archer County (Hereford, Texas: Pioneer, 1969).
