LEE BIVINS is one of the most successful individual cattlemen of the Panhandle country, and a highly esteemed and well known citizen of Amarillo. He has been an active factor in the affairs of this portion of the state since 1890, and has carried on his ranching operations on a large scale, comparable even to those of the large cattle corporations of this part of Texas.
Mr. Bivins is a Texan by birth, and is by early training and natural predilections a cattleman and rancher. He was born at Sherman, Grayson county, October 7, 1862. His father, O. C. Bivins, is one of the best known men in that part of the state and has had a most successful business career. He was born in Indiana, and came to Grayson county in 1854, being still a resident of Sherman, that county, although retired from active life. During most of his active career he was a miller, having been the first miller of Grayson county, and he ran the old mill at Farmington during and subsequent to the Civil war. He at present owns valuable farming lands in Grayson county. Mr. Bivins’ mother is Elizabeth (Miller) Bivins, a native of Tennessee.
Mr. Bivins received his early education in the public schools of Grayson county. He was sixteen years old when he entered upon his career as a cattleman. In those days Grayson county was still to a great extent a cattle country, with large ranches, and it was on his father’s ranch in the southwestern part of the county that he began the cattle industry. He later went into the mercantile business at Farmington, and also at Sherman, and continued his career of merchandising until 1890. The latter year was the date of his arrival in the Panhandle, and his first location was at Claude, in Armstrong county. He went into the cattle business at that place, and in the continued operations along that line he has since been uniformly successful. When he came here he made large investments in lands and city property, and their subsequent marked rise in value has brought him most of his fortune. He has almost universally made his investments with great skill and foresight, and this business sagacity has been many times rewarded in the course of a few years. He now owns about thirty thousand acres of land in Potter and Carson counties, and he leases about that much more in order to afford range for his cattle. He confines most of his operations to the raising and handling of steers, and his individual successes in the business has been very great. For the past few years he has made his home in Amarillo, and is at the present writing a member of the city council. While living in Armstrong the people elected him county commissioner, and wherever he lives he proves himself a solid and substantial citizen of the community. Besides his ranch lands, he owns some valuable city property. Mr. Bivins is a member of the Panhandle and of the Texas Cattle-Raisers’ associations, and fraternally is affiliated with the Elks and the Knights of Pythias.
Mr. Bivins’s wife is Mary E. (Gilbert) Bivins, and they have two boys, Miles and Julian Bivins, and they reside in one of the most beautiful and modern homes of Northwest Texas.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 178-179.