Artist: Othmar J. Hoffler (1893–1954)
Abel Head Pierce
PIERCE, ABEL HEAD (1834–1900), inducted between 1936–1948
One of the more colorful cattlemen in Texas history, Abel Head “Shanghai” Pierce began his life in Rhode Island, but he stowed away on a schooner bound for Texas at age nineteen. Exclusively known as Shanghai Pierce, he earned the nickname as a loud, long-legged, and shock-headed young man who was said to resemble a Shanghai rooster. Shanghai went to work on a Texas ranch, learning enough about cattle to purchase a few of his own. During the Civil War, he handled cattle for the Confederate Army, returning home to find that his holdings were gone. In 1871, he established Rancho Grande in Wharton County with his brother, growing the ranch to 250,000 acres. The Pierce-Sullivan Pasture Company sent thousands of cattle north by trail and rail. He traveled abroad to find a breed of cattle resistant to ticks that he feared carried disease and believed that the Brahman cattle in India held promise. He did not live to see his theory tested, but immediately after his death, his family imported the Brahman cattle that would form the foundation of Texas’s great herds today.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 158