HOMESTEAD: Lee Ranch

Trailing a cattle herd from San Antonio destined for Fort Concho in 1877, Philip C. Lee reached the Kickapoo divide and got his first glimpse of the Twin Mountain country. He told a fellow cowboy, "If there's water yonder ... that's where I'm going to locate." He found the Middle Concho River and Spring Creek, west of San Angelo, and thought he had found a bonanza, said his son, John P. Lee, when relating the story to Standard-Times reporter Elmer Kelton in the late 1940s. Philip Casserle Lee was born Feb. 2, 1836, in County Cavan, Ireland. His mother died in his infancy. He was cared for by his grandmother Casserle when his father emigrated to America to work in railroad construction in Philadelphia. Young Philip fled Ireland at 11 years of age, making an ocean voyage to join his father...San Angelo Standard Times