The Dipping Vat War of Cass County

The story, as related by Cass County historian and genealogist George Frost during Tuesday's meeting of Friends United for a Safe Environment, also involves the anti-government Ku Klux Klan in Cass County, which blew up the vats in 1921 and 1922. "This is a story of how alleviating one problem may create another," Frost said. "Dipping was good, but it was a double-edged sword." The U.S. put a quarantine on cattle in 1906, he told the group, adding that they could not be shipped north before March 15 due to the rampant spread of the disease. "They could only ship if the cattle were being slaughtered and couldn't bring in high-class bulls to enhance their herds because they would die of tick fever," he said. By 1920, ranchers in Cass County and Shelby County were given cement and materials to build the dipping vats and were required to dip the cattle every two weeks in a toxic mixture of creosote and arsenic, Frost said. "If you didn't do that, you were fined by the justice of the peace and were then forced to dip," he said. The night before the dipping was to start on March 15, 1921, Frost said 13 or 14 dipping vats in Cass County were blown up simultaneously. Texas Gov. Pat Morris Neff then sent in six Texas Rangers to battle the situation. Frost said the district attorney was not bringing charges against those responsible, who were believed to be members of the KKK. The vats were rebuilt at the owner's expense and the dipping continued, Frost said, but the ranchers were told, "Do not be around a dipping vat after sundown for your own safety."...MORE