his cattle was that he didn't want to inflict pain on them. Other ranchers suspected his true motivation was that it allowed him to collect any unbranded cattle and claim them as his own – though written accounts of his disinterest in his herd and its failure to grow during his ownership undermine this claim. Mary Maverick appended to her memoirs certain of her husband's correspondence and an extract of a letter from George Madison Maverick, her son and collaborator in her biography, to the St. Louis Republic, apparently in response to an appeal to persons having sure information about the matter to convey their accounts to the editor. George recounted that, in 1845, his father, whose interest was in real estate, acquired some 400 head of cattle that he did not want from a neighbor as payment of a $1,200 debt. Maverick left them to be managed by an African American family, who subsequently moved from the Gulf coast to the Conquista Ranch on the San Antonio River, where the cattle were left to multiply, graze, and wander away. Over a decade later, enough had wandered off, or been taken by others, that the number of head ostensibly belonging to Maverick remained the same. Whether rounded up without an identifying mark or taken because they lacked one, many such so-called "mavericks" ended up branded by other ranchers and claimed as their own. In 1856, a Mr. Leo J. Toutant followed up on his own father's earlier offer to purchase Maverick's herd, then numbering some 400, and did so. See also Mrs. Samuel Maverick (1818–1898) Samuel Maverick, Jr. (1837–1936) Maverick disambiguation page Notes References External links Samuel Maverick: John Howland's Texas Legacy <-- Broken link, Sept 2015 --> Samuel Maverick, Texan 1803-1870 "Who You Callin' a Maverick?", The New York Times, October 2008. 1803 births 1870 deaths Alamo defenders Presidents pro tempore of the Texas Senate Texas lawyers Texas state senators Members of the Texas House of Representatives People of the Texas Revolution People from San Antonio People from Pendleton, South Carolina Yale University alumni Ranchers from Texas Burials at San Antonio City Cemetery No. 1 19th-century American politicians American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law American slave owners Maverick County, Texas Signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence 19th-century American lawyers