Kerr McEntire Wardlaw, 41, general manager of Val Verde Wool & Mohair Company in Del Rio, is the fourth generation to oversee the agribusiness founded by his great-grandfather, C. B. “Dutch” Wardlaw, in 1923.
Dutch Wardlaw was president and general manager of Producers Wool & Mohair Company, the forerunner of Val Verde Wool & Mohair Company. He also served as president of the Texas Sheep & Goat Raisers’ Association from 1938 to 1939 and president of the Denver-based National Wool Growers’ Association in 1940.
During peak years in the 1940s, Producers Wool & Mohair Company handled more than seven million pounds of wool and mohair annually.
Dutch Wardlaw came to Sonora in 1911 but would spend more than 40 years in the ranching, and wool and mohair warehouse business, in Val Verde County. He was one of five sons born to N.J. Wardlaw of Falls County. His brothers were: Judge L.J. Wardlaw, Malcolm B. Wardlaw, L.B. “Cooter” Wardlaw and Newt Wardlaw.
Dutch Wardlaw was born April 17, 1887. He married Emma Whitehead December 24, 1911, the daughter of Walter E. and Mary Belle Martin Whitehead.
Dutch and Emma Wardlaw had five children: Crawford Whitehead “Dink” Wardlaw, Cody Wardlaw, Walter “Walt” Hadley Wardlaw, Mary Wardlaw Brumley and Frances Rachel Wardlaw Carter.
Shortly after his marriage, Wardlaw formed a partnership with his brother-in-law Charles Whitehead. At one time, Whitehead & Wardlaw were producing approximately 400,000 pounds of wool clip annually.
After Charles Whitehead died in 1934, Dink, Cody and Walt formed a partnership known as the Wardlaw Brothers. The three brothers bought the 20,000-acre Rose Ranch at Carta Valley, which became their headquarters ranch. Cody and his wife, Aileen Tennille, resided there. Later the brothers acquired another 20,000 acres of land in the Loma Alta area.
Walter “Walt” H. Wardlaw, Sr. and Mattye Gwen Kercheville were married July 21, `939. They had two sons: Walter Hadley Wardlaw, Jr. and Charles Benton Wardlaw.
Crawford Whitehead “Dink” Wardlaw, born September 18, 1915, became president and general manager of Producers Wool and Mohair Company when his father, Dutch, died in November 1954.
Dink Wardlaw married Mary Ellen Bruli September 1, 1937. They had four children: Nan Wardlaw Buckwith, Linda Wardlaw Hayes, Mimi Wardlaw Allison and Martin Wardlaw.
Dink died of a heart attack January 19, 1961, at the age of 46. His widow, Mary Ellen, later married George McEntire Jr., and they divided their time between the ranch at Del Rio and the McEntire’s U Ranch in Sterling County.
Martin Wardlaw married Elaine Kerr of Del Rio in 1968. They had five children: Frances Wardlaw Weiss, Stella Wardlaw Braman, Rachel Wardlaw Schmidt, Kerr McEntire Wardlaw and George Crawford Wardlaw.
A former Del Rio police officer, Kerr grew up on the family ranch located near Loma Alta, between Del Rio and Sonora, where producing wool and mohair was a way of life.
He remembers back when the warehouse inventory consisted of stacks of wool bags from the floor and touching the ceiling. “It was amazing,” Kerr told Chris Adams in a recent interview for Ranch & Rural Living magazine. “You couldn’t see across it … you were looking down at burlap hallways.”
Kerr said at one point Val Verde Wool & Mohair was facilitating about 21,000 pounds of wool per year. Now, only a part of the warehouse stores wool and mohair along with a good supply of livestock feed.
The wool and mohair market has experienced a new demand in recent times with prices reaching new records – mohair brought $8.55 per pound and wool prices reached $6.25 per pound this spring.
The bulk of mohair is grown on Angora goats in the Edwards Plateau. Angora goats are shorn twice a year, around March or April and again in August or September.
“It used to be that wool prices would barely cover the shearing cost, but now producers are seeing profits range from $25 to $50 per fleece,” said Reid Redden, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension state sheep and goat specialist.
Mohair has also become a highly-requested commodity. Used in clothing and other textiles, the value of mohair has risen roughly 30 percent in the past year, Redden said.
Kerr Wardlaw is hopeful and cautiously optimistic there is a future for the wool and mohair industry.
Jerry Lackey is agriculture editor emeritus. Contact him at jlackey@wcc.net.
