John Scharbauer, owner of Midland Meat Company, said his family put down roots in the Midland area in the 1880s and helped start a lot of major installations in town. He joined the Best of Midland podcast to talk about his company and his family’s legacy.
My ancestor “brought Hereford cattle into Texas and that's kind of when we started. He had his brother Christian came down and helped him and they formed Scharbauer Brothers in the 1880s.” said Scharbauer on a recent edition of the Best of Midland Podcast. “Then they got together and called their nephew Clarence Scharbauer senior, my granddad's Clarence Jr., so my great Granddad Clarence Sr.”
“When he moved here he got a job as a little kid. He was delivering papers, and as he got older and working up through the family, they were putting cattle and ranches together. They'd built a bank here one of the First National Banks in the late 1880s,” Scharbauer said. “And just to kind of fast forward, 1917 that's when Scharbauer Cattle Company was formed, that's what I own: Scharbauer Cattle Company.”
John Scharbauer is a part of the Scharbauer family, which has deep roots in Midland’s history, with their cattle ranch dating back to the 1880s. The family has also helped to develop much of Midland’s infrastructure, including a hotel, a radio station, and a butcher shop in town. Scharbauer started the Midland Meat Company in 2015 as an extension of the ranching business.
Best of Midland Podcast is hosted by Ryan Shewchuk and Terra Avery. It is an extension of the broader Best of Midland program, which aims to support small, local businesses by showcasing them and the people behind them. Their website lists top business and upcoming live events happening in the area.
The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.