El Capote Ranch began with Jose De La Baume (1731-1834), a French army officer who came to North America with the Marquis De Lafayette, fought in the American Revolution, later joined the Spanish Army, and in 1806 received title to 27,000 acres of Texas land that formed the original ranch. His grant was reaffirmed after Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821. Virginia-born Michael Erskine (1794-1862) acquired the property in 1840, raised cattle there, and drove his herds to California and New Orleans. Because the San Antonio to Gonzales Road forded the Guadalupe River on the ranch land, many travelers passed that way, and the Erskine family hosted several eminent visitors, including William Bollaert (1840), Ferdinand Roemer (1845-1847), and Frederick Law Olmstead (1857). After the Erskine family sold the ranch in the 1870s, part of the land was deeded to Edith Kermit Carow, the second wife of Theodore Roosevelt. During the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt rode an El Capote horse, "Seguin", at the Battle of San Juan Hill (1898). Judge Leroy Gilbert Denman (1855-1916), a Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, acquired the ranch in 1897, and it is owned by his descendants.