John Tarleton was an orphan who at an early age worked his way from New England to Knoxville, Tennessee. Employed in a dry goods store for over forty years, he invested in government land certificates and eventually secured patents to thousands of acres. Arriving in Texas in the 1870s, he lived briefly in Waco, where he operated a mercantile store. He moved to this area in 1880 and entered the cattle business. At his death in November 1895, he left the bulk of his estate to found Tarleton College, which opened in Stephenville in 1899.