The Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Co., a syndicate of Chicago and British investors, received three million acres of land in ten Panhandle counties in 1881 in exchange for financing the construction of the State Capitol in Austin, thus becoming the largest of the great corporate cattle ranches in Texas. The common misconception of the meaning of “XIT” is “Ten (counties) In Texas.” However, according to Texas historian J. Evetts Haley, “The XIT brand was conceived by an old Texas trail driver named Ab Blocker … [who] knew that a good brand must be easy to make but difficult to burn or alter … The XIT brand, though a large one, was easily made with a five-inch bar.” The first cattle arrived from South Texas on the XIT ranges in 1885.
The XIT moved its headquarters, originally located about twelve miles south at Tascosa, to Channing near the middle of its seven ranges in 1890 when general manager A. G. Boyce convinced the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway to open a line through the town. For its headquarters and office of the general manager, the XIT erected not a vernacular ranch house of stone, adobe, or picket but an Eastlake cottage built of brick shipped in on the railroad, with a stickwork porch and cross-gabled roof. The building has two principal rooms, used as offices, and now stands isolated on its site as all the original outbuildings have been demolished. This modest structure served as ranch headquarters until 1914 after the great landholding was broken up and sold off (to the original intent of its investors).
Two blocks south at 719 Denver Street, the Channing United Methodist Church (1902) is a stuccoed masonry building with small, pointed-arched windows and a two-stage shingled tower. XIT general manager A. G. Boyce and his family were founding members of the congregation in the early 1890s.