The Rafter G Ranch is named for the Garrett family brand the "Rafter G".
The original Rafter G brand has been in the family for generations.  It is unknown exactly which Garrett was the first to use the brand, but it is believed to go back to the 1800's.  The Garrett name came to Texas in the early 18th century via William Mansfield Garrett.  (John H. Garrett Jr.'s great-great grandfather)

William Mansfield Garrett was born May 12, 1831 in Christian County, Kentucky. As a small boy he moved with his parents to Smith County, Tennessee.  He was the son of William and Anna (Haley) Garrett who has been married in Fauquier County, Virginia on October 23, 1815.  Anna (Haley)Garrett was the daughter of David Haley, who was Bondsman for their marriage.  David Haley's father, the great-grandfather of our William Mansfield Garrett, was Daniel Haley who was a Private in the Virginia Continental Line killed at the Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina in 1781.

William and Anna Garrett lived in Smith County, Tennessee from the early 1830's until their deaths between the years of 1870 and 1880.  They lived near the town of New Middleton.  William Garrett received a pension for service during the War of 1812.  Information from his pension file tells us that he enlisted in Captain Ashby's company of the Virginia Militia and was near Washington as the Capitol was being burned by the British in 1814.

William Mansfield Garrett revealed very little information about his early life to his children and his grandchildren.  It has only been in the last few years that his great-grandchildren have solved part of the puzzle of how he ended up in Texas.

The facts that has been put together in the last few years was that William Mansfield Garrett's father had arranged a marriage with the daughter of the parents of a neighboring farm and William M. objected and "said he was his own man and would find his own wife".  He left his home in Tennessee and never went back or contacted his family again.  His family had thought that he had gone west and been killed, when in fact he was the only one of William Garrett's sons to survive the Civil War.    

William M. Garrett actually made his way to Louisiana and found work with Green Kelly, who was a breeder of fine horses.  William M. Garrett was a horse lover, then, and for the rest of his life.  When the Green Kelly family moved from Louisiana to Texas, William M. Garrett came also.  His job was to bring one of Green Kelly's Tennessee Walking Horse stallions to Texas by boat, traveling down the Mississippi River, then along the Texas coast to Indianola, and then overland to Karnes County, where the Kelly family first settled.  It was in Karnes County that he met Margaret Ann Byars.

Jessie Crawford, Margaret Ann Byars' grandfather, had been in Texas for some time and was an early recipient of a very large land grant from the Republic of Texas.  Years later, some of the land grant made its way through the family to Margaret Ann Byars Garrett.

By 1857, William Mansfield Garrett and Margaret Ann Byars were married.  Margaret Ann was not quite fourteen years old.  They lived in Karnes County, and it was there that their first two children were born.

It was during this time that William Garrett was a volunteer in Tomlinson's Company of the Texas Rangers.  

With the coming of the Civil War, W. M. Garrett enlisted in Hallettsville, Texas in Company A, Young's Regiment, 12th Texas Infantry.  He was thirty-one years old. W. M. Garrett served as a Confederate scout in the war.

After the Civil War, the Garrett’s moved to DeWitt County where they had 8 more children.  William M. Garrett bought small tracts of land in DeWitt County, and after the village of Terryville moved in 1881, he bought up the site of Old Terryville.  He and Margaret lived at Old Terryville until 1895.

William Mansfield Garrett died December 23, 1916 at the home of his son John Byars Garrett, near Yoakum, Texas.  Margaret Ann Byars Garrett died June, 26, 1918 in El Campo, Texas.  They are both buried at the Countyline Cemetery in DeWitt, Texas.

William Mansfield and Margaret Ann, had 10 children of which William Ebb Garrett born in 1866 was the fourth.

William Ebb marries Theodocia Stephenson and had seven children of which Grover Barnwell was the second child and was born in 1891.

Grover Barnwell marries Frances Allie Squyres and had 11 children of which John Henry Garrett is the sixth child and was born in 1923.

John Henry Garrett marries Mary Louise Bonneau and has four children of which John Henry Garrett Jr is the first and born in 1947.

John Henry Garrett Jr marries Barbara Frances Mikulencak and has two children, Gina Michelle Garrett born in 1973 and John Henry Garrett III, born in 1976.

The Rafter G brand stays in the family and in 2010, John H. Garrett Jr. buys the ranch in Kimble County Texas, and names the ranch the Rafter G Ranch after the brand, which we still have.

(credit to Lianne Garrett Beel for the research)