As a legendary frontier merchant, Frank Eben Conrad played a significant role in the radical physical and cultural transformation of West Texas, especially Shackelford County, from the 1870s through the 1880s. By supplying goods to the military, area residents, buffalo hunters, and cattle drovers as well as acting as a banker and purchasing raw materials for resale, Conrad contributed to the area’s economic development. This in turn created a more secure environment in which non-Native settlements transitioned from frontier enclaves to modern towns and cities.
