Trailing Cattle - A Short History Part 7

The first town marshall in Abilene was Thomas James Smith. Smith proved his grit early on the job by disarming two bold cowboy / outlaws with his bare fists, first, a ruffian known as Big Hank, and a day later, Wyoming Frank. However, 5 months into the job Smith was killed by a local farmer Andrew McConnell and a neighbor, Moses Miles. After Smith was buried, now town mayor, Joseph McCoy determined that Abilene needed a "name" lawman to keep the peace in the cow town. In April of 1871, the town council hired James B. (Wild Bill) Hickok. Hickok a pistoleer of some renown, was hired at $150.00 a month plus 1/4 of any fines collected. Almost immediately, Hickok made enemies in part to his exerted control around town and partly due to his charm with the ladies. One such desperado was John Wesley Hardin. Two others were Ben Thompson and Phil Coe. The latter tried to push Hardin into a fight with Wild Bill. Hardin ignored the plodding and instead told Coe, "If Wild Bill needs killing, why don't you do it yourself?" Some historians believe that the Hickok, Coe dust-up was the result of competition over a woman. Others relate that the matter was due to the fact that Coe was mouthy drunk. Regardless, the trouble between the two inevitably came to a head on October 5, 1871. Before returning to Texas at season's end, Coe and several of his group decided to have "a little" fun before their departure. The group moved up and down the Abilene thoroughfare, forcing "victims" into the Alamo to buy drinks. Near dark, a shot was discharged in the street. Hickok, who spent a good deal of his time in the Alamo, rushed outside and demanded to know who had fired a weapon. Coe obliged that it was him. Standing within 10 feet of one another, both men suddenly fired. Coe's shots missed their mark, whereas Hickok's struck Coe in the stomach. In the fading light, another man rushed to the scene, flashing a pistol. Hickok didn't hesitate and shot the man dead. Later, he discovered that the dead man was his friend, Mike Williams. Coe died 3 days later, and in December Hickok was dismissed from his job.

In February 1872, Abilene Mayor, Theodore Henry circulated a notice in Abilene and Texas that read: "We, the undersigned members of Dickinson County, Kansas, most respectfully request all who have contemplated driving Texas cattle to Abilene the coming season to seek some other point for shipment, as the inhabitants of Dickinson County will no longer submit to the evils of the trade." And Texans being who they are, responded by trailing their cattle to Wichita and Ellsworth. Less than 3 months later, Abilene, after enjoying cattle money for 4 1/2 years suddenly took on the look of a ghost town. Wichita enjoyed the enviable position of being the first market Texas drovers reached upon entering Kansas. Joseph McCoy left Abilene in the spring and visited Wichita where he observed the building of a spur line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe RR. McCoy, ever the astute businessman, realized that with a shipping yard, Wichita would soon compete with any Kansas cow town. By April, Wichita employed McCoy to travel north and persuade cattle buyers to come to Wichita. By June, with the spur line completed, 18 carloads of Longhorns left Wichita for Chicago and by early fall, over 20 herds grazed within shouting distance of town.

E.C. Abbott - Abbott, better known as Teddy Blue, recalled his trailing experiences to Helena Huntington Smith in 1938. At the time Abbott was 78 years in age. His book - We Pointed Them North is filled with many colorful insights to the trailing business. One of his recollections was that Sam Bass worked as his father's wagon boss be...fore he came an outlaw. Another recounted how the "poorest" hands were relegated to riding drag on a herd. Abbott wrote of those cowboys: "They would go to the water barrel at the end of the day and rinse their mouths and cough and spit and bring up that black stuff out of their throats. But you couldn't get it up out of your lungs." On watering a herd, Abbott said, "You bring them up and spread them out along the bank, with the lead cattle headed downstream. The leads get there first, and of course they drink clear water, and as the drags keep coming they get clear water, too, because they are upstream." Another interesting recollection of Abbott's involved borrowing .50 from Calamity Jane at the Belly-Ups train station on the Miles-Deadwood stage line. (It was named Belly-Ups to honor all the buffalo hunters who went belly-up in the winter of 1883.) Abbott was broke and borrowed the money to buy a meal. He promised to pay her back one day whereas Jane replied, "I don't give a damn if you ever pay me." Abbott relates that he saw her again in 1907 standing on a street corner. Abbott approached and asked, "Don't you know me?" and promptly repaid the .50. He recalls that Jane replied, "I told you, Blue that I don't give a damn if you never paid me." "And," Abbott remembers, "after that we both went into a local saloon and drank it up.

In May of 1872, Ellsworth, Kansas was determined to become the "new" Abilene for Texas trailers. William Cox, liverstock agent for the Kansas Pacific RR, had cut out a new trail which shortened the trailer's drive by about 20 miles. The new trail, although still considered to be a part of the Chisholm Trail, was known by most as the Cox Trail. Ellsworth boasted of a bank for merchants and stock dealers, 3 hotels, and 13  saloons, and of course there were many "Prairie Nymphs" or what many called "Ladies of easy virtue." That summer, the Topeka Newspaper wrote of Ellsworth - "The authorities consider that as long as mankind is depraved and Texas cattle herders exist, there will be a demand and necessity for prostitutes." By August, Ellsworth, known as "the wickedest city in Kansas, accomplished its goal of replacing Abilene as the cattle capital. It was estimated that Ellsworth held a 177,000 head of Longhorns compared to 56,000 for Wichita. Wayne Gard writes in the Chisholm Trail that the biggest sale that year went to L.B. Harris of San Antonio, who was paid $210,000. for 7,000 steers. Even though fewer cattle were trailed to Kansas in 1872, the prices were higher, and Texas drovers were excited about 1873's prospects. Little could they know that world economic events would unravel in such an extreme fashion that 1873 was going to be anything but a prosperous year for Texas cattle drivers.

 From the end of the Civil War until 1873, the railroad industry was the second largest employer in the United States. The industry enjoyed infusions of cash from speculators who soon realized that investments were putting too much money into projects that showed little return. (Think dot.com bust) In addition, in 1871, the German government had decided to cease minting silver thaler coins. The effect was felt in the U.S. where much of the world's silver was then mined. As a result of Germany's decision, the U.S. passed the Coinage Act of 1873. The act made Gold the standard currency in the country. The new law immediately reduced the U.S. money supply, which caused an increase in interest rates, which hurt anyone carrying large loans. (Farmers, Ranchers, and Industry) By September of 1873, the U.S. economy hit the "wall." The result was due to several years of economic misfortune, the Panic of 1869, the Chicago Fire (1871), equine influenza (1872) and finally the U.S. decision to no longer convert silver into coins. The first domino to fall was Jay Cooke & Co., a bank heavily invested in the RR's, was unable to market two million dollars in RR bonds. President Grant's response was to contract the money supply. And once again interest rates soared. The Jay Cooke failure was followed by a chain reaction of bank closures, factory lay-offs, closing of the Stock Exchange for 10 days, and 89 RR's going bankrupt. To Texas drovers, the effect was chilling. Thousands of cattle were killed just for hide and tallow, and many trailers who arrived in Kansas in the fall were lucky to break even. 

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011

Trailing Cattle - A Short History Part 6

By 1870 almost every Texas cowman had developed a bad case of Kansas fever. The contagion spread unabated due to the fact that a Longhorn steer caught and branded in the South Texas scrub for as little as $4.00 a head would bring $31.00 in the St Louis market and $55.00 in New York. Soon the trails to the Kansas shipping yards were clogged with herds. Many of the herds actually mixed or joined together at river crossings or during a stompede. To combat thievery among the herds, Texas established the Office of Hide and Cattle Inspection. Inspectors were established in any county where cattle might pass. The job usually went to local sheriffs. By the end of 1870, the expanding service of the Atchison, Topeka, Santa Fe RR, the South Pacific RR, which later became the Atlantic and Pacific, Leavenworth RR, the Lawrence, and Galveston RR, and the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas RR resulted in a price bidding war that only increased the profits in the cowman's pocket. Yet despite the prosperity for the cowmen and the Abilene businesses, a cooling to Texas cattle and Texas cowboys was gaining steam by the ever-growing Abilene population. And if the citizen farmers had their way, Ellsworth, Kansas, 64 miles to the West, could have all of the Texans and their vices, and of course all of their cattle as well.  

In the spring of 1871 Harriet (Standerfer) Cluck, wife of George W. Cluck became the first woman to ride up the Chisolm Trail. The Clucks ranched in Williamson County, Texas near the town of Running Brushy (present day Cedar Park, Texas). In March, George had put together a herd of 1000 Longhorns for an April drive. Harriet, who had three small children and was expecting a fourth, decided she would not stay at home while her husband was gone and shockingly announced: "She was heading north with the herd." Along the way, the herd was roused by a group of rustlers demanding a large cut of steers. Harriet, who had helped load guns during the encounter was said to have told some of the younger trailers, "If any one of you boys doesn't want to fight, come back here and drive the hack and give me your gun!" When the herd reached Abilene, Harriet who had turned 25 on the trail, gave birth to Euell Standerfer Cluck. In 1874, the first Post Office was established in Running Brushy, where Harriet became postmaster at the pay of 3-4 dollars a month.(Her salary was dependent upon the number of stamps cancelled)
By most accounts, Black cowboys were active on the trails from 1867-1885. Some historians figure that 25% of working cowboys were Black. Ben Kinchlow, who at 19, rode with Capt. Leander McNelly's Special Force, trailed cattle north for the Sol West Ranch. Neptune Holmes, who worked for Shanghai Pierce, was often called the guardian of Shanghai's "sea-lions". It was said that when a Pierce herd would reach Kansas, Shanghai would announced, "Here are my sea-lions, straight out of the Gulf of Mexico." One of the best-known Black cowboys was Bose Ikard, Charles Goodnight's trusted trail-boss. Goodnight remembered his friend later in life by saying, "...he was the most skilled and trustworthy man I had." Perhaps, the most dangerous Black cowboy trailing cattle was Jim Kelly. Kelly, who worked for the Olive Ranch in Williamson County, Texas was known as the ebony gun and was a loyal gun hand to boss, Print Olive. In 1876, Kelly followed Print to Custer County, Nebraska where Print became the first president of the Custer County Livestock Assn. Jim Kelly became the organization's "gunslinger." Print also used Kelly to negotiate with homesteaders who would charge fees for having cattle cross their land. "Teddy Blue" Abbott, who chronicled his trailing adventures in the book, We Pointed Them North, said of Kelly, "That big black boy with his gun would sure tell them punkin rollers (farmers) where to head in at."

 By October 1871, Abilene would boast of 11 saloons. Like ports at the end of a long ocean journey, the bars provided low-brow entertainment for road weary cowboys who had watched the hind-end of a 1200 pound steer for the better part of a 1000 miles. Abilene's gin mills included the Alamo, the Bull's Head, the Elkhorn, the Pearl, the Old Fruit, Jim Flynn's, Tom Downey's, the Applejack, the Lone Star, the Longhorn, and the Trail. The most popular and most luxuriant was the Alamo. (Wild Bill Hickok killed Phil Coe outside of the Alamo Saloon in 1871) The saloon featured a 40 foot front with three double glass doors. The bar itself ran almost the length of the building and featured polished rails and fixtures. The walls showcased large paintings of nudes reminescent of Renaissance paintings. And the Alamo even had a small orchestra which played morning, afternoon, and night. But for all of their attractiveness, the saloons, like modern day Las Vegas, had only one intention - that was to separate a cowboy from his cash. And even though trailers knew this, still they came, as some have put it: riding straight into an ambush. The Texas cowboys even had a song to celebrate this indisputable fact. "You strap on your chaps, your spurs, and your gun - You're going into town to have a little fun. You play with a gambler who's got a marked pack; Then you walk back to camp with your saddle on your back."

 

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011

Trailing Cattle - A Short History Part 5

Charles Goodnight said of the Texas Longhorn - "As trail cattle, their equal has never been known. Their hoofs are superior to those of any other cattle. In stampedes, they hold together better, are easier circled in a run, and rarely split off when you commence to turn the front. No animal of the cow kind will shift and take care of itself under all conditions as will the Longhorns. They can farther without water and endure more suffering than others." Goodnight is credited as the inventor of the chuck wagon and the calf wagon or 'blattin' cart.' He was also well-known on the trail for his famous lead steer, Old Blue. Lead steers were invaluable animals on the trail, not only keeping the herd moving at a 10-12 mile pace per day, but also for tasks such as starting a herd swimming or entering pens at the sale yards. Old Blue led Goodnight herds to market for 8 years. Stories tell that the old steer refused to associate with the herd at night, often bedding with the horses and even coming into camp to beg for food. After his death, Goodnight mounted Old Blue's horns at his ranch. Today they are on display at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas.

The Texas Chuck Wagon or "Wagon" was always an open-air affair. As one cowboy said, "Putting a cover on is too much trouble for getting things in and out." In the wagon bed, the cook loaded kegs of molasses, and boxes of bacon, sugar. Built into the back-end was a chuck box or pantry. The chuck box sloped outward and the lower end hinged, so it could be lowered to act as a work or eating table. This table was held by rope or chains or sometimes a stick prop beneath it. Inside, out of the elements, utensils, flour, sourdough, salt, tomatoes, beans, dried fruit, onions, and potatoes were stored. Usually the chuck box also contain one drawer that held medicinal products such as liniment, quinine, and a laxative. Sitting below the chuck box was a smaller box that held the skillets and the Dutch ovens. On one side of the wagon, a water barrel would be mounted. On the other side, a tool box was mounted. The tool box contained branding irons, horseshoeing equipment, and possibly an axe and shovel. All chuck wagons had a leather hammock stretched underneath the bed where spare wood was carried. This hammock was also called the cooney, from the Spanish word cuna. (cradle) Cowboys also called it the "possum belly." During many a stormy night on the trail, a smart cowboy could nestle into the cooney and stay dry and warm during the night. Chuck wagons were normally pulled by oxen, mules or horses.

Hot coffee was the staple for cowboys trailing Longhorns to Kansas and Arbuckle's was the brand of choice. Self-respecting cowboys drank it black without sugar or evaporated milk. The coffee was called six-shooter coffee as it was said to be able to float a cowboy's pistol. The rest of breakfast included bacon, sourdough biscuits,and dried fruit. Lunch was called dinner in that time and was always a light meal consisting usually of coffee and beef. (There was always plenty of beef on the drive) Most times, the cowboys of a particular herd would kill another drive's stray for steaks so as not to kill one of their own steers. If that option was not present, they would kill an animal from their herd that either was a problem to drive or had poor markings. For several days after the killing of a steer, the camp would endure daily portions of "son-of-a-gun" stew. The stew consisted of everything that needed to be eaten quickly before spoiling. This would include tongue, heart, liver, etc... Once the stew was portioned out, the cowboys would enjoy steak cooked in a Dutch oven. The rest of a steak meal would consist of onion, potatoes, and dried beans known by trailers as "Pecos strawberries."


Trailing cattle was never the daring, thrill-seeking adventure portrayed in the Dime Novels of the time. In fact, it was downright dangerous on a daily basis. In the Chisolm Trail by Wayne Gard, the author tells of a herd that found a grave on the North Canadian that simply read: Killed by Indians. Besides the dangers of hostile Indians, there were rattlesnakes, prairie dog burrows, cholera, and deadly spring thunderstorms. Many a cowboy used his saddle for protection during a hailstorm which in severe cases had the potential to kill horses and cattle. In addition to hail, there were also the hazards associated with lightning, flooded river crossings, and tornado-like wind. And even upon reaching Kansas, there was always trouble with the locals. Bill Poage, a vetern of the trail commented in 1874 that - "There was scarcely a day went by that we didn't have a row with some settler." And Kansas farmers used Kansas law to their advantage. One enterprising ploy was to plow a furrow around a claim, by Kansas law this was considered a fence and any herds crossing the furrow were trespassing and the claimant could collect damages from the trespassing Texas herd.

The one danger that all trailers feared to a man was the stampede or "stompede" as most cowboys called it. A stompede could be caused by something as small as a flock of quail or as large as a bolt of lightning thrown down from the heavens. But whatever the cause, the panicked Longhorns might run a few miles or a hundred. Smart trailers immediately turned the stampede into a circle, allowing the cattle to "mill." Milling cattle soon exhausted themselves and often quieted, but once a herd stampeded, they had to be watched closely the rest of the day or night. Milling was not without its drawbacks. A milling herd could work off more pounds in a half-hour mill as running a couple miles. One of the worst recorded stampedes occured on the South Bosque River, Texas where trailers could not mill a panicked herd. The herd rushed headlong over a wide gully where 2,700 steers ended up dying in the rush.

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011

Trailing Cattle - A Short History Part 4

By 1867, six states had laws enacted or strenghtened laws prohibiting the movement of Texas and Indian cattle across their borders. Missouri's law was the harshest, as it gave inspectors the right to condemn and destroy any inspected cattle thought to be carrying Texas fever. Kansas law now expanded its ban on trailing from March to December, but carried one loophole...the southwestern boundry of the state, west of McPherson, was still open to drovers. The law also carried an important provision that would allow exploitation by a forward-thinking cowman: if a drover would post a $10,000. guarantee against damages to local farmers and towns, his herd could be moved north to the now expanding Union Pacific Railroad ship points. Once loaded on the rail, the cattle had to be moved outside of the state. Suddenly, the Texas cowmen had hope again. The question was - could anyone open up a new buying market in the geographic loophole so that cattle could be trailed north in 1867?

 As 1867 progressed, Southern drovers still found themselves buffeted in Southeastern, Kansas and Southwestern Missouri by armed mobs acting under the guise of a fear of Texas fever. The border instability caused Northern buyers to avoid carrying cash to purchase stock worsening the woes of the cowmen as a new gambit emerged from an unscrupulous ...segment of society. Con men were now offering worthless paper, (drafts) to unwary Texas drovers. As more and more cowmen were stung by this ploy, the continuance of the trailing industry seemed bleak until a young Illinois businessman, Joseph G. McCoy, formulated a plan by which Northern buyers and Texas drovers could meet undisturbed by outside influences to buy and sell cattle. McCoy's vision for a meeting location included a shipping yard, hotels, offices, and stock pens that could hold as many as 3000 Texas cattle. McCoy soon found his dream location in Abilene, Kansas. Abilene at the time consisted of 11 log cabins and two small businesses - but held two crucial ingredients that would aid in McCoy's success: ample prairie and good water. There was a problem however - Abilene lay 60 miles inside the Kansas legislature's ban boundry. McCoy proceeded nonetheless, sensing that Abilene's sparse population might hold little interest in enforcing the law, especially when they would be afforded the opportunity to sell goods and services at outrageous prices to the drovers from Texas. McCoy purchased 250 acres in Abilene on June 18th. By September 24th, the hotel and shipping yard were completed. And before the end of 1867, 35,000 cattle were trailed to Abilene.

 In the spring of 1868, the outlook for Texas cowmen had improved considerably. The new trail to Abilene, although not free of dangers, was most decidedly free of angry locals. The trail also offered drovers a more direct route as its path cut due North of its Red River crossing. (The Abilene trail was 150 miles West of the old Shawnee... Trail) In its infancy, the route to Abilene was called the Kansas Trail, the Abilene Trail, McCoy's Trail, the Great Cattle Trail, the Great Texas Cattle Trail, or the Wichita Trail. Around 1870, a letter in a Kansas newspaper stated: ...Osage Indians out on their spring hunt, had camped on the Chisolm Trail. Jesse Chisolm was a trader and guide who had operated at the mouth of The Little River in Arkansas and later on the North Fork of the Canadian River and on the Arkansas River. In 1865, Chisolm had trailed a herd of cattle over the Kansas prairies. Soon others began traveling what some called Chisolm's Trail. Chisolm died in March of 1868 never realizing that his name would achieve a place in American history. His route soon became part of the larger trail that was used to trail Texas cattle to Kansas markets.

Once the Chisolm Trail became the "trail" to Abilene - Fort Worth, Texas suddenly became the outfitting point for trailers. There a cowman could buy spare saddles, guns, rope, and food staples. At Fort Worth, a trail boss would cross his herd on the West Fork of the Trinity River, on to the village of Decatur, and then to Denton Creek... before arriving at the Northern boundry of the state. Most trailers crossed into to Indian Territory at Red River Station. Swimming the herds across the Red River was one of the most dangerous legs of the journey. The river could be flooded in the spring and featured whirlpools and quicksand. Once inside Indian Territory the herd might spend the first night on one of the branches of Beaver Creek. From there, the trail crossed the Washita River, Walnut Creek, the Red Fork of the Arkansas River, Turkey Creek, Skeleton Creek, the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River, Polecat Creek, and finally to the Kansas border. If all went well, the herd could cross Indian Territory in a month.

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011

Trailing Cattle - A Short History Part 3

In 1858, amidst the historic Lincoln - Douglas debates, Oliver Loving, from Palo Pinto County, Texas and a neighbor, John Durkee, drove their herds to Illinois and sold the stock at a considerable profit. However other Texas drovers would not fare so well that year. A new outbreak of Texas fever left thousand of local cattle dead in Missouri and once again the Missouri farmers took it upon themselves to turn back Texas cattle using force when needed. The Missouri situation caused many Texas drovers to take a new route skirting the eastern edge of Kansas to reach Kansas City or other points north. But the Kansas reprieve was short-lived as thousands of Kansas cattle soon became stricken with Texas fever. In 1859, the Kansas Territorial Legislature passed a protective act that prohibited cattle from Texas, Arkansas, and Indian stock from entering specific counties from June to November. Some Texas drovers treated the law with contempt thus forcing Kansas farmers to organize rifle companies to deal with the Texans and their cattle.

 By August of 1861, Pres. Lincoln forbade any trade with the South. Coupled with the number of Texans fighting for the Confederacy, (almost all outside of Texas), the state of the cattle business fell into a steep decline. Neglected herds now roamed over large portions of the state and calves would go unbranded for the ensuing war years. And for the trailing that did go on during the war, the majority of herds were driven to the East Coast to feed Confederate soldiers. A few notable Texas cowmen who supplied cattle for the south were John S. Chisum, Oliver Loving, and Jesse L. Driskill. But for a the majority of trailers , the war exacted a heavy toll as the profitable northern markets were now unavailable. But at war's end, a few forward-thinking men would see a fortune on the horizon. Those unbranded calves, now called mavericks, were seen to be a source of profit to the cowman who caught and branded them.

J. Frank Dobie always said the word had only two syllables and that a genuine Texan pronounced it: mav-rick. One legend has it that the word originated by the fact that Samuel Maverick would not brand or earmark any of his herd. His neighbors, however took to branding not only their cattle but his as well. This did not prevent Samuel from claiming any slick eared animal belonged to his herd. Over time, when observing a slick-ear, folks would say, "There goes one of Mr. Maverick's animals. Later, when observing any unbranded animal anywhere, the saying became: "There goes a Mav-rick." Another legend holds that the word comes from the name of a drover who lost his herd in a snowstorm. The cattle became so scattered that regrouping the animals became impossible. The off-spring of the scattered herd became known as Maverick's cattle.

 

By 1866, the push to trail cattle north resumed in Texas. Estimates from the time suggest as many as 300,000 head were trailed for northern markets that spring. But two cowmen decided they would follow a westward direction out of the state. The two, Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight, combined their herds along the upper reaches of the Brazos River with the intent on moving them to the Rockies. However, there was one problem...Comanche lands blocked a direct route to Colorado. The two solved the problem by following the old Butterfield Stage Line through Buffalo Gap and then down to present day San Angelo.
From there they headed for Horsehead Crossing and the Pecos River. The cowmen then drove for Fort Sumner, NM. Of the 1000 steers they started with, 300 were lost by the time they reached Fort Sumner, but the NM market was willing to pay .08 a pound on foot. After selling all of their steers, 700 cows and calves remained. Loving trailed these north to Denver, while Goodnight rode back to Texas to gather another herd. In 1867, Loving followed the route and was attacked by Indians. The wounds he received eventually resulted in his death at Fort Sumner in September of that year.

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011

Trailing Cattle - A Short History Part 2

Texas' oldest and least known cattle trail was the Opelousas Trail. Some called this trail the Beef Trail and there is some confusion as to its route. Most historians credit the confusion to the fact that the trail was more than likely a network of trails crisscrossing East Texas. Historian W.T. Block wrote that ...the trail ran parallel to the Old San Antonio Road (Present day Interstate 10) following New Orleans, Opelousas, Beaumont, and on to San Antonio. During its peak, the Chisolm Trail would see 400,000 cattle driven to Kansas rail heads each year. The Opelousas Trail, on the other hand, never saw more than 75,000 animals per year, but lasted 90 years longer than the Chisolm. James Taylor White, who settled on Turtle Bayou near Anahuac in 1818, trailed cattle to New Orleans beginning in the 1820s. One of the Louisiana buyers purchasing White's cattle was Captain Arsene LeBleu de Comarsac, who had been one of Jean Lafitte's pirates in 1820. During White's peak years, he was trailing 2,500 cattle on the Opelousas Trail annually, for which he was paid $12 in gold per head. White died in 1851 leaving $150,000 in his bank at New Orleans. A tidy sum for the time.

The first recorded Northern drive out of Texas is credited to Edward Piper in 1846. Piper drove 1000 head to Ohio where he lost money at market, but Northward drives continued in size and scope during 1849 & 1850. The trail used by drovers during this time was an established route used by Native-Americans and traders.... Settlers called it, the Texas Road. Later, men who trailed cattle on this route referred to it as the Shawnee Trail. (Named for the Shawnee Hills) The Shawnee Trail would, in time, be referred to as the Cattle Trail, the Kansas Trail, or simply, The Trail. The Texas Road crossed into Oklahoma in present day Grayson County, Texas, where the herds swam the Red River at Rock Bluff Crossing. 

One branch of the Shawnee Trail ran through downtown Dallas, Texas and was known as the Preston Road. After pushing through Dallas, the trail crossed the Red, Canadian, Arkansas, and Grand Rivers before arriving just below the Southeastern corner of Kansas. There the trail split to the Northeast and Kansas City or East and St. Louis. In 1854, the first Longhorns arrived in St. Louis where the buyers viewed the cattle with some indignation, paying only $15-20 per head. A St. Louis newspaper reported that buffalo were more civilized than the Texas cattle.


By 1853, amid outbreaks of Texas fever in Missouri, the ranchers and farmers in the Western part of the state turned back a herd of Longhorns, steadfastly barring their entry. Texas fever, also known as Spanish fever or Mexican fever in Texas was spread by ticks, but in 1853, this was not understood by the gener...al public. The fact that the Texas cattle seemed immune to the disease and Midwestern cattle fell ill caused many states along the trails to enact quarantine laws restricting passage of Texas cattle to the winter months or routing cattle away from settled areas. Modern research has shown that the Longhorns were born with a partial immunity to the disease. This resistance lasted a few months after birth giving the animal just enough immunity to fight the pathogen during a widespread infection. From that point, the Longhorn could live in reasonable good health while still carrying the disease. In 1893, Theobald Smith & Fred Kilborne isolated the pathogen of Texas fever, a microscopic protozoan they named Pyrosoma bigeminium.

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011

Trailing Cattle - A Short History Part 1

In 1521, 28 years after Christopher Columbus landed the first Spanish cattle on Hispaniola. Gregorio de Villalobos transported a number of generational offspring from the original Hispaniola herd to New Spain. (Current day Mexico) In 1540, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado y Luján gathered 500 of Villalobos' original herd to supply food for his grandiose expedition in search of the Seven Cities of Cíbola. Along the way, Coronado left cattle in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.

In 1690, General Alonso De León helped establish San Francisco de los Tejas, the first Spanish mission in East Texas. In doing so, he led four expeditions using what would become known as the Old San Antonio Road. During these explorations he crossed and named the Guadalupe River, the Medina River, the Nueces River, and the Trinity River. At each river crossing, De León left a bull and a cow. Left to propagate at will, these self-dependent, prolific breeders soon were as numerous as buffalo on the Southern Plains and throughout the South Texas brush. These cattle, were called Criollo by the Spanish. The Criollo had their roots in the desert country of Andulusia, Spain, and they flourished in the South Texas climate.

 

The secret Treaty of Velasco (May 1836) granted Texas the land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande River as a part of the new republic. This disputed piece of real estate would become the stronghold of some 1.5 million cattle. In this vast stretch of no-man's land, a nursery if you will, a new cross-bred animal began to appear. This animal, a mixture of Cirollo and European introduced cattle, was highly adaptable to its environ. It did well in brush or swamp, with plentiful grass or rustling during drought. The animal, the Longhorn, evolved to run through the brush like an antelope, swim wide rivers, fight off wolves or coyotes, and although Spanish by origin, it became unmistakeably Texan. Texas Historian, J. Frank Dobie, said of this animal, "It is the peer of the bison and grizzly bear." By 1837, between the Rio Grande and the Nueces, the hunting of wild cattle by both Mexican and Texans became a regular business.

Many people believe that trailing cattle (as it was called in its infancy) originated after the Civil War, when a lone Texas herd headed for some vague point north of the 36th parallel. But as a matter of record, on April 21, 1836, the same day that Sam Houston and a bunch of Texans whipped the Mexican army, a herd of Texas longhorns from Taylor White's ranch west of the Neches River was trailing for New Orleans. And cattle had been trailed out of Texas even before that. Through the 'forties Texans trailed cattle north into Missouri and also to Louisiana markets. Beginning in 1850, thousands of steers were driven across the continent to California.

Mike Kearbys Texas  Copyright 2011