Trailing Cattle - A Short History Part 8

The year 1876 was a pivotal one for the country and Texas trailers. In 1876, Custer came to his end on the Little Big Horn, Alexander Graham Bell introduced the telephone, barbed wire was beginning to gain notice and trailers were pushing more and more cattle into the expanding West. Both San Antonio and Fort Worth saw their fortunes increase as Cow Towns. In San Antonio, the city council outlawed loose cattle from the streets in 1876 although hogs were still free to roam. Fort Worth had plenty of saloons, dance establishments, sporting women, and mercantile supplies. But a new trail was being marked to the west of Fort Worth that caused the town alarm. The new trail, through Fort Griffin, (On the Brazos River west of present day Graham, and northeast of Albany - below the fort was a town called the Flats. The Flats soon became known as the wildest town in Texas.) From Fort Griffin the trail led to the Red River where the cattle crossed at Doan's Crossing and then on to Dodge City, Kansas. Coupled with the Kansas legislature's new cattle quarantine area that now included Wichita, Dodge City seemed posed to emerge as a major cattle shipping point for the Santa Fe RR. Richard King, of King Ranch fame, was credited with trailing 30,000 cattle in 12 different herds north in 1876. King's herds were sold in Kansas and Nebraska.

Kansans never held much regard for Texas trailers and events in the latter part of 1876 only seemed to justify their feelings. In September, outside of Big Springs, Nebraska, six men from cowboy outfits robbed the Union Pacific. The haul? $60,000 in gold and a few hundred in cash. The bandits included Sam Bass. It seems the cowboys, after getting paid for pushing Longhorns up the trail, had drifted north to Deadwood, (Black Hills) where they promptly lost all of their cattle money. And robbery must have seemed as the only viable means for Sam and the bunch to gain their proceeds back. Over at the Flats below Fort Griffin, a lawman, John Larn, was also making quite a name for himself. Larn, who operated as sheriff for Shackleford County moonlighted as a cattle thief. Watt Matthews, Larn's nephew, said of the man: "He was a charmer with many atrributes of a gentleman, but he was also an outlaw, cow thief, and a killer." Larn is said to be responsible for the killing of 12 men by age 30. Larn's running mate in the county was John Selman. (Selman is the man who later killed John Wesley Hardin in El Paso.) Bass met his end in Round Rock, Texas in 1878. He was shot by Richard Ware of the Texas Rangers. John Larn's demise also occurred in 1878. Larn was shot in his jail cell by vigilantes.

Most trailers rode a Spanish cow pony, which was a descendant of the horses brought over by the Spaniards, and the short distance running horse that was developed in colonial America. From Malcom MacKay's Cow Range and Hunting Trail: "Of the many cow ponies that we rode, a few seemed to have had real personalitites, and their traits have stayed in my memory. They were Captain, Baldy, Crockett, Coyote, Prince, Fox, Ginger, Texas, and Five Dollars. ...Fox was a heavy-boned, thickset sorrel and his name suited him well, for he was sure foxy. One morning I put a new saddle on him that had attached to it a beautiful pair of white Angora saddle pockets. Fox did not seem to notice the new rig until I got up on the flat behind our barn and hit into alope, then the Angora flaps began to flap. Fox took one look, and lost his head, and started, high, wide and handsome, straight for a cut bank, twenty feet down to creek bottom. I stuck him for three or four jumps, and then I saw he really was going over the bank, and I would sure be killed if I went along, so I threw my left leg over his head and tried to land on my feet, but didn't quite get the right slant to it, and lit on my right hip, which laid me up about ten days. Fox went on over, turned a somersault or two, and lit in the creek with a grunt..." In MacKay's writing, I love the description, high, wide and handsome. The phrase is original Americana and is best defined as: a person feeling carefree and acting on top of the world. The first printed reference appears in The Bucks County Gazette, Bristol, Pennsylvania, November 1881.

Margaret Heffernan Borland is thought by many historians to be the only woman to have led a cattle drive. Margaret was born in Ireland in 1824 and with her parents, John and Julia Heffernan, arrived in Texas in 1829. The Heffernans settled in Coastal Bend area of Texas - where the Texas Ranching Industry had its roots. Margaret was married three times. Her first husband was killed after an argument. The second husband, Milton Hardy, died of cholera. She then married Alexander Borland, who was considered the wealthiest rancher of the area. Borland died of yellow fever in 1867. After his death, Margaret assumed control of the cattle operation and took on the role of selling and purchasing cattle. By 1873, she had amassed a herd of 10,000 head. In the spring of 1873, she took on the task of driving 2500 Longhorn to Wichita, Kansas. Accompanying her on the drive were her remaining 3 children, her granddaughter, and a few trailers. She reached Wichita with the herd, but succumbed to illness on July before seeing the cattle sold. Her illness was described as "trail fever" by some and "congestation of the brain" by others. (Edgar Allen Poe's fatal illness was also described as "congestation of the brain." The term seems to have covered everything from rabies to malaria. Photo- Margaret Heffernan Borland

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