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Pangi-Lore
Nellie 1. ox,
n angel°, Texas.
111.fiGE -LORE
Fags one
although he is 72 years old, Hardy Jones of Can
angel°, Texas, is still an active cowboy. ::xlme men of
that age become cooks or do other light work (It any)
when on cattle works but not so with Mr. Zones. He
hus his mount alloted to him, rides and accomplishes
as much as any other hand and such more than many, be-
cause of his years of experience.
"My brother-in-law raised me", says Mr. Jones.
"as lived in nlam County which at that time had very
few fences except for the farms. te had a few cattle
and I learned to handle cattle when I was very -small.
Page two
In those days we didn't use a chuck wagon but put our
cooking outfit on a pack -horse. A skillet,. a few puns,
a coffee pot and other needed things were tied on the
horse and sometimes tin cups were fastened around the
horse's neck. My first part in working cattle was to
lead the pack -horse. I was mighty little.
"My brother-in-law traded for a few sheep and let
them out on shares. The man took the sheep and headed
for the best. We moved to Hamilton County, but early
each spring we would come to this country to help with
the lambing of our sheep and stay to work cattle.
"I came first in 1879 but later we moved out here,
arriving on March 10th, 1882. I have never been back
to my home in Milem County.
"There were no fences out here but when, we were
coming through the country below Coleman, I remember
seeing a long, barbed wire fence which had been out be-
tween every post. We had to drive around every way.
That cut wire was scattered all over the road. There
were only three stores that I remember, e small one at
Indian Gap, one about the same size at Brownwood, and
another one, mostly a buffalo trading post, at Paint
Rook.
"We hauled our wool to Abilene to market, using a
two horse wagon. There was always strings of ox teams
hauling lumber and stuff out of Abilene. When we met
them in deep ruts, it was hard for my team to pull my
load out of the ruts and over to one side, but the drivers
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of the oxen would always say, *Take your time, son. If
you can't get out, we'll hitch one of our teams on and
pull you out.!
"My first work on a ranch after moving here in 1882
WAS for the VP outfit, across the Concho River from where
Water Valley is now locted. Captain Turner had settled
in that country a short time prior to that, I think. We
had a ranch hoes but I don't recall his name but Kearney
Mayes, a brother of Ben Mayes, was wagon boss. I was a
line rider. When I worked for the If's, I went up the
trail. When we were driving a herd of mixed stuff,. cows,
calves and steers, there wasn't.much danger of stampedes
but with several thousand head of steers, stampedes were
common occuranceS. AA night four boys generally rode
herd, two traveling around one way and two the other way.
I couldn't sing but I did whistle. I don't know that it
helped quiet the steers any but it was better to have
some noise, for if every thing was cy:let and a sudden noise
was made, every old steer Jumped up and began to snort.
Even sometimes if a steer belched, it was enough to start
the whole bunch off on a wild ran. Most cowboys sang as
they rods at night, especially on stormy nights. We had,
of course, our chuck wagon, our cook, our remuda and our
horse wrangler. We generally helped wrangle our horses,
every one of them. h'orking cattle out in the open, a
horse came to know as much as the man.
"There were no Indians in the country when I came
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but the soldiers were still at Fort Conch°. I have seen
the soldiers going out on scout dut,y to the Fort Stockton
Country. I don't know whether there were any Indians out
there or not. The soldiers traveled slowly with long
wagon trains.
"Many years ago we could get free range by leasing
a waterhole but the fencing of the country changed all
that.
"Even cattle working isn't what it used to be. If
some of these present day cattlemen had to work cuttle
like we did in the early days they would be complate
failures."
Range -lore
Nellie B. Cox
San Angelo, Texas
RANGELORE
Page one
AMong the pioneers of the san Angelo area isxwho
sxxstotw**wwincslionrwartmximmx*mxtia2x witnessed some of
the exciting episodes of early days, is an old-timer
who came here in 1879 and asks that his name be withibeld
from thc2f0itywingespury ithickokkogiva:.
'Then I was working with the 7D outfit I was line
rider and stayed at what was called the "Lone Joel' camp.
One day after dinner I rode out as usual on my job. In
a thicket of liveoak I came up on the three train robbers
who two or three days before had robbed a T. P. train
tothentth," These men, Tom Ketchum and two others, had
finished eating their dinner and were dividing their
money. They had a stack of silver about this high, (he
measured about four feet), besides more green -backs than
you ever saw in a bank. They were not disturbed when I
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rode up for they knew me. They gave me four one
hundred -dollar bills but after taking them, I decided
that I didn't want to be caught with any hundred dollar
bills, so I gave the money back to them. They divided
the money and separated there, each going his own way,
but headed generally to the south. They were riding
7D horses but they didn't steal them. They would
catch and ride horses off the ranches but always man-
aged to return them.
"The rangers were close behind Ketchum, arriving
at the none Joe" a few hours after they were gone. They
took one of our riders whom we called Mose, along with
them to help them but they (the rangers) all headed for
the concha Country and missed the robbers, entirely.
They sent Mose back to the ranch.
"It is said that Ketchum was hung in Arizona, but
some say he was not. I wouldn't know any of them now
if they were to pass along in front of me."