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_Range -Lore
Nellie B. Cox,
San Angelo, Texas.
RANGE -LORE
Page one.
Pinkney (Pink) Joel Webb, an old-time cowboy tells:
"I have worked on several rranches on what seems now
to have been sorry pay but our needs were not many and there
is no work that carries with it the pleasure, freedom and
comradeship which we found when we worked on the ranches.
"One winter I camped on Spring Creek in a big pasture
where we kept some calf- heavy cows and some old, poor cows.
I had a tent with two wires stretched around it to keep off
the stock. I kept my chuck box out and my beans and coffee
on the fire. Anyone who came along was welcome to help
himself. The Mexicans all around were my good friends. They
were careful to keep my gates shut and to prop up my fences
Page two
if they found them down. I was kept busy that winter tail-
ing up old poor cows.
"While I was working on the Foote Ranch, fifteen
miles southeast of San Angelo, we had a big flood. Bridges
were washed out and there were places on Lipan Flat that a
man on horseback could hardly get through. We got out of
grub on the ranch We ate nearly all the chickens- hens
and all. One day a fat sheep showed up. We didn't know
where it came from for there were no sheep any where near.
We kept the sheep two days and finally butchered and ate
it. The women said that the Lord sent it; Maybe so.
Finally, four of us rode horseback in to town, tied our
horses to little mesquite trees somewhere in what is now
Glenmore Addition, crossed the river on a makeshift foot-
bridge, got our groceries and carried them back to the
ranch in feed sacks across our saddles.
"Booger Red or Tom Privett was breaking horses at
that time on the Foote Ranch. He was the best bronc rider
that was ever in the country. BA made breaking horses his
business. Later he rode at fairs nd stock shows. Booger
won lots of prizes. One time he won a saddle at the Ft.
Worth Fat Stock Show. It was a fine saddle with silver
mountings. When Booger left it at a hotel whilik he want:
ga home, the hotel clerk wanted to give him some kind of a
claim check. Booger Red said, 'Look at me right good and
if an uglier devil than me comes along, give him the saddle'.
Booger Red and his family had a pretty good circus. They
could all do fine riding and roping stunts.
Page three
"I used to work for the 7's, which was later changed
to the. (f h triangle). This ranch was owned by Claude
Anson and Hubert Verner. They were Englishmen and, I think,
belonged to the nobility. Their headquarters were on Kick-
apoo Creek. Anson always rode for his best mount, a gray
cuttin' horse. A story is told of two negroes who worked
on the ranch. t one time when Anson and Verner were away
on a trip, possibly to England these two negroes, one tall
like Anson and one low in stature like Verner, would put
on the Englishmen's clothes, ride their top horses and go
to town; passing themselves off as 'Mr. Anson and :Mr.'
Verner. That wasn't impossible. People in those days didn't
inquire anything about you as long as you attended to your
own business.
"I worked awhile, too, on the Rocking Chair Ranch,
staying at the headquarters for awhile but later they moved
a small house for me to live in.
"People used to be permitted to hunt and fish on the
creeks and rivers. We always were careful to build our
fires away from trees and away from the places where the
stock came down to water. We burned the labels off all cans
and then turned the cans upside down in a bunch of prickly
pear, for cattle will sometimes get cans in their throats or
fastened on their jaws. We never took dogs with us because
they might 'ohms.' the cattle. People were also permitted
to haul wood from the pastures. One man had an order from
Willis Johnson to haul wood and this fellow was to pay a
dollar a load when any of the riders found him. He hauled
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nine loads and only paid for one. He didn't sneak around
and get the wood but the pastures were so large that he
just wasn't found and the order to the ranch foreman stated
that the man was to pay one dollar when found with a load
of wood. We don't have the big pastures anymore. Every-
thing is cut up in to small pastures. There ain't as many
cattle either, even on the big ranches. When the three
Sugg brothers came out from Oklahoma and bought out the
71:)'s and VP's, they rounded up 60,000 head.
"Wherever niOit found us, we put down our bed -roll
and slept. If anyone came along we said, 'Get down and
stay all night'. Ai. man might give you some foul words
from the mouth but in his heart he would have nothing but
the best of feeling for you. 'Come on, podner, have one
with me', was always the invitation from a stranger.
"Those were indeed the good old days."