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Range -lore
Elizabeth Doyle
San Angelo, Texas.
RANGE -LORE
Brook Campbeil'cume from
Indep a. siouri, to Tom
Green County when a lad of twelve.
Throughout his ranching experience
he worked all over West Texas before
he settled at Mertson, IrloaCounty,
Texas. Mt. Campbell's story follows:
"1 used to come to San Angelo with my father when we
had to camp in the wagon yard where the Woolworth building
now stands.
"One Sunday morning we had been in for a. few days
and Tom Ketchum was hangin' 'round the yard. He was on
the dodge then and was trying to get to his brother some-
where in another part of the state. He kept his horse in
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the wagon yard and seemed to take a likin' to me. On
sunday morning he asked me to take his horse out and
exercise him. I imagined that his horse would be as
wild as I thought he must be but he was gentle und I
sure enjoyed riding him. Alen I had ridden awhile I
took him down to the Legal Tender Saloon, where iom
was gambling. I went in and told him his horse was out
there, he went out and petted him awhile and said,
'Come on kid, let's see how many "splitters" (nickels
and dimes) we can find.' te went on up stairs and he
raked off a handful and gave to me. I was tickled to
death, for mother made me go to Sunday School every
Sunday when I was where I could, so I had more money
for the Sunday School that morning than I had ever had
before. ,:ifter I got out of Sunday School I rushed back
to the wagon yard nopinE to ',et to ride the horse again
and earn some more "splitters': 'ihen I Eot there his
horse was in the yard alright but Tom was pacing around
very restlessly. Le looked at me and said, 'Kid, I
think I'll exercise "Streak" this evening.' He was soon
off and I never saw him again. I suffered u lot of boy-
ish grief over that but not like when lir. Charley left.
"4L kid would naturally have many unusual experiences
around a wagon yard in those days sc; I was always having
my share.
"Charley Pierce was an outlaw trying to turn straight.
He had belonged to a gang somewhere in the north and had
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oome to 11,est Texas to start a new life. He joined up
with the 4 Cross L's a few miles west of San Angelo. I
happened to be out there that day so he sent a telegram
into San Angelo by me explaining to his boss that he was
going in for cowboy life. His hands were soft and white
and his boots glistened. Adapting himself to the rough.
ways of earning a living as a cowboy was not easy for
him. He tried it earnestly for several weeks and I can
see now that be put up a pretty good fight. He had
taken a great fancy to me after I took his message into
town and like any boy I enjoyed being noticed and stuck
around him a lot, especially in the wagon yard. One day
I thought he seemed unusually quiet and sort of blue
like, so after a while he looked up at me from where he
sat marking on the ground and said, 'Kid, I'm going away
from here.'111ere to, Ur. Charley, won't I get to see
you again?' 'Back to the old gang, son,' he said, 'where
I can lick my finger and pull cards and get the Money one
way or another, a little faster than we get it here.
Here are my spurs, keep them and I will come back to see
you sometimes.' I cried myself to sleep that night. To
a young boy, kindness and attention mean more than any-
thing else in all the world and I could not think of Mr.
Charley as being bad in any way. He was my hero and my
boy heart was crushed but not as it was several weeks
later. Rome Shields was sheriff here then, so one day
he brought a picture to my father and asked him if he
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knew it. 'Yew, said father, 'and Brook is down at the
wagon yard, let's go down and see if he knows him.' I
shall never forget my feelings as I looked upon the
bullet -ridden likeness of my friend. His shirt had been
thrown back and the bullet holes were plainly visible
over his chest. 'Know this fellow, Brook?* questioned
the sheriff. My knees seemed to be crumpling under me
and my throat felt dry as I answered, 'Yes, that's Mr.
Charley.' The report was thut he was captured in a dug-
out and shot on sight. It took me a long time to get
over that and I still have the spurs.
"My first real ranch work was on the Billy Helmsley
Ranch. Our brand was an A on either side and we were lo-
cated some thirty-five miles west of Angelo. Everything
was pretty wild and woolly* even then, and that hasn't
been so long ago as some of the ranching days of this
area.
be drove a herd into San Angelo one day and were
to see Booger Red's Wild Vest Show. It was plenty wild
alright, one white man and two Mexicans were killed. We
were all out around the show and several of the boys
were sitting on the fence. A fellow walked up to me and
said, 'Brook, gimme some tobaccent I handed him the
toba000 and just as he put it into his mouth an enemy
shot him down. The brawl was on. Men, women, and ohild-
ren shouted and screamed and ran pell-mell over eaoh
other. then the law arrived and cleared things out a bit
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one white man and two Mexicans lay sprawled upon the
ground.
"The white man ran a saloon in San Angelo and the
shooting was the result of an old feud. Just how or why
the Mexicans were killed was never known but it was sup-
posed to have been by stray bullets. This all slowed up
the show for a few minutes until the .bodies were removed,
but Booger Red rode his bad horses, furnished his usual
antertainnent and the show went on. I don't think I over
saw an uglier man but one of the moat jovial fellows and
the beat rider I ever saw. He could ride any way he hit,
backwards or forwards.
"After the show we went back to the stock pens
where our wagon was, got a bunch of cattle we had traded
for and went home.
"The next year I made a change to the Barr Ranch and
remember so well an old boy we called "Cedar Handle." He
had made some kind of a mess putting in a cedar pole for
an axe handle and had acquired that name. I believe he
had less nerve than any man I ever knew. lie was afraid of
his shadow.
polecats had
tiring. One
We had all made our beds down one night and
been the subject of discussion before re
of the mischievous fellows had caught a little
rabbit so he slipped it in old Cedar Handle's bed. Well
when he crawled in and felt that rabbit he went wild. Be
wouldn't have shrieked or out up any worse if a bed of
rattlesnakes had piled in with him. Cover flew in every
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direction and old Cedar Handle's eyes looked like
saucers. When he threw his bedding to the winds the
little rabblt of course ran off. The old boy never
knew but what there was a polecat in his bed. We could
hardly persuade him to go back to bed that night. and
when he did he lighted a lantern and kept it rIkit by
him the balance of the night.
"Our outfit went to Sherwood for supplies and once
when three of us had gone in, one of the boys sent for
socks. On our way back we pulled off our dirty socks
right there on the stage coach, put them in the bundle
and each of us put on a pair of his clean socks. We
could hardly keep our faces straight when we handed
him the bundle. .1 guess he was like the rest of us,
needed the soaks pretty badly so he sat right down to
get into a pair of them. When he pulled out those old
dirty socks of ours I believe I could have lit a match
on his fees ai.d the more we laughed the madder he got.
It went on so far that one of the boys agreed to go back
to town and get him some socks when the next stage ran,
which was next day. We made up the change and got him
all fixed up next day but he never did like for us to
Joke him about the socks.
"My main job around camps was to break wild horses,
and I feel sure that is why I am in this invalid's chair
today, even though many have done the same thing and are
still going. I rode one old outlaw horse once and instead
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of hearing the usual sound of my neck a-poppint, it was
my back and I'm sure some part of my spine was injured
in a way that doctors have not been able to aid, so far,
and I have been to some of the best. Ridin' this chair
is the hardest ridin' I've ever done and I was consider-
ed good. My rriends ask me how I keep so cheerful, and
comment on my perpetual smile,. I always tell them that
I've got to play the game through, with my chin up. I
wouldn't be a first class cowboy if I gave up now, for
a real cowboy always has grit.
"We had lots of funny nicknames in the old outfits.
For the smallest reasons sometimes a fellow would ac-
quire the most ridiculous name which would stick to him
for life. "High Pockets," "Handsome Harry," and even
more comical ones were always in order. Mine was always
"Brownie" because of my brown eyes, hair, and skin.
"The cowboys carried guns sometimes but not as is
reported on them today. I have carried a winchester on
my saddle to kill dear more than any other kind of gun
t...nd many other cowboys did the same. This is never shown
in the spectacular gun play on our modern screen.
"My pet horse was named "Kid." He was the smartest
horse I ever stet and could have been trained for a circus.
I could put his bridle on him and he would follow the
wagon a thousand miles. AS far as he could hear me whistle
he would nicker. ny of the other boys could make every
attempt at imitating my whistle and he would pay no attn.
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tiou what -so -ever. We all got a big kick out of that
and I thought that was one of the cutest things he did.
Le was an all around cow horse, good anywhere• we wanted
to use him. He was as good as the old whit horse named
"Chioken," was mean. I rode "Chicken" three yours and
didn't even tame him, muoh less gentle him. It was a
fight every time I got on him and I had to ride him
down every morning before he was worth a dern.
"I was Just talking lust night about a bunch of us
gathering up a lot of old poor bulls down on Suggs Eanah.
The boss wanted to go off somewhere and left a boy in
charge. Be kept trying to turn an old bull and couldn't
do anything with him. I loped out to try to help him
and about that time he threw his rope around the old
bull's hips. It slipped off and hung on his tail. haat
then I ought him by the head and hollered at the boy
that if my rope broke he would certainly have the bull
by the tail. 4 rope did break and away the old bull
went again. ,The rope must have been very tightly looped
around that old devil's tail for he made a leap at the
boy's horse and knocked hiln down. The other end of the
rope was tied to the saddle horn and when the horse fell
the girth broke arid the boy jumped off. The loop was
still holding, so that let the old bull loose with the
saddle tied to his tail. 'Three of us boys were after
him by this time and across the creek we went. Just as
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we crossed, one of the boys made a grab at the saddle,
wrapped it around a tree and that jerked the old bull's
tail off. That fellow was known as tho Bob Tail Dull
forever afterwards.
"Stampedes were hardly ever funny, but in this U-
sti:owe I had a lot of fun. ';to had run 1,600 head of
cattle all day trying to water them. That night the moon
was shining brightly and the old thirsty cattle would not
bed down. They would just walk and bawl, walk and bawl.
The guards couldn't do anything with them so I made up'
my mind all to myself what I'd. do. I said, ',Take, them
cattle aint a-goin' to quiet down. You get on that
point and get on this one.' When I gut over on my
point I was fur enough away from tho others to get down
on my haads and knees, run into them and jump up (gladden..
ly, popping my leggin's togeth.r, That was enough, we
ran them all night long and didn't get them corralled
until about noon next day; our boiled beef and beans
tasted good too, when we got to it again. The cook would
yell, 'Chuck,' and shake the tin dishes in the old wooden
box and we would stampede. If we had a new comer in the
crowd, we would always stand back 'til he got hold of the
coffee pot, then holler, 'Sucker at the pot.' The poor
old guy would have to pour until he gave out.
"On one occasion I drove be000 sheep to the 101
Ranch in Oklahoma. I stopped them in a field near a
little Indian school house awhile before I reached the
101 Ranch. The teacher and a few little Indian kids came
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out, viewed the mass of sheep in great wonder, and the
teacher asked me how many there were. I told her to
guess. She started off by buessing 500 and on up to
2,500. Ythen I told her there were more than 5,000 she
couldn't believe me. Pictures were made several times
along the route and on one occasion d scene was shot
for the movies. Later the picture came to Can Angelo
and one of my neighbors said, 'Brook, I saw you at the
show the other night.' 'Mope, not me,' I says, 'for
I havn't been to town in a month.' Then he told me
about the pictures and I was sorry I missed it but even
in the days of the first movies, communication and news-
paper service was not so good as it is now and I didn't
know the picture was coming.
"On this 101 Ranch in Oklahoma were thousands of
buffaloes. The night before I was to get there I was
camped with my sheep and over a hundred buffaloes came
by my camp. Men soon came looking for them and as they
can not be driven they had a time getting then back.
They just had to sort of work them in a certain direc-
tion and finally got them beak.
"One fall, when Ford oars first came into use, six
Mexicans and I took 1,100 head of mustang horses to
Mexioo. Gathering and selling these w ld creatures had
became a right profitable business with me. One of the
Mexicans und I would lead the way in our Ford while the
other five rode horses and drove them. AS we went out
of San Angelo we were stretched out down Chadbourne Street
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about a half a mile. All traffic was stopped, several
pictures were made rand the local pdper gave us a big
write-up. '3everal pictures were made alone the route,
especially in El Paso and always we were promised a
picture. To this day I don't have one picture of those
horses except the dim snap shot I cut from the news-
paper.
"I have plenty of time now to live over my cow-
boy days in vivid nemories, but with so many good friends
trying to help me lighten the way, with correspondence,
scrapbooks, post cards, and other various acts of kind-
ness, I manage to get more happiness out of life than
folks would imagine."