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761 AlChA..ff- TR e- b
Range -lore
Elizabeth Doyle
San Angelo, Texas.
RANGE -LORE
Page one
Born in Prinestown,
Kentuekr in, 1867, Mr. R. A.
Evans of Eldorado, Texas,
was a member of one of the
first wagon trains which
went from that place to
Springfield, Missouri. They
remained there only a short
time before gOing On to Kim-
mel then from Kansas back
to Vissouri, twice crossing
whet was then the Indian Ter-
ritory and escaping dangerous
attacks from the Indians only
by the most careful precautions.
"There were seventy-two wagons in the train which
trekked across the Indian Territory from Springfield,
missouri, oarrying settlers to Kansas with a hope to pro-
fit from the wonderful harvest erops of which they had
heard." Thus reminisced gr. Evans as he enthusiastically
delved into past memories and foots.
Page two
"There were plenty of bad Indians," he continued,
"and we expected an attack at any time especially at
night. It was then that the min would make a circle
of wagons, forming a carrel for the horses and plaeing
guards out all around this circle. In the center a
big fire was kept burning ell night and the settlers
took turns sleeping in the wagons. I slept at the
foot of father's bed and if I heard any strange noise
I'd grab him by the foot and awaken him. I lived in
an agony of fear that we would all be exterminated by
the Indians. We saw plenty of the very wildest ones.
They ell wore blankets end rode horses without saddles
or bridles and couldn't do anything but grunt.
"e took up a homestead and lived there about a
year, during which time we planted a bir corn crop and
the grasshoppers ate it all up in one day. e sold out
then ana went back to Missouri, making the second time
we had orossed the Indian Territory without harm.
"In 1874 we went in another wagon train to MoClennan
County and settled twenty miles southeast of Waco 'near a
little town called Old Perry. WO bought the best of black
fertile land there for 0 per acre but were lured by
the glowing rumors of the west, and sold out there at a
nice profit and landed in dear old Tam Green County, when
it was a great deal larger than it is now. The ranch we
bought was on the Conoho River twenty-two miles south of
Page three
San Angelo, which was our post offiee at that time and
garrisoned by the negro foldiers.
"My father died of measles and was buried out there
on the ranch. Mother soon sold out and moved to Christo-
val. She reoeived as a gift, one acre of land where
Christovel now stands. I cut the shrubs off the lot end
hauled the lumber for the Chr: tovel hotel. In fact, I
or the first man ever to unload a stick of lumber in
thet town.
"I was 22 years old when I went to work for the
Half circle Six at the head of Dove Creek, which was
the largest outfit ever known south of the Colorado
River. I stayed with the chuck wagon six years work-
ing all the way from the Rio Grande back to the Conoho.
Many times I was sent across the Pesos with a pack
horse outfit to work for weeks at a time and I seldom
saw a white person at these times. veils of water were
very scarce and we had to depend on the water holes
and rivers for the stook as well as ourselves. I have
traveled for miles with a lantern tied on the chuck
wagon bows, leading herds out of dry countries.
"When I went to work for the Nat Circle Six,
mustangs end antelopes were as common as jack rabbits.
I would gt old Cutter (my cutting horse) end hunt
down the antelopes by the dozens. Cutter was my best
friend. There wasn't anything to be done vi:VI cows
that he couldn't do.
Page four
"smoky was my worst enemy. He would buck, bite,
bawl, rear up, and fall back with me.
"My boss knowing that I was a great lover of
horses always sent me to the big horse works, which in
some places amounted to a business almost equal to the
cattle business. He told ms that anything I found over
one year old without a mother was mine. When I left his
outfit I had around 200 heed of horses of my own on the
range. The branding went on very much as cattle brend-
ing, rounding them up and dragging the colts out and
branding them.
"I was known as one of the best tree ropers on
the range. This meant getting up in a tree, tying my
rope to a limb, and having the boys run the horses
under the tree as I would rope the most choice ones. I
have had wild ones to rip the limb off and drag me, limb
and all, quite aways.
"Looking back over western life, some of it looks
bad but I oould go over it all again with pleasure, leavi-
ing out only a few of the worst things.
"In 1892 a village and post office was started by
C. O. West and others six miles north of the present
site of Eldorado, in the old Vermont pasture. It was
oalled Verand and was fast becoming a lively little
villa -e, when it was learned that the land title was
not any good and every thing was moved to Odors:do.
Pegg rive
"I have seen hundreds of motions of good tillable
land here worth now from $110.00 to #50.00 per acre sell
for 500 per sore.
"I have been in the reel estate business for
several years now and have sold lend from t2.50 per OM
up to .;,50.00. The land rushes were the biggest exalted..
merits ever known in or around Ildoredo. I have gone
throuph them all and have heard the ellek of guns more
than once in the man stanpedes whisk would take pleas
on these oseesions. One pertieuler instense always
stood out as being most amusing to no and that was
when a small follow grabbed the papers tree the heeds
of a much larger brother, placed them with his own
and went through between the nem's feet and legs like
a gopher. He mode his goal and filed the islets rot
both his brother and himself.
"If I Gould get e few of the old boys together
so's they could help me remember, I'd write book
sometime but we are all getting too old to remember
it ell by ourselves any more.'
Menge -leis
Xlisabeth Doyle
san Angelo, Texas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. A. Evans, Eldorado, Tease, interviewed,
November 15, 1957.