Document text
r -C
Ran6e-lore
laIzaheth Doyle
Page one
R44GE -LONE
J.I.(Red Horse) Henderson has
been a resident of Coleman County
for 58 years. Born in Robertson
County, Texas in 1864 he came to Cole-
man with his father's family at the
age of fifteen and has lived there con-
tinuously, except when off on drives.
"I can hardly remember when I became a cowhand", says.
r. henderson,for I think I began to fool with cattle long
before I was old enough to make a first class hand. 14 father
and four neighboring families decided to throw their luck to-
gether and try the wild and woolly west. Each family had a
bunch of cattle, kids, and some horses. The woflen and child-
ren, chickens rid does were all rounded up and the covered
wagons made ready. cost of the men and boys were to go on
Pecs two
horseback and drive the cattle, which were all thrown tio-
gether in one big herd. We enjoyed the trip through and
only had one encounter with Indians. They cane up la great
numbers one morning as we were cooking breakfast. They
were friendly and only w‘alted food but we were seared al-
most to det,th before we got rid of then. We had plenty of
food but there were so many of them that they almost elms!"
ed up our 'supply and any old timer knew better than to re-
fuse an Indian food, whether there was one or a thousand,
if he had it. Le always felt lucky to get off that ,light,
"hen we reached Coleman County we really pioneered
in getting located. We settled at the foot of some small
mountains north of Talpa. After a sort of community easy-
ing, each family branched off and started their own little
homes in the good old fashioned way. Our first houses
were crude affairs but comfortable and by 1814 we were all
pretty well established with regular raaehes and a good
sized bunch of cattle.
"By this time I was beginning to think I was *beat
grown and was considered one of the best cowhands in the
country. I joined up with the Combo Cattle Company and
was with them a number of years. I ran cattle from the
Concho Country to the Rio Grande. I have been up the trail
many tines and didn't mind the so -celled hardships of the
drives. The stampede was oar worst trouble and as that
didn't happen every night, I can look back on the old days
with a memory of more good than bad.
Page three;
"Riding bronahos was a favorite sport with cowboys. I.
remember some of the boys once had up a bet on my riding am
old red horse which is called Biddy, because of his albite face.
Baldy was saddled and brought out and I was ready and eager to
try him. Just as I mounted he turned his head around and
tried to bite me. His old walled eyes looked like new means
and the Devil was in them. Well he Just stuck his old bead
down between his fore -legs and bawled like a wild bull and
tried to turn a somersault with me. As I wont over his head
my new shirt caught on the saddle born and just rippod it
off. I was lucky, however, to go over his heed instead of
under him as the horn of a $50.00 saddle was broken off as
he went over.
"In 1874 D. E. Sins of Paint Reek and I, drove 2500
head of cattle to hew Mexico. That was considered a big
bunch for one drive and we were not sorry when we arrived.
le only had one stampede on the way though and didn't lose
any cattle as was often the case where there were so many
cattle and not enough hands. This stampede was net unusual
in anyway. A thunder storm blew up and the load peals of
thunder frightened then t so away they west like med. We
didn't have to run them all night though and when we finally
got them quited about midnight, the storm had ceased and
they were unusually easy to handle. Bofors we got to the
Barr Ranch we were Joined by J. F. (Jim) Hiakle, who remain-
ed with the Barr outfit for seventeen year'. Be was then
elected to the senate and was 'governor of New Mexico in 1923
Page four
and *24. I had not seen the old boy in fifty-two years and
did not know if he WaS dead or alive until last summer when
he saw my picture and a write-ul, on my range experianoe in
the Fort Worth Star Telegram and came to see me.
"When I was with the Concho Cattle Company, there
were twenty of us boys. Now only five of us are left, so
far as dim and I could learn when he visited me. Bob
Pierce, our boss lives in Denver, Colorado, Phil Wright, is
Fire and Police Commissioner in Ban Antonio, Barve Earnest
ranches at later Valley, Ed Barte is a banker in an Oklahoma
town and Z. F. Hinkle is President of the First National
Bank in Roswell, New Mexico. Last summer when dim visited
me we leaeied to get these five rounded -up and we had our
pictures made. I wouldn't take a herd of cattle for that
group. My children tell me I should have looked natural
and not tried to hold my squint eye open but you know how
it is, all the other boys trying to look and feel young as
we use to. This eye of mine has given me lots of trouble
and now I can't see out of it at all. You may know we
didn't lose any time talking over old times when we all got
together. We remembered so well a big drive near Salt Gap.
Le had the cattle all rounded -up and were preparing our
bacon and coffee, while our Mexican helper was stationed a-
bout one -hundred yards from camps to watch the horses. All
at once a band of Apache Indians swooped down upon us like
a cyclone, murdering the Mexican on the spot and fleeing
with our saddle horses before our shots could stop them.
Page five
They got away with our horses and drove four herds of cattle
out of Coleman County on across the Pecos River, where we
caught them. 1e hunted them for two days and nights after
we got fresh horses and enough man to handle them. They
gave up our horses withou4 any trouble, when they saw our
bunch as a part of them had taken the cattle on and we
had them out numbered, We never did get the cattle. An
Indian is the biggest coward in the world unless he has
all the advantage or can do his dirt in a sneaky way.
"The Concho Cattle Company's brand was cr,0.11 and read
Lazy D.O.H. Their holdings covered some fifty miles square.,
"When the sheep man began coming in he was resented by
the cattle man because of his encroachment on his grazing
Land. So far as I knew there were more fiat fights than
gun fights over these differences.
"The gun talez about the old time cowboy are unreason-
ably over done. After Indian depredations had ceased, the
gun toatin' cowboy we see on our modern screens didn't exist,
"I was in only one bad.shootin' scrape throughout my
whole cowboy career. It was when our boss took a bunch of
us out on the plains to White Lake near Lubbock, Texas, to
get u horse which the foreman of a ranch out there had been
holding for a debt. We rode up to the door and the foreman
came out. Our boss offered to settle for the horse and take
it but somehow they couldn't seem to get together on the
terms and pretty soon they were fighting. One of our boys
Jumped off his horse to separate them and the foreman holler-
Page six
ed for a guy back in the house. This fellow came running
out and took the boy for a round of fist fighting. Just
when they were doing pretty well another fellow appeared
in the door way with a winchester aid pulled down on us
all. Our boas didn't take time to get his horse but
broke away on foot as fast as he could run. The next shot
killed the boy and as he dropped to the ground I turned
down on my horse's side, put spurs to him and was gone. I
slowed down as I passed my boas and he leaped on behind.
fie made it to the next ranch, got the boys and a chuck
wagon from there and went back for our boy. He was 'still
lying in the front yard and not a man showed up as we
lifted him to the wagon and started on our long, slow-,
journey to Snyder, Texas, for burial. His father and
mother lived near Snyder and had no thought but what he was
well and happy until we arrived with the body.
"te hear and see a lot about cowboy riggin' and get
ups but that, too, is eamgserated.. Most of the boys in our
outfit wore white shirts, stetson hats (hardly ten gallon
sizes), chaps, spurs, and a kind of trousers known as Cal-
ifornia woolens. Ours was a high classed outfit and we
would treat even a tenderfoot right until he got smart. We
wouldn't tolerate any smart blocs in our bunch. We got one
such number from Virginia once, so one day he got drunk and
we poured sorghum molasses all over him, from the top of
his high silk hat, to the toe of his highly polished boots.
When he sobered up enough to realize his predicament, he
Page seven
made for the creek and we never saw him again.
"Ifa guy kept his mouth shut and tried to learn, we
all helped hi every way we could.
"One of the narrowest escapes I ever had was when we
were branding a bunch of bulls. One big old bull broke his
rope and turned on me, grazing ay leg with his horn just as
sprang on my horse and made him leap the fence. This was
all that saved us both.
"I was at a round -up once where two big bulls got into
a fight. The ouner was afraid that the larger bull was
going to kill the smaller one, so he rode in on the fight
and jabbed the big bull in the back with a pole. He whirled
and made a rush for the horse, struck him just behind the
shoulder and killed him instantly. As he fell to the ground,
the man leaped off and barely escaped as he gored the horse
madly, again and again.
"Bob Pierce was chasing a big bull once, down on Salt
Creek. All at once the bull turned on the horse like a
ferocious beast, ran under his belly, lifted his hind legs
off the ground and turned hima complete somersault. Bob
was almost killed in the fall and the horse was badly in-
jured. Ito caught that old Devil and trimmed him. "Trim-
ing" consisted of cutting off both horns and tail just as
close up as the operation could be performed. It always
took two or more men to trim one and woe be unto them if a
rope broke. We trimmed lots of the rascals, I'll tell you.
"Plenty of funny things happened at the big round -ups.
Page eight
I remember once then about one -.hundred -fifty men were work-
ing together u guy from the North walked up to Ben Polk and
said 'Well, I've been looking for you for a long time'. Ben
looked bewildered and stammered out some kind of an answer
and the fellow said, 'Here's your dollar'. Ben looked still
more baffled. 'This dollar was given to me six years ago',
said the stranger, 'and I was instructed to give it to the
next fellow I mot who was uglier than I was, so here it is'.
The boys all yelled and Ben did look bad sure enough then.
°he started to Oklahoma once with a big herd and camp-
ed at Colorado, Texas. About 9:00 p.m. we got the cattle
all rounded -up on the bed ground and one old boy struck a
match to light u cigarette. That was enough. The cattle
went wild. ite ran them all night long. Each boy had his
bull's eye lantern. It is a strange fact that in a plains
country one cannot see at night half so well as in a broken
country. The sky line which is plainly visible in a broken
country is entirely lost on the prairies and if we hadn't
had those bulVa eye lanterns we would have gotten badly lost
that night. got the cattle back together in time for
breakfast from the chuck wagon next morning by lantern light.
"The boys all culled me "Red" or "Red Horse" and I
like to hear it yet. The remaining five of us, who are
theadin' for the last round -up have agreed to have a get-to-
gether each suer as long as there are two of us left."