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aenthier. holden F.
Rangel era
Tarrant Co.,Dist.#9
))--tAirli"A"
Page #1
I4e D. Leveratt, fl.living at the
Old Palket Moe. Tarrant so. ,?ex., was
born Feb. 6.12U. an a small road% in
RV* .1104,Tax.
ris father. ioseph D. Levarett, opt-
atid a sonbisdlion its* ronah and far*.
tta a arre bey. 14e learned le rid* a hares,
sad was a fair rids at age 10* Me remained
on his father'a fora until he was 21 years
old, that want te the Indian territory (now
Okla.) at4 wilted for the Graben Rana, 10
sated mar the town of Deatisa.
He remitted with the Crake' Rauh for
several years before returniag to Rusk ee.
where he engaged in business as a settle
dealer.
Ris stogy:
*I was born in Rusk as. ,Tex., 110. 6.1866. My father's
none was Joseph D. Laverett. fe ran a wall stook ran* and
fern, running a few houses ail awe* ?hire was not over 1,000
heed of stook at say one tins and all the work was dons by the
exeept during a au)" period, at which time la extra
bike would be hired.
"Cr sales was made to buyers that traveled through the
sountry. The buyers would buy from different small ranahers
until they had enough to sake a herd, then drive the mitt ere
to a range. What wo raised ware the real Texas longhorns and
the Texas ear pony.
"when r was a lad growing up, eaws and hoses* were stomp-
ing around no all the tine. I souldn't help but learn how to
handle the er it ter a.
"Wall, when r was 10 piers old. I Gould ride a hoot aid
sneer a critter with the rope, ant the other things that a
eowhani was *allot upon to do. I took ay turn at the work and
stayed with it until I was around O.
Gauthier, Sheldon P. Page #2
Rangelere
Tarrant Ce.,Dieb.17 Flo
"MY father's outfit was the kind that 'offhand, referred
to as a 'Orapase-pott outfit. Pour regular howls Gould take
ear. of the eritters. My real rush Imperious, didn't start
until I was 21 pears old. At that time, rim* to Okla., thee
called the 'Indian Tlexritory'.
"I hit the drag for the Territory in 188Y, and lit on the
graham Ranoh, located in the section whore the to of %mean
is situated. The outfit run about 5.000 head on esopen range
under the brand ',30. ill their sales were made in Kaasas City.
*here we drove the waters.
"The Witham outfit worked about 10 hands. The only names
I resell are Bill Haney ead lob Shask. The rest of the boys I
eon only recall their nieknames, such as Met', 'llaekey',
Mosey', and the likes.
"One of the Graham boys did the deem* filing sad I can't
recall his first name, because we *lean referred to htm as the
0000', 'Belly-eheatee, or 'whistle -berry'.
“With that crew we took care of 5.000 heat. ',bleb email be
eat in numbers after ea* sat -sat for the market. Then it would
build Weak with the ealf crop.
"luring all the five years on the °reheat outfit there was
no rustler trouble, or Indian treable, to deal with. latoafter
I gait the outfit, the Indians gime a lot of trouble Abr a spell.
*There were plenty of Indians in that :motion and we saw
lots of thee, but they sever put us to may trouble. The Graham
boys would, now and thee, give them a critter. There was always
Gauthier, Sheldon F. Page 13
Rangelore
Tarr* nt go *list PTO
some really eritters &awing up that would not pull a prise
on sale and those would be given to the radians. whieh they
used for °wheel the name they had far beef.
to trouble was the winters weather, and that took the
silver lining out of our aloud. The Territory, during thou,
days, had a tolerable lot of bad spells daring the winter
months, and real busters with sky -fire during the summer.
the
*luring storms is wbiahrritters need the most attmition, be-
cause that is the tins eh** they are most liable to go on the run
"The sold spells in the winter gave us a heap of trouble.
have often had to out holes in the foe of the water holes, so
that the °Titters could get to the water. A number of the winters
we had oonsiderable numbers freeze to death. rt was the weaker
*nee, of course, that would be enable to stand the cold.
'Ithea a real winter buster headed in on us,, extra hands
were put to riding the lino; and that was a he -assts Job. The
outfit was so boosted that we had several good gist timber spots
on the range, and we used the timber to stop the stampedes.
"When a stampede started, we would herd the critters into
the timber sed the woods would soon slow the *Titters down, also
bust up the ran so we (malt hold the snimals. tfter the herd
hit the timber we would circle the woods sad hold the animals
in the woods. Because of the situation we never had a *lard
Job trying to stop a run.
"There was only one stampede shish resulted in a loss of
eritters and that happened in the sumer tine. The ran took
place at the start of a cyclone. The weather just before one of
Oaathier. 3heldon
Raagelore
Tartest do.,list.if
Page ft,
thos• busters hit is /away. A person gets to feeling that he
should be at some ether spot. The orittais would get the one
feeling *ad start to milling. rf a *leek of thunder hits,
run oat lye looked for. That was What happened the time I was
talking about, and the slash sounded as though the earth had
bursted. One clash *nosed **other sad* with cash roar, the
twitters seemed to pick up speed.
We had the herd healed for the timber and whim thwy hit
it they did it so hard that a numb.* rum Plealb tete trees end
went down. About 25 were stomped, to death. After a stamp, it
would take about day to get the herd back on the grazing
grounds.
*Our varlet job was line riding and the night Job was the
one that raised the bristles on the waddles' seeks. have done
night riding whin it was sleeting, with a norther blowing so °old
that if would put the teeth of an iron hose to shattering. "is
*paddies used to say that the only ream* a man would stay with
that kind of work was beams* his brains was located next to the
saddle.
On top of the tough night riding, we lived it dugouts.
That is, we did is the winter months. luring the summer, we lived
in the open, except during spells of rain that would drive us
Into the dugouts.
The dugouts were Just holes slanted into the ground, deep
enough *r a person to stand up in, and a roof astle of poles,
covered with sod. ',hat a damp spell of weather was on, the dug-
outs bee., tolerable musky.
Gaathlar. Skald.* P. Pegs 18
Bangalore
VIO
Tarrant Oe.,Dist.if
/After a long wet spells on* tine, Wass a blush of us
war. standimr around a hand-mado stove trying to dry out, a
middy pulled a %Yes sweet home' sign out of his bag amd staok
it on the wall. WO drove his out in the rain as puniebeemX for
insulting bona.
"Who* the weather was fair, the wort was fitting for a am,
and living out in the open always kept se fit as a fiddls. r
could always lie dorm at night and sleep like a Cruksa sailor,
and get up in the morning rearing to go. I saver site a w040
that was not ready to take on a load of beans and beet, mornings
noon and night.
"The Graham lad that did %ha cooking was just a fair -to
middling eoCky. NA coma boil, bake aud burn beats, but no
natter how ha dished out the stuff we linad our flue with the
whistla-berries. Best and beans were the main fin* liners. We
would have beans and bear for breakfast, then boat' and beans for
dinner, and at supper tin* we would get some more bate amid beans.
The Wet and be fare would be booked up with sour -dough
bread. I went to say right here that the belly-oheatir didn't
learn to bake bread from the tallithim. of Mr. John Bun, the in-
ventor of the bun. gosetimas the bread, would caw up in fakir
shape, and than mot se anyone would hanker for it. The bread
was a hit and aims proposition, with more adorn thaa hits.
One time, Red rolled a skunk of the broad into a ball
and, sort of playful like, throw it at a stow. It hit the
twitter in the eye, and I'll be demmed if it didn't kiosk the
critter's eye out.
Gauthier, Iheldon r. rage #6
Rangelore
Tarrant Co..list.17 yr
"But, kick as we may about the chuck, there was always
all that we wanted, and nose of us lost any leaf lard from
eating it. Pasts is, we were all as strong as a hose in Power,
and smell as well.
"We had the beef -bean order broke* a little with panned
vegetables, and there was always plenty of black coffee. Tnen
at times some of us would shoot wild gams.
went on several of the drives to 'Mimes City, and for
some reason we always played in luck. Cur herd never rum over
1,000 and that size herd can be easily handled. A good !zany
of the drivers lost considerable critters, but the Graham boy*
seemed to pick the proper time. luring all my trips, we had
good weather, sad that is the one thing needed with the settle
on the drift..
"itat I have told you just about covers our work. Mow we
waddies on the Graham outfit spent our off time does not take
long to tell. There was no plass to :.To for aMISOMinto 80 we had
to amuse ourselves. That we did by putting up targets and shoot-
ing against each other. we also threw the loop, did bull-
dogging, ani anything else that struck our fancy. Te always
tried to see who sould tell the biggest lies.
"The. oleanest lie ever heard was told by Bob hank. is
was as oldtimer and had nested on many outfits all over the
Southwest. Let me give you that tale, the best r can, as be
told it
fifr vas nesting with an outfit down on the border, beibre
Osuthier, Malden P. Page FT
Rangelor e
Tarrant Go "Die t. iT TVG
the Civil War. The ramrod got me idea in his oomk to move
his outfit into a valley country across the Rio Grande. lo we
drifted the orittere into the *wintry sot got nicely settled.
"There were several varqueros in the outfit and them
fellows are set on having their Goa -fights. They had several
cooks that they took along, and fixed a run for the birds
next to a spring where the birds had plenty of fresh water.
i''After the runs were fixed the birds were placed in the
pens, and at ones started to Borst& for worms mid other Sod.
rt wasn't long antil those birds were trying to break out of
the runs. The liezioan /torquer*. pronto got busy to see whet all
the /Use was aboat. You may not believe it, but the sets are
that a large number of worms were abasing hell, out of those
fighting birds.
"'Fellows, it was a sight to see those worms leaping up
at the oars of those vicious birds. The wawa, had the crooks
plumb leo* and the birds hat to be taken out of the rune.
**About the second day, several of the old mosey harmed
acme got stubborn. Sy God, they refused to be herded, awl
would pew the ground like an old fighting ball, and make for
the hoes.. That sext day, a few sore of the old critters took
courage and pat their bristles up whin we wanted to herd the
*nisei* around.
"'The matter was getting serious. lf any more of the
critters took on snail (courage the herd would be out of control.
"'Thsre was a little fellow in the bunch whom all the
rawhides pieked on. Re was the 'goat' of the outfit. Teddy
Gauthier, %tellies F.
R awe lor
Tarrant fie..,iat.#7
Page #13
?In
Zones started to have some Dan with the 'goat is and he sur-
prised everyone by beating hell out of :ones. There was soon
thing funny about the whole thing.
"After the fight between the two men, I called Shie-igoat,
to one side and **I'd how some that he tied into Zones and beat
up on his so easily. Se told as to telte a drink .of the water
out of the spring where the chicken runs were. did, and
felt so strong that I was afraid of myself. That was the answer
to the mystery. re netted the spring the sCourageoUs Sprin.gf.
"That we had to do was see that every man, beast and fowls
draw* out of the spring, and that put everything where thing*
stood before drinking any of the water.
"When I quit the arahem outfit, I returned to Rusk county
and went in business with my father, buytaft ant waling cattle*
which I did for several years.