Document text
Gauthier.;ihelden
Sangelore.
Tarrant CO. Dist,.T7
Page,
240
Lois owilaa4,38,11vIna at 3133 Green
4ort Worth,Texasewao aorn -44o 19,1SWO,in Cook
oo,Taxas,on farm. Ho learned to ride a hers*
while he was in his early teonsob.: riding the
horses raised on his :%ther's fprm and became
an expert horseman* At the apz of 14 he took
employment as a horse wrangler !!nd.cowboy on
the, rlyin- Zricle gaucho The headquarters of
the ranch, was on Thunder Creek,60 miles from
GillettOyo. Gillette vas the nearest town
to the ranch and the shipping rpoint for
cattle. He continued al an emplOyse of the
ranch until 1922,tt which time he took up
the study of stenograpbr. He engaged in this
nrfession for a livelihood untill 1932 at
which tine he reciVO4 the appointment as,
U.S.commissionor of the federal Court in
the No-thern District of Texes,looated at:
109rt Worth.
Rio story of mire life follows:
"Ly birth took place in Cook co, Toxes,Des 19,19(70. I
was reared on a farm and my enrly lift,as a boy,was srAtnt as
the a fnrm boy occupies their time on a farm.
"uy folks owned work and saddle horses an my pretest
pleasure, bile a boy, was handling those animas. I never
missed an opportunity to dAve or ride a horse and I p sassed
a natnralabilit: for ;;.orking the anise -As. then •I was in my
early teens peocLe conooded tbatoImas an excellent rider.
"I wasuunable to satisfy my desire for working with
stock with what stock thore we on our farm and to work on
cattA, or. horse ranch bocamo the dominating Idea in my mind.
I satisfied py wish for the range in 1J14,by going to Wye,
and, taking a Sob with tho flying circle ,13 oh working as a
1
horse wangler, and -.00vitipsd.
."Tbia headquirpts
*ter, of the Plying. LsO1 41anthlres 110
Gauthereheldon
Itangeloree
7.rrant k;orDistop t7
Plage OS
FC 240
miles frmGillette yo,locr=ted on Thunder 'reek. Gillette was
then our nearest ton and our trading and shipping .nint.
"The ranch is owned by Oscar K. andflarry to Keeline
and they,dUring the time I worked thoreeranred approximately
0,000 head of White face Herefords and 500 head of horses., '..he
horses were bred frommares of the Irmilan breed of horses and
the stallions were imp rted antucky racing Btooke.%his brodin,"
produced a tough and seedy saddle horse very suitable for,rangs
work.
"All of the stock erased on an open range*, lie sange is
now fenced' I made n'trip there for a visit at the ramh last
summer and I found the fence about the only chilnge mode ?ince
I left the place in 1822*
"During the time I worked* on the Flying Cirele rancho
ther- was a great amount o riding to do for the prpose of
keeping the cattle confined to the home range and giving the
animals such attention tivit zne rsquired. 4410 3:,000 head
ranged over a lt.rge area. Own/ making the Spring and Fall
roundups, we started a distance of 100 mile from head:unrters
to gather our stook end generally found some of our brand that
distance off. Of course, those critters were the stragre Vie
tried to k ep the =Imola grating within b diet lIca of 75 miles
from camp.
"The strays were,for the most part, the animals which
would get sway while drifting before or during a storm. Jest
before a stern and during Its duratioustie entire crew of 30'
bends would be riding trying to'bold the herds At such times
0euihier.dhe don S. Page t2;
.ungelers• PC 240
Tarrant 06Distsaf,
part of the crew would be required to do naht riding. Out
side of the times during stormy weatherothe only night riding
we did vas when we were bolding a herd which wore to be shipped
or during the roundup when %a were holding a herd to be worked,
nch held two roundupseach year. Ale tall roundup
wns for the (yarrow, of bunching the herd and cutting out animals
which belonged to some other ranch. ,he spring roundup was
fo: the eame general purpose as the Pial out:fp:ant primarily for
branding cams Aepresentntives from other .sanches could work
with the :lying 61rdle ranch to take charge of their respective
stock. he Flying Circle did likewise an sent a re ersenta-
tive.to each of the other ranches during their roundups,.
"The Fli1n Circle owned 26, dik erent brands,thich bad
ben obtained through buying small ranches during the course
of t_everal yearstbut their principal brnnd was a circle with
wings attached made thUs:
"I shall digress a moment to ex lain how the Keeilne
brot);Ore adopted their brand. Oscar Z. YeeliLe was sitting
at atable in a 4:nfe waiting for his order of food to be
served. He was trAng to decide on a brand to adopt at the
time. While sitting at the tab'e hie eyes focused on a ceiling
fan with two blndse which we.0 revolving. That fn gave him
the idea of the brand t ey adopted and called the ilying Circle.
"This brand has been carried bi cattle numbering up into
the hundreds of thousands. Such Spring we would place the
brand on approximately 6.000 calvOs•
"During the roundup our workers wore divided into two
Gauthier.dheld,:n
arrant Co,,mist047
Page /4
PC 240
crese,becauve we bad such large area' to cover. 0.11.1toelini,
fivz ey.;7 Oscar, we th,7, foreman of one crew and .Oscar vim the
:foreman of the other. Bob BurMasour ebbe cook, and his second
dook,fficksAchibo,' slings 'went with ono or the other of the
creAs. Ascii man ,was an excellent co*. Bob 3urns came to the
vnch from the,liast„ where he had learned the trade and'he had
cooked in a number of the leqding astern hotels. fberefore,
our food was well cooked and we had a good verity of everything
but the meat. Heof.was our main meat food with some bacon
occasionally. However, the hoof was from prime yearlings and
%Jarns cooked it in many different forms,so we didn't become
tlied of the meat. Our vegetables. wf.?ro the canned goOds. The
bread and pactory were made by the cooke and those items were
well ands. In fact, out novas were equal to those served by
the general run of first class hotels.
"Our sleeping quirt i's more sell built and furnished with
first class beds,and carefully attended to. In regards tO our
living,onc could not wish tor angtli.ng better,and the ivges
paid were an avornge of 44040,except during the load War when
wages went up to 00.por month. Of course, when living behind
.the chuck.wagon'the serrice at mealy was not like tlorA received
at a tableobut nothing to complain about.
"alien .we .were working V-.0 roundup and frequently et other
timesese were compeled to sieep ifl th opeo,but most men enjoy
sleeping in the open when they become accustomed to it. A portion
fools more rested after a sloop in the open than when sleeping
*this.sheldon 4.
-47neelore.
Tarrant eowDist,47
Ingo YIS
Fe 240
"eiandling Hereford cattle ie not a difficult job ad
ac,ording to that I Wive 4e.en told by old rewhidessit is
with
play compared/handling the wild longhorn cattle qf the early
d-ys,
caper/ono, d j'et one stampede that resulted in losing
tho herd and that was actly the fault of a greener. A crew
of five waddles tore driving a herd of 200 cattle to 'llellette
for shippaent to Chicago. Sole of the stock were shi pot to,
esahnout movt of the shippment were to ialloago* It nes:Fired
close to four days to make the drive into allette end Allth
Vat. p rticular drive we were within a few miles of our destine,
ation when cisnes end sleet stram caught us. The wind was
4:riving the snow an elePt at a high rate of speed which
caused the cattle to become unruley. The herd was giving us
a great amount of trouble an we tore riding hard and f at
trying to hold it. In feet, woolliere satisfied to keep Co
enimelc milling anf; tere not hihking of moving forrotIrd towards
town.
"The animals to At bent on .running with the storm and we
had been*riding about -two hours without getting father towards
the pens and a chance Mirolesp. Pie were getting cold and tired
and decided to make a supreme effort to move forward,but• the
moment we tried it the critters started to break into a run.
no of, the wmddies lost his temper and grabbed hie slicker then
started Irming it at the herd .wingesrun dam gouf hides if
that is what you want to de. Zell, the animals toot hi- at
hie word and west into their beet spool*
ikluther.holdO*,A. Page t6
'Aangelore. FC 240
rrnt Co,lActiodi
"ale cattle scattered in every direction and in that
stromesith a.high gale blowing,it.no impossioel to follow
the animals. Visibility was. redrioed to about 60 feet and that
si.evented us from seeing whore the dif:erent blanche of crAtlo
-zero running. After a few Anutee of trying to do something,
se de,idetz to let the c.:ttle go until the storm subsided. e
rode into town and went to bed. The next day we had to pay the
fiddler b4, going on a hunt for the herd. Ile had g-tyi lack end
uere able to pick up the herd the second day. le faun! the
cattle in bunches here and there,,ut only bad a lose of 12 head
and those may have returned to the rlyinp Circle iater. The
ranch was in the vicinity and we figured that the strays
uould get in with the 'CT' oatIle and show ur in the next round-
U 7;0
"The gretitest part of my time sr:a snout marking with the
horses..hors was a vane difference in the nature of horses and
cattle about staying on the range. the horse mill stay range
where it is born.unless the animal le driven offor forced off
because of a. shortage in grasinr feed or water. Therfore,
tAe horses required very little attention to keekept on tthe'
home range and not much at#ention otherwise.
"The principal uor was wrangling horses end me broke
about 100 horses each Spring ,.nd Fall. I did/ most of the
wrrngling with the assistance of to saddieS.
"1 shall give an explainatiOn of the method s uood to
break a wild horse to the saddle nd to beIng handled.
"Th. males were castereted at the end of their first year
trtuthier bh ldon
..!ngelore.
Tarrant,Co„. Dist,27
Bege #7
PC 240
and bro en to the saddle d:r ng the'r fourth year.
"The first step in area in a horse war to rope it and
for that work ze had corrals. The two corrals were adjacent to
each other. On was an ordizAry coral and the other war a round
enclosure. he chute lending into the ordinary co:ral was al
V shap d winged affair, instead of roping the horses on the
range and fl hting the animal into the corral or breaking the
animal out on the range,we sould herd the horsissecut nut for,
wranglingeinto the chute and thei crowd the animale Into she
ordinary coral. Then a few at a time were driven into the
cround corral. Picking one horse at a time, it would be roned
and thrown. Then a halter u4:18 out on the horse and a 60 foot
rose fastened to thivbalter. Of course, the roped animal
would not lead and would, be dragged out of the corral.. Us
had a log that ists heavy enough to hold the horse from running
or walking offebut lirht enough ao it could move she timber.
41 tied the bore° to the log and left it there until we
it had learned its lesson
"After several hours of beinr tied,the horse salad learn
the the rope would hold it and tht.t the rope vas is master.
he horse Also, learned that when it stepped forsard the act
sould ea:e to oressure on its neck and what pain was being
caused,
"The purpose of using a movable-l-g,sgs to prevent in.
Airy to the horse's nook when the animal jerk and roared in its
attimpt to break loom. If a ettitionary log vas usedete
prompaura of the rene_making co,Aact against the cervical vertre.
bra would p,t these mere in a mallpositIon, TheMalftpoeition
Gaithier.4heldon Pip .13
Aangeleres FC 240
.arrant Coslasto.#1
interfered cervical nerves nervating the neck muscelsolaUch
rerulted in a TrJrtial paralysis of certain neck unsettle. '‘heno
SO long as the paralysis esietediand it as pPrmanent in most
cam, the animal would carry its heed down. we called the
limber -neck. A horse e:focted zith limber -neck was
useless as a cattle horse.
"Many vild horses mere ruined w=ile being vranal,-s,be-
CaU40 o. inproper tieetbefore it vas learned to use a movinr
o4Ject ane one that riould give enouril to prevent too much
pressure.
*lawn a horse in tasted it had the idea thpt it could
love forvcrd and relieve the pressure on ltc neck.it we -ready
or the next lesson.
"The nest lemon tat teaching the animal to be led. It'
had the idea to :Aep.oriard to prevent the Fens p'ersure,so
I o Id pull on the roes Irle the animal tould rtep or rd.
I repeated the pulls until the horse shoved a tendency to be
od a little. That is, the animal had the Idea whet was vented.
"he nest slop vre not a leseon,but ex..° of preparing
th.E animal :or v,ork. `o prevent mod nrid 4urrs from balling up
on tho nnimalft tailete pulled out cortnin poittion of the
tail's hair. hat alsonprevented accidents Ail° tee vaddies
7,oro riding at the side of each other.
"A horse with a long tail vill switch it nor* or less.
It often has happened that tho horeetall wad catch in the
su P
/Mrs of the noddy at its side.
the hers* pitchedevbieh
aaathler.4heldon
Warrant t4.mist„.0
mot animals' uould do when a:pull on its tail vas feltioa 7110 siele
inju:y could reea't form a spill.
"To prevent -the horse from kickings,mbilo we mere ,palling
the tail hairsome r,,n the rope from the halter batten its front
lope ..and book to one hind leg,mtich was tied up off of the ground
a short (distance. then the tail job Oes done the next lesson
m!..43, given to the horse.
"Vhile the anilal h:11 its leg otill tied,we fussed amount
its beckegentiO moved a slicker around it,gently sloped it. l'he
animal 0, -,on ould uWerstand that I was not going to hurt it. /to
underctandinr moule be Indicated by itc action. tfter getting
the animal's co%f:dence the next process took place.
"he anilal wee placed in theLr und corgi' and a saddle
placed on it and the heed pulled to one side and tied there. It
mould then b: driven nd of co rse,the animal mould tr vel in
a circle in the dicection towards the may its head was tied.
,t•ter treelinr for some time,the head position mnuld be:changed
to th oppotit:sidetand that act wel,ld repeated several times.
"2,ravelIng in a circle with it. head tied eon taught the
horse to turn in the direction tho head u -s pulled. 4.herefore.
he horse soon learned to resp rid to the pull of the hackamele.
All these lessons _ere given with at little force possible.
At the conclusion of tht. lesson in the round corralet e
animal vv:s mounted by a rider.
Page #9
bi; 240
estimate thqt A have wrangled appromimptely 1000 horses
end in all th-t number I have had only forr to piteh with me,
after I had put the animals through the preliminary training I
Gauthior.bheldon F.
".ngelore
arrant CooDletwa7
Awe al
PC 240
and had the leverage of its entire bogy. The steer pulling uith
/rope around its peck. Ad not have the leverage and uould-be.plaled
down after the hoese had braced itcolf•
"It did not t9ke many lesson of that a tura, before the
horse learned to brace itself coon as the rope landed on a critter.
It is surrisine hol. crick a horse iU lam n what 40
nei;essary and will work without mach guiding,an,i the horse seemed
to enjoy the work,especially jerkine a steer down..
"1 relation to our amusements there is not much to tell
about. 4enorally when our days cork was cqmAeted we we”e ready
for sleep.anf, rest. mui•InE my career on the rangelothe drum of
shooting Aid gun fights tore over. :,ot all of •te cowbe:s carried
a sun. Some of the old rawhides carried their sixgunobut they
carried the Alln locaut,e of a habit 9nd not because it was necessary*
"I worked for't,la Flying Circle- for eight years and then
terinat,d mj range career. ;.for quitip the rnnge T took up
stenography and I. followed that profession until 1932 when
received the apeAtment of U._.C-urt Oomissioner. I have served
in the position of U. Court C mmissioner of the Nortllern
Joistrict of Texasot the .lert 'uorth Curt since receiving the
a-pcintmentt but still am fond of the horse. k