Document text
Gauthielr..-teldon
:tantelor
Tarrant Co,Jiet..71
George 12.:4artin,72„living at 961 W.12each St.
iort florth„Teicaa.was born July11,1865 at anemia
Oa. His father,J ask Martin, moved his family free
Antiits to Dallasalricae in 1870.
George T•Lartin want to newtonCollin 1880 and
secured work on thu cattle roach owned tinted*
Robinson. He remained with the Robinson's nosh
for four years.
_ater he terminated his employment with
the 3.obineon' ranchthe ant his brotherolack,
gatht rod 4 herd of wild fia,bro leo the animals
to tht Ediddlee.And. drove the herd to Little ROck
.Ark.at thich place they sold the horsee.aartin
ontinued in the horse selling business during
the remainder of his .Active life.
His s tory of his range 1 if. f
"I have 1.vel in Texas ,e ince 1870. Hy father,Jack Martin,
Moved his familifrom Atlanta Gebein that year Lucid settled in Dallas,
Ticrese I was, born a.t Atlanta July 11,1865/
Krzi father labored at ..aly kind of rork that ho could get to
do when we first lit in Dallas. The Civil ti,Ar sort of tore things
up for father back in ..itlante,,so he came to Texas eigoulating on
getting a new start. Soon as I was kAbl to go on my owen t lit
out to find a job e.And dragged up t Del ton Coo/hi/3h contained a
tolerable lot of small cattle -ranches in those days.
°I landed a job with thenliedn Robineon outfit„which was
located eight miles North of Denton on Denton Creek. pare
got my 'sainting of the cow business. I nested with that outfit for
four ye4.1.rs tan d then r,en t on ruy own in bus in °e s.
"I wae greener of the first water when I landed on the
Liobinsonls outfit. The Linly thing that I could do was sit in 4
sarldle,but to ride a boss ao out of the question mimes the hoes
was an easy add1e.
•",ifter I had been there for a couple of wee'ra3 my brother
Gauthicr.ohelden 1.
Aanfelore.
T4rrant Co4DInt,47
e
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Jack fir4gged in. He ri:Ae a greener too,so each of us lads le rned
..Ind broke into the cow business together.
"The range life then didn't stack up with home lifetwith
good bed to bunk in -nd mother to fuss over fixing the chuck
to suit and such we iank,red for,but the work eot into my blood
und 1 couldn't leave it. I utay, d with the cattle ,and hose
business so long as I was utile to work,
"The Denton c4un't;T range V48 brush cowl tcy :i.nd that kind
of a range is no picnics to work. It takes better rop14,ridIztg
and :aore gizzard greet" to stg rith the uris3h range: It is harder
to herd critters end easier for the rustlers and because of that
it took more watching.
"Robitaft's brand wasoRag,liut he had. 1.any different brands
besides his own on his rge,boause he did. a 1.-st of buyLng z/nd
selling all th time. The brand condition on the RR(' made it a
good. spot for the brand artist to work.
"The 'KR' v;us not 4 lame outrit,it run ,Around 2000 he,Ads
more or -less according to -q7binson's selling and buying J.c t iv It ie s
ilobinsM rorked from five to ten hands,depending on the season.
Dogger Joe was the cook„there v!..Lo my brothervmself,Joka Lilacs]
i.ind Joe Jones which made up the stitud,,,v crew,
0 a)titpt in 4 r -,n( -h home and ate in a. cook shack most of
the time. During the roundup, and occasionally other shrt
we. slept in the open and ate our chucksquatted. on our haunches arotuad.
the chuck Wagon,
"Oar chuck run ;Arany to beef zinci beans. he beef was not
omoidered 4.44:i costing anything,because thu country wai,.) full of
Gauthier•Sheldon Page
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Tarrant Ce•11110t..p
settle ednd. when sane beef was scanted waddie would rope u ft
yearling amd never look at the brand. ,hat woo i.fact,gonerally
the best looking yearling carried the brand of of some othor
loanch. Besides beef,we would have wild jgame,when ever the illook;y
took the notion,or one of the waddles would decide to vary the
meat dealethey would go out Jad shoot some gams. our bread was
bhscuits,sourdough or corn -pone. We had some vegetablos which came
in the oun,dried fruit and _all th c.ffee we walled for.
The cooky would regularly fix upeomothing for our otrect tooth,such
as fried pile made frogs dried fruitopudding of some sort ond once
in a while (4 Maar/
°rigger Joe was a good belly-oheater„ and knor it,but the boys
use to hossplay him a 1 t,all In fly and he would hoesplay US book.
Vie generally got the worse e d of the Itlay,b, cause he would load
SOW diBh we h4inkered for with red popper or SoLle sweet dish with
oat. Ones he made 4 cake with cotton strewed thr000h it. To try
and eat that Dais sure put sadness in your heart,but we had a.
tolerable lot of run about it wh n we discovered thE- cailEe of our
eotiz3g trouble.
"Durng my breaking in period was when the boys oore put on
the optra aeveral times.
"After I had. been with the outfit about a month got to
thin ing that I was a port rider. I did catch on fast,but not
fast enough for the bunoheor fost 48 I oaletzliAted• l'he old nohides
ribbed me up aeout ray riding ability getting Looready for the shame
One morning Jones told me he wantod to surprise the waddle* '(,y hav-
ingme ride a hiss that the other waddles didn't think I could. ride.
want you to show thorn and I will eL onic rA on o y which I'll
Gauthier.bbeldon 74,
Rangel OTe•
Tarrant CO.DInt.J.0
Page A
PC 240
Split with YO „he chinned to ne. pat swelled Me UP like zi
carbuncle*
*The anech saddled a hose from the rounds and trotted it
out. I was ready and lit in the EL:ddle. The boss evelated when
hlt-the:Teaddle and then start(4 b.--iek to the ground,but forgot
to take me along: I was left so high up that the iArde had time
to build a neat In my pocket before I hit the ground.
"After that exerionce I figured that I needed a couple more
grates of eehooling in hoes riding,„snd. that I got before i had
spent many *Ore weeks there. Jono g...ve me some po In tore which
fiad me. up.
*Ono ties the boys sent me out to get '4 "Viouserir„ that was
uppos id to be in th, creek bottom,because they fared that it
would. get sone of the critters. lay instructions rore to :AzA3T after
the 013 t located it and got a shot at it. the boys said:
*If the animd was shot at It would leave the section prontowbut
kill it U you ma,* The animal was disoribed as having a body
airnilar to 4 calf and a head similar to wolf. I left to locate
thatNewermitarly in the twining and stayed with the job unti1
dark,but 54 aglimpe did I get of the ritter. I came into the
camp sort of -shared of mysfAf,because I had fell doom on the job.
I reported hest I 1L -Ad w.Ached and sneaked. quigny hero and there.
hilo I rast: telling the tale,I noticed that all of the bunch
mighty interested and noticed some smiles. It then came into my
conk what had been pulled on me. I then sure enough was riled for
a, Lit*
-.After about three months I had font through 41 the rackets
and was a real rawhiste• I w-4.9 able to ride 'en, rope iind do ;Al the
Gautbier.6helion
liAngeloref
Tarrant CODIst,.fl
age 1-5
Pc 240
ether $005 telerable well. I got to be a real brueh rider. aiding
.6411a
In the open rouge with no broth is sun shine on a winter's day
compared with workieg in the brush. When a rider is hiFh-tailing
it through the bruah.it is necessary for hirto owing from side to
aide dodging limbevtreee and brush. Then when a wad ride in
the brush and at the s:.une time smear 4 loop on a critter,th.it
'caddy can mill hkriself a eve h4ifind. A, smear critter ruer.ing in
the brush one must be able to handle the loop from any position.
wen compeled to keep close watch for the rustlers .ind
tey rore hard to keep tcp with.bee4Wil0 the brush g-ve the varmints
'1.enty hiding spots.
"Robinson did his on top-ocrewing and hia utindinf, orders
were to make buzzard food out of any rustlers th-t weeimew for
sure ras Tootling our critters*
"The °Hilt ranch was located about 20 niile worth oft iaTil net
the ilegeot rustling ou.tfito in the eountryothe hidden pasture*
which was earned by Sam bass* uring ray tio on the 'RR' we never
toun d that the Base outf it bothered Lei y of our critters. ddrit s
long suit was heases ant that wiaa what h. ranged on hie place. He
Galled at the runt* many ties isid I met him often whil,, riding
the runge,birt he never Seemed to be tothering critters. San was
a sociable fellow and I all, aye -ajoyed to meet up with him. the
fellowe that gave ue the trouble came from other section or the
country,.
We had a mumber of scrimmages with the rustlers oan6 some
of t ue never retied my more critters unless it was done on
the u terna3. ronge•
":me day a eoupli, fellows were spied in the Denton Creek
Ofkuthiero,3heid, to
Rangoicose.
%Mot Co* Dist** p
Page
PC 2,40
of our range and a party of US waddles vent in after them.
surrounded the boys and then closed in on than demands d an
explaination for their presence there. They were not working in
that seiticm of the comtry and had no pumpkins in that creek
bottem• They gave us a spool about jiggling through the c,Juntry
and wanted to camp :sand rest 4 few days. That sounded likely,but
we decided to investigate after we parlied about the matter,so
took the boys and their houses to the camp where the strangers
could be watched. 'Thera was line riders n duty night and d4y,so
t4tehing we no trouble,. They could n it leave with their hosea
1.
without the line riders spyinr their mows 3114it night the two
strangers let on foot,leaving their hoesesteaddles and all other
rigging. Therefors*v 0 calculate d that two rustlers got Eiri
"That :Affair caused a shooting a little later on. there
were tiro more fellows found lathe bottom and put up about the same
kind.of speeleonly them fellows said they rere hiding out ,but
not for gssy cattle rustling bueiness. Jonow woyldn't accept that
chinning mod was for hanging them up to d;y*but my brother,Jmk,
was plumb sat against the drying process until the boys vele in
.veatigated. Jones 'held that e vore fooled by two rustlers which
gals us tt likely chinning and he wasn't for letting two others
do the same. My brother held, that we had no laoro on the
boys than that they were in the bettom on our range„where it was
out of Place for them,we should look into the matter before putting
them up to dry. %is two waddles cot plumb riled and one word.
followed anikther,f1nally 'Jones uaid:' eD hell with you' and Ittalent
pull his gun and started to shoot the two .45trangern. My brother
t
10.
Gauthior*SheldOn
Range3.ore
Tarrant CO,Diat #7
Page
FC 240
drew his gm: and shot June's gun out of his hand.. The rest of us
then grabbed the two waddles to keep them from °raking dOM on each
other and while we were busily engaged in that =Atter the two
strangers m&4 e their mounts and high -tailed out of the section.
R..bineen ordered that.from then on.all strangers we came upon
That
like/the, oboUld be brought to him for a declaim, of the issue,
There Was a young lad.whos father had a small ranch a few
milestlitest of the tar outfit, that we all hankered to hang up
N'
dr, one tine* That young fellow C411B ed one of the worse stampedes
ever hat to deal with.
It hapPened during the dark of the MOM ont night when we
could not see well. The critters v-iere the longhorn breed a•nd
could =2 u.beut as f.,.st as a hose, Jr) d were full of the running
notions ee eeially when fretfultbe cause of *wither conditions lack
of wateritor feel. That herd had all the water and grass it could
take ivind the weather was pretty. The herd was bedded down chewing
QS their cub as contended a. any bunch of critters could be.
"try brother and I were night riding at the thee,when we
suddenly heard a strange noise off a distance. It came more louder
steadily and we could 'tell it w coming our way. sin:Ally it was
passing us. It was that lad 1- ith a cow hide dragging at the end of
'his rope behimd his hoes. He had found a dead critter somewhere,
skins& it ant was taking it home.but doing it 48 44 boy will do, the
wrong way.
"The herd rose. a flock of clacks do 1.43,4virig the atert and.
wore off. ihey went at top speed through the brush. ic•he that herd
hit the brush it sounded u g..; trpos do when fallIfig. Riding orders
MOM', r,8heldoDP.
Bange103*.
Tarran t 14,„ pinto •p
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wore glue to all heade llIng them to get going„but with all of
*ad working it was impossible for us to do ything with that ht.rd.
ler one thing,it was dark and we could not see where we 0* the
critters wore heading and in addition tht-y had been scared loco,so
42.3. %,o could do was to try and hold the critters together.
"It was a hard :ob for ue waddies to keep in touch with each
other and work together trying to keep the herd fr scattering.
In do-ing that we diet knew if we were with the herd or bunch
soatterae agility- from the maint beech. To in where each other were
we woad ehot our sue ULM. Ithe first shot t ould attseet atten-
tien end by 1Sekirig in thu direction of the sod the fire flash
of the second shot oottld be etonawhish would enable you to tell
where u. rider w:st.
"The animals allowed down .af ter a :3 pelltbut kept going entil
daylight and only about half of the herd s together.
nit° whole :-rew worked two weeks picking up strays. We found
setae up in w lee Wooers in liallas Co, and some in Tarrant Co. kart
of the crew worked a whole month piekieg up etraye and vhen
quit hunting t; ere were still 100 critters missing and never vere
located.
*That night 11:,.3r Brother got with 50 stray critters whioh strayed
from the main hkrd and. he stayed with th( -uuch. It wan about one
in the morning when he got the bunch ailling and the animals finally
settled. 41111141 He didn't know where he was,ao juot h.-bd to wait until
daylight before he eou:ll herd the critters back. He was younger than
tobut for a kid, a .obine n said,shoy.ed he was made of the stuff
needee to be a cowhand. 'Lie ataiod there until daylightsbut spent
eauthier.tihelikon
parr -in t Cat Diet** in
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most of his time sitting on a limb of a tree. The wolves got to
howling and that put pinplea on his backoso kid like,he staked his
hoes and vent for a troo• W daylight oarac he then d ove the
bunch of 50 critters into the camp and the lily one of the
whole outfit that came in rith str,tys. :iobinsort bought the kid a
John B.Stetson conk cover for doinf- that j9b,saying you 'Are
a kid anti a greenerobat bested the old rawhides* You carst in with
a bnxøh.Of strayet,which is the i..portemt
ry brother and I atgved with tr-e 'Ray outfit for four ye ro
d at the ei,ti of that tine I was a real hose wrangler. y brother
and. I lieeidect to go into the hose business.
"Our first lialtmee w,.‘s to get 200 wild. hroncoes from the west,
bust those for the saddle and then drive the hoses to Little
Irk. that 'w4.ia my first experitsae on a drive* til the ti:.10 that I
nested with an the in, out 'it Aobinson never m3de a drive to
nitirkellp Ira Sold all his cattle to them that did m_Ace drives,or
his herd Si with so ile drover that w..As driving to ti.0 market
*After ay brother und I wrangled the 200 houses e tarted
to .Arkaleas, he sold about 50 as re passed through the cattle country
and hat 150 bosses v.han we landed atLittie finork,thooe we sold off
in two w• We re ea tired aro tm 040 ahead or the housee,whi oh
w,.as ..Arount 00 more than vre could get for a caddle broke bronco
in *tali.
6we used a crew of six w.d.kise on that drive und averaged
about;i9 miles a day.
e made a nice piece of money OUt.OJ that deAl. he hossee
co only the timeaa i. expesae of catching und btv.rting th2?
Gauthier.4„heidac F. gage ,10
Ye 240
ngelore.
T..arrunt Co,Dist„
them„which we calculated cost ar)unf fa a he 4. Our net profit,
after payil c all expenses of the drive was about IVO a head.
hat
put us in th hose businees right. We wrangled wild hoeses
the animals couldn't be found handy then dolt in tame Stook.
"I became a hose trader in later yeras operating in Dallas,
and my last years in the business was Okit Fort V.orth.
ntly brother ..4I3 I woad trade or dell ,inything that had four
feet and looked like a hoes. We learned t keow hosees so well
that hen we were beeted in a trade it vas an accidnet.
"he h,..d iany incictets,during evehoss trading days„that
tickled our innards. As a rule the talktive.krupging and smart
buckaroos were the hardest syluaekers when they got bested in a
sw.i.p. It always put my gizzard t) shaking to have one of the
smart rents come back squawking.
"My brother was the rent that handled the squawkers. I want
to tell of a couple fann-,:; deals he pull, dowhich get 1-10 to laughing
every time I think of how he hdn died the howlers.
had a, fair looking critter that a fellow s wantine to
trade for and my/60 filliLt the man Ay hoes don't look good,but
is a good work hoss.! We made the trade ;AA. fellow v,as boated
a -plenty. VA) knew by the f llowe actions that he tan a squawker
sure enourh he returned howling blue murder,saying,l'that hose
is as abut. 14,urel,mytrother answered. "idn't I tell you
the hoes didn't look good'.
"he swapped a hose once that died the next day after the
trade. The critter w,s a fine looking Jnimal,but it took frequent
spell which indicated a bad heart sod was,of course,w,As likely to
kick the bueket any moment.
Gaathierob holden IP.
ILingaloto••
Tarrant Cos,Diste•e7
Page Al
PC 240
wads a tratto of that hose iind the squawker thought that
hi-- had put it over us akplitoty,but th next day he 3curned different
an& came back -4)41041i* his howl off ,saying, 'that hose died a few
hours after I got bias 'That's funne:ot brother andwered.'Why,
that hose waver did that before.
I' We were hose traders and in the busimees to mal.-.0 a living
The fcyt that we were making a living should have 'indicated to all
folk& we knew our hoes trading buzinesa.but the peo le were bent
or beating the socks off of ,and would ague to us f)i- a trade
with that intentiOn• Then they would houl when we bested thorn.
*Well* I had heaps of fun and made a good living out of it
but all that I can 40 DOS is enjoy thinking about thk, pt days.