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Range -Lore
Ruby Mosely
San Angelo, Texas.
RANG -LE
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Mr. Eugene McCrohan came from Ireland to Chicago
in the early 40's and his wife Mrs. Isabelle Wilson
McCrohan came from Scotland. They pioneered through all
the states from Illinois to New Mexico, escaping wild
animals and depredating Indians, as New Mexico seemed the
wildest, that was the chosen place for settlement. The
family increased several in number, Mr. Dave McCrohan was
one of the younger children.
"I was only two years old when we moved to Texas and
settled in the Conch° Country but I have a good recollec-
tion of the men quarrying rock to build Old Fort Concho",
says Mt. Dave McCrohan of San limgelo, Texas. We located
just below the old Butterfield mail station. When the fort
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was completed and the soldiers were stationed in the fort
my father furnished them with milk from his dairy. There
were a number of soldiers' families living near hare when
I came. The permanent families consisted of Frank Tankersley,
Tim DeLong and the Burleson family. Frank Tankersley came
three years before I did.
"There was no townsiwith the exception of country stores,
closer than San Antonio. Menard, and Fort McKavett had a
Government Store, the same as Fort Concho. There was no San
Angelo in those days but a little later W. F. Veck put up .a
saloon in a big tent where San Angelo is today. BenFicklin
town did not exist, it was a farm worked and plowed by Ben.
There were no schools nearer than San Antonio. So you can
imagine what ignorance and hardships existed in those pioneer-
ing days.
"Indians were still depredating this Concho area when
we moved here, so we built a log house with a dugout beneath
it to sleep in for protection from the redskins which made
several attacks. When they came the first one that saw them
shouted, 'The Indians are coming!' We ran far the dugout as
you have seen wild animals run at the sight of a gun or dog.
Father always got the gun and when it was fired they made
their get -a -way. If father was gone when the attack was made
mother mastered the gun, to make believe durable protection(
then father always found us safe and secure on his return.
"I remember one time my father was alone during one of
the raids, he shot several times and killed one Indian and
probably others. The old custom of theirs was to take the
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dead with them. I guess they wanted to save the scalp. They
did not get the horses this time.
"The Indians made another attack, their motive was al-
ways to get the horses. This time no damage was done except
killing our dogs. One dog had two arrows through his stomach,
while the other was struck by one arrow. We boys grieved
over this as much as if it had been the horses.
"The Indians really put one by us one night. My father
and Mr. Jerry Schade tied our horses just as thick as they
could stick around in a circle and made their bed in this
circle. They told my brother and me to go up on the hill to
sleep. That night the Indians came, got every dad- blasted one
of our horses, put a JSOkaliez, in the stockade. Not one of us
woke up. This was really a neat job, you don't know how we
felt that morning when we were awakened by the braying of the
donkey.
"There were lots of little mustang ponies but they
weren't worth nothing, so we never cotched them. Horse traders
came through the country once in a while, let's see, we bought
old Jerry, Blue Dog, Diamond and old Grey,that's about as many
horses as we kept as long as Indians were raidin'. We only
had about thirty or forty:7 sections of land leased from the
government and didn't need many horses.
"One time a man was coming to our ranch and got a little
drunk on his way. The Indians killed him, drank the remainder
of his whisky and placed the bottle on his breast after taking
his scalp. The soldiers went out but catch the Indians.
The last hostile Indians were seen in about 1875. The Indians
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rated according to the number of scalps they collected. The
chief always had more than the others.
"Carrol McKinsey was the best commander the fort ever
had. He commanded in 1872 and sent four or five hundred
Indians out on reservations; he got most of them from Yellow
House Canyon, a canyon between here and New Mexico.
"In the late seventies we had negro soldiers here; they
didn't do no good, the Indians called them buffalo soldiers.
The citizens and negro soldiers had a few little scrapes, one
or two negroes.were killed but no whites.
"Oh yes, I have killed lots of buffaloes, big and little.
Whenever we needed meat we killed one, just as you would kill
a rabbit, chicken, hog or any other animal food, except the
buffaloes were a lot larger and they were not harmful to man.
I guess we would have plenty of them here today if the hunters
had not ammo in and killed them for their hides.
"I've been up the trail many, many times, I guess my
longest trip was from here to Leavenworth, Kansas. 1ft and my
two brothers and eight or nine cowboys would take from twenty-
five to thirty thousand head of cattle each trip. We would
rig up our chuck wagon with supplies to last as long as possible.
We always started the cook on ahead so that he could have our
food prepared by the time we got there, then no time would be
lost. He would have to choose a place to camp where there was
plenty of grass and water so our cattle might graze as we ate.
The same procedure was followed throughout the journey then
we usually covered ten or twelve miles each day. If the herd
got restless we would always sing to quiet them; a stampede
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was often prevented by the singing cowboy. When we camped
for the night we each had our duties to preform. Some were
to hobble horses while others bedded the cattle, there were
guards for the night, three alternating their duty. If
trouble camossuch as a stampede, wild animals or storm, every
one reported to duty except the cook. Many cattle were often
lost during the disturbance. One time a little wind and cool
rain came up which resulted in a stampede. I was in the lead
and gave my horse the reins to do his stuff; he stumbled in a
hole which sent me over his head to the ground, I looked up,
saw the cattle coming. I disrobed my slicker, began shaking
and whirling it into the air; this turned the cattle, and was
all that saved me and my horse from'being stamped into the
earth.
"When going up the trail it was customary to give a
beef to the owner if you crossed his property, we always did
this and made friends all the way up. This was pretty nice
on the way buck we were often invited to eat some of that beef
and drink black coffee. People were so few in those days they
didn't forget you.
"I really had a time with the wildest horse I ever rode.
It took me five years to ride old Blue Dog. He was really
mean but I rode him twenty-five years and I never rode him a
time that he didn't buck. He pitched and bucked until he died;
dOmetimes I wonder if he didn't pitch a little afterward.
"We went back to New Mexico in 1885; we liked that country,
the wooded hills and big ranches, but could not stand the super-
iors being of Mexican people. In fact the whole business was
controlled by Mexicans, so we moved back in 1896. There was
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quite a change in this country during those few years I was
away.
"I knew most of the old timers, good or bad, we didn't
have such a distinct social line as the society people of today,
we were all just plain common folks.
"Yes, I knew Old Booger Red, he was one;of the ugliest
guys I ever saw but lots of fun. I have seen him ride the
wildest bronchos that ever was mounted. My brother brought
a wild horse out of the mountains in New Mexico; he was as
swift as lightning. Old Booger Red rode him at the Fair.
Me and my family being interested in the horse and knowing
Booger, dressed up, got in our new hack and went to the Fair
as a big dog in a little wagon, style. Just as we drove up
we saw Old Booger Red riding that New Mexico horse without
a bridle, boyfhe was just a bucking, pitching, rearing and
pawing 0 the sun and over the fence he came tumbling and
cavOrting right in front of us. Our horse got scared, reared
up and fell back on our new hack and killed himself and it
scared the very dotal out of my family, but none of us got
hurt. Booger said, 'Well I guess I'm so ugly I scared the
horse to death'. The Fair Committee wanted to pay me 460.00
for my horse but I wouldn't accept it because I thought my
horse was worth 4100.00 and I rather have nothing than to
have my horse valued at 460.00.
"I knew some of the so- called outlaws; Dave Adkins
killed a man, then deserted his family to escape punishment,
This all led him to train robbing which was the most popular
robbing during that age.
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Tom and Sam Ketchum were train robbers and outlaws and would
get hungry while on a hide out, and slip up to a sheep camp
to get food. Once we were all at a picnic and some one came
and told the Ketchum girl that Tom had been shot; this didn't
seem to worry her, after the picnic was over she stayed for the
dance that night. It was told around that Tom had been captured
and hanged in New Mexico, but I don't agree with them. They
sent for his brother to identify the body and hanged a dummy,
pulled his head off as the trap fell, and refused to let anyone
see him. Rd001 Shields, said he saw the Governor of New Mexico
and Tom back at Tom's old place, Knickerbocker, looking for
his hidden money. I have seen men that said he lived in Old
Mexico long after the hanging. These Ketchum boys worked on
our ranch two years and made good dependable ranch hands at
the time.
"Dick Duncan, another Knickerbocker product, robbed an
old man and woman, then killed them and threw them in the Rio
Grande River. BA scouted arouxid for awhile, doing several
other law breaking acts which resulted in a hanging at Kerrville'',