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Robt..Iindsey, dfio wee bt4rn in villa, fax. Tex. nu' tether eel a, *settle
dcelers traveling ever .the Mtn.. country,
buying* selling* *DA, trading. When he
was four years old* hie tether took the
family with hiss this giving Lindsoy an
ownontunity to Iearn the -settle business.
He was able to ride horse at en early
age. *ad as. smplved on the Paine Ranch
in 04inton OD* when only 11 Ire* old.
Mills he was -employed on a -number of
ranehes, he was suoh a roamer that he never
stayed in any one,_plece very long at a
time. When not emplOye4 on a rough, he
Weil employed in railroad eonatruotion,
building eenstrnotion end Other trades
until ha cams to-rt•-;torthit Texas* in
1937, end took over the nenagement of
the- Donna Hotel et 101 Min St. His story:
-zell, I wasn't born on the range, but the longest I've
ever lived in n town-ainee -I was big imrugh to reoolleot, is sinoe I
oane to 7ort '7orth about three months ago. You see, T Was born in
Lluteville, rexas„ on rob. the 18th1 1612, but my dad moved us out
when I was about four years old. le all took to the road with him,
and he bought and sold (Nettle. The way he'd do, was to go to a
place, make a deal for so many head to be delivered, go to another
and buy the critters with a oontraot for delivery on the date the
first rancher wanted the arit:.ers. *army to melte money in cattle
without running a ranch, he done it. Anyway except tossing a wet
rope.
ne never slicked a head that he knew of.
"vle all traveled around oVer,the'oouniry with a bhuok Wagon
and c small remuda of hosses.„ which he also, dealt in. Being around
hoaces all the time, and practically growing up with them, I nacherly
undertolk to ride as many of 'ism as I could, getting to be a fair
rider that way. I can't recall the first time I ever rode a hoes,
but 'don't believe Iwas much over four at the time. Then I got up
Phipps, oloody
Bangelore
7arreat Co., Dist. 47
Page 2
to six years old, diql almost turned the remuda over to me. He still
kept me off the wild ones he'd annex at times. In fact, I never
did get to ride a wild one as long as dad had any say over it.
-Dad had dealings with a lotta ranches, but he dealt with
the Payne ')anah in Denton county so much, that I got to know the
weddies around it, and when I was 11, they put me -on as a rag' ler
cow poke. Alga sure didn't do my ego no harm. I strutted around
there fit to kill.
'he Payne Rnnah had it's headquarters at Pilot,Knob, ad
run a 1,000 to 1500 critters. Not such a big place but a wady had
as many head to deal with as if he worked on a lag ranch helmse
you can deal .with so meny at a time anyway.
."There were hosses a -plenty because old men Payne tried to
set all the hoes fleet arund him he could catch or buy.. Thy, one
time when mules got real cheap, he had over 800 head on the plaoe.
You see, if you had a young mule and wanted to sell it, he'd buy it,
regardless of the market price and hold it 'til the market suited.
"We trenpea every wild hose that come in that country.
Trapped and creased tem. The creasing buainess ins pretty close
going because a six she ter bed to be used. fhe way we'd do, was
to have the beat shot place a idiot in the neck muscle, which would
numb the hoss 1.4ig enotIgh to let somebodi, else tie it up 'til it,
come to. -Iten, we'd bust that hose right out here we Oaaght tam.
'Veil, partly bust him, then, finish the job at the hoes remuda.
"Any hoes that didn't come up to good standard, old man
r'syne sold him off. !hat way, every waddy had six -eight hosses th,t
really were *ow hossess _ 1Ms reason he wanted the best hoss flesh for
his rennies was because he knew that the better a hoes a man hod, the
Phipps, Woody Page 'S
Rangelore
Tarrant Co., Diet, 4? ra
better work he was able to-do. It took reel good hoses to do good
work with critters -because a hoes had to know how to keep on a cow's
trail that a waddy roped and missed while chasing it through a herd.
rost of the time,-Whon a waddy red.' his hoes into a herd after a
certain critter, he never =lased his shot, but sometimes the critter'
would toss it's head just as the waddy made his cast, nnd the cast
*Would miss. If the hose was a good cutter, it'd stay on the or.ittera
tail as it ran throggh the herd 'til the waddy got into e_position
to make another oast. Some of the bosses seemed to take great
delight in chasing a cow, and wouldn't lose track of it.
"Then, another thing a good cow hoes has to know, is when to
set down after the waddy has made a cast out in the open, away from
a herd. Ile main place to rope a running critter was on one of the
front legs, then the hose would sit down, which would throw the cow
over on it's side. Then, before the cow could get up and run again*,
thot hos,- has to be fast enough to get the cow poke to the cow in
time to tie it's other three legs up so it can't get up. Alen that's
done, the cow poke is in e position to brand the critter.
"The branding is done with an iron rod that has the particular
brand of that ranch on one end. Usurlly, the brand is several figures
or letters. Sometimes, it's an. odd design, but all the brands are
registered at the-atete Cepitol, and each brffnd is different and
private. This brand it hooted, then placed on the cow to burn the
design into the hide In a way that it'd never week off, and you'd
be able to recognize the brand yerrs later, whether the cow wao
alive, or you just saw the hide alone. Of course, the cow pokes
nester built a fire every, time they caught a cow, unless it wee out
of roundup season, which is -in the Spring and Fell. The reg•lar
?hippa, •tiood
angelore
?errant co.,
at. /7
Page 44
way, was to roundup all the critters on the range tides a yerr at
the times mentioned, and out out the 'unbranded ones, brand lam,
then out out the sale orittera that -their owner wanted _16)-oash in
on. Of course, thf-tid be the stock in the best condition to trail
drive.
The Payne !?anoh never trail drove rnI c.itters. Instead,
old mPn oayne'd sell to some other cattlemen that was driving t
7
herd through. That Way, he never had to lepve the ranch, and took
no losies on going through the :erritory.
While I don't reoell any of the men's names that did
drive _herd through, I recall that we'd have to add some kind of a
figure to all those that he bought. A six, or eight, or something.
-When I was 15, I went up into Xansas, and got a job on
a railroad construction grew that was building totards the rerritory.
After about six months at that, I quit and come back to '2exas, where
I got me a job on the old Slaughter Ranch at Ws:litres, Texas.
-The Slaughter Ranch was a big one, having 96 sections in
it, and I don't know how many heed of cattle. I was termed up with
floors* Clay, and we run around together ',filen not working. :rust to
give you an idea about how many cattle there was on that place,
leorge and me spayed 5,000 three year old heifers. That's a many a
one. Take it from me, it Jut 'nothiar thing, if you've never seen
spayedkheiger, they're as wild as .a deer or an antelope ever got
to be. spaying a heifer is the same rs castrating a steer. It makes
'em fat as all get out, and gives 'em more pep.
couple of years on the Slaughter Ranch, and I left to
go to the oil fields, I had an interesting experience in one of them,
Phlol>s„ coody
Rangelore
Tarrant Co., Dist. 4/
page 10
'PC
whore I wes'in charge of the bosses and mulls. A man walked up -to
a negroe aloes to me, and asked for the ram rod. The-negro' pointed
totards'me, and he asked ne for a job as a skinner. I instinctively
knew that the men was a nacheral with hosses, so T put him on. And
he was a good one too. "Pou know, that fellow and me worked side by
side for almost a year'before he ever opened up and told me a thing
about hinself. That's the Ault for lout you -know. 7e never eked
man about anything. If he didn't want to open up of his own accord,
we always figured it was his buaines!5 and -we didn't have,to truck.
with him if we didn't want to.
Well, one day, some how or(' nother, the discusaion led to
ny birthplace and I mentioned that I was born in LouisvIlle, Texas.
70 said, I was born in tiouisville, and my folks' names! was
Donald
T said, Doneldt? Why, -that's my mother's first name'.
e never said another word, nor ever talked atylut it again. tater
on, he_opened up and told me he'd been a rustler. 1-41 said he'd I
discovered a pass out of a eertain country, and had takeh thousands
of critters out that pass and sold 'em over in Califbrnia. 7ou
know, I believed every word and suepected'more. Another thing about
him was, that he never padked a six shooter but I knew he was a,
crack shot because he jerked mine out one day and disooluAlotedra
rattler that wa abOut_to stivike me. 7e wPs so fast that the thing
was over before I'd had time to realize what was up. 'Soon after
he used my pistol, he disappeared from camp and I never heard tell
of hi anymore.
"my next job was with lictoyTUlly, a cattle dealer that
Phipps, Roody
R-ngelore-
7arrant Co., Dist. •/7
Page
rC
operated out of Denver, Colorado. I wee hired to take charge of a
train of cattle out of Denver to Alliance, Nevada. A couple of stops
Sluth of Mance, I'd got hungry and we was at a awn stop where I
could get a lunch but we didn't have no time. -I eeked the conductor
if we could wait itil I got a bite, he said, I Speak to the engineer
I asked him and he said,
"Yes sin &pore tipping our hats to rully men i Tully just
got a )40,000.00 judgement ageinet the road for letting a train
load freezel. What they'd dOne, was to unload a. train 1., -)ad of-
oattle right out into a blizzard -whin this train was stopped, it'd the
cattle not being used to that kind of weather, froze.
"'liter the cattle wasturnsr, over to Tully's man in Alliance,
w/s standing in -a salmon and a trampy young fellow walked up to me.
rspecting him to put the bum on mel_I didn't expect him to try whet
he did. Pe said, 7)o you went 8 job?'
wI thought he said, Do you know where I can get a job?',
and T said,'No, I'm licking for a job myself*.
rTs said, Helli That's what I net yeti' list was a hoes
of d different color so 1' toA him up. His name was Toy, end he led
e small ranch out of illianoe; I reckon he had ar)und 2,100 head in
'ZY brand. I didn't work butNe couple of months for him
beolause he was so grouchy and the place was so lonesome. You'd go
days and *days there without seeing -a human, and every hill you
topped, you*d see another that was bigger.
"I did take a little of the grouch out of the old man,
though. One day, I'd just got up fron the breficfast_table when his
son cone a-rdnning in and said, 'Don't go -out where pop is because
he's mad today, and he tight take r notion to kill you**
Phipps, 1oody-
Rengelore
?err- nt Co., Dist. 77
Pnge f7
rc
7ell, not peaking a six sho,)ter, T was Just a little leery.
,the only thing I could find that would protect me la little, was an
old style hoes colhes. T p1 -eked that thing up, and peeped out the
door. You can imagine my surprise when I Saw him down in the hogs
lot, a pitch forking the bosses 'tit several of them were down. I'
couldn't stend that so I ran down to him and hollered, You stop
that:*
He looked at me and said, aright.' Then, after ‘a
bit, he said, I thank you for whet you juet done._ I lime one of
them spells °met in awhile and foan't help myself.'
Later on in the day, the boy hunted me up out on the
range and said, I knew that if rnybody could stop him, You could,
because be was renting nround like that one time, and a 70%011 00W
iauncher like to a bent him to-derth.'
-when I decided to ramble on, a couple of months et ter I
Joined, I told the kid first. Tte said /Don't tell the old man but
lust go on because he'll be awful mad and he ..-aight up and kill you.'
"Since that*wasn't my may of doing, I went right into the
house to tell him. lie just took it quiet like, and the old lady
with her two girls set up to bawling ovevit. They wanted me to
stay because thy was afraid of the old_mens lie finally said,
If you ever want a job, and it's five years frOm now, or ,anytillit
your old job is open.*
I went down the road to the Dealer Ranch, and, old man
Demer put me right to-1(Ork. He was awful inquisitive about what
he'd heard me and old man Joy had -done, but I told him it wasn't
nothing. The Demer ?anch was worse than the Joy place. And (midi,
nen I've drove a bob sled across the tee with a load of hay for the
Phipps,. 1oldy
'Hangelorei
Tarrant Clo,-; Dist.
Pegs 18
other side. there this miter come from, I don't know. It rose in
the end of a valley between two high hills. rOmetimes, the force
of the rising water would melt and break several feet of ice.
"One queer thing about the hoss:es on that place was, that
they wouldn't eat hay as long as they could paw thro,ghthe hnow and
reack grass. Aere were a -plenty of 'em too. I heard the old man
tell his daughter one time that bold paid tames on 400 bosses, and
I'll bet there were h thousand of thim on the place. Fe run about
8,000 -head of cattle in the bar circle iron. You make it by putting
a bar inside a_oircle.
I guess ttv-.t sae about the finest agriculture land lever
saw, beoause we put -in three crops of alfalfa in four months. Now,
that's a -going some when yDu pan do that. ''he crops ws raised
.under fence in the valleys. Tell, a winter and a sumer on that
place give me enough of-thc Nevada country so I drifted babk to
Brown ooanty, Texas, an went'to work on a spread owned by a nephew'
of mine. nephew
"After about four years, I bought me mi pool hall in
Brownwood, and quit the ranch. It wasn't so big anyway, and there
wasn't enough money for a1 of us since there were only 1,000 sheep,
and a 150'eattle on, about 1800 sores of land.
In a pool hall, you have time to sit around end talk
about thin. In fact, that's almost all you do when yAL have one.
One of .my ouitomers was a W.S. Bill Foseett.. Old Bill didn't talk
much 't0 anybody, and it took me several years to break him down to
talking. T knew that he'd been somebody beeause you could tell it
In his eyes, and his bearing.- He'd 1'yok•at you, and You'd feel like
he knew your very thoughts, Agit 'caused me to sort of cater to him
Phipos, 400dy Page !10
Rangelore
Tarrant Co., fist. 47
"."nother story he told me was about the _first tiMe he went
into the Territory. as.a•marshall. I -resell that he said it was on
one of the first trains to .go into the Territory, too. Us said,
was in one of- the conches, and asleep, when all of s sudden, I heard.
a lot of shots, anl felt the train stopping. I got up and ran to the
door, which a few of the others did, the most of them trying to hide.
Since the shots -were ackanging against the side of the coaches, I had
room a-plenty to see outside. I1that a band of six men were
going to rdob the train. You know, I really don't know *at _fear really
is, and never have. I've just felt like all al4ng.that Whert-myAloktot
was punched, .1 could be doing rnything an4 I'd go anyway, so I jumped
do -.;.n on the ground., filled my fists, and started tb sho ting.away.9.,
"'The gunmen were on.the_ground bud in plain sight, so I got
two of them before the others run.- For three-four minutes there, the
elicits wire hitting all around. me. The other four men run to their hems
on the other side of the hill, mounted, and rode away with their bOdy's
hoses. nu see what partners they were. 3uprose now that one of
those that were shot down happend to get v_zchande to get away. rfe
coqldn't get way because his'hoss was gone, and his partner had
took it.'
"'They'd drapped a couple sacks on the ground, and.One of 'em
had a patch on it that was off of a shirt. 1 out thet patch out,
thinking thet it might COMO in handy some day. About a month later,
I was in a cafe, sating breakfast, when tour men rode up in a cloud
of dust, their hosses all lathered. "ell, that was a,give away
that they were in a hurry to get somewhere. 1 watched 'em as they
eat, an noticed that one of 'em had a shirt just like the pa-toh 1
elks carrying around. I went over to his, matched the patch with a
Phipps, -oody
linagelore
Tarrant Co., Dist. 4?
rage
1,c
hole in one of 'em's shirt, throwsd down on the whole gang, and
marched 'eLl right out to their hossis where I iade 'em ride in fron
of me to the sheriff's ofrice.'
Another experience I had wes once when I was visiting
a friend of mine, that was a sheriff in a Zansas town. I /build his
in a Tmol room, and as I stead there balking to him, I watched the
opera ter, and thought he acted suspicious. I said to the sheriff,
'Let's arrest him."'
He said, NO, that's a good men**,
we talked it over, and he gave in, arresting the men.
On the way to the jail, we passed drug store and the man asked to
go in and get acme smoking.: Seil, sines we really didn't have
nothing on him, the sheriff let him go but we toll wed him on in.
Tre went to the end of the counter, and on around behind it. I maw
him bend over like he was nicking up something, and I jerked my six_
out. re comp out with t box, and had his hand on a '45. I let hila-
get the gun out, or the box, then shot his wrist almost in two. re
held his wrist and hollered, I'd have got both of you if it hadn't
of be- n for that red headed gun slinger there.' lell, you know;
they sent me an invitation to his hanging out in frizone two months
later. "e'd been wf,nted out there for yeers.'.
?here was one thing th; t hanpened to me though, whOre
really should have lost my life. If it hadn't of been for my early
training on my dad's ranch in Kansas when Flanges was the wildest
place in the world, with a good many despsradoes running &wound, I'd
never have been able to stand up to this experience'. "y dad had a
saying, 'That a man can only die one, and he might's Well die a markt
That's the way I felt. This time coma about when deolded to visit
Phipps, ;.lood
Pangelore
Tarrant no., plot.
pegs a
17,-4
a friend of line, that woks sheriff in a town after Oklahoma was a
ste. tiend you a blipping from the Kansas city Star that tells
a heap of 1t but I'll tell you right now about how I recall it.
You know -1 st gun action, with your life in•danger every minute,
lot goes o4 that you just naohirly'don't recall.'
tf 11, gm I reached the outskirts of this little town,
I heard a lo of thooting start. I ehipned my hoes up, and saw a
gang of men 4iit up, and -go in three bunshes to'ards some buildings.'
La I rod* 116 Iftaw. two or three men on the ground, and,I figured it
s,t
was a holdup4 Since I didn't see my friend anywhere, I figured
that they'd ready got him, I filled both fists with six shooters,
s
and rode e canter of the'townr where I could shoot at all three
gPngs at thewmme time when they showed.'
!It at they was really doing, was rob' i
?wo banks, a
street, and
three -places.
a big store. :4111„-I stood in the middle of the
erytime one of 'em showed, I out down on him. I was
'so bust that I never noticed what I- was doing, but did feel queer
thet.I hadnq felt a shot yet.'hey were shooting nt me -from both
ends of the street end the store in the middle. After about 15
minutes, whieh seemed like a month, the sholting stopped and the
rest of the 4n come out with .their hands in the air. /hen the
count was tallen, aocounte for 13 of 'sm. 13 of 'am dead, and
me without a.seratch. I tell you Bob, I've replly got no claim on
my life beoa se the law of averages ought to have taken it then.'
"well, old Bill sent me a clipping with a request to send
it back whenlI was done with it. If you went_ to prove this, I'd
Suggest you et in touch with the Kenos* City Star in Kansas city..
They're bouz4 to have this and you can got Us paper's aecount of it.