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Phipps, woody
Rengelere
J!Tt Ow., Dist* 7.
bora Lewisville, Tex. /Oh. WS.
181 a troweling cattle trades wbo le 1616
family with him* At 11 Reit. weft* op the
Payne Raish, isomer 41,1 his life
never 1ta7,d 144g in one places he bas worked
in railroad constriotien eel othqr. %video; 10 new
manager of the Donna Rotel, 101 Lam 3t., Pt.
w Or tho
1
ween't born am the range bu the longest Pim ever lived
in 4 toes ainCo ilium big enough to reeilleet is sines I cum° to
Pt Worth about three moaths ago. I was born in Lewisville, Tex.
on Neb. 18, 1872 but my dad moved us out whin lima about four
years old. s took tbo the road with hiss, aid be bought And sold.
cattle. The way he'd do was to to go to a plea*, make a deal for
so many head to be deliverd, go to +smother eed buy the 16616ers
with a °entreat for delivery on the date the first reDcher wanted
the critters. Anyway to mak• money in cattle without ruining a ranch,
he done its *2[c:opt tossing 4 wet rope. He never alicke4 a head that
he knew of.
e triv.1ci ogled the wintry with a chuck wagon And 4 small
remade of bosses which he also dealt in. Being &roved Meson all
the time and practically growing up with them, I nachcrly undertook
to ride as many as I could, getting to be 4 fair rider that way. I
omit recall th Arst time I ever rode a boss, but I davit believe
I was mesh over four at tbm time. When I got up to six yours old dud
almost tweed the reauda over to me. He still kept no off the wild.
ones he'd unsex at times. In fact I never did get to ride cumild one
as long 41 dad had Ley say over it.
khippe iv* ety Page Si
Eangelore
Tarnalt CO., Diet. 7,
"Dad had dealings with a lotta ranches but he dealt with the
Pe •anch in Denton Cbuntiy so much that I got to Mew all the
waddiea around it and when I was 11 they put me on as a regular
cow poke. That sure tilde% do my op no harm* I 'strutted around
there fit to kill. The Payne outfit had its headqtuirters at Pilot
Ibob and run 1,000 to 1,800 twitters. Not such a big place but a
waddy had isse many head to diva with as if he worked on a big reach
becalms. you OM only dieal with so many at a time anyway.
*There were 'bosses aplenty because old ass Payne Aria d to
get all the hoes flesh bround him lib eauld buy or eatoh. One time
when mules got cheap he h -td over aooØ head on the place. If you had
a young mule and wanted to sell it. he'd buy it, regardless of the
market price ..ald hold it 'til tin mariset suited. We trapped every
wild hoes hat Gone in that eountry. Trapped and creased them. The
creasing ovalness was pretty close going because a six shooter had
to he used. The way we'd do was to have the best shot place a shot
in the neck musicle which road numb 4 boss long enough to let none-.
body else tie it up ftil it come to. Then wed bust that hoes right
out where we caucht him. Partly bast him und finish the job at the
hose remsda.
"Any hose that didn't some up to a good standard, old man Patyne
sold him off. That way every waday had six -eight hosses that really
rare cow houses. The reason he wanted the best hoes flash for his
rannies waa because he limos that the better d hose a man had the
better vork he was iible to do. It took real good bosses to do food
work with critters because a hoes had to know how to keep on 4 cow's
trail that J. 'ruddy roped and missed while 0.Ahsing it through a herd.
Phipps, aoody Page 3
Rangelore FNO
Tarrant Co., Dist. 7.
If the hose was a good cutter it'd stay on the critter's tail as
it ran through the herd 'til the waddy got into a position to make
another cast. Some of the hosses seemed to take greet 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 oast out in the open, away from a herd. The mein place to
rope a running critter wee on one of the front legs, then the hose
would sit down which would throuw the cow over on it's side. Then
before the cow could get up and run ptgain that hoes fias 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. When that's done, the cow poke is in a
position to brsnd the critter.
"The branding is done with an lion rod thet hns the particular
brand of thE,t ranch on one end. Uswily the brand is several figures
or letters. Sometimes its an odd design, but all the brands are reg-
istered at the StfAe Capitol, end each brt,n4 is different and privets.
This brand is heated, then placed on the cow to burn the design into
the hide in a way that it'd never wear off and you'd be able b recog-
nize it years I' ter whether the cow w s alive or you just SPIV the hide.
Of course cow pokes never built fire every time they caught a cow
unless it was out of roundup season which is in the Spring ,;1114 Fell.
The reg/lar way was to roundup all the critters on the. range twice a
year at the times I mentioned and out out the unbranded onii4 brand 'erg
then out out t e sale critters that the owner wanted to carOin on.
Of course that'd be the stook in the best condition to trail drive.
The Payne Ranch never trail drove any critters. InstS-d 41 Man
Paynefd sell to acme other cattlemen that livA3 driving a .hal1/41 44110
Phipps, 'moody
Page 4
Rangelore
PEO
Torrent so., idst. Y.
in that wry he never had to leave the vAnch end took no losses on
going through the Territory. While I On't recall any of the men's
name that did drive herd through I recall that we'd have to add some
and of a figure to all those that he bought. A 6 or 8 ar something.
"When I was 15 I got a job on the old Slaughter ranch at Oohil-
tree, Texas. It was a big one with 96 sections inIt and I oon't know
how many head of cattle. I was teamed up with George Clay and we run
around together when not working. Just to give you an idea about how
many wittle were on the Afoot George liad me spayed 6000 three year
old heifers. Spaying a heifer is the same as oastooting a steer. It
makes 'em fat as all get out and gives 'em more pep. After couple
years on the Slaughter Ranch my next range job was with Lacy Tully,
a cattle dealer thht operated out of Denver, Colo. I Iris hired to
take olv.rge of train of cattle out of Denver to Alliance, Nev. A
couple of stops from Alliance I'd got hungry and we we /It a small
stop where I Gould get f: lunch but we didN8t have time. I asked the
conductor if we could wait 'til I got a bit, he said, "Speak to the
engineer". I asked him and he said, "Yes sir, we're tipping our hats
to Tully men. Tully just got a $40,000 judgement against the rw-A for
letting a train load freeze." What they'd done was to unload a train
load of cattle right in a blizzard when the train WS8 st:-Iped and the
cattle not being used to thrt kind of weqther froze.
"After the cattle was turned over to Milt's man in Alliance I
was standing in a saloon and a trampy young fellow walked up to as.
Expecting him to put the bum on me, I didn't expeot him to say what
he did. He said, 'Do you want a job?' I thought he said, 'Do you know
where I can get a job?' and I said 'No, I'm looking for a job myself.'
Phipps, Woody page 3
Rangelnre
720
Tarrant Co., Dist.
940 maid, 'Hell, that what I ask yel'That was a hoes of a
different color so I took him up. His name was Joy and he had a
small ranch out of Alliance. I reckon he hcid around 2,100 heed in
the 'ZY* brand. I didn't work but a couple of months for him because
he was so grouchy and the place was so lonesome. You'd go days and
days there without seeing a man had every hill you topped you'd awe
another that was bigger.
"I did take a little of the grouch out of the old mansthough.
One day I'd just got up Om the breakfast table when his son come
*running in end said, 'Don't go out where pop is because he's mad
today and he might take a notion to kill you.' Not packing a six-
shooter., I was just a little leery, the only thing I could find
that would protect me was an old style hoes collar. I oicked that
thing up and peeped out the door. You can imagine my surprise whan
I saw him down in the boss lot, a pitch forking the bosses 'til
several of them were down. I couldn't stand that so ran down to
him and hollered, 'You stop thatt0 He looked at me and arid, 'Alright
Then after a bit he sPid, 'I thank you for what you just done. I
have one of them spells onset in awhile and I oan't help myself.'
Later on in the day the boy hunted me up out on the range nd said,
'I knew that if anybody could stop him, you could, bee use he was
ranting around like thct one time, and a Texas cow pumeher like to
beat him to depth.' When I decided to ramble on, a couple of months
after I joined, I told the kid first. He said, *Dont tell the old
man but just go on beams* he'll be awful mad and he might up and
kill you'. Since *hat wasn't my way of doing, I wont right into the
house to tell him. He just took it quiet like and the old lady with
Phipps, ioody
Rangolora
Tarrant Co., Diet. 7,
6
har two girls set up to bawling ovr it. He finally said, 'If
you ever want a job, your old job is open'. I went down the road
to the Diner -Iamb and the old man pat me right to ork. He was
awful inquilsitiva about whet he'd heard me and old man Joy had
done but I told him it wasn't nothing. The Dem r Ranch was worse
than the Joy place. He run about 6,000 bood of cattle in tha bar
circle iron; you make it by putting a bar inside a circle. A win-
ter and manner on that place gave me enough of the Bevaft eountrY
so I drifted back to Brown iounty, Texas, and went to work on
spread own d by a nephew of nine.
'There wasn't enough money for all of um in it since there
were only 1,000 sheep and a 150 head of cattle on 1,800 *ores so
after about four years I bought moo a pool hall and quit the ranch.
"In a pool hall you sit around and talk about things. One of
my customers was a (Bill) Foseett, who didn't talk mach to
a
anybopp. One Lay I was talking about the Dalton ranches in Palo
Pinto County and wandaring if they had any connections with the
Batton outlays. I was taLking about Bob Daltan and asked Bill if
he ever heart of him.
onAlamed with him a
him after a couple of
B. said, "Tee I knew him well. Truth of it is
little./ Se., r rode TS mllse to identify
little marshalle at Chickasha shot bin. The
way it happoned, Bob and a couple other fellows was living out in
a cabin out of town. They had a woman with 'ea and since they was
et trying to raise nothing, the marshal's dedided they were loot
legging and went out to see.
"Thew was a ditch thatrun tor about 300 yards from the cabin
and when the marshallit showed, Bob run down that to get away, The
fUppll, Wooly
Aangelore
Tarrant County, Digit, 74,,
marshal's sew kin and lucky shot kilt his" Thoy went on to the
cabin and the wombs come out running and bolloring, Ibra you'vo
done it. Tou've kilt my hired man.. Them marshalle like to a
fought right there, sash claiming the other Met his4 Thoy'd dens
it so they decided to go ta the the calla and look aroinds khon
they got them tho other two nen had got away hut they found %roe
or four seaaleee ehhat seeks fall of memey. Then they liko to have
bet anothor flight over who shot Bob. Rook claiming be did so to
sollect tio reward. That was when I was a Territory Marshall sat
of Fort Snit*, Arkansas,'"