Document text
7.1i1
ngelore
.'arrnnt 0., Dist. ,7
'Thomas, 67, was born on. his fsther's
farm in Collin Co.4 ex. !is father moved
to Johnson Co., in 1872, rnd established a
stock farm. :homes learned to ride nt an
errly age. ITe mrde a regular cow hand at 15.
father moved to rown Co., in 1890, to
establish a larger stock farm. tter a crop
failure, he moved to Throck7ortAi Co., in
1891, where he estrblished another stock
farm. -Thomas was employed by Lyt Johnsonof
7hrock7lorton Co., in -1892, by ''!el Davis in
14, and 3em Davis from 1908 until 1914.
e'ma7rif'd Cobina Johnson of Brown Co., in
and they now reside in the city of
..lirockmorton, Tex. His story:
-Page
"1 Ilus born on Mrrch the 11th, 1870, on my tether's fort
in Collin County. He moved the family to Johnson County in lf?,72
so he a)uld take up stock farming. He was a mrn that loved stock
but he knew more about farming thin he did stock so he farmed for
living while he studied cattle raisin. around fols that
love stock end fine hoe -43 :lesh, a youngster will just naturally
drift into the same feeling for cattle and houses. I don't know
.iust when I did learn to ride butj can't remember the tie when
couldn't. ny, T made a reFular cow hand at 15. 7;Id ever-ithiag
r-ny cowhand could do.
"I didn't have any real cowhand experience besides just
herdirve and ordinary cowhand work because dnd never had over 50
head at any one time. This was big enough a herd to give me
exper.ience in riding a loss and getting cat:le out of al sorts
of sdreoes but what I oreved was the real ;est where there were
outlaws, rustlers, and such. One day, dad comes in and says he
htis made enlach money to get r, bigger puce in Brown County.
-Men: Merit skti i tickled over this news. l'hinks I,
now we'll .get some real elstern stuff. I couldn't hardly wait
.00dy
Pangelore
Tea:rant Co., Dist. 7
pF ge
to aet there. I visioned thousands of cattle grazing on a limitless,
fenceless range. jell, when we got there, dEd established another
stock fr-rm with about 50 acres more land in cultivation thnn he hPd
before Thich meant more work. There were fences and everything else
just as there were in 7ohnson County.
"fhe_yearlis result was a failure for everybody but me. I
alet the one gal that I wanted, and I sure wanted her but I viasn't
but 18. he folks talked me into waiting 'til I got of get. :ell,
we sparked each other, and thought we would just be close, to each
other 'til I became of age, then we would get hitched up. -.let's
where we c)unted our chicks before the eggs were laid. Crops
made a failure end drd moved us to Throokmorton County, where he
esteblished another stock farm.. I thought I never would get away
from farming.
:11y, we had to haul our cotton 40 miles to Iraham to the
closest in. Of course, that was in the day of old .Tim, !leak, and
the 'Ipringfield wagon. T remember -my dad buying a 3tudebaker
wagon after the first yeeres c:'op was .t-xketed. :ias he proud?
'7e went ar,und to 1.l the neighbors so he cauld show them the red
whenls with the yellow spokes and all. 'I'll ndmit it was the
classiest wagon but the only kind of a wagon I wanted to be around
was a chuck weaaon out on the range at stuffing time.
"I griped and squawcked around 'til dPd let me go find
myself a berth on a ranch. Ali first day in Craham, I met old
Lyt Johnson and he *gave me a job richt away. Fe had a apread about
17 miles Northeast of Throckmorten !Jnd run about 2,000 head with a
YOU brand.
body
qangelore
7arrant Co., is t.
Pnge "3
"Alen I went to Lyt's place, I didn't have the right kind
of clothes for range work., T ust had some blue denim work clothes
because that's Pll dad would get me. 7ou can sure bet your socks
that it didn't take me lonp to get some clothes together. --ell
in e way it did because my first month's salary was a saw buck with
clitiok. It took me seven months to get my stetson, boots, gun, end
chaps. I go a •little raise every month 'til I was petting =,,25.00
and ohuck a month.
—thile I was working for old Lyt,-I got the thrill of
eating nt the ohuck wagon during the roundup. Feting around a chuck
wagon is the best eating in the world. Nothing speoial, but good
solid food like whistle berries, beef, sow belly stripe, and some
of the best sop in the world can be made from the grease you get
from fried sow belly. One thing you could depend on at any time
of the day or night, especiallY in the winter and that was the
blr,okest coffee that can be made. 7 oan just see the old coffee
pot now, big enou:J7h to hold a counle gallons at a time, and a
oouple of egg shells aoatini3 -round in it to settle the grounds.
vou hear different things about set'aing coffee ,;!.rounds but the
egp shell way worked pretty good. e never got but few eg,-s to
e,t and we alwnys accused cooky of carrying the sane eg. shells
around from year to year. e had a good cooky on Lyt s place,
though. lf everything was favorable, you could depend on a slice
of pie tam. or three times a week, sometimes more.
Now, .1 haven't said anything much about the way we slept.'
During the 3oring, and a1l, we would be out on the range
nearly all the time. -hen we were into the ranch house, we had
Phi )os, c)ody
flngelore
Tarrant ',;(3.• Dist. 7
Page /4
k bunk house. The bunk house life was swell for sure. :re had
music and singing just like you hear over the radio. often hear
folks saying that the cowboy never heard any of those songs. -All,
a good many of the songs are new but we sen7 some songs that would
burn the ether up. 2he good churoh women would be trying to put
the radio companies out of business. Out of 25 cow hands, you
could always find three or four fiddle players and guitar pickers.
hil7 never made P hand at singing, I could make a fourth when
they needed a bass. I would be glad to name you some of,the songs
but they're about the same stuff you hear every day. The ones I
could talk about, 1 mean.
"Now, about. sleeping away from the bunk house, many's
the night I spent out under the stars with a slicker for a cover,
my saddle blanket for a mattress, my boots under my neck and my
srAdle for a pillow. Don't worry, after a hard day in the saddle,
you'd be nble to sleep well too. spoesionally, T've had a bed
partner that I didn'to to bed with.!lad you'll think was lucky
for sure when I tell you thw_ 1 was never bit. These bed partners
were rattlesnakes. I've woke up with sand rattlers end diamond
backs too. They would crawl in under the blanket or slicker for
the warmth. s long as you didn't hurt them, they wouldn't bite
you. snake never bites unless he is afraid he will get hurt.
never rolled in my sleep because 1 was so tired when I went to
bed that I just wanted to ley still -nd rest. If anything strange
came around, could depend on my hoes to come over and nudge me.
?hen I ,ome into Fort -!;orth here, I always look up my
old cronies 'and we get together for a gab test. 016 Joe Reynolds
hipps, oody
2..ngelore
:arrant o., )is.t. 7
?age 45
brou ht a news paper in here and showed us an article about a hitch
hiker that aaw a shelter and crawled in to go to sleep. short
while later, he felt something crawling on him. He felt of it, and
it was several snakes. :hey had come to him for the warr:Ith of his
body. He didn't stay any longer but took right out and found out
later that he had gone to sleep in the zof4ologioal gardens c'nd the
shelter he had picked out w -s for the snakes.
"The very worst stampede 17 ever sew was near Gore Texas.
we had about 3,000 head of fat sterqos rounded up for eusltiOn, end
hrd over a 100 head of bosses in the remude. 7011, about midnight,
the steers and the remuda just scattered in all directions. You
know, ordinarily, a stampede will go in a general direction and
have a leader but this one didn't. They acted just as if the devil
had jumped right up in the middle of them and hollered,lBoot Well,
we boys sure had a tough time. -70 rode all night and regethered
a few of them. The next morning, we discovered that we had bedded
the down right over some rattlesnake dens and there were three
big fat ones stomped to pieces. were a whole week gathering
then back up.but we lost about 200 head. e got all the :.ossee
beak, though. stamAtde business was tough end you had to
expect them at any time. Ri -ht when you weren't looking for one,
that's when it come off.. !Tspecielly if you weren't prepared. The
rustlers used to cause stampedes but they were pretty well put
down in my time. missed a few mysteriously.
I went to work for 1 Davis in 1894. 7e ran about 3,000
head about 20 miles south of Throokmorton and his brand wee, '665'.
One of the things that happened while I was on 'Foil's place was
Phipps, ;oody
nngelore
2arrant o., :Ant. 7
Page
7,1
seeing Antelope roped. Now, there used to be lots of Antelope but
they werS getting pretty well thinned out id the only wry we got
one was by shooting it. We were ro,Inding up a herd on Eel's place
and somebody hollered, 'Antelope4' L11 the boys just stopped
ever:Ahing they *Pe doing, no matter what position they were in.
nven if they were branding, they ran for a hoss and a rope. All
they boys closed in on the ntelope. The herd started to scatilering
but the boys didn't pay it no mind. One of them hollered, '745 can
get it any timel Let's get the ritelope.1 Well, old Jim Carr
roped that animal. He did it near where the present postoffioe of
7lbert is. Tlufe Walker, the ram rod in charge et the time of the
3oree stampede roped the other. !'e was a r,exico man and had a
ranch in Presidio County but the ranch houses were on the other
side of the river in ,exico.
'There is one thing a fellow has to watch out for the
sam- as he watches for stampedes and that is, rangy' fire. One can
put E rancher out of business in a day's time. T. recall b;ok in
l08 when a traveler drove into a pasture owned- by the 2.eynolds
Land and Cattle company of craham. 2heir brand was a big 'A',
so we just called their property the, 'X pasture'. jell, this
fellw let the fire get away from him and it burnt 40 sections of
grass before we got it. under control. -7e put that fire out by
splitting cows open and dragging a half at a time across the edge
of the fire. You know, a fire has a sort of a ragged, feather
edge in front of it. ;ell, if you can get the leading part of
it, you oan best the main body of it. 'te, oommenoed fighting.
about ',!:30 P.T1., and got it out about noon on :741bruary the 23d,
the next day.
)hipPs, ,:oouy
aangelore
2r.rrant Co., Dist. '7
?age 17
"Along about midnight while fighting the fire, T had coffee
with T!ounts. Now, there's a fellow for you. TTe would do any-
thing end could say anything in front of slubody and get away with
it. 17e goes down to Brewster county to marr7 a gal by the name of,
Jane i3t1841. .7‘. hes rn 'unt there and she asks him if he has a
house in Throokmorton. :T.D. says, 'Yes.'
'Ia'unt says, 'lien are you going to move in?'
-re says, 'Toni htS' Old J.D. pulls e trick that I never
saw outs id of ti movie.. Lour of us punchers are coming out of a
saloon in C,!raham along in the wee wee hours of the morning when a
masked gunman sticks us up. e11, with that thing looking as big
as a cannon to us, we,'Put 'em up'. He tells us to pass our sixers
to him, one t a time and with the butts toward him. Now, :T.D.
was rolling a bull durhem when we come out of the salo-m, and he
still had the t'bacdy in the ty'per in his hand, and up over his
hef,d. 1 -hen his hand gets even with his mouth on it's way down to
his scabbard, he blows the t'Vecy in the gunmen's eyes and jumps
to one side. The gunman shoots but he can't se where he is shoot-
ing because the bull durhem is burning him up. You try that some@
time -nd see ho l: it burns. Tell, all four of us jump right on
him and am stomping him right into the board walk when the sheriff
domes running up after herring the shots. takes the '7:n to
but you know how those old time plaid were. e got out that
night and is still !.;ane but he's carrying P souvenier from that
$to -:ping.
-Tel dies in 1909, and his son, 3em 3.11. Davis takes
over. 11 the hands stays on because 3em is a square shooter.
thipps,
Vngeldre
"'arrant o., Ast.
Page ,Y8
rrot, he was a whole lot better to us than his dad was.. I worked
ror Sam until LJ14, when I left him to work with my brother, L.
U ThomPs. L.L. married Eel's widos and they split the property
ttn half. lie widow took one half and gave it to L.F. and !3am
kook the other half.
"fter several years with L.H., I borrowed some money to
Invest in oil land in Throckzorton. y investments were the
i
test I could hnve ever wide so I'm riding the crest now. I don't
tieve to work any more. I just go around anywhere T want, to,
uy up some cattle cud sell for or to somebody. In other words,
;in the days when I should have some money. saved up to retire on,
m making more money then I ever made in my life before.
"Cobina and I now live in Throckmorton by ourselves, and
he does pretty much as she pleases the sPme Ps T. do.
e don't
.have any children. I sometimes think I oJld like to have some
;around but none has ever coma our way so we help others in a small
;Ify to take cre of theirs.