Document text
(0 QA- N4T 1-(1
_oridy
flangelore
Tarrant ±1st. :7
P.D. Self, 0, was born on his father's
stock ranch in Hood Co., rex. Hie father
owned about 700 horses, and about 100 head
of cattle. 2.D. Self rode yearlings and
trained horses at 12. He spent most of
his life on the range and aow owns a hog
ranch in Pairland, Burnet_ Co., Tex.
His story:
Page
"1 was born on October the 14th, 1871, in Hood County. !Ir
father ran a stook ranch about 15 miles Northwest of Granbury,
Texas. Mow, a stock ranch has hosses and cattle both on it. ?ad
ran around '200 native hceses on the place, and fro 50 to 100 head
of cows on it.
"On account of the hosses and cows being around and me
liking tl be with them, T was riding e hoss as soon asI could sit
on one without anybody holding me. Thy, I was busting bronco tuad
riding yearlings b the time was 11 or 12 years old. 12 anyway.
_e being so handy with bosses was a help to 'ad because he raised
them for the Northern markets at that time. 7ou
hoss,somw way or other, done better in the North
raised there. in fact, a native •fexas hoss even
after getting there. The elimute seemed to make
see, r rexee
than the hosses
grosed so e more
them grow. I
don't know Wiether or not a hoss would grow after he was four or
five years old or not, but dad sent them up when they were two
yerr olds or little less.
"Dad branded his hosses the same as he did his cows. His
name was D.3. self, and he had SELF branded on each critter's left
shoulder. Now, you've herd a -lot about brand blotting and so
.forth, you try your hand at blotting that brand. Just try to
change it to samething else. 'fou'll see that dad knew his hide
iizps'oody
Bangelore
'torrent Co., Dist. 4
page 4
i`C
burning. Dad was a kind of a quiet 'fellow. He never was sociable
with the other ranchers, nor he never had any folks to some and see
him. only things T. ever heard him sey eh -Alt the other ranchers
were about their ranges, or water holes.
"He was kind of hard on me though. I said I liked to rid
yearlings but everytime he caught me, he raised old billy hell. T
said 7 rode the fat off of them but I never saw any leave them while
sv-Am riding so T just thought he wns being cranky. I think that
was the main reason he taugkt me to bust brones. le wanted a vent
for my pep, and it was a vent for sure because busting a brono aint
a thing T would reccomend for the rheumatiz.
"It's a thing that has killed many a man and laid many
another one up to rest for awhile. -ou see, if your not set just
right when a ho s comes down after ta lug you up among the clouds,
your whole stomach can bust out, or you ribs are likely to break.
I want to say right here and now that I believe I led a charmed
life while busting Drones because I never had a serious accident,
and I never let a brono go 'til he was broke for sure. I say broke,
I mean trained to let a person get on him end ride. You know, a
hoes just don't cotton to the idee of going from i. life of eating
and sleeping, roaming whereever he feels he wantivto.go, and doing
what he wants to do, to having a saddle slapped on him, reigns
end bits on him to guide him, and eating and sleeping Shish somebody
gets ready for him to do it. Of course, the hose can't reason all
this )ut for you but he does hate to lose his liberty.
"T had a system all my own for breaking P hoes. I don't
guess it was far from the way others did it but I just gradually
oc,dy
igngelore
Tarrant co., Dist. 37
Page 4:a
FC
led up to getting on him by first roping him to a snubbing post,
then tieing a burlap sack around him about where the saddle straps
went. Next, I blindfolded about every other hour for an
hour. Next, I put bits in his mouth and tied the reigns over h6s
neck. This was one of the hardest things to get done but I always
overcame the hoes by treating him gentle. The last thing before.
riding him was to put the saddle on him. The way I'm telling this,
it don't Is:11nd like there was much work to it but there was plenty,
and the hos kicked about it too.
-Anything new the hose had to get used to, he would kick
and snort and jump anyway you can f4194-41 Jvat a hose could jump.
'Then a man crawled into the saddle, he would get wall eyed for sure.
ills was a thing T always had to have one other puncher help me do.
As soon as the other fellow turned him loose, this hose would take
me on a trip. I heard a fellgg talking about a moving stairway
taking him up pretty fast one time, he should have tried .a moving
brong once. Fverything else then gets tame. Another thing, any
other trade.can get to be just routine to P fellow but busting
bronco kills fellow when it gets so routine that he doesn't study
each hose. :hen I say study, Ian watch him after he gets some—
thing ncg, on him and he is bucking. around in the corral. There tg
three or four different ways of bucking. If a person expects a
hogs to buck one way and the hose goes the other, then the puncher
follows the law of gravity because he aint setting on anything.
gfter he gets down, he's got to get away frog the hogs because the
hoss wants to kill. :Jany's the hos2 that reared up to paw me down
but I managed to get out.
-Thipps, elody
Rangelore
rarrant ‘;(1., lust.
page 4
"Now, about getting them to market. I was too young to
go on the trail drives so I oan't tell much about them. 7here was
a couple of herd bitten old negros trail hands that oame to the
ranch every :3'pring to go on the drive to Abilene, Kansas, the end
of the railroad at that time. 1 kind of think it was the T.P.
but I don't remember well enough to say for sure.
"These o7.d negores were named Jock and Lewis, and they
came from the 3 circle(0), and the 3 D (3), in Clay County. I
sure liked to talk to them beoaus they went on a trail lrive every
year since the things first started. I remember them telling that
old man Chisholm never drove a herd up the trail that everybody th
thinks he blazed. They said that old man Chisum was the one that
went up that trail, and that he blazed several others besides.
Of the two negroes, Lewis was the meanest and he was elT7ays killing
hoaxes. ell, he killed one or two a year by hard riding and bad
treatment. Jack forked a hoes named Prince, and that hoss must
have realized what a good time he v,s hEving beocuse he just
followed .rf“)k everywhere he could. Jaok was good t6 him,and nearly
always had an erlple in his pocket for i'rinoe to get out.
'"These drives I spoke of had about 300 head of Osseo in
.XxOso
them. A fellow by the name of Zoseph McCoy in :--bilene bought cattle
from the cattlemen in the Fall but he bouAlt the hosses for the
nmtana ranges,. and the others along in there. I never went up but
I heard others telling about it.
-About the only big 'cattlemen I ever met while a youngster
were Shanghai Pierce, a 3outh -2exrs cattlemen, end 7oel Collins
a fel7 fro n down arlund ian;,ntonio. ,Collins came elDse to our
Phipps, oody
Dangel)re
Parrant Co., Dist. 17
place with his trail
sale cattle with him.
him where he was from and he said, *Oh, Anit Goalint.
that was a queer name for a town but Jack told me that
'Round about'.
"Shanghai Pierce was a gambler besides being a stockman.
I heard a rumor that he once sent a trail herd North to Kansas City,
them met it there. A*ter getting the money, he drank and gambled
'-iad or believe it. I know
in the bunk house and he sure
I got hair in the butter
once by backing him and after slapping me over once, it gave me
buck fever to even think of it any more. -lie others told me that
4hanghai would just as soon drop a man as t!Ae a drink. I ibund
out liter that he never drank but it impressed me anyway.
-kbout this gambling thing, everybody thinks it's a bad
thing to gamble nowadays but in those days, gambling was aright
eh long ns it was straight. Fverybody gambled fair then. A hoes
race was a ecanmon thing and anybody that didn't bet on the outcome
Just didn't have any red blood in them.
this I've told you happened while I we a young
fellow. It seems to me like I never had anything worthwhile to
hap.,en to me. Very few people ever realize I know anything about
the old range because when I" was about 30 years old, I began to
get interested in hog zaA.sing. 15adad's stoak renck got to be a
losing proposition along after the lc.)00's so T didn't inherit
anythinp; frorl him when he died in 1V05, but I could see that hose
raising wasn't the thing to do for n living.
it all away. rhat's just rumor but
that he liked to gamble with the boys
didn't allow any sweaters to beck him
Page 45
drive on his way North to take dad's "ell
remember him 86 well because 1 once asked
thought
it meant
Page 16
Rangelore
Tarrant Co., Dist. ;,17 PC
"I've worked for this fellow and that since I left the old
place but ns 1 said I was alwys interested in hog raising and I
now own a hog ranch et airlftnd, in Burnet County. I bring most
of the:: to the market here in Port Worth to sell.
-There is just one thing more about cattle drives I never
!lentioned that some folks might wonder ebout. 7hat's the mileage
they make while on the drive. Just regular stock cattle make from
seven to 12 milea a day, according to the amount of grass along the
limy and the condition they are in. Steers make from 10 Vo 15 miles
a day, end hose's will make from 20 to 30 miles a day. You oan
make better time then th,t but I wouldn't llow anybody to carry
my money that fast. You see, the more they are on the trail, the
worse they get. Mat is, they are always ohenging water, grass,
climate, and always on the go, so you can see now what I mean.