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Phipps, ,Toody
Rangelore
narrent Co., Dist. #7
Pak* 41
IC
W.L. Rhodes, 65, was born on his father's
stook farm in Os., !here he learned to
ride horses at an earl* ass. /hen he was
9, his family moved .to KNOW Co., Tex.,
where his father established a ram.
as con, who operated a ranch near the farm,
employed Rhodos as a herder during roundups,
'hen he was 12, Boson employed him as a
regular oowboy. Rhodes gait the range when
he was 170 o work for the Trinity Coast.
Co.., of Trinidad, Tex. After he was 40 Yrs.
old, he bought 150 sores near Trinidad, and
established a ran0h. He now breeds and deals
in fine oattle on this ranch, and resides
there. ris story:
The best time I ever had in my life was when I,lived and
worked on the range. The heelthies life ever was, bees se you
only eat wholesome food, stay out in the open all the time, eating
and' sleeping out there, and the work is hard enough, and interesting
enough to keep a feller at it regular.
Now, I wasn't born on a ranch. I was born on my dad's
stook farm, somewhere in la., on Aug. 26, 1872.. Dad just lied
enough oows end bosses to get it under the wire as a stook farm,
but. It was enough that I learnt to ridlva hoes pretty good mighty
early. I reckon I could set a saddle right pert soon after I was
only four years old. While thatiwasnft nothing to kids them days,
it'd be svmething these days.
"I was somewhere around nine years old when my dad made
up his mind to move to--exas„ and when we did, we 'settled in
raufman.Co. Dad didn't bring no stook with him, and.he just farmed
after we got settled down. That didn't suit me so well, so I looked
around and got me a job riding herd on the P.O. Bacon Banoh.
The way they worked it, was they'd work up a small herd,
and I'd keep it from straggling or running off. lien when they had
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Rangelore
Tarrant co., Dist. 47
pee I2
FC
what they wanted, we'd drive them into the main herd where everybocl
elie were driving their's. You see, in a roundup, all the ranchers
generally get together and all work together in rounding all the,
cattle in that part of the country up, then they out out what belonged
to them. While the ranchers in this part or the country were straight
as a string, some ranchers in other parts of the country would pay
big wages to cowboys who'd go in there and slap their iron on every
unbranded critter they come across. The rule 'vas to bring in every.
thing, regardless of brand or unbranded. Then, there we brands
thet could be made into other brands by adding some to the brand
already on the critter. Like this. You take ,the old 9 PO I spread
in Sheokelford Co., and nearly all their stook was gone before they
woke up to what was going on. Some never did miss theiros *tn. It
vas too late, but on the PO, a rustler changed their iron to the-
R8,* like this:Po to R8
Now, when that was caught up with, there was some shooting,
and when the dust and smoke cleared allay, the rustler had paid for
taking enother manta property. Not always did these things end up
thet way because the rustler expected gun play, and usually picked
on somebody they figured they could boat. Then again, the best shots
usually died with gun shc;t in them in the end.
Back to me now. I worked in these roundups every Spring
and Fall, and helped brand, and everything else my weight would let
ms do. Between nine and 12, I gradually picked up roping end on my
riding ability 'til Bacon hired ms as a regular cow puncher When I
got to be 12. While just working extra in the roundups, I got 5041
a day, but when he put me on regular, my first salary wee tk10.00 a
month and obuck. 'fly the time 1 was 15, I got top hand's pay, which
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Nerrant co., Dist. 17
was ;t254.00 a month with'ohuck and all my riding string furnished.
I always had from six to eight good hoses.' in my string, with anyway
a couple of them a good deal better than the rest in cutting.
You see, a cutting boss is as important to a cow poke
a ha-mer is to a carpenter. If your hoes is trained right, and fa
a good hoes to start with, you san go into the herd, and the critter
you .want out of the herd, you just have the hoes push against it, or
hit it with your lasso. Then your hoes will stay behind that _critter
'tit it gets out of the herd, and will obese it plum through the herd
if necessary.
Then when you get the eritier out of the herd, you cast
your lasso, end again if pair hoes has been trained right end is a
good hoes, he'll know just the right time when to sit down on his
haunches. -"hat way, the ropell throw your critter, and you'll be
able to ride up to it and tie it up before it can get away again
if youtre by yourself. Usually, though, several cow pokes work
together when there's roping to be done, and when one throws n
critter, the other is near enough to finish tieing ti up.
In fact, nearly all the work done while on the range
was while some other rider was with MAI.
",1,1)ng about when I was 15 years old, there was a serious
drouth come over the oountry, end the grass was short. Baeon
decided to.movechis•herd '"est to the long grass section in Throck«
morton Co., around 100 t. from his ranch. !yell, we rounded the.
cattle up, and started on our trip. The first 50 Mi. of any trail
drive is always the hardest because the cattle want to bremk back to
the country they're ueed to. We sure had to haze a many a one Iriok
before we got the herd used to moving. In feat we had to drive it
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Rangelore
Tarrant Co., Dist 17
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'til the cattle were almost res y to drop before they 4 break batik.
had four or five miles I reckon, of stragglers, and some of_them
got beak to the, ranch, I know, bemuse they were sleek and fat when
we came back the next year. You see, where there weren't so many to
eat what little cress there was, the ones on it done a whole IA
better.
The drive passed right by Fort Worth, and we aide the
Trinity River crossing right back of whore the court house now stands.
,Tot exactly in beak, but there's shallows there where settle end
\hosses could ford.
74 veered the herd a little North to keep from_ having to,
cross the Brazos river, and passed Just .Bouth of where qraham,
is now. loll, sir. lie durndest thing ever you heard of, happened
'right there. lie first evening after we loft the Brazos, T reckon
it was about eight miles, a couple of house cats went to fighting,
and stampeded thst herdt House °atilt They sure caused us a heap
of trouble because we were two days rounding tivA herd up again.
14 spotted the herd where California Creek forks the Clear
Pork on the Brazos River, and stayed there 'tit id.* after Spring
roundup time the next year, then we drove the herd back to near
CrPadall, in Kaufman Co. That was where we'd started from in the
first place, but Crandall was just beginning to be something more
than a spOt for a r4neral !4rohandise store when we got beak.
Just before the ?all roundup after we got the herd back
to Kaufman, Jeff Bowdry brought a herd through from somewhere N.
of the Rio Grande Valley. I reckon he had' around 3,000 head of
stockers in his herd, rnd he Must have had 20 different brands in
the herd. well, you. know how it is. In cow country, a man's
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busineca is his own 'til he gets ready to spill it. There's only one
exception to that rule, and that's when he bother's another cowman.
Then, he makes it both of Vhedls business. Whet I'm trying to show
you here, is that him having so many irons in his herd made it look
-kind of queer because it'd be hard to get that many dIffarent cattle.
men together to send a herd up the trail..
Bacon decides it might be a good idea to have the roundup
right then, so we started out. We worked and worked, but sure
enough. Just what we didn't want to happen, come about., 1e weren't
rounding up as many heed as we expected tO. About a week after
Dowdry had gone through, Bacon ones out a.atomping and raring. He
says, That so and so Bowdry put some of my beef in his herd too,
but we're going after mine. 0tot ready to lef-tveti
By morning the next day, we'd all gotten back to the bunk
house and loaded up whet we wanted, and were on our way north to try
and catch Bowdry. 1Tvery man had au extra hoes, and each boss was
the bent that could be raised fOr us. Each man had more ca'tridges
than he'd probably need, and we were on our ways
Because we could make 40 or more miles a day on our bosses,
and a trail herd hardly ever makes more than 10 miles in a day, we
caught up with the bowdry herd only five days from the ranch. We'd
have °aught up sooner but several other herds going through recent
had confused us 'til we °aught up with then and found they werent
our men.
When we finally sighted the Bowdry herd up ahead of us,
the boss had us call a halt and rest, so's we could look over our
guns and freshen our bosses. '"o do that, you wash the sweet from
their aides with creek water. Al a rule, a cowboy never does this
Phipps, Tioody
Rangelore
TRrrant Co., Dist.
page ?e,
'til he's ready to stop at night end make his oamp. This time,
Bacym wonted to be sure th6t everything we had was prime for motion.
:fter everybody got through, we mounted and headed out towards the
herd. The closer we got; the slower we got, and when we finally did
get there, our m }unto looked as if they hadn't been ridden so very
far.
Bowdry saw us comang, and sent hie trail boss out to see
whet we wanted. Ault .made Baoon feel all the more sure that here
was his missing beef, so he tells &be foreman to go beck end tell
Rowdry not to send another man out but to come himself. 70 saw
Bowdry end the foreman talk together for rattle, and shake their
heads like they were having an ergu.,ent. Bacon caught Bowdry's
eye, and motioned bin out, riding halfway himself in the meanwhiel.
Bowdry rode to meet in, and they had a talk out there.
After a few minutes, Bowdry wheeled off t.; the herd, an Bo con waved
us up to him. when we got up to him, he says, We're going to tally
this herd, end boys, I want you to keep your eyes open for trouble.'
By the time we reached the herd. the Bowdry cow punchers
had stopped it, and we rode to the iced, where we begun our tally.
Every one of UA felt ,for sure that trouble's grandpeppy was brewing,
and sure kept' his shooting iron in drawing position. sir,
that whole 3,000 head passed through, and there were two of Racoon's
cow critters in iti What do you know about that* Just two of them.
Nothing we could do about that, because all cattle will Join any
trail herd; and here was two thrt joined and weren't se..n joining.
:lhere was some fine, free and fancy handshaking went on
and we all basuppor together, Bowdry's 000ky throwing a reel spread
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Rengelore
Tarrant Co., Dist. 17 FC
for everybody. There's a pioture I'll carry to my grpve. About 75
cow pekes, all eating and drinking (their strong -black Java together,
telling jokes, end pullinf; them, where four short hours before, and
hours are short when you're near a killing, brother, the Baaon men's
hands were just ready to draw and shoot every lowdry ma in sight,
FInd nowdry's non were just as ready to ‘rigger the Paeon.men to teke
up for their boss. PIO, if those Bowdry men had made up their minds
thnt the 'Moon men were going to rustle the herd and kill them any-
way, they might have started shooting before we started the trlly.
Thank goodness, they didn't.
It we on the way back from the Bowdry herd, that I saw
a wild hose off in the distances' and asked the bunch to help me
°etch him because I needed another hoes. Ihen we got up to the
rrsoal, he turned out to be a sort of a canary yellow. There were
so many of iwthPt we had.him treed in less then three hours. !very
where he'd go, he'd see a man so he'd tarn some other way, and we
just finally surrounded him, -nd then closed in.
tell, sir. I come here to the rodeo to see some riding
end roping. They certainly do some fine stuff here, but let me
tell you, that riding then when they're so wild they've probably
never ever seen e en before, is some riding. Some of them aren't
so herd to built as others, but the easiest shade the bad ones of
today. -Then the boys closed in on this hoes,_!onr or five of them
lassoed him and one of them slapped a hull on him while I took my
shape off. You see, in riding a bucker, you can't have muoh between
your legs and the hoes beosuse you hold on with your legs too.
I jumped into the hull, one of them Jerked the blindfold
from his eyes, and the show was on.. That was the best ride I ever
'oody
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"'arrant co., Dist. /7
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made in my life, and I've made a many a one. Not so awful -many of
my rides were on wild ones like that one, though. He pitohed and
rered around there something awful. I just had all I could do, to
stey on him; and then I was almost thromed at least 20 times, then.
anon the ride was over, and he just hung his head after
he bawled several times, a couple of the boys clone over and helped
me get off. I needed help bad, beoause I was a wreck. AMy knees
tad all the skin wore off, m/ nose had bled 'til I was weak from
the loss of blood, my insides felt like somebody'd dhot aabuffler
gun inaide me, and my setter was sore as a boil. That ride' lasted
more than 15 minutes. and 15 minutes in an inferno of the.world's
me
fastest moving'action-is months in any other kind of notion. Thy,
here at the stook show, a ride only lasts seconds, and not even
minutes. Then I stayed in that hull'for 15 minutest
:hen, on top of ea that, I never did get him plum broke,
bowls* after, we got beck to the ranch, I went to work on him when
T ivasn(t doing something else, but he'd trick every morning. I'd
slap my hull on him, then mount him. Zust us- soon's T got set, he'd
fun baokmards end fell on his back. There's a trick that** killed
many a cow poke, but T was reedy for anything, and when he went to
fa ling, d leave the saddle, than when he started to get up, T'd
be in it before he got straight, and he didn't lose me. You'd
think he'd finally get hap that he oouldn't huit ma tp-t way, but
he pulled it ever morning as long's I him. ,7very morningl,
but then he'd be good for thereat of the day. 7:0 was a good onestoo.
I left the Becon-spree. when I was 17, and went to work
for the Trinity Const. Co., of rrinidad Tex. I made good with them,
and have a; 150 sere ranch near Trinidad, where I raise fine beef like