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-hipps, •o)dy
IThngelore
.:alTant 30. :Ast.
C.1..Orenshewle46, wrs born at Gonzales,
ex. He vms taught to ride a horse at an
early age, and WPS riding the rene at
the ago or ten.rhen he was employed by the
McLaren Pariah, near. Gonzales as a range
rider. He was employed by the L Bar D
Bench at Palo Pinto when he as 14, went
on a trail drive at the age of Id, another
when he was 18 end was employed by the
GLD Eench. lie was employed by the DDD
hanch in the Indian Territttry when he was
19, then went back to the' CAD Ranch near
-alo Pinto, Tex., when he was 20. Four
Yrs..tlater, he wes employed by the BXB
'Ranch near Olney, Tex. He left the BXB
to be a peace officer at Breckenridge,
Tex., for 8 Yrs., then went to'tuying,
iselling, and trading cattle on the Ft.
1,,orth Stock Yds. 7e now resides et 4135
Avenue Z, Ft. Worth, ?ex. His story:
-Well', I wasn't what you nightreall, 'born on the range',
but I spent the best part of rly life handling cattle so I believe
know the ins and outs of it. As a kid, I'd always weriteC to be
'El cow poke but my family lived in Gonzales Thxas, where I was born
on January the sixth, 1871.
'Since cattle' formed themajor industry in my days .3,3 a kid,
,it wasn't so hr.rd for me to borrow a oes here and there, and so
learn to ride. !.7.51 Uncle, Cy Crenshaw, whom I don't recall anything
'.about now excepting he rent es Y and diselpeared, we figured the
Indie.ns must hove/got him, held me on my first hoss. Ifter .he gave
me a start, I borrowed from everybody that would lend, and sometimes
swiped me one for awhile. Iliding different hosses that away, I
got to where I could stand a little bucking. I really thought I
•could stand a lot by the -ti.,,71e I Was 10, and 31ced my dad for -several
months to lot me tr,-ke'e job as P cow poke. Ho fiirliy gave in and
let no work for the ,c7.,eren boys.
"I can't recall hor mny he,,J1 they run, nor the brand they
Phipps, oody
'qmgelore
rerrant co., Dist. 7
-Page i3
1P0
never had to take elm at all. 9e could spring from any position
shoot the object that we'd piok out for him, and have it anywhere
we wanted to, es long e it was in plain sight. '7any's the rock I've
seen him shoototo get it started to rolling, then blest it with all
-six shots end never let it stop nor miss a shot while it wes moving.
e always celled him, 'Old Eagle ?ye', because he had such keen eyes.
t7e wasn't much of n men to look at. 7e was just about the size of
man th,t a bully always picks out to work on. Ot cousse, we cow pokes
never just stood around ,and practiced shootin41: and riding. elways
did -that when we weren'tdoing anything else,/
-Old man ::alton's cattle run with his boy's, Dherlies.cettle,
so we had around il,C;00 heed in a roundup when we rounded up the
other rancher's cattle in the neighborhood. Charlie's spre,A wa3 the
and thfA was his brend too. e all worked pretty much together
and the two spre!ds were alylost one. Would hr-ve been one of the boy
had lived with his dad and kept his heAquarters together.
"I quit the L Bar D in '87, and went to pork for anorther
of the old men's boys. George Dalton run the 'GLD' spread a few
miles fro. the 'AF)', end the 77, Ear D. George run around 3 000 heed
with the 'G:' brand. 7,eorge was better off thnn the other -two
because he was more of a plunger. Fe'd buy up a lot of cattle in
other -,laces and drive them to the market. That's what gave me the
chance to .7c) to work for him.
--u first tr.f1.1 drive was'while I we w)r!:ing for the
7eor!26 Loui-lit up 700 steers fro-1,ieveral cattlemen around, tampesas,
exes, and several of the wad 'lea and myself drove them to his place
in Palo -into, c)unty. 1'11 never forget that drive. :e had nlenty
of meter and never had a bit of trouble, not even e sta:pede but it
Phipps, Ioody Page #4
Pangelore
Tarrant Co., Dist. 77
was my first trail drive and 1 had realized my ambition to 'Go\up the
trnil'.
"My next trail drive wes when he got a contract to supply
the 'Chain Circle CI Ranch n the Airritory with 1100 head.. He
bought the critters from the 41roakler outfit it Pall into (3 -aunty,
flci we drove the herd up the trail to th• Territory. They had their
hendquarters et a little buffalo camp $Upply station by the name of,
Navajo, Texas, across the river from the Chain Circle C's renohan
the Territory. The brand was made like this: 00C, and was burnt
on the left hip.
"My trip to thf. Terretory gave me c sight of the oountry up
there a I decided to try to work 4p there. Afternthe Fall'UOrket
roundup on the GLD, I lit out for the Territory in the winter of -'89.
went *round from one pleas to another' 'til got a berth on the
Ilhree D Ranch, owned by old Den Weggoner. I worked all winter on the
'check line'. The DDD spread was siObig, and ran so many head, that
they had men hired to do nothing but ride the °heck line, they'd
have 'a cabin every 20 miles, and two check line riders would bunk up
there every night. 7n the morning, they'd start out in opposite
directions -vtil each one met a rider from the oTweite'side. On the.
way, they'd have to run those critters back thnt were straying aft'
the ranch, Ice -p them ott of the river, end do the several things a
cow Doke has to do on a ranch.
"I didn't like this way of being a cow poke. Seemed to me
like we were just cogs in a maohine because we had a set job to do,
and nothing else. It was lonely out there too. Nobody to see and
talk to but the other check line riders and they'd be full of
rumor about this end thet and when it was run down-, they'd be nothing
Phipps, woody
Rangelere
Tarrant Go., Dist. g,
page PS
to the ramors at all. We'd be a long time finding it out, though,
and that gave us somilhing to ooqupy our minds. -7 buddy gave us
aomething to occupy our minds thst really did the job.
"Since there were a llt 'of Indians roaming around, Iliaa
always soared some of them might get rambunctious and want to scalp
me. I knew I'd never done anything to them but I also knew that
wouldn't keep them off of Me If they sterte after me. n"ell„ I was
worried all the time. lie never done ma any good either, heceuse he
:kept -telling me tall tales about the Indians and how they'd sometimes
scalp a terlow, then if they were reeily hungry, out him up and fry
him. 'low, thnt got under my skin, It:11.ton you for sure.'
"One day he and I were just atoUt to seperete and go our
ways on the check line, when en Indian rode past us an the grain).
tio, that wasn't anything uncomm:In but Ilfbuddy roped the Indian,
drug him off his -cayuie and'drug him four -or five feet before he
stopped. That Indien got tip from the ground, mad es a wet hen. Then,
whet did he do but twirl his laa3o like he wsi going to d.. it again.
be Indian run for the woods, and was out of sight before either one
of us could do anything.
"We then separated, and went our ways. The more I thought
'bout the mstters the more I could see myself being cut up into little
chunks. I had two weeks pay coming right then, but I thought, ."That's
two weeks pay to getting killed?', so'I struok out for *)alo Pinto
clunty, where they didn't have no Indians. They still owe me that
two weeks pay because I didn't went it bad enough to go after it.
"I went to work for the 'CAD, outfit in Palo Pinto county
awhile tter I ecA beck. In '95, rtook a job with the tBXB' outfit
which was located about five miles from OlneY, Texas, in 'Archer
Phipps, .npody
Pangelore
Tarrant Col., Dist. 17
Peg* 46
rc
co'inty. :hey run about 3,(X10 hood with the '11XB' brand burnt on the
left hip. Mile they didn't have so large a place, their cattle run
over r large territory and, kept us waddles busy ranging them in.
-The job with the HU was my last cow poke job. I went
fro that to a peace officer for eight years at Breckenridge, Texas,
then came to Fort Worth.
"I don't recall so many tall tales told on the range but I
sew a\pretty wild country there then. I can't give you dates for
whet I know but the records at the Pisces I mention will bear me
out. I was still a kid, and was leaning against the front wall of
a saloon, watching the stage coach 04MO in with a roar, stop* then
watched the customers get out. One of them men that was getting off-,
startee toward the saloon and an officei started toward him, he
started to running, Wnd the sheriff called lut for him to halt. Fa
didn't but kent running and a crowd got after him, and somebidy in
the crowd shot him down.
"Another time, I was levning in almost the same spot,
waitinE for the coach to come in when I noticed a man leaning against
the -general merchWndiee store across the street. Be wasn't doing
anything but leaning there, and didn't move 'til a man came out of
the saloon. Then, both' men walked- toward each other, snaked their
guns out of their scabbards it the same time, but the man I'd been
watohing wasn't touched when they shot. He ran to the hitching
post, untied his hole, mounted, hollered for :141 to get out of the
way, and rode on out of the town as fast as he'could go. 'here
wasn't a soul 0n the street 'til after those shots were fired, then
people just boiled from the stores end the saloon. I don't recall
the man being caught, or anything being one aboUt it at all.
Phipps, goody
Rangelore
Terrent Co.., Dist. 17
^:opfL 77
PO
That was the way men lived in those days. The man that
was the best and fastest shot, usually got what he wanted if he didn't
hurt over one or two people while getting whet he,wented.i I saw one
7
oomieel thing, though. I sew two men standing behind trees, shoot
at seoh other 'til their ammunition was all gone. Al the demege
they'd done was to peel the bark of the trees they were standing
behind. 7h6 their emmUnition was exhausted, :their friends rushed
in and separated them before they done any damage.
-"One night, in '04, I was ,stending in front of a store
that was across the street and s little ways down _from in front of a
saloon. I atopDed there beeause I notieed the sheriff, I was in
(3.reham, "exas at the time, was loitering in front of the store
directly across from the saloon. thoug t'there might be somot'llng
stirring if I writed a moment. ‘fter a little, two men walked out
frOm the saloon, and started mounting their bosses from the street
Iside. lie sheriff hollered, 'HaltS1 One of the men stopped but the
other kept molnting and fired fnom under his hOss's neck. :'enry
was the sheriff's name, and the man got him because he was
pretty badly wounded.
"when the other man sew that the sheriff was shot, he
mounted his hoes, and they both tore out.. I then saw him come to
his knees, even though be was bleeding badly, and shoot at the men.
One of them were shot, the other, was caught by r posse the next day.
3heriff 7illiams still lives there, 11E4 his boy is sheriff now.
They didn't use the knife much in those days. The only
time ever saw a knife used was once when some fellows were chasing
o boy that was the goat for everything the crowd c)Ild think up to
pull on him. They had this kid plum sOltrad to death of them. Immiass.
Phipps, Aoody
Pangelore
Tarrant o., Dist. 47
Peg. #8
re
they'd bragged how they'd do this end that to him, and he thought
they meant it. This crowd got after him one day, and the kid got
on a hoes. ell, this Wasn't anything to th,- rest of the crowd
because they fol had hoses so they got on one too. One of the
fellows tit had the best hoss, Wbe way out in front -nd he rode
his ho;: right rlong side the other boy's hoss. "e was in the act
of lifting the boy from his saddle iiften he slashed beck with a
double bladed knife, aid out the arteries in the other kid's neck.
course, there wasn't a thing that could,sove hi- than, so he
died.
this gives- you. an idea of the rough life they lived
in thse days, but there's another side thet T. haven't talked about
yet. -hat is the hospitality. Nowedny, all, the houses are 1.,oksd
up tight. In those days, there were latch strings on every outside
door, but they W,ere on the outside .so you could open it and go in
anytime. This was done so that you might never go hungry as long as
they had p bite themselves. lie old ttners rould holler at you
to core on in and ett before y)u got into the ranch yard. TUey
tried to give you the very best they had, and weren't stingy with it
either but would keep it at you 't*1 you were filled up, then gave
you a bunk.
"7 once I at all my money in n orep gem. at Ream', Texos,
and started out for Palo 'Into with iiir.bits in my nooket. I was
afoot, ea "d lost the whole liNgt all I had. It to k ms eight days
to get to Palo Pin o, and I got there with about 35 cents. :11 the
way along, the different neonle had invited me in for a ,stay, and
7 just took my ti -:e l ng. 'It wo.Ild certainly be libetter world
to live in now if people nowadays would do that way to eaah other.