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Phipps, Aoody' Page il
Rangelore
Tarrant Co.,DiLt.y7 FAC
2rey :es OowanP 9 b9 was born on his father's
10A1 ranoh, in Arat h oo.,Te.4.,Aug. 1.1m. He
leanred to ride early, and was employed on three
.trail drivel) from Anderson co. to -iest ?Oxus
counties, in 1884, 08i and 091. Following the
Artve-104891, his father established a raneh in
qlynn oleo- lastil 1910 the rand' oenaiated of four
Sections, at whioh time it was out into homesteads
and rented to farmers. Gowen was never employed
by another rand', but remained with his rafter
until his death in 1936, at whidh time be inherited
the property. He now resides in Lubbook,Tax. His
story:
°74eil, I reckon I've rode the range! In foot, I believe I
even hit time trail younger than most anyone else in history. I
had juat turned six when my dad took as on a trail drive from
Anderson °aunty, in .ast TexAs, to the Panhandle.
"To start at the bt,ginning, I uat3 born August 1,1878, on my
dad's 1(.;;AS' ranch in rath county.. He run from 100 to 1,000 in
that iron. The difference come about on aoolount of hiu being Luoh
a dealer. He'd sell, trade, or b4r, at the drop of a hat. .i.boat
the only tiling reoolleot aboUt the -;rath county ranch %nil; me
learning to ride a hose. They worked with ne 'til I could ride
pretty good. I could ride as. good au the booby rider they had
here in the ',Aock show. I believe his name was Kidd; and he'd
been riding since he wau three yetirs oLd riding in a iAld
eut show.
"I could ride good enough tha$,wrien I W43 six, oy dad took
me and went to hnder-on county, where he bought around 1,500
three and four -year -old steers. He took on some cowpokes, and
we started ,est with the herd. (if course, I didn't du any night
riding, nor roping. The only thing I done on the drive was to
Phipps, woody
Rangelore
Tarrant Co.,Dist 7
Page 0
FrA;
hustle the ;strugglers ;Ltd help keep the herd together. Th*t's
an important thing on any settle drive, and keeps the cowpokes
busy doing it.
"lance ws so young, I can't recall any names of rivers,
counties, or anythingellle. I do recall, however, crossing a
lot of rivers, creeks, and so on. You see, this drive was in the
and all tne rivers and creeks were up. .eld have to find
a place to ford tn.= before we ;grossed taws. If a ford couldn't
be found, taen we'd make the herd swim it. Dad never did like to
mate his orittere swim because there was quite a bit of danger
in losing some of them. Mhat first drive, though, nev.-r lost a
head, and we run it clear to Haskell county.
when we got to haskell county, there wasn't but one fence
in the whole ceunty. It was a drift feno:J and run along tne south
and east sides of tne county. ,e tried to fence up some acreage
for winter holding, but failed. Dad fenced to sections; and any
time anybody wanted to go tnrough, they „lust stomped tne Zeno.
down. You see, they'd been used to going in a straight line to
wherever tuey'd started, so when they ocy.ie to d4d's little old
fence they'd have their houses push on the no posts 'til they
got a little ueak and tent over, tnen they'd tear then down.
"The rest of tnat country wee open eve.:vahere. In feet,
I don't recall out to other herds of cattle in there, and they
belonged to two big outfits. One was 411e J.-oscil, made like
this: y417, The other was °ailed the 'Vlooey De laistardl, trio
iron made like this:!P(
'Tow, we never did see the owners of those outfits, and I
don't know that I ever did hear who they were. I just don't recall
aoody
Rangelore
Tarrant Go. tot.?
rage f3
It, if I did. .e did all pitoh together, though, when we went
on roundups. The men from both outfits come and we all went
together, rounded all the cattle together into one holding spot,
then oat out what belonged to each other, and drove them to our
headquartera. of the two outfits there, the Flooey De Mustard
was the biggest, because there were thousands of them there.
"es all followed the same practice of branding in the ;,pring
und eel ing in the Fall. Because dad never did establish him a
headquarters, with buildings and all, he was called a tS.tray
Rancher'.
"The middle of 186, or sometime along in the 6ummer of 186,
dad so.id his cattle to some fellow by the name of Jeff iiewdry,
and we went book to Anderson county. This tine, though, we went
baok to Smith county and got the root of the family. I had three
aistera, 1,u1a, Bertie and Annie• They ()wild all ride and rope,
and dad Just brougat them along. Lly mother Cied while we were
in Haskell county and Allis buried befoIbe we got word of it, beoause
in those dsAye there was no mail, telegraph, telephone, nor any-
thing else for a man that didn't establish a place for almself
near a plaos where 4e could get mail.
men we ..;ot to Anderson county, dad made the rounds, made
his deals, then we rounded up tne eatvle we were to drive ..est.
I don't know wn tiler he knowed where he was going with the heru
or not. I don't believe dad did know, though. I Just believe is
had it in mind that he'd settle on some piece of -and that looked
good to him, when he came to It. sow, that's now plentifta land
was in them days.
"1 don't recall the brands dad bought from in Anderson oennty,
Phipps, k.00dy
Bangalore
Tarrant uo.,Dist.el
Paige j-4
but I do know that he road branded every head with a 130. You
see,whatever brand the cattle had before he'd brand a '31 right
along with them, and that wily people'd .now they were his.
"This time, we took a little different route and, in about
four weeks, we ..anded the herd in Borden ("aunty. Zaat was (Pertain-
ly tde most God-for-saken country ever I saw wean we got there.No
neighbors fur miles and miles. You'd hardly see a stranger a month.
That waa how unsettled Borden oounty was, then. 2ftera was wild
game a -plenty avvrywhere. Prairie &tokens, "Loh aft now oat of
existenee, were so plentiful them that they were a pest. They
flew in big flocks, like wild geese.
"AZ tor a couple of yearu, though, other oattlemen begun to
drive their cattle in, and the country began to settle up. '4Jad
never did like to haye so many other oattle in with his stook, and
it wasn't ao long 'til he sold odt to aona man that wanted to gn
into the Territory.
%e made another trip then, back to ioadarson county, and dad
bought anothvr Lard. This time, though, he -irt 3,000 dead, and we
drove it back on about the same route we used aoing into Borden
county. Lly sisters took a eig hand in thiu drive, and I stood
night hard with the rest just as I was supposed to do. I was
about 13,tnen, and rode and roped with the rest of the cowpokes.
"While my sisters rode and roped idth us, they done all the
cooking, so they really didn't take as big a hand as tinily could've
if they'd been allowed away from the 000king end of things.
oomewhere along in iiastland county, I wau etanding night
herd, and the night was &Lethally black as pitch. You ouulun't
see /our hand, it was so dark. I have a good pieftre of that
Phipps, ;,00dy
Eangelore
Tarrant Qo.,10ist.g7
l'age
night, ea I rode along about kb foot away from the herd, singing
to the outtle to keep them quiet. Then, CI (A a sudden, the
herd jumped up and startec running right tcpwarda me. Nut a sound
had I hard,. -nothing.
'You know, in u stampede, there's alwaye something tu start
the nerd to running, obme kind of a noise. This time, it wasn't
raining, nor anything elsee verything wan jkitirt as quiet as *could
be, tnen this herd juut jumps up and aturtu running. Thing a Gould
have beer better /or me if they'd have started moue other wig, but
they run toward me. At firut, I turned my hose and tried to ride
away from tne nrrd, uut then my better sense gut tits upper and,
und turned around and tried to fine. the leaders of the atomp.
I finally, after letting the trout of the herd oome alongside me,
singled out a oouple of the leaders, and went to one of then and
started to pushing and slapping him with my rope. *iretty soon, he
turned a little to Fet away from tw.ct rope, and then bone more.
"The- result wes that ne stalled a mill, but Ume night waa so
dark triat t wzt of the nerd just run on by., Thoue tuat i gut
into a mill f na14 run down, then laid dulial Lo :cut. The ne-t
morning, we otarted out to round up tne ones tit had got away.
Ile were four dads rounding up all we could find, and wnen the tally
was made there were more than 40 head misuing ,Aalt we never did, get.
"We stayed richt there on that spot for a week, looking for
tie- rest of them, then moved on. ae wound up in iioward Gounty,
and dad made his headquarters :ight uy tue Tahaa Lake
You see, tnere were no reads anywhere in that part of Live country
in them cuys. If you wanted 1,4) go somewhere, and auted ziomethihe
to guide you, you took a cattle trail. They all had names, and
Phipps, .0oody
Rangelore
Tarrant Co.,Dist.e?
vs go i6
this one wee he One:. raehcrs used to et up into the deep
Panhandle. It led right by Tahoka lake.
"Them oattle trails looked right veer after you'd seen roads
other people used. Yb4 460, no matter how big a herd you had,
nearly all the (tattle followed a leader, and that mode a lot of
trails right ether. Now., any number of herds on the trail
drive passed by our place. There'd be from 2,000 to 5,000 head in
the crive, taill they'd make from 200 to 300 separate trails, or
pt,ths, right together where they'd followed a leader.. I'm sure
you've seen cow trails in a pasture. 4611, ,lust picture 300 of thee
going the same way. That's the old trail drives for yetis
"I don't reoall the year, but a omple of years later* we moved
to 4nn oumnty; and dad establiahed a regular ranch with buildings,
barns, ourrals, and everything he needed, lie proved up four
seotions uf land, nd made it his own. The reot of his gVtizang.
4e rented.
"Along about 1910, 4e out his pia*, up into homesteads and
rented them out to tenants. That flashed the runahing business
for hin. And, it waon't so long Itil trtu. reat of the ranchera
followed omit and done the same. Today, there's only three vanishes
in 7,ynn ocunty, ard they're not wholly in Lirnn either. Just a port
"Now there's the 'TI ranch, owned by Q.o. dwards of Fort
,orth. I reclean there's 140 sections in his road. The 13padee,
better known as the 'Yellowhouse Renck', has a part of its ranch
in Ilynn, and the '3' rani*. the ISI spread was owned by C.C.
.jlaughter, but his heirs have It JOIN Tne iron io a lazy S, like
this: i4jr)
Phipps, 'eoody
Rangelore
Tarrant Co.,i)ist 7
Page i7
%Naturally, from levine around them ranches, I ot to know
quite a few people from there. I got to know the '51 people
better. There ware a couple of cowgirls on tee 4'31 Spread, that
Quaid really ride an rope better tman any woman ever I seen.
Their names were lekhel and Bess Andrea. They were what I'd call
boys in girl's elothing, because they sure took the place of a boy
on tee range, I'm not telking from hearsay; I'm tulking from seeing
them do it. Jey,I've seen tnem riding atter u cow Oritter, and
ovee to e place where tney had to do some fanay riding, and you
could see light between them and the saddle. You know, they
could out out, as well ad most men. Of couree, tney didn't ride
no )uakers.21107 rude the gentle ones, but Uhey rode them fast
when feet Lcin waa oellee for.
'Bow, in cutting out, you've got to ride your hose into tie
herd, end MU4C U oast a i..fle oeitter you want out. You don't
rope it, you just do that to dhow your boss what one you want,
and ne', been trained tio *maw) it out yr tne hard to where you
Gen lasso it are throw it. ell, while in u Iva.d, your holm will
have to do a4.0; O.‘ in and out dodging. he ridur has to know
tee trio. of Sul. wine Dho huustb motions and fi(d fixing tnemselves
that teey'll tsay in the saddle wnen s !unto turns real sudden.
hie way you do tnut you keep yuur eye on your critter, und men
it turns, fix to tarn that wee because your hose is going to
turn thaz way, end if you're nut alreaey fixed to turn you'Ll
find yourself on the ground. ur, if in a herd, you might get
stomped to death. It's happened many a time just that awake,.
"I'll Just give you an WIAlaple Of what happens wnus yet/
don't know to watch the critter you're after. I went over to
Phipps, ',ioody Iage tS
Rangelore
Tarrant Q0.1•Diet,f7 PIC
the Lany 1; one day; and, to give me a good time, tens foreman
Galled a fellow out to him, pointed him out a steer to get and
told him to use his hosa to get the steer with. Now, this an
had this here 'TB' oonsumption. Ls taw eat in the seat to
get his health back. He'd told tue foreman thuL no °Quid ride a
hoes, und the foreman'd given him a job. This fellow, Who'd been
a tobecoe saleoman before, didn't have any cow sense, out wus
right Waling to work, The only way lie wa43 ev,3r to get any Gold
sense, tue fo tean figured, was to put him r-zht into the work,
au that' u whut e did. .811, on the day I was there, he decided
to learn him to out.
"Nov, he :ladn't r&1ly handicapped him wunn ne sant him after
that steer, beauaoe ue'd given him Lae very best Gutting hose
anywhere, the foreman's omm hose. ne was easy to ride, too. 'ell,
tue greener mounteu him, and rode him out ilvto the herd. he
slapped the oritter with his rope, and the h)sa toek after him.
the hose jumped this way and bhut, trying to head the utaer
off every time e neadee any way but out, und tale greener nearly
fli off at every jump. He trieo tu “atoh :,.ne has and lean with
the jump, but tt.n you've gut a good outting hoas in tne herd,
you juLt can't follow it that away. This greemr would heves
been in that herd yet if it hadn't uave bean th.t his hou:. aus
good enough to brinc tlat steer out of 'was nerd ditghout nelp
from anybody. „e buys juot romped and roared. ..;ome of us Ikugned
oo hard ag that greener t1iIt our sides were sore for a spell
after that.
cowpokes just naturally all loved to pull pranks tnat
away. This 84AM greener had a hard time for a spell around there,
Phipps, i9ody
Hengelo?*
Tarrant Go.rDist.,7
Page:49
F G
for Iwas over a (maple of days later to the roundup, and they
pulled another on him. Juat before supper the greener moms in,
dog-tired, and laid down under the Chunk wagon to rest: oat in
the open like that, elkere the air's *lean and pure, there's not
much racket, and the work's all hard, it's mighty easy to sleep.
And, that's what mister greener done. 3ome other eempoissuesse4n,
and they saw him there. one of them decided to :.rank him, so he
este u saddl* and takes it over to the greener. The greener don't
hear him coming, but snoozes right on. Ake eotmoke pats tte.aaodlie
right ap close to the greeneris heed and starts rocking the emd610
from side to aide, hollering, lkihoa! whoa! Whoa!' That greener
muut have thoht he was still in the saddle, beoaume he ()one
straight up and bumped his noggin on the reach pole. Bumped it
hard, too. .e had another laugh on him, then.
For supper that night, the cooky'd rovisted the smelts, the
tongue, ribs and so on, over the fire. Now, the greener hadn't
been out before where he coudn't g; --,t any wood,. and he didn't know
that when you ,,r4n't get wood on the range, iU used °ow Chips for
your fire and ma clad to get them. He was little put out by
the cow ohips, and we
could tell it. de wasn't swing anything,
though, just looking. “ell, one of the boys deoided to fix him
an UAW more. He toJces a section of ribs, finds him u cow chip to
lay them on, Lden precieeds to use it us a plate. He'd tear off a
hunk, then lay Lhem ribs back on the chip while he ate the bit held
tore off. The greener couldn't take it. he left the chuck wagon,
6ot on his hoes und rode off for a pie**. had another liagh on
him.
"You know, linen a greener hit any spread, he sure had hard
Phipps, Ama
Aangelore
Tarrant Co..1)1.4•e7
Page il0
time for sob114/0 beoause the oov4poksae rifie him 1241 uLe out
on tt; soi, the tricks. By that tine, there's be anotkep cone em,
and /0, Gould join in on the fun.
"I reokon this about eatoiles me up. I'm living in bupbeeks
4f y u want ma for anything.