Document text
V)
re; I- KS F F —R. 1r NG-a— c.c.
(3ody
Bangalore
7artent Co., Dist. J7
Harry Tuffington Cody called 7iuffalo
Cody by his friends beoause-of,his relat-
ionship with the genuine Buffalo.B611 end
his middle name, 71iffingtonf, 83, was born
3ept.20, 1854, 16 M1.7N. of Yankton. ?err.
of Dakota. -A tribe of -Sioux Indians raided
his father's farm, killing his parents.
fled Cloud, chief of the tribe, took Cody to
raise. 'our Yrs later, Cody escaped the
.tribe. Being an orphan and not having any
one to care for him, he boos= a rover,
living on wild game, fish and fowl. 70 was.
emplyed as a cowboy by the Redwicke Cattle
Co. of Breashitt Co., Ky., in 1869. He
quit that Co. the next Yr and roamed again
until he met a number of Other rovers., who
had decided to go to '2exas. -hey entered
fonts just N. of GrAnsville, and Cody was
employed as a trail -driver by -Fed Watson,.
trail boss of a herd- of cattle going to
Inys City, Kan. He was later omol-lred on
three other troll drives, and then bought
two herds of his own and drove them to van.
76 was then amplpye0 in 1868, on.-u:falo
tll 'e lid eat Show tintil 18VO, at which
tirle he establishen a show of his own. He
was again employed on Buffalo Hill's show
in 142, and was with it when it collapsed
in Denver, Colo., in 1513. YO has since
'been ociipied to the show business, Which
he still follows. He now residcs at the
A.uff Hotel in It. -lorth, Texas. is -story:
-lege
T guess these tra .sport made you thin: T might
have been a buckaroo once in mu life. My little old goatee, 7.ustache,
cowboy boot, and 10 gallon 3tetson does cause folks to think th2t,
'nd7've U;ori liking my living for yeers of17 this rig. ')f course,
hFtei to do a little fancy riding in the nren-s over the .country,
with a little trick roping throwed in, but T learnt it all ,in her,
school. -ep. learnt it all in 9 hard school. ''ad to go for myself
when most kids were still around their ')tier's apron strings.
Now I was born 3ept. 20, 14, on my dad's farm which was
located nigh onto 16 A. N. of Yankton, Territory of the Dakotas.
:he'reneon had to go it on -my own so early, was becalw a tribe-
Phipps, :oody !-Iage a-
RagelAre
arant Co. 1;ist. FC
of „Sioux Indians come through and killed my dad and mother, then
raided the term, taking everything, including me. 7hat was in 'Ole
and the revison I know so.much about it is because the chief of the
tribe, ?e,d C*Laid, took me to raise. T4e told Me that ordinarily
they killed, all the boys al )ng with the men folks, but he took up
with the kid he saw, and decided to raise me for a warrior.
The bucks and squaws took me and taught me everything an
Indianswas supoosed to know, including spearing fish, their ways
or hunting, shootin bows and arrows, riding hoses brre backed,
their ways of preparing grub, sad all. In all, I was with the
tribe from 'al 'til 65, at which ti:Ai I.got away. Now, they treated
me as well or better than they treated their own papooses but I'd
lived a white life long -enough, to know that their way of living and
eating wasn't the right way. Of course, they thought it was alright,becUse they'd been raised and taught just ttyt away, but T had
tysted better life* and something in me kept telling me T wasn't
Indirmlind shouldn't be with -Indians but with -my own people. Just
to prove. that there.lamtalt a thing betwren us other than that, T -led
Claud's grandson, 'T1:o '?Figles, who's in Hollywood now making pictures
nd is one of the 'best trick riders and ropers in the country, he
and I are the best of friends and he has even fow7ht for 7.7A not so'
long r.lgo.
As I said, I was in the show business. -ea.„ there was
a' taker on a little old carnival that .showed in Cleveland, 3hio,
here a couple of.years go, and he was claiaing to be ?uffalo
Cody'. e jlad banners all painted and everything, and was ettin?,
!,way with it 'til wo .egles and me waked on the lot. wo- gles
went right up on th, belly', and knocked the taker 'for aloop of
the belly', and ,I went to cutting. the banners down. roe pollee
Phipps, )otly
Ram7slore
Tarrant Co., A.st. 17
Page 13
'TO
one, Nnd fter listenin to the faker tell them thr-t I'd keep his
br.eri cut down rs 1-ng's he used my name, told h1 that the ease
was out of their hands and advised him to leave town before they
got soething on hi. 1-tich he done the very nex, day, but notice
he's still at the
gwie.
I'he W8 y I was able to leave the tribe was when a number of
the bat warribra were away on a raid in '65. I decided that right
then was the tine to make good, and vsay went. Alen T got away,
j carried powder a -plenty and a Colts-:pringfield six)shJter. I
lived off Ald gee and fowl tnd fish then 'til '89, when T we
hired as a.cowbOy in Yy.
Now, you might wonder about me living that away, but the
truth of it is that there were just hundreds .of men that did the
same. lthough, all I ever met wee quite r bit older tirli MIS•
:ou see, the strea-ts then were fall of fish, the air with fowls,
and the whole calntry with game. 3o much so that garie was thought of
as aLlost spest. nybody that ,had a speck of get up in his make up
could easy live in the open. 11 he hed to do was make just a little
m.A.ey each year to buy his powder, and there were lots of places
where f! man could get lend for n*thing but just using his head.
In '59, I was roeming around in 'ya, and run. out of powder.
went up to the Pedwicke each, owned by the edwicke and and
Catle Co. of y., Au, asked for something to do to make a litAe
money. he retch was located in ireesh1tt which was pretty
far frcr, any sort of a town, and they were short of hands so they
Out me on as a cow puncher. I learned to brand, out, and bust wild
hosses while there, but I never learned, how to get wages Tar my
work. I alwtys did think after thet, that the foreman got my west's
hips, )ady
V,7ngelare
firrdn t ;;o., -Dist.
page 4
for hi-selV. I quit the next year end- went to roving again, that
being a Joh without much work attached -to it.
Not so long after I lf.,rt the 71ewickeS, I met another
rover th t I liked,' and hi;. and te',med up. month or so latir,
.we met 10 or 12 other rovers, who were celled 9 :;addle hua because
Lhey wouldn't work but ste of; other people's hospitality. In those
days all the farms, ranches, and outposts kept open house for -n body
thtt oa7ie al 3w7, and they insisted on feeding ycY. 'llexcept the
cafes, and they were so cheap th-t in this day and time a safe en
couldn't sty in the businew a day if he done what the old heads
done in then. days.
:hese Seddle urns who was my pal, and
Myself Tit out for se_ e ea:We into ;:iexas just N. of *here
:vinsville is now, tnd met a trail herd going N. to irayst city.
od Atson„ the trrAl boss, offered any of us F: job 1.1-1t wanted to
to alang an 1 was the. only one out of the bunch th't to:* him up.
think 1 must have be ,n out of powder again to 71ant to mess with
cow critters egsin. ;,nyway,-1 hired to hii for '1.0.0-0 a month and
my jerked beef. Jerky WIS.dripd beef, and was -Plentiful around
any iAlef outfit. It was used hs C sort of a fill in for chuck.
)f coarse, the chuck wagx1 with this outfit had nlenty of oter
chucktesidea-jerky, and was glad to get away fro- doing all my
own c;akings
There were around 2,700 to 2 80C critters in Pad's herd,
end the deer was fro- l three ranches.' !ost of it was from the
old C;rimes Thrich in nat 1:exas. :he elean'up,and Ty -y ofr for the
rimes people for they stayed out of the settle business Pfter that.
The rest was fron.the 77 and the "alt 76(n) outfits .from below
Pad's men had drove the; 'rimes beef from. the at -Amass ranch, end had
'oody
PangelJre
Tarrant- Co., Dist. '7
—Nage
IC
met the other herd just 3. of where.I met it. :hey'd there bunched
the two herds according to a previus arranjement, and ted had sent
the other cow -Ainehers on home, taking over himself from there on.
tbout all the trail criVes had about the sem...trouble we
had on thvt trip. 3tampedest.high water, dry and wet weather,
low grass, End so on. Ne had high water at both the Ted River and
the Crzadien 71iver. e had to wait two weeks at the Cenadian before
we'd chance forcing it, but once you Grossed the '.;Enadian, your
troubles were almost over on aecount of country. Thereafter, you
had to watch for Jayhawkers and Indians.
Alen we got into ,rays City, ed found his buyer, bot the
money and he and me hit back for Texas with the chuck wagon, leaving
the rest of the trail drivers to -carouse their hard earned dough
away. But me. I was the richest man in the world the day Pee paid
me my :40.00 for four'month's work. 40.00, and I'd never had over
OW before at one time in my life. That's the main reason .r stuck
to red like a leech. I didn't buy one thin, with my riches. Not
even a pistol, nor vny powder.
Tell, really, the drive furnished our powder and lend
anyway, so I just got what I wanted from the chuck wugon box, and
I had a good six shooter. I took that -from hte Indians when I left
then. It was a Colts —Springfield taxer. To load it, T rolled my
powder up in paper like you roll a cigarette today, and poked it
down a cylinder hole. I filled five holes that away, then put my
le 'd in over the powder. Now, the rer1v)n T only filled five was
because 1 wanted to keep one ehmber empty, fearing that T. might
have an a .ident. 'fany an old timer done thrtawny, and good reason
too.
'oody
Rangelore
-:errant Co., Dist.
Page IT6
Red.and me went on down below ?Taco, Texas, to the 1 77
spread, and he talked the ram rod into giving Me berth on the
outfit. It was a big one, and it seemed like all the waddles on
the outfit were es close mouthed ass deaf and dumb convention so
I never did know all about the outfit.- I do know thrt they paid
good, though, beeause they paid -me )20.00 a month. And, every
month. Not just when they made their minds up, but every month.
:list sure made a hit with me, and I still saved. rlf clothes I
made from deerskin, just like the Indiand'd learnt was I wore
moccasins on my feet, and had a deerskin cap for my head. In fact,
was.tighterth, a loan shark in them days
The next Spring, it was the 5pttng of '72, a big herd of
sale beef was out: out of the roundup,,and readied for the trail.
To ready a herd for the trail, you road brand all the critters with
and extre mark, like a six or a seven after or before the other
brand. i.bout the same niva)er of men were fingered for the drive
as had been with the one I worked with the year before, and 3ed
;atson was again made the trail boss. fiud Cleveland -was in charge
of the ofivvy, and a Chime co was in charge of the chuck wa7on.
-_,re started the herd N., and met the same troubles as we
had before, just as I* said all trail drives met. -here wasn't but
one difference, and that was this time I was going N. at 135.09 a
month becruse I'd been over the trail before, amid ,,ed Watson was
the only other man ik the outfit thet.hed ever ben up the trail.
This time, we were five months getting into 7.Tays City.
As soon's -'ed got the beef handled, he and me again hit 3. but
most of these waddles went back without tooting it up Tach.
few thet stayed, really intended to have a good time. we -worked
Phipps, ,00dy
Raagelore
Tarrant Co. Dist. #7
Page /7
FC
our way back to the 77 99 where Red and me left the other men and
went over to the Half Moon. The eid been a change in ram rods on
the 77 99 and Jeff Hightower, the one that hired me on account. of
What 7ed told hiA, had lost out. 7e wasn't even around anywhere,
deoided th,A something wrong had happened, so we left. Not.
that we were afraid of anything. Not that a -tall, but we just didn't
like the looks of the new ram rod and we high tailed it over to the
7alf noon where we thought we'd maybe like it better. On the way
over, -ed told me tivA he'd never liked the y- 77 anyway, because
they were so close mouthed.
When we reached the 7ialf noon, Tied was offered a berth as
an ordinary cow poke, -owing to their having a foreman and a straw
boos already, but Tied decidad not to work, but to just. hang around
for spell. They hired me at .;0.00 a month and my chuck, but when
I drawed my first pay roll, I lit out for farther
I rolled along, not very fast but just ambling. About six
weeks later, I lit on the Brim:we spread just below Uvalde. -7he
Rriscoes ran around 1,000 head on their AB Conneeted spread,' made
like this: All, -and around 200 head of wild hoses. They hired me
at ,0.00 a month and chuck to bust in their wild boss stook.' Now,
whil T could really top them off right, I collated the oonsequenees,
end realized that it Tvs really worth a n00.00 e month and chuck
because of the danger in busting wild hosrzAse lfty, anything Gan
happen to you in that business. Then I took the job, -1.- told them
I'd keep just twice as many hoses,busted as they needed for work
on the ranch, and th-t was agreed on.
The catch to tht was, that they didn't need but about
eight fresh bosses a year o work that spread, so I buste 40 to
0 Phipps,"42ody
T'Ingelore
?arren'L Co., Dist. 17
the year on the average. I meAe by that, that the average I set
while working .there would have produeed 40 a.year. And, that's
many a hoes to bust but a feller that had it in him like I had it
in me, didn't consider that too any. In fact, th.F.A was pretty
close to just working half time. I really didn't work there but
four months, busting 14 heed and trrining six of them to out and
peg right. I liked thrt job, .the way 1 had it, bemuse 19d liked
to work with hosses all my life, and there I trained them to work..
All the world loves r, good hose, and when I turned the; !sees
over to the rriseoes, they were good hosses. They'd out with the
best anywhere.
As tar's that's ooncerned, 1 had a right able piece of
hoes flesh under me myself mien the firiscOes hired me. Caught him
while meandering through the Territory, and trained 111. myseI1%.
Called hits T,uok after Tkud Cleveland's brother for helping we cateh
Lim. Tie was the stallion for a wild bunch between the Cf7nadian
end the fled, and it would about hive been impossible for one man
to snare him for he was wily for sure. 7e was cagy a -plenty for
just one hoss..
-And, there's a -good illustration of the different() from
yesteryear's way of busting hosaes end today's. :he -boys now have
big strong corrals- with snubbing posts in the center, and from two
to rive helpers. Buok and. me just went after that stallion and
chased hi r up .a drew. T:hila he could outrun twice as good e hose
the drive had in the otvvy, he eouldn't jump the dead end of thPt
draw, and when he dome driving pest Buck and me, we both lassoed
him and kent our ropes ti ht for half an hour, with hi 71 right in
the middle. 14, rared, fAughtc and snorted for the longest before
Phipps, creody
Renemlore
-arrant Jo., Dist.
eage 9
he quited down, but when he did, he wasn't whipped. Not by,a leng
shot was thet coy whipped. !Te'd been eaught before and outwitted,
hie catchers so he w's just waiting his time. I tied my rope to
a mesquite tree that happened to be handy, even though items closer
to my hoss then I liked it Alen I toek my pistol and carefully-
aimed it so's -'d stun him. *Atm he fell, !luck and me slapped my
hull on him, getting it tight•just as he come to end started rarine
up. As he come up, I was in the Meddle nnd told Buck to Let her
got'
7/hen he 741t her go,' thee hoes toek me all over creation
with e little cloud and dirt throwed in ro good measure. 'T reckon
he :itched over 500 yards as herd as he ceuld Po• Then he saw I
was still with him, he tried to run out -fro e eder me.. Mt was
right up my alley because. 1 knowed when he run down, he'd be my
hoes. 1hile running, he went through some henvily timbered spots
and tried to scrape mg off. I still stuck, though, and he finally give
up the right. He was a med one, though, when he give up. Seealled
like e pantheri He gave me 'nother bre.k when he run,- *because he
_
ran right towards the drive with me trying to. stem him some other
ray to keep fro e stempedine the herd, but he wouldn't stee. He just
run down right neer the herd, end I rode hin on up to the cavvy.
He was a good boy as lone's-he wns in the savey, and. the
next morning when T roped hie to le -d him off, he -didn't scare off
so bad but when T. got him about half e.mile army,. and Puck helped
me to slap my hull on hin egging he didn't like it, and gave a
bieeer show than he did the first time I rode hie. Thicked all over
the place 'til the blood ren from my nose 'and both my legs were
plue raw from,havina the skin scraped off, trying to bold one
llions, :3)00
Bangalore
-::arrant Co., Dist'
ct was my hose from thst second ride on, and only one other person
ever rode 'til he broke his leg in a prairie dog hole in Acitans,
where I shot him. Avt Other person was Buffalo Bill himself, a
cousin of mine. If my memory serves me right, he died the year of
'82. hose well ripened by the years. :le had part Mustang,
Spanish,end 3teeldust blood in him. sort of a mixture, and I
believe he must have took only the best fro 7 the other breeds.
flackto the Briscoe spread, now. all, some way or
other, T reckon I didn't get introduced right to the job or soMe
tiling. I don't know, but I do know T led en awful lonesome llfe
there. 7idn't seem lie the other waddles interested me a -till.
None of them had be, n up the trail, busted ekwild one, nor done
the things I had, and we didn't mix well, so Alen signs of Spring
got around, as it does in that part of the country before it does
in some other parts, I went back up towards the flalf Yoon8 spread.
You well imagine my glad feelings when old 'Jed was
still there, and had took a job as a cow puncher with the promise
thit he'd have the trail bossing job cone the next trail drive.
"e was there, and some way or other, all the fellers that were tops
on the trail end had worked with "ed. bet ,re, had sort of rounded
themselves up there on the Half 7oon, and the beef roundup was just
get tin? under we when 1 come in. !led said I completed the bunch,
and no doubt but that this would be the very best drive he'd ever
been up with. 1:ot only that, but the ram rod over the '771 had
shown that he wasn't half so mean as he biked, and hi7, and l?ed were
on good terms.
Now, there were some seer ranchers around that part of
the country, but they didn't run muoh stuff 80 they didn't have so
Woody oage 11
Rangelore
7arrant lAst. FC
many men to represent them in the drive. Pp far and large, the
riders oomefrom either the or the 4 Hrlf 7oon spreads.
!:ow, I don't recollect just how long this roundup lasted, but
they usually lasted from one month to six weeks, according to
how mpny stemPedes and other trouble was met with in the rounding
up. :he sale beef was out out after everything was branded, and
arxand 3,000 head were set aside. "he reason for so mahy being
beoeuse all the men going on the drive had already been up and
they f elt sure the drive would get through fine.
On account of the stock not being in es good a condition
as it should have been, Red and the big wigs got together and
decided to send the stock up the Baxter Springs trail. After
the herd got under way, they found thPt the trail had been used
a number of times already by otherlsrda, which at this time were
going up the trail two, three, and four a week, and sometimes one
every day, fled decided on a daring move. !le decided to take the
Amtern trail thet-led by ?ort Griffin and on up thataway.
Of course, all the meandering around cost a little time
but the stock made on it as we found grezing that hadn't been
touched. Now, if could reiell it all, I could give you a
.wonderful history about this o2oss country trip, bout all I
can give you though, that'd be or tiny help, was the *rotating at
the fort was up so high we couldn't cross, and we beaked three
herds up as they same on in behind s, before the water went
down enough for us to make it.
fie finally made the crossing, then on up through the
Torr. to near 7'our Cross, lontana, where we grazed the beef one
month, then drove into Abilene, Kans. All this tuts we gambled
hi pa, oody
liangelore
Ttrrant ;t:1‘., Dist.
page 4,1L
weren't working or doing something else, and'd got the gambling
fever in iy b1od. I wanted to win me some money, and I knowed that
right then was the time 1-.) do it because after the trail herds quit
co in7, in ',Al the next year, n'ys jity'd go back down to its regular
2,500 people. During the season of the yef,r when the trail drives
hit ys City, there'd be from -12,000. to 1,5000 people in town,
large. jority ticilw Jayhawkers,. con' men, loose twists, and every
other 1.7,2ainable thing to get the waddy's money.
I had a little over :900.00, and wanted to 'wrest it
in SOCIC kind of a gae and run it way.up. fter lookign arouud
and sweating al the t!,ames going °a, and tberc was a mnny a one,
I decided on roulette. '11 never forget how lucky I got in
th!t old ,vaeock Saloon and oar. It was a re,Nlar palace, with
all its mirrors and so on, its women thrt were dressed in velvet
what part the dre6s covered they were, and everythi:K else. Imre
was even a 40 root bar, of wieh I've seen them longer abd bier
biger sinee that was a monster for theu days. 7en going around
in ihnbby clothes as I wes, awl some of them ea4-rying fortunes with
sthe. tellinf what percentage of this 'oney found its way into
the crooked hands thf:t wore there, but I'll guarantee you that a
bigger percentage then most people think must have one there.
3o I decided on roulette. big.er honest to God sucker
game thfn roulette never was but I thought I could nnke on it. I
didn't even have a co7lbination, nor a- set of lucky nu;lbers. I
just hopped around over the board, here and there, and nearly every
time 1 hopped,:r won. sure got a lot of.hard looks too, beecuse
Some of the man In the cr2owd followed my tete, and put their own
with Mine.- Alat tway, wherrI won, they won. After sticking with
7hippe, -7oody
Rangelore
arrant Co., Dist.
Page /3
PC
them dirty e!:.00ke for two solid days, leaving only for a fe71 minutes
t a time, 3 walked out of that blg old Peacock with ',5,000.00 to
the good. I didn't leave, though, 'til the marshall told me he'd
take oare or me and T'd better le-ve while I was so f,,lr ahead. 1
luck had attrficted most everybody in town,and T reckon they doge a
lot of extra businc!ia just on the stren;th of What ,I wig doing, Nut
they didn't w it me to at out of there with all that dinero.
Now, just p mrshall didn't mann a thing to thct kind of
people, but Rill Ilitchcook did, eW: he was the marshf;11,-being
appointed to keep order there by C;eneral 3herridan, who ian the
military -post there. He took m7 money and gave me re:client for it,
to ling me thvA any time I got re: dy to leve, I oould have it. le
taso-let work get arcian4 that anythinethrt happened to me, happened
to his friend and he wou1dn't like it.
He sure rvs one more real man. ':ou know these Zeyhawkersed
rustle cattle in the Terr. and bring,theminto town with bills of
.sale,- then sell the:n just like any other beef drive did. he buyers
didn't much care who they bought their !eel' from, just so long's
they were able to hnndle the order and get their rake off. eli, e
bunch of Jayhawkers came into town and started into wrooplag it up
after getLinr their Toney for a lierd. "hey just about sh of up the
town before 'lid Bill found out about it, and,when he did-, he stopped
it sort of sudden. 7e just rode into their midst and started sholting
right and left -'til the rest of them cleared out. -nd, nobody's
ever heard of another one' of that particular band, which had ben
pretty, touh 1.1.1 they ran up against old' ild rii. Te used to bet
people th t he .could to an eagle up into the air and shoot the
side they called after he'd tossed It. nd what's.more.he could,
but there was a trick to it.
.00dy
angelore
'arrant Co.,
at.
e
'.'ou see, he'd practiced a slow toss, where the eagle, a
20.00 gold Diem, would turn Over -slow. lien When the better
nwled the side he wanted the eagle slugged on, he'd figure.it and
hit it every time. ou know, .the other. man always has a trick to
trade, and the sooner you catch on to it, the sooner you go to
saving yourself trable.
And ten too, since 7:ild'Bill died an old man with a slug
in the at:ckof his head,' that speaks for his speed with a gun,lo.
-hen I'd got tired of Pays City, I got my boodle and
stated back 3outh again to 2exas; Ithere :'d htA.so. much good luck.
1' passed the 77 and Pall' MOon outfits up, and kept going tight on _
.down into the 7;io Gikande ;alley. lapt I had in mind, was buying
up a her of my own, an driving it up to Hays City.to.sell.
started into buying, and all the way N. to the 'iirazos, I paid froai
4.00 a head to :74,00 ahead. 7y last dollar I spent on Half :oon
stock, and put it right into my herd.
T -had olenty rations in my chuck outfit, which was carried
t_y some half busted burros I'd -bought from some -exi:!Fins on the
border, end plenty shell powder and lead: .verything was on the
up and up, and I had h few over 25 cow punchers hired that savvied
the ecyl driving busineszs. I sure felt gl)d about thtt drive, and
well r might because it was to be a succea. e drove that herd
right into A- ys City withut any extraordinary hitches, and -without
losing over 30 head along the way.
The ipring of found me back In the Irande and
baying up more stock. Alia time 1 reckon I bought up al .oat 3,000
heed -before I got to the l'azicia, .where J crossed about 12 or 14
Ales Asat'of where -istoo is now. lfte same crossing I used before.
Phipps, oody
Rangelore
arrant lo:, A.st. 7
followed pretty much the same trail as Ted and me follwed
the first tine NI, his time, tho.gh, I got into a jam. 'here
was a gen of ,aYhawkers operating in the country 1 as to pass
t_ ought and I never lenrnt it 'til I was right in there. 3omewhere
about the middle of the :err., and quite a. ways of, the .3r:wallah.
d say, about tour days past the Janadian was whete they strtlick
rae.
It was one dark rainy nignt, Aid I had most of the hands
out riding night herd. he cooky hollered out., -.:offee,Leady,'
and most of the boys went after it because we needed some thing
hot. ell, sir. Awl blamed jayhawkers struck right then, causing
the whole herd to stampede some way or other. How, 1 never learnt
but it cost -me one of the men. The herd 19G8 on him before he knowed
it, and when his ho s2 stuflbled in its fight to get away, they were
both smeshed right intothe mud. It was an awful sight, but was
good for me because the boys all wanted to take the outfit and get
even.
Iliewe it W85 30 dark, all we oould do was to mil the
herd. When dayli,Jit mime, we found that they'd kept atou,'400
he:d a—g.oinp, when the rest of the herd ben to get tired. :list
have got the critters on ju3t before one of my boys got on point
to where he could mill the rest. tlyway, the roundup and tally•
sowed there was 400 missing.
'Ne struck the trail then, leiving only five to work tiv-
herd.. y orders to he 888 to drive Fast and get away from the trill
.e'd been following. he boys with me end myself lost the trnil
when it Frot into the brA lands.
'fl this hard luck made me feel pretty bad, but the boys
Phipps, -,Toody
7ungelore
:arrant Co., Dist. 77
t,pga 41i
stIll wanted to get even, Whioh was just what I wanted too, only I
wanted my beef back. je ell went back to the herd, found a proteeted
valley and seitled down. I picked out half -a dozen of the °rustiest
men in the bunch, then went baok to where we'd lost the trail.
i*ter a little over three day prospecting Pround, we
ncked up a trail leading in from another direction. e followed
it, and it led to a place sort of like the valley my beef was in.
Just one entrance to a sort of a valley, and when we got a look into
thpt valley, there was at least ,*450 headof choice bet,f grazing in
there.
Just because a herd of beef was grazing in the:.e
prove ttv.t rustlers wee using the place as a base of operations
but we thought so beonuse there were seven or eight different brands
in the her we c)uld pick out. I thought the situation over, and
the boya and me decided that we'd wait 'til we saw.these fellers
driving in some more beef before we jumped them.
we stuck around an watched the plrce but we never did
see anybody -drive in beef. !:le heard stock on the. move through the
nt-jit several times, and the next day the herd wauld be .igger, with
enother strange br,nd in it, though. titer Te had stuck ariund for
10 days or two weeks, we decided the time w s hot to get our stock
bndk and get our revenge.
now, these Jayhawkers raided every herd they thought they
could cut some out of, and as a rule, when they raided a herd, the
tr 11. boas knowed whet -Kind of a pocket he wt)s in so he'd just drive
on and forget the loss. just charge it up as a loss of be ,f while
going through the -_'err. eU, whet, could they do? Jery tie
they decided to take it up and get their beef beck,, by the time
PMeps, ,pady
PPngelre
errant 7,1st. 47
Pe e
IPC
they trailed their cA.tters down, the Jayhawkers!d have e bill of
sale for the stuff and enough her gunmen around 'til'it'd be
suicide for the drivers to fight, This time, though', they had
stuff and when I met a prairie fire, I'fired the grass right btok and
.fought fire with fire, so I decided .to out out enough stuff out of
their herd to nake up for my loss.
had already made two or three trips back to our vamp,
so when the right time ceme to strike, we struck with all but. three
of ledr men in the bunch workin A little rain'd-been falling, arid
the J yhewkers'd rounded the stuff all up into a compact herd," but
they waited it I oked to me like they might have been waiting on
another uut fron some herd going through, or, waiting for some of
the ;.en to get in.
Anyway, my Mien and mengot around on the f -r side of the
valley opening, lemving only four men to point the herd in case
they started in a wrong way, and started firing our pistols. Tn
-fnct, the first four or five shots droryped two of the Jayhawkers,'
which sort of evened thFt soore. The herd started .on the stampede,
end in three or four minutes -were runnin their tends off for they
Knew not where. 'hey were just running. el' were.flenked by some
ofthe Jaybawkers,_but some way or other, they were afrA.d that
mt,ybe we were stranger thnn they thought, and they were a litAe
leery of closing with us. Instead, they just shot, and mighty
nib every shot ,they aimed at us hit a beef nd.down it went. Oot
one of the boys were even as Lluch as nicked -by the time we left
the valley, and we .pulled the same Lick o%- ther: they pulled on
us. :hen the bunch began to get faged out, we kept ar?und 1,000
heed on the. move. _"f;e had to'prod the71 plenty to keep them movingt..
Phipps, '::oady
ne1 re
Tarrant Dist. 7
,age 418
but that we were ready and primed to do.
4e kept the herd moving until 'way after daylight. :hen
finally we stopped to let them rest, around 400- had strayed and
were lost. 7f course, in the night like we were, it was easy for
such a thing s tht to happen without us seein it. some of the
stook that we lost had Ovn left on purpose because it was winded
and couldn't go any farther, and we wanted distance. 7y noon the
next day; we ad the stuff in our -little valley, and by noon the
next day, we had everything branded to suit the oocasion,and were
fixing to make a move the next -morning.
Come daylilht and we were on the move, here other
drivers tried fOr 10 miles r day, I tried for about eight so's
to let the stuff gr-ze *here and when ever possible for good grazing.
We didn't have any water trouble, or any other kind of trouble 'til
we struck the out skirts of the Hays City corrals. They built
corrals 'epecially for wild oattle, with long wings reaching out
into the prairie. Reason for that was because if.you had a bit of
a stampede, and managed to mill. the herd by one of the wings, you
could out out a few head eta time and send them down these wings.
trouble was, though, that about 12 two -gunmen rode
out to the herd to look it over. !he men T. had with me were uot
pansies, by any means, an they knowed without me telling them,
that these fellers might be the Jayhawkers trying to take their
boef back. "y men ollsed in around those fellers, and all had
a rifle across their sadle, and pointing right at one of them
ornery rascal's middle, or, had his six shooter out and wipirlg it
off. 110 leader of the herd asked for the trail boss, and since
I was right thy e, I spoke up. Re said, I've some kinfolks down
Phipps, -oody
Rangelore
Tarrant Co., Dist. 47
age 1.9
FC
in 7exas and I was just trying to see is this stuff here belonged to
them.1-
I said, You mean that I'might have a few boys here who'd
toss a wet rope?'
His face got red, then white before he s poke, and then too,
he looked around at the men a little. before he did say anything.
nnally though, he.said, ' No, -I thought you fellers here might have
handled their stiff for them,' then he *heeled his hosi,; !rounds,
nodded at the men he brought with him, and they rode off into Hays
City. 'That sure suited us fine because trouble was the last thing
we ,ere loAing for, even though the mend proved they could handle
most anything orme their .way.'
1 -looked up one -of the 7.,vans CwinisSion men oit of St.
Louisa -and he greed to take my stuff from me. Then T got my money
nnd went to pay the men off,. I had .hefl a dozen extra eagles in
their pay sacks. 7ach•man got their pey in little old sacks 1 got
in place there in 1Tnys city.
Then, just to show you what men of their caliber'd do
when they liked a man, they put me on .fluck, tied _my feet there,
then took .qe-into town and paid around _JO .00 for me a new outfit
of clothes. Ity, I looked like a clothes hogs when T. come out of
that men's clothing emporium. Now, clothes that stood a man that
much money in thn,t day and time'd stand a man ',500-.00 today, I-
recon. Anyway,, I bid them all goodbye nnd told them -I was through
with the trail driving for ever. They all serrated and went thrie
ways. I've since ar,en at Isnot half of the in different places,
and one,. ";;?owdy Luckett, is a cattle oornission man in Chicago now.
Of course he's a little older- amen than tam -right now, and his
Phipps, 'oody
Rangelore
2arrant Jo., Dist. '7
Paige -120
VC;
two boys are rely taking the leading part, but Rowdy built the
business hisself. 7 was through there in '36, and he told me thfA
his boys handled over a million dollars worth of beef just the
year before, and that aaa a tough year. he same es ,several more
have been just before and 'after.
Now, what I ought to have done When I was so well heeled,
Tva to have come back to "I'exFs with that gang of cow punchers end
-bought me a nice lit1e spread some where. Instead, T -lived the• _
life .øf 7311ey and sloughed my money off like if was water. I cild
win a -Little now and then, but not enough to amount to anything.
The next thing I done was to join Puffalo
'7est lhor in '88. Is I said, Buffald Bill was a cousin of mine.
7e'd• figured it hisself in e saloon in-maha back in the days when
I .done so much roaming around. 71.m_ and boo Carver were together,
and they were talking about 9 dhow right then. Lnd I reckon, that
wee around 167 or '88 When I met him the first time.
I- jolned his show as a taney rider, and styed with it
'til the last of When I lit out for -myself. Just about the
time when *d be on -the up with my show, 'd hit the skids and
get back down. hat was the re son I never did have much of a
show. lint is, much stuff. I had a_good show, and_everybody
liked it. It _wasn't a bit of trouble for me to book a _town. be
trouble cane in the weather and bad breaks such as showmen know
about.
.he last of my show broke up in '11, and I joined the
big sh w again. ;411 this time it was Buffalo Bill's -ild -7est and
,awnee Pill's !Pax East Shows. I wna with the show when it collapsed
,in Col)rado in '13. Sine* then, I've been with first_onet then
another &mg. .7hey use ay name now but 1 still rids the tamp *nee.
73hinps, -1)ody
Pangelore
'larrant 0., Dist. 17
the t
low, there's soeds of details on them drives I mentioned
me a week or so and I could think them up, but right now,
can't f
he life of me give them to you. There's T1 lot of
othcr water
went under the bridge you'd be interested in but
right now, I can
von think of them. I've seen number of
killings. '.iome of t
of seeing soMe noor fell
ick, but I can't bring theta to mind.
sort of like the feller I'm getting helluva poor
memory but a swell forgetter.*
There's just one other thi right now, and that's why_
called L'uffalo Cody.' y name's rry fluffington Cody,- and
clod blooded, and just for the amuse6ent
-ny friends called be buffalo from thcrnt
mime rnd because :'m
a cousin to the reel Pufff,1-) Pill. never n
a buffel, in my
life, but "ve been in perties thf,t shot one for good. The
buffalo's meat never we any greet shakes, and .7,:t4 take n 1,one
in its nlce any time,but when you're hurry, içoli ba".'n1
ste k goes right well. Ten I Was still real .young and- Tennning
round, there was so much buffall around thet they were 6 menace and
e pest. -Met done-rway with them was when the Government decided
the only way to keq) the Indian on his /Lime range was to kill off
tho buffalo.
Now, there's another point to be considered. The Indian
was a great game conservationist, or what ever you call them. ?hey
believed there'd _be ,nother day when they'd want to eat, and, they
just didn't go out killing off every thing that move(! just for the
fun of seeing it drop and clok. You loik that up and see if I'm
not right on thet. They were the very first, and way ahend of
the men in the business today when it oeme to saving wild gems.