Document text
hippo, -oody,
ion.Telore
"arrant Co
age 1
Tom Vonore, 73, ms born r.,n his
fa.ther 's stock farm in nee co. Tex.
le was tarx3ht to rid• a horse ai an
early lilt, and did rout/a* oarboy wort
at as 10. ie was employed for two years
by %tidy eton, a 1::orarnalent beef contraotor
Into furnished beef fni the eherokee Wien
Nation. Mtn job was to assist in baying and
gathering together of Gatti.* and trail
driving the hents into the radian !'erritnr/f.
Ie was later lawn as Me- sizshooter-
laso sheriff', after In wee sleeted sheriff
of r'is• oo.,Tes., because In made arrests
without firs arms, inoludine some noted
.1lere and tagitives free Justioe. ta
served roar years. Ile later moved to Jones
co., where he was also sleeted sheriff and
served four years. ,Ale in of floe, he
arreatedhis opponent in the eleotion, for
olzorte4e of tante the presiding terra, and.
took him to the penitentiary.
/onetime after leaving Jones OD he
moved to Port lihrth,Tez.othere he served
eight yews as a polies eeptaln In the
Worth lid* %striate ne gave np aotive life
when he retired from the pollee force. lit
lives at 1009 w.-.tatit It., bre "orth,'?ex.
Xis etomi
Yes sir! I know aonethin7 about the raw7e When a. Clan
hal to be red-blooded to stay in the saddle, unions he was the
000ky. t that, many or the cookies were sone of V)e sod..
Its, but had to et themselves all stove up, aftrr rittin;z a
wild ra'),..stanc hoee,_ r having a steer gore hin when he was try-
ing to bulldog it.
It wasn't a big ranch teas born" on. my dad's stock tale
in -rise 00„,Tex., but proportionately it would look birg,r
to,Jay on aecount of rainy of the big rend -tee dteelpearing. r
born into this world On 7eb.12,1867.
tily ambition to be a eor poke Damned tis to oiviale be trying
to rids a hose, w'len t was a kid. r really don't recall the
?hippo, "lowly
Rangelor••
!?arrant
"age #2
evaet age I started to rttng, but t was a full-blown cow
poke bofore T was nine years old, an'l was busting bronco when
"QS nine. (If course, the bronee weren't so vary salty, that
ens allowed to ride, but you aou.ldn't have told me tbatT
wasn't a brans stomper right, then.
-y the time we LS, I'd learned enough about handling
critters to be a witty valuable hand, and wore the regulation
clothes that %a Town- -up pundiers did. dad had acne hand-
made boots made lbsr me, am2 bought me the rent of the stuff, so
I was tricked out right royal. ef 410tIMI, r saved dad some
40
money on mother *ow poke's salary no he made by lettin,- me
P70 ahead with the emit.
"Tn '81, one of &Ate friends go t a mvarnment beef eon
treat to furnish the Iherokee Indian !lotion with beef. Tie
name was Andy Casten, and hit'd boon trail driver, brone
stomper, end all. before heed attt this contract. Re hired me
for 30 a month and chuck, to go with the rest of his cow pokes.
I was 7iven five bosses to go in my string, the awe as the rest
of theme and was treated in ivory wsy Just as if I'd beim en
old trail. hand.
"Ay spring, in 181, w7 had all of his hands min; around
witlh him to the different rou.ndupe of tho revellers in "Use
county, end setting out critters that Indy dhose to traildrive
away. These critters were all brought to the Mate e;pur
in Jack ,county, and Joined with eons beef 4k ndy bought in went
of the place. 7.121.$ was a lood holding ground, ad we used it
two years.
.P1sipps, loody
Rangelore
Tarrant Co.,DisW?
Y"Al
,3
%'bout a we* after the swing roundups we:* over, we
begun the trail. drive to the Therokeo Wation. Ihe trip earned
us throupth Montague aounty, and we Grossed led liver at Red
River Mitten, then followed the old *Asola frail. to the
nation.
"riving a herd of three and fbur-yeer-old steers, over
3.100 head of then, through the Indian Territory, was reply
an interesting trip.
"I don't reoolleat the nerile of the tribe that first met is
as we aroseed the river, but they mighty nigh oaused‘a stampede
before we got theta to quit nearing the critters in the herd.
*Wien were eitilor ”n the flank or in the rear, runnirr the
stragglers away from the water, when the wady out pretty close
to the front noticed the hard was getting skittish and the lends
tiiziling back into the herd. "'het no rot to the front, there was
ef bunch of radian squaws, waving red blankets and walking toward
the herd.
"Andy ha'pened to be about a hundred feet behind the waddy,
when he started out. so he followed him.. "ince Indy was one of
the old heads on the range, he'd learned the elm lanluage and
oould p,wwow, so hi talked. to then and found that they wanted
toll. for the herd to pans throb their territory. The toil. they
sweated was some meat, so %ndy pieked out about fbur head, had a
man drive them to one aide, than the herd passad on by. %fere
we were out of einht of the village, them redskins had already'
pLeted one of the critters so clean that some of the bones were
showing. They sated 1.1.'7e a bunch of oannibals. ITu.ese they'd
7110.pps, ',ready
Rangelore
Tarrant
a 141
11111,,C1
been without meat for quit• a spell so they were just meet
hungry.
°Rotor, W. ,:ot to t* lierekee Nation, we were stoved at
et Least 10 tillages in the some manner. ly the time we arrived.
VI/A herd we Disked Glean of Bombs. 'he herd sae about the
beat Indy could- by in the first plias, become he Dieted out
real beef to make the trip; than, after he'd paid toll to the
redskins, he had ()leaned the herd out to the Wry best. 3ven if
all the animals had looked the same to a veteran like tndy, by
the time they'd made a few miles some of them would begin to
stramlle, just like human beings. You take 100 man. and .out
five of them will be muah weaker than the rest, aria will stra.-gle
behind in a march or a walk. The trail driver had to figure this
into his profit and loss, but Andy Just paid the Wiens a tb11
with these animale. t'o he really gland, sines he didn't have to
?art pith the animals that could make the pa*ade.
'This stamped. bisiness la about the worst thing a cow poke
has to put tip with. Re ean hunt a rustler up, ant put him out
of oorentssion, but he can't do anyViing abo-lt a stampede beeauee
it takes so little to put the eattla on a stomp. skunk can just
rTat ()lose to a.herd. and it'll take off like an express train.
Only two things can stop a stomp.
"One is, If the aow pokes can .zet the herd to milling. Mat
waY, the herd will run itself dawn in a eirals and wont run off
a *tiff, or int o a river and get drained. .You see, one* a herd
goes on a stomp, it runs 'til some of the orators get tired aid
go to bawling. "he first bawl will be answered by another critter,
and the *Iola stamp will be stopped dead in less than five minute..
11112?•• "oody
Rangelore
Tarrant Co.,Dist.4,7
45
"The way the boys get a herd to milling is for one of them
to .tet out in front, if he eau, anti tam the leaders, if there
are two, arsd keep tam turning etil t:ley're runnizr in a oirele.
I can't think of a more denmerons trick than to try to /rat in
frtnt of a herd, because a mistake, is always fatal. 1 ranny'n
:loss can step in a -vphar hole, fall, and the herd runs rieet
over the hone aft rider, stomping them right into the ground; Gr,
he can rut off a cliff, and the orittern vriLl come piling rilit
down on him, killins7 the critter, anti the rarity too'. Just a lot
or ways to make the turning of a herd a danrIerous thing. Cn the
other hand, if a herd can't be stopped or milled, it vgill run it-
self down if it takes 25 miles to do it, unless they run over •J
cliff before they get run d -,am, than the beef loss rune into
thousands cf dollarr.
"Iefore reachin,- the nation, we had to ford the most treac%-
eroufs river in the rprlei the "o7fth lanadian. rt has quieksand
nil up and down it; and a rein will cause a wall of water that/n
eoletimes at least *tit feet hitea, acme sweepin7 down the river
channel that wont have but two or three feet of water in the
Tnatn cttannel. The he got to milling rUtt in t* -a middle or nq
river, Ii1 we lost or 12 head ;before we ,ot it straitghtened
out. ‘rou see, the leader -!ot out into the middle, then decided
he couldn't :nuke it tr the other side so he turned around to
try to make it back. rn 00311.1,4? baok, tte °there tried to filoip
him, and he hal to .-7o around those folLowtn, him, the others
turned, and they r,ot to milling.
-r forgot to raantion thet the river as at flood stage at
thts time, and iretty fast. "o break the mill, we had to take
hippo, l'oo
an Tel or e
Tarront
age 6
CU? olothes off, ride our hossan out to ti.e middle, and turn
the Lder right. You oan imagine how easy it was when t de-
scribe the other thilvo about it. l'he critters were ail long-
horn stoers, with horns from two to four feet tong, and sone of
them .oetting tired :lel t.ryino to crawl up on top of the other's
hooka., besides being oaolreti so elan* together that a man could
_11.most have walked from one ride to the °the on their books.
That would have- b •.en a -ood triollt to. have pulled to have ootten
to t.!ie. leader, but. if •-t y happened to part ualer you, you'd ge
down.. -4totTler nice thing about the mill was that, when a steer
in trying to get oonewhere and another critter gets *lose. it
-1'ets afraid that the oth* midot stop him, so he elashes out
wtth twee big horns of his and. tries to gore the other critter.
'xfter r,y sewed trail drive to the rlherokee ration,' I de-
cided I wanted tc io baok home. so I lit riclit out. After I was
at hone, ._Ln Ties county, for about two weeks, r decided to go to
7ort Timith, Ark., where my mother le folks were. nee of the roOn
WAS in trIarge of the fort Vlore, and he hired me as a peace of
for the Indian 7erritory.
"loom way -or other. I'd always gotten alon,_o eirioht without
gun, so I deolded to keep it up as long as t oonld. Nany's the
tine, after that, not I went into the Territory' ant arrested
rustlers, outlaws, Tourd ere?. thief*., sod so on, wit hoot a gun.
I went on this theory, that every man has some good in him. and
I just talked to hiol with that idea in mind. If I'd have rrnne in
there with the purpose of gettin,o the drop on some of those
fellows, rtit have never lived to tell the tale, because scam of
thee were as fast as lilitning on the draw, and natural shots
11114211, Woody
Itangelore
Tarrant lo„nist.,
rage f7
that (mould hit *hit thoy took the trouble to at at. To foot.
it didn't soma some of them had to sta. Thor Just pointed
the pistol. in that direetion and hit their mark. Then, some of
them nor men that outweighed no by a hundred pounds or more, and
had fought for their lives in brawls on the frontier. r'd have
flood !mighty little Winnes in a breml with that type of asse%but
Yot t arrested quite a few .:4* then, and_ browrht them In to stand
trial under reams Merkel', rnic Imaging 4/41g01, who was the only
*curt for all five of ho Indian nations.
"On Just ne trip elono, !Tank Maokinac.
*nes 'utgloy, and myself, brougbt back 41 prisoners. The.othor
fellows toted k,r,uns, but I went unarmed all the time. T took my
one?. o± those prisonort, though, even if r didn't heie a
put than all into fivi wagons and want on in into Forttleith
wtthout a hit*.
"Tn the bunch WOTO Celt marderersl(two of thom were hung
and the rest sent to the pen for life) whisk peddlera (It being
a Ilderal offense to sell whisk to the radians), and oattle olnd
hfolle thieves. The two murderers who were hung were Jim Lamb and
Albert rdell. They were hung on a seaftbld. that was used to hang
14 in one day. That sloaffAd still ntande nt rart lath. old a
ptreon oan go out tc our it at any time he lento to.
The worst aseignment T over gpt wee to lot Bully July, a
wjro ex-olwra, tvit turnod out to be 4 murderer, and a bad one,
too. t guess Saly_mas *bout the worst character that ever run
loose in the_ Thrrttary. Is was a fast shot, and a ohmapion saloon
noody
Rangel ore
Tarrant
Page
brawler. Many's the time he'd killed a men that he'd awed on
'til the man jumped him, then killed nim in the brawl. 'Plat was
an old etant of the bullies tIvat killed many a ;pod am just bet-
()Rase the bully wanted to oho. out.
"Imlay July had murdered a man and a woman in this ease.
as! 'threw their bodiee in a *aye in the 4rbuckle Elountains. That
cave is now a tourist spot, and is °ailed 'need Mania 'eve'. nog
located near 'here rdmore, Ckla. La now. ,xdraore wasn't a sity
in those days. 'ore way, or bther, we had to havelhose bones
of the couple, to aonneot the reurder up, uni it fell to Me to cot
them.. T. went dawn and raked them ail up, and pat them into a saark.
7 then took t'ie sack to the court.
"There are cforae things conneeted with the capture of 3ully
tr—vt t, don't want to min ti on, bee:tune •they would dreg sofas eood
mun'a names into te mud, and that's a praettoe T try to avoid
ten the men have really refbrued and trying to make :7ood oat-
tz.f.ras aou.rtse records will sb.ow that r brought the negro in,
dud itverybo4 knrwe r never used a gun:
•''Atter t ot pretty well fed up with the peaoe officer
work, t quit and went baok home to "Ise county. T. ran fnr sheriff
in 1399, and was sleeted,. I served 'til 19031 end got my °roil
for being the lawless Iheriff" whiter in (riffles there. Of °ours..
that takes me pretty well out of the Vinge picture, exempt when
t erreet45 drunk oow pokes, or something*
"About te most interesting thing truit happened to me,
nlonA.; Osout V.,at time, was the rodeo at Seymour. Tex. rt was the
*lowboys, Reunion', and was held in 1900. There were more peopl•
-oody
langelore
Tarrant Oe.,list 7
"9
tho,:fe than you opal(' shako a oti* at. mong tho outstanding
form there was the titian ihtef, u,snah 7'arker. and his five
vt Wen. r. ragall now Vint one of theft, hin favorite, was called
sci7oo nosy% t on't resell hay /many buotn he had with him, bat
there were a bi.7 bun& of them.
thout the moat iat thing evor ea" hap *nod in the
roping oontest. prize wan out up for the fastest tine in tho
roping, and oral f the follows that mitered just Intel, thot he
had the thing in the h. His nano was info "%Maw, tilt he
waled a sure enol
-th ouw hoes. It was a chestnut sorra!" an had
haln busted from a wild hose to 2 brone by a an in the bast -rose
that vyas rly te knew his stuff when it tune to basting
heilefte. t bait rteall his nano, to save lay life, now, but he
diin't do anythiv Ilse but bust honing for cattlemen.
"*qtyway, late mow swaggswring out to his hose, mounted with
a flourish for the :Trer.andstool, then rods toward the aentor of
zirena, twirline, his riots. Tou txml4 toll frost his setione
that he was rod. and knew it. When the steer wan released, he
mete hte throw in quiek. time, and made a dandy good one. tip
the steer readied the end of the slate, everybody thought am had
it in the bag for sure, boosung the hone wns a !rood Nigger Ind
hod alresdy* sat loan to "teep the steer from jerking him over,
end to threw the steer.
*"len., the wiarPostad haPPened. Instead of the steer bain3
thrown, it Jerked Vt. hose over sad kept going, dregginl the
hogs soros* tha arena. Ruts would have been 'tilled with the hoes
if some of the boys hadn't of headed the steer off asvi stopped
Phipps, woody
e
Tarrant „nist 7
Ilage ,10
it stil one of them oould untie the riata. Rafe had swaggered
on, bat he waLZed off as if he might have been disappoint Id in
8 orn eth UV.
'9'he one ti:-tt mon the roping prise wee lorry !Ilirsely, a
young renther vi2o had really won his spurs in different ropinc
oonteste as a top notoh roper. Ala prise was a n..,50.)0 sikidlo.
That rodeo was hold out on the open plain, ant had the biggamt
crowd in the history of those days.
'tfter t ser4ed ny term as sheriff of tee county, I went
to Jones °away, where I went into Wailes. In 1213, a amber
of Ity friends asked rim to run for sheriff,
I decided to run
and lop; elected. he .an I ran against was th heriff the pre
coed lav term, ate made a hot rase Nowise he su:re wanted bank in
klain. Me name was N.'7.!Urrell. and he helped me make 3 resozi
no other theriff in the world has rot. After I bent him. I toot
him to the pen for 3 ah:Trtage in the ooulty's• funds. The !Lane
Va•at his enemies calLel him by wits To :!ood 'larrell.. They 4:)t,
thttt from his initials. T.f.:.° He's still living up there. am,
t.Ay tell me tlet he's made a fine oitisen since coxing back.
'There were several things that happened to me in Jones
oounty, but one ,f Vlei has been written up so rtuoh I don't
daises you'd be intctreated in it mush. It was about how I'd
trailed a gang of k.idnaiapers 'way up into lanada, then cleptored
them. It '4' 3s lven a whole page by the rort Torth :iecord, and
tAsy wrote up some tore stuff about ne bang *ea )unless "sheriff*.
"r)rie f the things. I've never t-31kod about much yes the
time I had to (co out and get an Young, a fanoher that was a real
loody,
tlanzelore
Trant Mo., lint. '7
nal'.
b31 man. -tie had the re; o.f &1I Just onythinr1 he felt like,
ayi nevIr met, %is .utli in a lunfight. T$ rem?' r had to
:et him was th.,-,t the tiar 3outhorn 1.1.road thrrlar,h
him ranch -and tut train ncered his come.. --tv,thlr thing was ttuit
Zt 0:4 his ranch in half. ie fine.Lly e;r4 mad and piled two earls'
wood rin the ri.jat of way trucks on the *TA!' line and 3toed
1;*-te 3anoonn trti. L3 toll those 9vho t out of the train
t ao more tratnia Tar", to Tun throal.h there any more, as he
rria. r3otn. to kill. anybody that tried it. -ell, the men believed
-leant VIRt he skill beoause he sat ri,7ht up on to? of the rood
WA% a t ahott;ur, arvl. two e5xiet—tern in it ?owes,
"tt h)emil th it the con of the ovnar me the conductor on
tit -$t train, and *.ie cella fcr -1:1. I went out there, withrrat 4 Ilitt•
07.1. 14 tip on too f to food pile letth 1Ur, tiV1 to him, took
;Una away ftcrl. him, aril took him to bown owl the jail
olurce, "'qr., man t in bat a litt1.1 !CIA' 'MA bal.1 was
,10 nr him., and 7.1c s3rt off w thaut lch trouble. 7 finished
ny term 'ant came to 'earth flere rricre wee rade laptain of
t!, ^ide Jail, 1: served int yq,-cr-4 there. I retired
n 1023, wit haven't lone !Inch sines then. 7. live at 1,103
rorthwest 7)iftent h an U' you want an7thAng on the It1.4n997tal.
0-7 anythtv, fang ron help you on, Jut acne •olt ani 104 rae at
any time.