No Man's Land.--First Settlers.--Branding Mavericks, Etc.
About the year 1878, as the last buffalo was about to disappear, the
hunters were compelled to seek some new field of labor, or devote their
attention to some other occupation. It was about this time that the first
house was erected in what is now called Beaver City, the county seat of
Beaver county, Oklahoma. At that time the county was unsurveyed, and a
man's possessions were limited to what land he could use, or furnish
cattle to graze upon, as there was plenty for everybody, and no need of
disputing ownership.
I shall briefly mention a few of the earliest settlers.
Two ex-hunters, Jim Lane and Nels Cary, brought their families and built a
sod house. With an eye to business, they put up hay and built corrals for
the accommodation of freighters and cattlemen. Seeing their way open to
further development, they put in a stock of groceries and provisions of
all kinds, and were soon doing a flourishing business by providing for the
wants of man and beast.
The Healy Brothers came from Galveston with their herds of cattle, and
located their ranch on the North bank of Beaver Creek, where their efforts
were crowned with success.
The Kramer Brothers, Lou and Frank, with a brother-in-law, Mr. Hooker,
established a ranch west of Beaver City and also another one on Clear
Creek, where they devoted their time and attention to the improvement of
their stock by raising thoroughbred cattle.
The Cader Brothers, formerly engaged in the hunting business, chose for
themselves a ranch on Paladuro Creek and met with great success, if rumor
is to be believed.
Colonel Hardesty, more familiarly known as Old Jack, established two
ranches, one in Beaver county and another on the Cimmaron river, which
were known as the "Hardesty" and "Smith" ranches, and at one time claimed
to have forty thousand head of cattle.
Another successful ranchman of those early days was John George, who is
still residing in the district where he met with such success. After the
opening of Oklahoma Territory for settlement, he was chosen to represent
his district in the Oklahoma legislature, and was one of the very few
members thereof who gave complete satisfaction to his constituents. He was
a staunch Democrat, an honest and upright man, just the kind that was
sorely needed in the Territorial Legislature at that time, and of which
there was a lamentable scarcity.
Fred Tainter, of Boston, Massachusetts, established a ranch on Cottonwood
Creek, and bred a fine grade of stock. He remained in those parts for
years.
There were many others who succeeded in attaining success in the business
of raising cattle, but I mention only a few of the most successful ones.
I here mention another branch of the ranching business that met with great
difficulties in its day and which, to the cowman, was most unwelcome. The
Tarbox Brothers, Rufe and Wall, moved in with a drove of sheep from
Colorado and settled on the Cimmaron river. A sheepman is always received
with scant courtesy in a cattle country. There has always been ill feeling
between the sheepman and the cattleman, and in the trouble that generally
ensued on their meeting, the sheepman was the one to move to other
quarters. In fact, even if the cattlemen were left out of consideration,
the sheepmen would be compelled to move by force of circumstances, as
sheep are very destructive feeders, and soon ruin the range for themselves
as well as for the cattle. In a very short time after their arrival,
every vestige of grass will disappear from the range, and the prairie
will be converted into a desert. The reason lies in the fact that the
sheep crop the grass into the ground and cut up the soil with their hoofs
so that the high wind which invariably blows drives the sand before it,
cutting off the new grass that may spring up. This, together with the long
dry periods, soon kills out the roots, and the prairie is left a waste.
Moreover, cattle will not eat off the range that has been grazed over by
sheep, so of the two industries it was a case of the survival of the
fittest.
The struggle between the cattlemen and the sheepmen was little, if any,
short of war. This condition existed for many years in Texas, Indian
Territory, Western Kansas, Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas, and in all of
the states adapted to the raising of stock. The usual arguments advanced
by both sides of the question, in order to determine who was to hold any
particular section, generally sounded like the exhausts of a few racing
automobiles. One of the sufferers of misfortune due to the habitual state
of hostility between the two industries was the firm of Tarbox brothers,
who gave up the business of raising sheep, moved to Dodge City, Kansas,
where Rufe was afterwards elected Mayor.
As the most desirable location for the establishment of a ranch was along
the creeks and rivers, through the necessity of having plenty of water for
the stock, and as the rivers and creeks were few and far between, all the
choice sections were soon taken up.
As none of the ranchers cared to venture into the semi-arid plains that
lay between the far distant sources of their water supply, and being
equally unwilling to depend upon the deep wells that would be required if
they would branch out into the open flat lands around them, they left that
part of the prairie for the small farmer, or the "nester," as they called
them.
Each cattleman had his own private brand which was duly registered and was
known to every other cattleman in the entire West. They were, also, very
careful to employ the said brand on all cattle, mules and horses, and any
young stock that had been weaned and was not running with the mother was
classified as a maverick and belonged to the first man who put his brand
upon them.
There were many men who became very wealthy in the cattle country, whose
sole assets in the beginning were, a branding iron, a rope, a pony and a
saddle. They branded mavericks, and the natural increase of their original
find belonged to them also. In this way, in a very short time, they
accumulated quite a herd. Then, by establishing their headquarters
somewhere, they became full-fledged ranchers without the outlay of any
capital whatever. This was successful as long as they were not caught, but
woe to the man whose brand was upon a calf that was running with a cow
that carried another brand. The meanest way such men had of carrying on
their nefarious trade was to kill the mother cow after the calf was old
enough to live on grass, brand the calf and run it off to another part of
the range.