LEARNING TO ROPE WILD STEERS.
Arriving on the Navadad river, we went to work gathering a herd of
"trail" beeves and also branding Mavricks at the same time. Some days we
would brand as high as three or four hundred Mavricks--none under two
years old.
After about a month's hard work we had the herd of eleven hundred ready
to turn over to Mr. Black who had bought them, delivered to him at the
Snodgrass ranch. They were all old mossy horn fellows, from seven to
twenty-seven years old.
Mr. Black was a Kansas "short horn" and he had brought his outfit of
"short horn" men and horses, to drive the herd "up the trail."
Some of the men had never seen a Texas steer, consequently they crossed
Red river into the Indian territory with nothing left but the "grub"
wagon and horses. They had lost every steer and Mr. Black landed in
Kansas flat broke.
Lots of the steers came back to their old ranges and Mr. "Shanghai" had
the fun of selling them over again, to some other greeny, may be.
"Shanghai" Pierce went to Kansas the next year and when he returned he
told of having met Mr. Black up there, working at his old
trade--blacksmithing. He said Mr. Black cursed Texas shamefully and
swore that he never would, even if he should live to be as old as Isaac,
son of Jacob, dabble in long horns again.
After getting rid of Mr. Black's herd we turned our whole attention to
branding Mavricks.
About the first of August we went back to the ranch and found that it
had changed hands in our absence. "Shanghai" Pierce and his brother
Jonathan had sold out their interests to Allen, Pool & Co. for the snug
little sum of one hundred and ten thousand dollars.
That shows what could be done in those days, with no capital, but lots
of cheek and a branding iron. The two Pierce's had come out there from
Yankeedom a few years before poorer than skimmed milk.
Everything had taken a change--even to the ranch. It had been moved down
the river four miles to Mr. John Moore's place. Mr. Moore had been
appointed "big chief," hence the ranch being moved to his place.
About the middle of August we pulled out again with a fresh supply of
horses, six to the man and a bran new boss, Mr. Wiley Kuykendall.
Some of the boys hated to part with Mr. Nie, but I was glad of the
change, for he wouldn't allow me to rope large steers nor fight when I
got on the war-path. I remember one time he gave me fits for laying a
negro out with a four-year old club; and another time he laid me out
with his open hand for trying to carve one of the boys up with a butcher
knife.
We commenced work about the first of September on "Big Sandy" in Lavaca
county, a place noted for wild "brush" cattle. Very few people lived in
that section, hence so many wild unbranded cattle.
To illustrate the class of people who lived on Big Sandy, will relate a
little picnic a negro and I had a few days after our arrival there.
While herding a bunch of cattle, gathered the day before, on a small
prairie, we noticed a footman emerge from the thick timber on the
opposite side from where we were and make straight for a spotted pony
that was "hobbled" and grazing out in the open space.
He was indeed a rough looking customer, being half naked. He had nothing
on his head but a thick mat of almost gray hair; and his feet and legs
were bare.
We concluded to "rope" him and take him to camp, so taking down our
ropes and putting spurs to our tired horses we struck out.
He saw us coming and only being about a hundred yards from the spotted
pony, he ran to him and cutting the "hobbles," which held his two front
legs together, jumped aboard of him and was off in the direction he had
just come, like a flash. The pony must have been well trained for he had
nothing to guide him with.
A four hundred yard race for dear life brought him to the "brush"--that
is timber, thickly covered with an underbrush of live-oak "runners." He
shot out of sight like an arrow. He was not a minute too soon, for we
were right at his heels.
We gave up the chase after losing sight of him, for we couldn't handle
our ropes in the "brush."
The next day the camp was located close to the spot where he disappeared
at, and several of us followed up his trail. We found him and his three
grown daughters, his wife having died a short while before, occupying a
little one room log shanty in a lonely spot about two miles from the
little prairie in which we first saw him. The whole outfit were tough
looking citizens. The girls had never seen a town, so they said. They
had about two acres in cultivation and from that they made their living.
Their nearest neighbor was a Mr. Penny, who lived ten miles west and the
nearest town was Columbus, on the Colorado river, fifty miles east.
As the cattle remained hidden out in the "brush" during the day-time,
only venturing out on the small prairies at night, we had to do most of
our work early in the morning, commencing an hour or two before
daylight. As you might wish to know exactly how we did, will try and
explain:--About two hours before daylight the cook would holloa "chuck,"
and then Mr. Wiley would go around and yell "breakfast, boys; d----n you
get up!" two or three times in our ears.
Breakfast being over we would saddle up our ponies, which had been
staked out the night before, and strike out for a certain prairie may be
three or four miles off--that is all but two or three men, just enough
to bring the herd, previously gathered, on as soon as it became light
enough to see.
Arriving at the edge of the prairie we would dismount and wait for
daylight.
At the first peep of day the cattle, which would be out in the prairie,
quite a distance from the timber, would all turn their heads and
commence grazing at a lively rate towards the nearest point of timber.
Then we would ride around through the brush, so as not to be seen, until
we got to the point of timber that they were steering for.
When it became light enough to see good, we would ride out, rope in
hand, to meet them and apt as not one of the old-timers, may be a
fifteen or twenty-year old steer, which were continuously on the
lookout, would spy us before we got twenty yards from the timber. Then
the fun would begin--the whole bunch, may be a thousand head, would
stampede and come right towards us. They never were known to run in the
opposite direction from the nearest point of timber. But with cattle
raised on the prairies, it's the reverse, they will always leave the
timber.
After coming in contact, every man would rope and tie down one of the
finest animals in the bunch. Once in awhile some fellow would get more
beef than he could manage; under those circumstances he would have to
worry along until some other fellow got through with his job and came to
his rescue.
If there was another prairie close by we would go to it and tie down a
few more, but we would have to get there before sunup or they would all
be in the brush. It was their habit to graze out into the little
prairies at night-fall and go back to the brush by sunrise next morning.
Finally the herd which we had gathered before and which was already
"broke in," would arrive from camp, where we had been night-herding them
and then we would drive it around to each one of the tied-down animals,
letting him up so he couldn't help from running right into the herd,
where he would generally stay contented. Once in awhile though, we would
strike an old steer that couldn't be made to stay in the herd. Just as
soon as he was untied and let up he would go right through the herd and
strike for the brush, fighting his way. Under those circumstances we
would have to sew up their eyes with a needle and thread. That would
bring them to their milk, as they couldn't see the timber.
I got into several scrapes on this trip, by being a new hand at the
business. One time I was going at full speed and threw my rope onto a
steer just as he got to the edge of the timber; I couldn't stop my horse
in time, therefore the steer went on one side of a tree and my horse on
the other and the consequence was, my rope being tied hard and fast to
the saddle-horn, we all landed up against the tree in a heap.
At another time, on the same day, I roped a large animal and got my
horse jerked over backwards on top of me and in the horse getting up he
got me all wound up in the rope, so that I couldn't free myself until
relieved by "Jack" a negro man who was near at hand. I was certainly in
a ticklish predicament that time; the pony was wild and there I hung
fast to his side with my head down while the steer, which was still
fastened to the rope, was making every effort to gore us.
Just before Christmas Moore selected our outfit to do the shipping at
Palacious Point, where a Morgan steamship landed twice a week to take on
cattle for the New Orleans market.
We used to ship about five hundred head at each shipping. After getting
rid of one bunch we would strike right back, to meet one of the
gathering outfits, after another herd. There were three different
outfits to do the gathering for us.
We kept that up all winter and had a tough time of it, too, as it
happened to be an unusually cold and wet winter.
Towards spring the cattle began to get terribly poor, so that during the
cold nights while night-herding them a great many would get down in the
mud and freeze to death. Have seen as high as fifty head of dead ones
scattered over the ground where the herd had drifted during the night.
It's a pity if such nights as those didn't try our nerves.
Sometimes it would be twelve o'clock at night before we would get the
cattle loaded aboard of the ship. But when we did get through we would
surely have a picnic--filling up on Mr. Geo. Burkheart's red eye. Mr.
Burkheart kept a store at the "Point" well filled with Cow Boys
delight--in fact he made a specialty of the stuff.
Our camping ground was three miles from the Point, and some mornings the
cook would get up and find several saddled horses standing around camp
waiting for their corn--their riders having fallen by the wayside.