Following the Civil War, perhaps 5 million longhorn cattle ranged freely across South Texas. The longhorn owed its origins to Spanish cattle brought to the Southwest centuries earlier. A mild climate and few predators allowed the rangy animals to thrive in what was called the "wild horse desert."
With thousands of immigrants flooding northern cities after the Civil War, there was a high demand for beef. Enterprising ranchers and returning soldiers realized the $5 a head they paid for cattle in South Texas might fetch $40 a head up north. One of the earliest ranchers in the so-called "magic diamond" of South Texas was former steamboat captain, Richard King, who established his ranch along the banks of Santa Gertrudis Creek in 1853.
Cattle had been driven to California from Texas
before the Civil War, and cowboys had trailed cattle to Sedalia, Missouri in the 1840s and
50s. following the Civil War, the Sedalia route presented some problems as more and more
settlers were moving west, establishing farms and communities, and planting crops. The
Shawnee Trail led across western Missouri, crossed these farms and led through woodlands
where cattle sometimes got lost.
A Chicago meatpacker named Joseph McCoy came up with
the idea of avoiding settlements in Missouri by extending a railroad line to the village
of Abilene, Kansas. McCoy then built cattle pens and loading chutes so cattle could be
shipped by rail back east and then north to Chicago, the center of the meatpacking
industry. Next, McCoy sent word to Texas about his town and encouraged Texas cattlemen to
drive their herds along the Chisholm Trail to Abilene in 1867. In that year a few thousand
cattle were driven north, but the idea caught on and by 1871, 1.5 million cattle had been
driven to McCoy’s new town.
Other trails sprang up like the Great Western, which led to towns like Ellsworth and Dodge City. Charles Goodnight and partner Oliver Loving trailed cattle along the trail which bears their name in New Mexico in the late 1860s. Goodnight and Loving had government contracts to feed hungry Indians on reservations in New Mexico. Goodnight also herded cattle into Colorado to stock the northern ranges. Some herds went all the way from Texas to Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.
The era of the long drives to Kansas and the northern ranges only lasted about 25 years. But the legend and myth of the cowboy continues to this day, perpetuated in clothing and western movies where the main characters often spend more time drinking and shooting a six-shooter than herding cattle or mending fences.
A cowboy’s life, unlike the movies’ version, was often dull and monotonous. Working for $25 a month, cowboys were usually young men from various walks of life. Some were former soldiers from the Civil War, some were outlaws trying to escape the law, and some were the sons of wealthy easterners and foreigners trying to get a taste of the old West. They included blacks, whites and Hispanics. They all put in long days on the trail.
The trail drive began in the late spring when grass was plentiful. For three months, a handful of man rode herd over more than 1000 head of wild longhorn cattle, moving them less than 15 miles a day. Trying to drive them faster was unmanageable, and the cattle lost too much weight.
The centerpiece of any cattle drive was the chuck wagon. Charles Goodnight is given credit for inventing the first of these by taking an old army wagon and strengthening it with extra hard wooden axles, and having a chuck box mounted on the rear end. A storage area to the front carried supplies and bedrolls.
In many ways the cook or "cookie" was the
most important member of the drive, and he generally got paid better than the other men.
The cook drove the chuck wagon ahead of the herd and was responsible for selecting
campsites in the evenings and stopovers for the noonday meal. Meals generally consisted of
beef, beans, and sourdough biscuits along with generous cups of strong black coffee. The
cook used a large "dutch oven," a cast iron pot for cooking biscuits and the
occasional cobbler. The difference between an ordinary cook and a good cook often meant
the difference between happy cowboys and grumbling cowboys, although the smart cowboy
would avoid complaining within earshot of the cook for fear of being pressed into service.
Cookie ruled his kitchen and not so much as a cup of coffee was consumed without his
permission.
Besides the cook, there was the trail boss, an experienced cowboy who had been up the trail before, knew where the grass and water were and also knew the dangers along the trail. Some cowboys were positioned at the front of the herd while others rode "flank" on the sides of the herd and still others rode "drag" at the back of the herd. All cowboys shared the job of watching the herd at night, hoping that the cattle did not become spooked and begin running.
Younger cowboys were often given the job of horse wrangler. Their job was to care for the horses used to herd the animals along the long drive north.
On the trail, cowboys encountered the boredom and dangers of riding herd on more than 1000 head of cattle. Cowboys ran into unpredictable weather. Sometimes it was cold. Unexpected storms dropped rain and hail, wind and cold; other times the temperature rose past the 100-degree mark.
Crossing treacherous rivers, some cowboys and cattle drowned. The Pecos River was especially dangerous at the notorious Horsehead Crossing near Fort Stockton, Texas. Here the river-bank sloped on each side but the current was fast. Horses and cattle weak from thirst smelled the river and often stampeded headlong into the stream. Drinking the salty water often made them sick. Others drowned in the swift current.
And there were rattlesnakes….
And Stampedes…. Lightning and thunder or the lurch of a horse could quickly cause panic in a herd of longhorns. The cattle would run wildly, and cowboys would have to head them off and try to get them moving in a circular pattern. To soothe restless cattle, cowboys on night watch often sang to them or played a harmonica to soothe their nerves and provide some entertainment for themselves.
In the early days of the cattle drives, Indians still ranged across West Texas, trading with Comancheros from New Mexico and leading a nomadic lifestyle chasing buffalo. But soon the buffalo herds were diminished by buffalo hunters, and the US army drove the remaining Comanche off the land. Still, some Comanche ranged across northwest Texas until the mid-1870s when Quanah Parker led his band to Fort Sill, in Oklahoma.
Crossing Indian Territory, today’s Oklahoma, could be an adventure. Native Americans demanded payment for moving cattle across their lands, often asking for some the herd. A bargain was struck and the drives continued northward.
When the cowboys finally reached the end of the trail, they celebrated in grand style, sometimes spending all that they had earned on the drive. Then it was back to Texas for another drive the next year. It was a unique period in American history, but it did not last long.
The days of the long drives were coming to an end by the 1890s for a number of reasons. The railroads continued to build lines further west into Kansas and eventually lines were built to Ft. Worth, shrinking the drives from South Texas significantly.
Texas cattle carried ticks which in carried a disease called Texas Fever. Texas cattle were immune to it but as settlers moved further west into Kansas, their cattle became infected from ticks carried north and sometimes died. Therefore many towns and settlements set up quarantines, areas where Texas cattle were not allowed.
As settlers moved west, they planted crops around which the cowboys had to take their cattle herds. Sometimes herds destroyed these crops, causing bad blood between the cowboys and "nesters," the name cowboys used for farmers.
Barbed wire also ended the long drives. By 1881 there were 1229 United States government patents for wire. Joseph Glidden is given credit for the first barbed wire in 1873. Farmers used the stuff to keep cattle out of their fields and ranchers began fencing off huge chunks of the open range. This in turn led to fence-cutting wars. The era of the open range was ending.
The invention of the refrigerated car by Gustavus Swift also aided in the decline of the long drive. Cattle could now be slaughtered before they reached places like Chicago. As rail lines extended into Texas, cattle lost less weight before shipping. Driving cattle 1200 miles had meant tremendous weight loss by the time they got to Kansas railheads.
Fencing the range meant that cattle could not escape storms and blizzards as they once had. In the mid-1880s, cattle stacked up against barbed wire fences on northern ranges and froze to death. In the spring the plains were littered with the bodies of dead cows. Drought, long dry spells, killed already weakened cattle.
Some ranchers and investors began to carve out huge
ranches in West Texas and the Texas Panhandle to capture prime grazing land and water. The
XIT, the Matador, the JA, managed by Charles Goodnight, the Espuela Land and Cattle
Company’s Spur Ranch and others were owned and managed by foreign investors from
England and Scotland. The invention and use of windmills soon made water available to
thirsty cows nearby, eliminating the need to drive cattle to natural water sources..
Cowboys continued to use the skills they had mastered on the long drives north, only chances were, by the 1890s, they probably worked on a ranch, following rules for rounding up cattle set up by new cattlemen’s associations.
The round-up was the event of the season and began in the spring. The captain or foreman of the round-up, chosen beforehand, was an expert cowman thoroughly acquainted with the country, and was able to command the cowboys working for him.
There was no such thing as an eight-hour day during round-up. Cowboys worked as many as sixteen hours a day. The cook got up as early as 3 o’clock to fix breakfast and get the wagon and horses ready for the day.
Well before the sun came up, the cook yelled that breakfast was ready and sleepy cowboys rolled out of their bedrolls and staggered to the wagon for coffee, biscuits, and maybe some beans. Each cowboy squatted or "hunkered down" to eat.
Before long, the foreman said something like, ‘come on boys, catch your horses," and each man finished his last bite then ran to get his lariat. The night wrangler was now bringing the horse herd he had guarded all night. A rope corral was rigged up by stretching a rope from each wheel on one side of the wagon and stretched out in a V-shape, or by stretching it between three other objects. Some men stood around to keep the horses inside the corral, while others roped the animals.
When all horses were saddled, the different riders assembled at the chuck wagon where the foreman was already mounted on his horse. The foreman told the cowboys the day’s assignments and where they would stop for the evening camp.
The cook drove the chuck wagon and horses in a straight line for a few miles before forming camp around noon.
The cowboys rode as far as fifteen miles away to round up cattle and bring them to join the growing herd behind the chuck wagon, the foreman careful to send riders out in all directions to bring in all the cattle they could find.
As the animals were brought to the growing herd, some riders formed a ring around the herd, while other cowboys cut out cattle marked with their own brands. It took a cowboy with a good eye to spot a brand on cattle swirling around in front of him. Cutting cattle out of the herd was known as "cleaning up a herd."
To do good work in cutting cattle out of a herd, a rider needed to be a good horseman but he also needed a skillful, trained horse. The horse could figure which cow the rider was after very quickly. Once the animal was spotted, it was slowly led to the edge of the herd. Once outside the herd, the animal discovered it was separated from its companions and tried to break back into the herd. The skillful cowboy passed the animal on to another rider who was said to be "holding the cut."
Some branded cattle were kept in the herd following
the chuck wagon, and some were let go until a later time. Cowboys from different ranches
or "outfits" worked together to round up each ranch’s cattle, and new
calves were cut out of the herd and branded. New calves and their mothers were separated
into groups according to the brand on the mother’s side. A fire was built and
branding irons were placed in it while the best two roping cowboys lassoed calves and
others "wrestled" them to the ground. Another cowboy, the "tally" man,
kept track of the number, sex, and brand of each calf, while two more cowboys branded the
animals.
Besides calves, once in a while cowboys found mavericks, cattle missed on previous round-ups. These animals tended to be especially wild.
Every morning certain cowboys were sent to drive and to guard the day herd traveling behind the chuck wagon. This was boring work and lasted from 4 in the morning to 8 at night mostly in the heat of the day. At night other cowboys watched the herd, hoping the cattle did not get spooked and start stampeding. Usually the night watch passed without a problem.
Branding was hot, dirty, tough work, but there was a camraderie and friendship among the men in knowing everyone was working toward the same goal. And oftentimes the wide-open spaces of the countryside were breathtakingly beautiful.
During slack time, cowboys entertained themselves by
displaying the skills they learned working cattle on the trail or ranch. Horse races, foot
races, roping and throwing calves, and riding wild broncos all were common sights at
round-up time. Often the best cowboy from a ranch or outfit competed against the best
hands from other outfits. Eventually these informal competitions at round-up time became
more formalized and events were held in corrals and later in nearby arenas. These first
rodeos allowed a cowboy to show off the skills he used in his everyday work.
Soon all the calves and mavericks were rounded up and branded. Then the cowboys would say "goodbye" and return to their own ranches or outfits until the next round-up.
By the end of the 19th and continuing into the early 20th century, some of the largest ranches in Texas began to sell off their lands. Railroads were awarded huge chunks of Texas lands to build rails across the state, and homesteaders were moving onto the lands formerly used for running cattle. Ranchers finally gave way to farmers and settlers on the Texas High Plains, but this part of Texas was one of the last to be settled. Even today the region is sparsely populated compared to other parts of the state.
American settlers had come to Texas as early as the 1820s, settling along the Colorado and Brazos Rivers in the eastern portion of the state. But even after the Civil War few settlers had ventured onto the High Plains, a windy grass-covered land of few trees and little water, controlled by the Comanche Indians. Superb horsemen who chased buffalo across the plains and ranged deep across West Texas and into Mexico during the fall of each year, the Comanche effectively kept settlers out of the region until the late1870s when the US military’s Red River Campaign destroyed the Comanche way of life.
While women such as Henrietta Chamberlain King
helped her husband Captain Richard King establish South Texas’ famous King Ranch in
the 1850s, it was not until the following decade that women and families appeared on the
High Plains. One such woman was Mary Ann "Molly" Dyer Goodnight, wife of Charles
Goodnight, the Panhandle cattle pioneer.
Following the ranchers in the 1870s and 1880s came farmers, and after them came merchants whose numbers turned small villages into towns. Foreign investors who had put much of their money into large Texas cattle ranches now thought they could make more money by breaking up their lands and selling them to these new farmers and settlers.
Many of the big ranches in West Texas hired land promotion companies to sell their land. Gradually, much of the lands were sold off to farmers, and the era of huge ranches came to an end.
Pioneers who came to West Texas had high hopes of a new life, and land ownership beckoned them to the high prairie. Life was hard and the lonesome solitude was more than many could bear.
Shelters were dug out of the earth, since building
materials were hundreds of miles away, and there was no dependable way to get them before
the railroads came. Very few trees existed on the High Plains, and materials used for
houses finally built of wood came all the way from East Texas or Colorado.
Fashions of the day were practical. Sun-bonnets with collars replaced parasols which were popular back east.
Men, women and children worked side by side in the fields to eke out a meager living. In some cases, people seemed to go crazy from the endless wind.
But there was a sense of community on the high, desolate land. Neighbors relied upon each other for survival, and in the early days, bartering was one of the major means of commerce. Social gatherings centered around the church, and later schools. Small towns such as Lubbock grew into prosperous cities based on agriculture, especially cotton.