OklahomaHorses Magazine January 2022

24 OklahomaHorses • January/February 2022 bringing countless cattle and establishing livestock across the region. Over time, they spread north past the Rio Grande into what is now the state of Texas. In 1836, Texas gained its independence from Mexico and became an independent republic. It was an- nexed by the United States just nine years later, becoming the twenty-eighth state. Alva Fitzpatrick wrote home to his family in Alabama in 1843, encouraging them to move west to Texas, where they could find good land with timber, water, and grass. He urged his nephew to bring as many cows with him as possible. “Get say one hundred Brude Mairs & about two good Jacks to go with them,” Fitzpatrick wrote. In his letter, he noted that every ship leaving Port Lava- ca along the Texas Gulf Coast took 50 to 75 head of cattle with it, and the trade was only increasing. Many early ranches devel- oped along the Gulf Coast near ports such as Galveston, Port Lavaca, Brazos Santiago, Corpus Christi, and Indianola and spread inland toward Austin and San Antonio. The cattle, raised along the Gulf Coast, traveled east by ship to New Orleans. By the 1850s, many Texans had established large ranches modeled on their Mexican predecessors. It soon became apparent that shipping cattle would not suffice. High shipping rates and the limited number of livestock that could move on each vessel proved problematic. In 1853, William B. Grimes decided to send a herd of cattle east to New Orleans overland. He sent twenty- year-old Abel Head “Shanghai” Pierce and his herd east. Pierce later reported, “the mud and water of the Louisiana swamps compelled us to pick every step. Why the public roads — where there were any — would bog a saddleblanket. My steers … knew how to swim, but they were used to a carpet of prairie grass [and] were mighty choosey as to where they put their feet.” After the American Civil War, the cattle industry in Texas changed as the number of cattle exploded. Initially, livestock found in abundance in southern Texas was rounded up and driven north to railroad heads in Missouri. This practice started well before the war, but driving cattle north would soon dominate the industry. Eventually, the cattle trails shifted west and found new routes to Kansas before the steers were shipped east to slaughterhouses and markets. Each day, cowboys moved the herd about eight to ten miles closer to their destina- tion. They moved slowly, allowing the cattle to graze on the fresh spring grass along the route, helping to fatten them up for the market. Herds varied from five hundred to several thousand head of cattle. A rancher entrusted his cattle to a trail boss and his crew for the long journey north. Cowboys on the drive faced hours of loneliness in the saddle as they moved slowly across the plains. They were a tough lot, often young, and spent countless hours mounted on horses each day. But where did this rugged individual of the west develop? The American Cowboy What we consider the American cowboy has a long history that reaches back to the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The vaquero tradition that had begun several centuries earlier slowly gave rise to the American cowboy. Americans quickly adopted the tools, equipment, and methods used in Texas and farther south. Moving a herd with several thousand cattle was a complicated endeavor requiring the coordination of a dozen or so cowboys, a foreman, a wrangler for the extra horses, and a cook to keep the whole crew fed. Nights were spent on the prairie. Teddy Blue Abbott reported, “Most all of the cowboys were southerners, and they were a reckless bunch. For dress they wore wide brimmed beaver hats … with a low crown. Fancy shirts, high heeled boots, and some- times a vest.” Before dawn each morning, the cow- boys would rise, roll up their bedrolls, and prepare for a long ride. Each day, they remained vigilant, looking for stragglers and danger. After supper, each hand would lay out his bedroll for the night. Meals were simple. Coffee, ground at the chuck wagon, was available at every meal, as were biscuits. Beans were often prepared as a staple to fill the cowboys’ hungry bellies. And occasionally, a dessert such as spotted pup (rice pudding), apple vinegar pie, or a fruit cobbler brought excitement to the meal. Each evening, the cowboy made his bed on the prairie. The bed, composed of a good tarp or canvas sheet, was supplement- ed by several quilts or blankets to act as a mattress and provide warmth. To rest his head, a cowboy might form a pillow from his “war sack,” a bag for clothing, toiletries, tobacco, etc. Once a cowboy was bedded down for the evening, his work was not always complete. Sometime during the night, he would spend several hours in the saddle “riding herd” to ensure that the cattle did not stray too far away and to keep threats at bay. The cowboys came from diverse back- grounds. Often drawn from the lower social classes, they could be Tejanos, former slaves, Indians, or whites. Facing great dangers along the route, particularly at river crossings, a drover could expect to earn about a dollar a day for his hard work. The trip north took approximately three months. At the end of the drive, the foreman assisted in the sale of the cattle and paid the cowboys their wages for the trip. Life on a cattle drive included sleeping in the open on bedrolls and eating grub prepared by the cook in the chuck wagon.