Fightin’ the Chisholm Trail

This is a series of four that I plan to fit in around Mother’s Day and Memorial Day.

“Head ‘em up an’ move em’ out!” Texas cowboys start the perilous drive north.

The end of the Civil war, or as it was pegged, The War of Northern Aggression, found the United States, a divided nation, struggling to reunite.

The economy had cratered and in the industrial Northeast there was a fresh demand for items that were not available or at least in short supply during wartime. Confederate soldiers returning to their homes in Texas found that cattle herds had multiplied and were virtually worthless. According to one historical account, a Texas rancher claimed that a man’s poverty was measured by the number of cattle that grazed his land. Many were taken to slaughter houses for their hides and tallow which would often bring less than $3.00 a head. But an entrepreneur from Abilene, Kansas, Joseph McCoy was a visionary and he realized that fortunes would be made with the arrival of the railroad. He asked Texas ranchers to drive cattle to his newly constructed stockyards where the cattle would then be shipped to markets back east. The ranchers would see their $3 cattle increase in value to as much as $40 dollars a head. Large Texas outfits began gathering these wild longhorns to form trail herds that numbered in the 100s. Texas would see many trails that would start as far south as Donna or San Antonio and funnel toward a crossing on the Red River near Jessie Chisholm’s trading post. Men and boys, sometimes as young as ten years of age would find employment that would pay as much as $30 dollars a month. And these massive herds could travel near 10 miles per day, often taking 100 days or more to reach the railheads. These drives often proved to be filled with danger. These cowboys would face weather, fording flood swollen rivers, stampedes, marauding Indians and outlaws. Many would perish on the trail, but Texas cowboys showed “no fear and no quit” for they were bred and born from hide and horn! My Ol’ Daddy would say, “They was tougher than boot leather an’ harder than nails!”

FIGHTIN’ THE CHISHOLM TRAIL (Part one of four)

T he war of northern aggression was past, an’ men headed fer home.

Back to families an’ sweethearts at last, from here they would not roam.

But disappointment reared its ugly head, things had changed; homes were burned.

Special loved ones were gone an’ sometimes dead, hopes an’ dreams must now be turned.

Now times was hard in this wild western land, just livin’ was mighty tough!

But there was backbone in a Texas man, he liked it just that rough!

An’ Texas resilience would persevere, as history would tell.

They each stood tall, with no quit an’ no fear… they’d face the devil in hell!

Now, fate often sets the stage for life’s way; wild beeves filled the Texas land.

An’ the markets back east were willin’ to pay, Texas would fill that demand.

Some fellers put together quite a spread, where they planned to hold the herd.

They figgered to drive them to the railhead, an’ soon that’s what occurred.

They caught wild cattle an’ slapped on a brand, a time when cowboys were born.

They learned a life an’ shore ‘nuff made a good hand, a life forged from hide an’ horn.

These herds were built an’ readied for the trail, now the task before them stood.

The hardships that came, they’d face without fail, this fight they understood. (continued next week) © Ol’ Jim Cathey

Since you are not tied down on the range where you would probably be talking to God, Join us at First Baptist Marlin where you can talk to Him in comfort!

God Bless Texas and the American cowboy!