The Clifton Record (Clifton, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 25, Ed. 1 Friday, June 23, 2006 Page: 32 of 110
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Clifton Record and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Nellie Pederson Civic Library.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
14
THE CLIFTON RECORD — BOSQUE COUNTY, U.S.A.
FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2006
The Chisholm Trail Ran Through Bosque County
ByJoeMarchman
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
The historic old Chisholm Trail has
been claimed by most of Texas’ 254 coun-
ties at one time or the other, but this is
not true to historical fact. Indeed, there
were many cattle trails that stomped their
way through this state leaving their dust
on the pages of history for us to wipe away
from time to time in fond remembrances.
However, the Chisholm Trail was more
specific in its placement on the Texas map
and became a legend that the entire state
would like to claim.
WHERE IT STARTED
In South Texas, after the Civil War, the
rough brush country nurtured millions of
wild Spanish longhorn cattle. Texas was
dead broke. The ingenuity and necessary
nature of those early individuals gave rise
to Texas’ most colorful era. Times were
tough and the country was wild, lawless,
and savagely difficult.
It was an amazing, prodigious effort
that sent Texas cattlemen on the trail
seeking markets for their cattle all the
way to Kansas where the railroads from
the East were now reaching.
Beginning in 1867, cattle drives were
gathered and moved north which helped
Texans recover from the poverty that had
beset them after the Civil War.... Histori-
cally this was one of the greatest deeds
of pioneer bravery and daring recorded
in Texas history.
These early herds were shaped up be-
tween Brownsville and San Antonio and
driven to Austin crossing the Colorado
River and on to Waco where they swam
the Brazos River. Waco’s new suspension
bridge, across the Brazos, was not com-
pleted until 1869. The longhorn herds then
continued north to Dallas — then up what
is now Preston Road to the Red River and
on across the Indian Territory to Mis-
souri. This beef cattle trail was known as
the “Shawnee Trail,” but was the precur-
sor to the “Chisholm Trail,” the most fa-
mous and romanticized cattle trail in
history.
By 1870 Waco’s suspension bridge was
completed and cattle crossing the Brazos
there were required to pay a three-cent
toll per head. Cowboys, horses, and
chuckwagons were assessed far larger
fees. To offset payment of these fees,
herds were soon turned north before
reaching Waco and traveled through
Bosque County... thus the Old Chisholm
Trail came into existence.
The Chisholm 'frail was named after
Jesse Chisholm, who is not to be confused
with John Chism, the famous old pioneer
rancher of the “High Plains” of Texas and
New Mexico. The cattle trail’s name had
been captioned in 1870 when it was cited
in Kansas newspapers to describe a new
stagecoach route which was to operate
between Wichita, Kan., through the In-
dian Territory (Oklahoma) south to Texas.
In 1871, another Kansas newspaper dis-
closed the Chisholm frail as a favorite
route for Texas cattle drovers and mule
skinners with their freight.
In 1874, a Texas newspaper referred to
Texas cattle “going up the famous Old
Chisholm frail.” Undoubtedly, the name
was aided by the off-told tales and songs
of the rambunctious Texas cowboys. At
any rate, the name stuck and the Old
Chisholm frail was the Texas cowhands’
road to high adventure.
Bosque County, in those pristine times,
was a natural beef cattle path for those
thin rangy longhorns from South Texas
headed for the North and Eastern cattle
markets. The Bosque River flowed clear
and pure — tall luscious pbaiHe’ grass
Chisholm Trail Map
waved like a carpet over the face of Cen-
tral Texas’ rolling hills and countryside.
Cattle actually fattened as they mean-
dered through the lush forage.
Long ribbons of cattle, usually four or
five abreast — numbering from 2,000 to
10,000 — entered Bosque County just
west of Valley Mills on the south. The
herds followed a northerly route on the
west side of the Bosque River.
From atop the small limestone
Bosque hills, one could gaze for miles
without seeing the end of the herd.
In Bosque County, the vast longhorn
herds crossed the Bosque River at four
or five different locations depending on
the high banks of the tree-lined river
and the availability of necessary forage
for the cattle. The two most likely
Bosque River crossings were the flats
just south of Clifton (marked only by the
unmarked grave of a Mexican cook who
riled one of the young cowboys) and at
“Bee Rock Mountain” across the river
from Meridian.
In 1871, a half-million homed relics of
the earlier Spanish days in Texas were
rounded up and driven through Bosque
County to Fort Worth and on up to the
Big Muddy Red River—then across the
Indian Territory to Kansas — arriving
at Ellsworth or Wichita in early May.
Sunburned stalwart men, who loved
the freedom of the open range, earned
their spurs through Bosque County on
the Chisholm frail. These men, forever
eulogized as “the cowboys,” were crea-
tures of habit. For the most of their
years, they wore the same kind of boots
and hats. Many were Texas farm boys
who had no taste for the sod-bustin’ life
and hit the trail at an early age.
Many a cow helped a Texas youngster
learn his letters. Frontier mothers were
often frustrated by their son’s inability
to learn the alphabet. Countless thumps
on the head and grandpa’s razor strop
applied in the right place didn’t produce
the desired results. So these not to be
denied pioneer mamas of frontier Texas
had cattle branded with each of the let-
ters to be learned. In those days a young
Texan could easily learn brands as it
was second nature to him. However, the
carefree life of a cowboy and not educa-
tion was utmost in the hearts of the
young men of Texas in that day.
Ab Blocker was a famous Texas trail
boss’ Arid looked down the bhcks of more
longhorn cattle than any man who ever
pointed a herd towards the north star.
Ab was a modest man, God fearing, and
as honest as daylight. He was well-known
and revered by his many friends in Bosque
County as any cowboy that slept in his long
underwear only to be awakened from a
deep sleep by the earth-shaking and the
roar of a stampede caused by the frequent
Central Texas spring thunder storms.
The young men of Bosque County ea-
gerly anticipated the spring months when
the cattle herds moved north. Ed Nichols
was one such Central Texas youngster. He
as born on the west bank of Spring Creek
in 1863 at Morgan, Texas in his family’s
two-story rock house.
Ed Nichols recalls vividly, when he was
four years old, sitting on the split-rail
fence watching the great herds of long-
horns pass by. He recalls his mother fi-
nally allowing him to go over to the cow
camps across Spring Creek with buckets
of biscuits, milk, butter, eggs, or whatever
she was sending to the Chisholm frail
cowboys. Completely infatuated with lis-
tening to the cook or cowboys’ songs, he
would often stay so late watching the
“goin’s on” that his mother would blow a
horn.
The trail boss would usually say, “She
blowing for that baby, some of you boys
take him home.”
A cowboy would then pull him up in the
saddle in front of him and lope off to the
Nichols’ home across Spring Creek.
Ed learned to ride at a very early age in
that the cow camp cowboys would put him
on a small calf — holding him with one
hand and the calf with the other. He re-
called, “They’d let him pitch a little bit tell-
ing me to grip it with my legs. As I grew
older the cowboys put me on bigger calves
and then yearlings. In this way, I learned
to ride almost as soon as I could walk.”
Herd boss Ab Blocker was one of Ed’s
early cowboy heroes.
“I remember one instance when Ab
Blocker, one of the most noted of the
Chisholm frail herd bosses, stopped his
herd nearby — A big six-foot Negro cow-
boy named Frank was his roper — Frank
had four good roping horses and he was
the best with a rope that I ever saw. He
didn’t work with the cattle at night like the
rest of the cowboys — he just did the rop-
ing.”
(The job of roper on a cattle drive was a
skilled position and he was paid more than
the run-of-the-mill cowboys. Many of
the ropers on the Chisholm frail were
colored and former slaves.)
“On this day when I rode up to the
Blocker outfit while it was nooning
(dinner),” Ed Nichols recalled, “Frank
the roper was a little piece off with his
four horses. In a short time, Frank rode
up to the chuckwagon pitching the loop
end of his rope out on the ground and
leaving the other end tied to his saddle
horn.”—A roper must always be ready
for any emergency — “He threw his
bridle reins over the neck of his horse
— jumped off — and sauntered up to
the chuckwagon where the other cow
boys sat having just eaten dinner
(lunch). He bent over the fire and
picked up the big coffee pot and poured
himself a tin cup of coffee.”
“Herd boss Ab Blocker had strolled
off across the Bosque prairie. Frank
was just about to touch his lips to the
hot tin cup of coffee, when Ab let out a
fearsome yell for him... Frank looked
up and saw Ab running for his life with
a berserk longhorn steer right on the
heels of his scruffy boots... Frank threw
down his hot cup... ran to his horse...
tossed the bridle over his horse’s head
and swung into the saddle. It was the
quickest, prettiest thing that I nearly
ever saw. He whirled his cow horse to-
wards the mad rampaging steer... stuck
his spurs to him and began doing his
rope as they ran. He made a loop not
much bigger than the steer’s horns
was wide. As the steer was about to
tuck his head to hook Ab. Frank gal-
loped up behind. He whirled the rope
one time around his head and hollered,
‘Hold on boss, don’t run no fu’ther.’ He
threw the rope... the cowhorse sat
down on his hind legs and the frothing
steer changed ends... the steer’s tail
was almost touching Ab.
“As the danger ended, Ab started his
herd toward the town of Kimball on the
Brazos, some 10 miles distant.
“As the drovers got the herd pretty
close to Kimball,” Nichols continued,
“they would strike camp and let the
herd graze before they were bedded
down so as they would be fresh to swim
the Brazos River the next morning.
“After breakfast at daylight, the herd
was driven to the swimming pen at
river’s edge. The pen was built of ce-
dar rails, staked and ridered, ten rail
high. Three sides of the pen was fenced
in a funnel shape with the swimming
water end open where the cattle were
to be jumped off. The pen held 200 or
more steers. The cowboys then would
get in with the penned steers and force
bunches to jump off into the river. It
took all day to swim a herd across the
Brazos.
“The chuckwagon was pulled over to
the other side on the ferryboat... some
of the cowboys and their horses went
with it to hold the cattle when they
came up out of the river on the other
side.”
frail drives, cow camps, and river
crossings along the “Old Chisholm
frail was usually a full day of fun for
Bosque County boys who had finished
their chores at home.
From Kimball and Bosque County
the herds continued to Port Worth, the
Red River, Indian Territory, and Kan
sas.
About the author — Joe Marchman
is a state-recognized, award-winning
writer for The Clifton Record
His history of the Chisholm Trail
brings lifejo that era. % ^
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View two places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Smith, W. Leon. The Clifton Record (Clifton, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 25, Ed. 1 Friday, June 23, 2006, newspaper, June 23, 2006; Clifton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth790015/m1/32/?q=%22~1~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Nellie Pederson Civic Library.