Roundup Camp, Wyoming, 1880's
The flat brimmed hats some of the
cowboys are wearing is the Stetson "Boss of the Plains" hat originated in 1865 and sold for $5.00. By
1900 it was sold by Sears Robuck and Company for $4.50 plus postage. Shaping of the brim and crown
was done by the owner. As noted with regard the discussion of Cheyenne, the
chuckwagon was invented by Charles Goodnight. Brands included Studebaker, South Bend, Owensburrow, McCormick-Deering and Weber. McCormick-Deering in
1907 changed its name to International Harvester and continued to supply wagons until the 1940's.
After 1936 all of the International wagons were manufactured by Keller Manufacturing Company which discontinued
production in 1943 and converted to the manufacture of furniture. Studebaker also built a heavier
wagon known as the "roundup wagon" more suited to roundups but not as well suited to
trail drives as the lighter
chuckwagon. On large drives an additional wagon known as a "hoodlum wagon" was
used for carrying bed rolls and personal gear.
Cowboys on round-up approx. 1892. Photo by C. D. Kirkland.
In the early 1880's a discussed with regard to the Swan Land and
Cattle Company , a cattle boom swept the Great Plains, attracting many eastern and
British investors. Although the editor of the Sheridan
City Directory, as noted on the Sheridan Page, may have believed that "in winter the
friendly 'chinook' wind mitigates the cold, killing winters of the Dakotas,"
as illustrated by C. M. Russell's famous sketch pictured lower on the page, chinooks are somewhat unreliable.
The winter of 1886-1887 was devasting to Wyoming's cattle industry. The giant British-owned Swan Land & Cattle Company, Limited,
headquartered in Chugwater and Cheyenne, lost 50% of its calves and 15 to 20% of its entire stock.
On one wintry day across the street from the Cheyenne Club, ranchmen gathered in Luke Murrin's saloon to lament their losses.
Luke, realizing that herds were often sold by "book count" rather than actual census, offered the assurance,
"Cheer up boys, whatever happens, the books won't freeze." It did little to assuage
their fears. Nevertheless,
on May 14, 1887, cattle interests in Wyoming were shaken when
Alexander Swan and his brother Thomas Swan declared their insolvency and entered into a
general assignment of assets for the benefit of creditors. Less than a month before, the Swan Brothers'
accountant had declared to the First National Bank of Cheyenne that the two were
worth more than $800,000.00 above liabillities. Shortly thereafter, creditors, bankers, and lawyers began gathering
around the Cheyenne Land & Live-Stock Company which had extensive land and
irrigation holdings along Horse Creek. And like prairie wolves the creditors were
soon fighting amongst themselves as they picked at the carcass. Other large companies
such as the Niobrara Land and Cattle
Company which had interests from Texas to Montana failed. In the instance of the Swan Land and Cattle Co. fraud, as discussed on the Chugwater page,
may also have contributed to large losses.
On November 13, 1886, it started
to snow and continued for a month. In mid-December, however, there was a
thaw, turning the snow to slush. In late December the temperature turned to
the minus 30's turning the slush to a solid sheet of ice. January of 1887, was the coldest in memory and included one
72-hour blizzard. Teddy Blue Abbott, who received his nickname as a result of an
incident with a soiled dove in Miles City, Mt., noted:
"It was all so slow, plunging after them through the deep snow . . . .The horses' feet were cut and bleeding from the
heavy crust, the cattle had the hair and hide wore off their legs to the knees and the hocks.
It was surely hell to see big four-year-old steers just able to stagger along. It was the same all
over Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado, western Nebraska, and western Kansas."
"A Blizzard on the Range," F. W. Schultz, 1907
Theodore Roosevelt who owned a ranch in Dakota Territory described the scene when Spring thaw came:
It would be impossible to imagine any sight more dreary and melancholy
than that offered by the ranges
when the snow went off in March. The land was a mere barren waste;
not a green thing could be seen; the dead grass eaten off till the
country looked as if it had been shaved with a razor. Occasionally
among the desolate hills a rider would come across a band of gaunt,
hollow-flanked cattle feebly cropping the sparse, dry pasturage,
too listless to move out of the way; and the blackened carcasses
lay in the sheltered spots, some stretched out, others in as natural
a position as if the animals had merely lain down to rest. It was small
wonder that cheerful stockmen were rare objects that spring.
"Drifting Before the Storm," Frederic Remington, Collier's Magazine,
July, 1904
Andy Adams in his 1907 novel Reed Anthony, a Cowman described the impact of the great storm on cattle:
The removed cattle, strangers in a strange land, drifted to the fences
and were cut to the quick by the biting blasts. Early in January the worst
blizzard in the history of the plains swept down from the north, and the
poor wandering cattle were driven to the divides and frozen to death
against the line fences. * * * * [W]e were powerless to
relieve the drifting cattle. The morning after the great storm, with
others, I rode to a south string of fence on a divide, and found thousands
of our cattle huddled against it, many frozen to death, partially through
and hanging on the wire. We cut the fences in order to allow them to drift
on to shelter, but the legs of many of them were so badly frozen that,
when they moved, the skin cracked open and their hoofs dropped off.
Hundreds of young steers were wandering aimlessly around on hoofless
stumps, while their tails cracked and broke like icicles. In angles and
nooks of the fence, hundreds had perished against the wire, their bodies
forming a scaling ladder, permitting late arrivals to walk over the dead
and dying as they passed on with the fury of the storm. I had been a
soldier and seen sad sights, but nothing to compare to this; the moaning of
the cattle freezing to death would have melted a heart of adamant. All we
could do was to cut the fences and let them drift, for to halt was to die;
and when the storm abated one could have walked for miles on the bodies of
dead animals.
Drift fences were constructed to preclude cattle from wandering too far. Thus, a
drift fence would make a round-up easier. The most famous of the drift fences was
that constructed by the XIT from the New Mexico border all the was across the Panhandle of
Texas. In Wyoming, the Two-Bar constructed one in Goshen Hole. But in the winter,
three or four days before a blizzard would come out of the north, the cattle would start
drifting to the south. This would necessitate cowboys having to ride the line to prevent the
fence from being broken. James Mooney, who became a cowboy at age 13 and trail boss by age 19, explained:
One of the purpose for which the drift fence was builded, was to hold the
herds from drifting into territory beyond the fence. West of that fence was
a rough brush section and when cattle got into it was a pert job to get the
critters out. The drift fence saved work and riders. We could always tell,
two and three days ahead, when a norther was going to hit, because the
cattle began to drift for shelter and by the time the storm hit the herd
would be drifting a-plenty. Before the days of the drift fence, holding the
herd before a coming norther was like trying to stop a preacher from
accepting donations.
Along that drift fence, during that dry spell I saw carcasses laying one
against the other. The critters drifted to the fence and there died.
The drift fence were put up in many sections of the range country. The
ranchmen ranging cattle in a section would jointly pay the cost and the
expense of keeping the fence up. For each 25 miles of fence a rider was
used who did nothing but ride the fence line and fix breaks. He carried a
hammer, pliers, and staples in the saddle bag as his tools for the job.
Our outfit always put on extra fence riders when a norther was headed our
way. As soon as the cattle started drifting the extra riders would go on
and stay untill the storm was over.
With the catching of them two bunches of rustlers, we had this
satisfaction that they did not cut any more fences, unless they did it
in hell.
"Fall of the Cowboy," Frederic Remington, oil on canvas, 1895.
Remington's The Fall of the Cowboy was used as the last of five illustrations for Owen Wister's
"The Evolution of the Cow-Puncher", Harper's New Monthly Magazine, September 1895. In the article, Wister laments
the passimg of the American cowboy:
They galloped by the side of the older hands, and caught something of the
swing and tradition of the first years. They developed heartiness and
honesty in virtue and in vice alike. Their evil deeds were not of the
sneaking kind, but had always the saving grace of courage. Their code
had no place for the man who steals a pocket-book or stabs in the back.
And what has become of them? Where is this latest outcropping of the Saxon
gone? Except where he lingers in the mountains of New Mexico he has been
dispersed, as the elk, as the buffalo, as all wild animals must inevitably
be dispersed. Three things swept him away -- the exhausting of the virgin
pastures, the coming of the wire fence, and Mr. Armour of Chicago, who set
the price of beef to suit himself. But all this may be summed up in the
word Progress.
The effect of the die-off was such that many eastern investors now withdrew and foreign ranchers simply left. Roosevelt noted:
"For the first time I have been utterly unable to enjoy a visit to my ranch. I shall be glad to get home. In its present
form, stock-raising on the plains is doomed and can hardly outlast the century."
Moreton Frewen, approx. 1880, see text below.
Among those who left Wyoming was
Sir Winston Churchill's uncle,
Moreton Frewen (1853-1924). Reportedly, Frewen arrived in Wyoming with £16,000 and departed owing
£30,000. Frewen convinced others, including Lords Dunraven and
Londsdale, to invest in cattle. Frewen, referred to by some as "Mortal Ruin" and by others as a
"sublime failure" and as the "splendid pauper,"
is now most remembered for his log mansion on Powder River which, among other things, boasted a
solid walnut staircase. At the mansion, Frewen entertained the rich and
famous of the Empire with lavish hunting parties.Some, at least, could best be described by the
Australian term "Pom" or "Pommy," so-called from the name of a tropical fruit.
Among those entertained were the Seventh Earl of Mayo, Dermot
Robert Wyndham Bourke. The Seventh Earl's father had served as Vice-Roy of India but was assassinated at
Port Blair by a madman just as the band was striking up Rule, Brittannia. Also visiting the ranch were Sir Samuel and
Lady Baker. Although Sir Samuel was a noted world explorer, the Queen avoided receiving him due, in part,
to the unconventional courtship of Sir Samuel and Lady Baker. Sir Samuel purchased the future
Lady Baker at a bazaar in Bulgaria. Addtionally, Sir Samuel's reception in Victorian society was not
helped when Sir Samuel's brother Valentine was accused of committing an indecent assault upon a
woman in a railway carriage. Another who made the 250 miles trip north from Rock Creek, was the Fifth
Earl of Donoughmore. During the Boer War, the Earl with other Irish lords raised two companies derisively known
as the "Irish Hunt Contingent." The contingent's adventures, in the words of Thomas Pakenham, raised
a "ripple of mirth" in the Empire. It was problably not funny to Lord Roberts. Twenty thousand troops had to
be diverted in a vain attempt to effectate the contingent's rescue.
One hunting expedition in 1884 was spoiled by the death of Member of Parliament, the Honorable
Gilbert H. C. Leigh, the eldest son of the William Henry Leigh, the Second Baron Leigh (Second Creation).
The Leighs were famous cricketeers who spared no expense on the game. The First Baron Leigh had played cricket
with Lord Byron in the first Harrow-Eton match. The First Baron's younger son, Gilbert's uncle,
played for Harrow, Oxford, Gentlemen of Warwichshire and I Zingali. Thus, it should not have been a surprise, when
Gilbert turned twenty-one, the birthday celebration took a week and included illuminations, fireworks, and
feasting. The centerpiece of the celebration was a two-day cricket match between the
Gentlemen of Warwichshire and I Zingali, the most exclusive and socially correct wandering cricket club in all of the
Empire.
Gilbert and his uncle played for I Zingali and his brother played for
the Gentlemen. the match ended when Gilbert, the last man out, scored a duck (in American
terminology, a "goose egg"). I Zingali had few rules. The annual subscription was not
permitted to exceed the entrance fee. There was no entrance fee. Membership was limited to 50. In 1845, one of the
members was designated as the Perpetual President. Since the presidency was
perpetual, no president has been elected since. The team colors were
red, black, and gold. Wearing of ties with the team colors, however, was regarded as gauche, it simply was not done.
On a bright and sunny morning in June, 1885, Moreton Frewen turned his horse south from the log mansion, never to return.
His departure from Wyoming was unlamented. Later, the Cheyenne Sun observed, "Of all the
English snobs of great pretensions who flew
so high and sunk so low, probably the Frewens are the
chiefs."
During his stay in Wyoming, Frewen worked for the preservation
of the American bison and the wapiti and proposed that Yellowstone be expanded to take
in the Big Horn Basin.
Upon his return to England, Frewen for a time resided in the game keeper's house at the
family manor, Brede Place. The manor is reputedly the second oldest
inhabited structure in England. Her Majesty's residence at Windsor is the oldest, but at least
it was updated by George IV. Brede Place is also reputedly the most haunted house in
England. Amongst the ghosts is that of Sir Goddard Oxenbridge who allegedly dined on small
children. The children of Sussex, fearful of being eaten, joined together and tempted
Sir Goddard with a barrel of mead upon which he got drunk and passed out. The children then took a
saw and cut Sir Goddard in half. When Colonel Cody's Wild West was performing in England in 1903, some of the
cowboys who previously worked on Frewen's ranch persuaded him to drive the Deadwood
Stage in the show.
Frewen's finances recovered somewhat when in 1896 an uncle died while sailing and Frewen inherited a hunting lodge in
County Cork. The income from Ireland provided Frewen with £2,000 a year. An additional inheritance
in favor of Frewen's wife provided another £1,000. Nevertheless, the money was soon gone, expended on
various schemes spread from Canada to Australia, India, and Africa. Frewen's children were
often embarrassed by the failure of Frewen to pay their school bills. Yet, somehow he
managed to timely pay his club bills lest he be asked to resign. And nevertheless, as Frewen gadded about the
planet losing fortunes for others, Frewen managed to impress American politicians to whom he was
attracted like a fly to molasses, including
William Jennings Bryan, with his economic ideas.
To raise money, Frewen rented Brede Place out. One of the tenants was Stephen
Crane who entertained the literati of the time at the estate. The manor, probably due to the
penury of Frewen, had not been brought completely up-to-date and lacked some modern
conveniences such as in-door plumbing. One house-guest, H. G. Wells, looked out
a window one cold morning and observed the hill "studded with melancholy,
preoccupied male guests." The County Cork lodge was burned down during the "Troubles."
Frewen's life was one which prompted Sir Shane Leslie to observe in a letter to
Rudyard Kipling of "poor old Moreton," that his life "was worthier of making a novel from
your pen than being trimmed into a biography." Kipling observed that Frewen lived "in every sense, except
what is called common sense, very richly and wisely to his own extreme content, and if he
had ever reached the golden crock of his dreams, he would have perished." Phil
Sheridan was less complimentary, referring to Frewen as "a greedy, grasping Englishman." When Frewen
died, his estate consisted of less than £50. Frewen Castle on Powder River was razed about
1912.
Sir Horace Plunkett
Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett, third son of the 16th Lord Dunsany of Meath, returned to Ireland. Sir
Horace was a partner of Frewen in the Western Live-stock and
Land Company and the Powder River Cattle Company. Sir Horace was also President of the
Frontier Land and Cattle Company. He ran the E K Ranch and was a participant
with J. M. Carey, William Irvine and F. E. Warren in the Wyoming Development Company which gave rise to
Wheatland. The lessons learned by Sir Horace in Wyoming, however, did not go unheeded.
Today, Sir Horace is remembered as the father of Irish agriculture. In Ireland, Sir Horace
was elected to Parliament not withstanding that he was a Unionist, lisped and stuttered.
He failed, however, of reelection. During the Irish Civil War, Sir Horace was treated, to use his own
analogy from Ireland in the New Century, J. Murray, London (1904), "like a
dog in a tennis court." As was Frewen's lodge, Sir Horace's house was burned
down. Sir Horace moved to England. For the remainder of his life he was noted for his use of
cowboy metaphors.
Thus, the era of the large foreign-owned cattle companies came to an end. As John Clay, manager of the Swan Land and
Cattle Company, observed:
The gains of the open range business were swallowed up
by the losses. From the inception of the opern range business in the
West and Northwest, from say 1870 to 1888, it is doubtful if
a single cent was made if you average up the business as a whole."
Thus, Clay noted,
"As the South Sea bubble burst, as the Dutch tulip craze dissolved, this cattle gold
brick withstood not the snow of winter."
But there is always an exception. John Clay was the exception. Clay had come to Wyoming in the
1880's to manage, among others the Swan Land and Cattle Company after Swan was fired. He owned the 71 Quarter Circle on the
Sweetwater. He acted as agent with William H. Forrest for the Y L Cattle Company on the
North Canadian. In 1886, he, with Charles H. Robinson, Sr. and Forrest, formed Clay, Robinson and Company which grew to be the
largest commission agency in the country with offices in Chicaco, Omaha, St. Paul, Fort Worth, and Denver. By 1913, Clay, Robinson had some
$120,000,000 in annual sales and purchases and owned 15 banks including ones in Cheyenne, Billings, Miles City, and Belle Fourche.. A commission agent
is one who arranges the sale of a stockgrowers stock. The stock would be shipped to the stockyard and consigned to the
commission agent who would then sell the cattle, sheep, etc. to the highest bidder and remit the
proceeds as instructed by the stockgrower.
"Waiting for a Chinook," C. M. Russell
In 1886 Charlie Russell was employed by Kaufman and Stadler. Kaufman wrote
asking how the cattle had fared. The response by Russell was a sketch of a
starving cow in the snow. Kaufman displayed the sketch in his office which led
to its popularity with requests of Russell for more copies. The version shown to the
right was painted about 1903.
But the snow of winter was not the sole cause for the failures. As a result of
over production of beef, prices the preceding year had plummeted. Thus, many stockgrowers had
held on their cattle over the winter. Thus many were already under a financial strain.
Micah Saufley noted that as early as November, 1886, Alexander Swan, "trembling on the
verge of bankruptcy," began transferring assets into his wife's and daughter's names.
The ultimate impact, however, was a change in operations, a trend toward smaller ranches, the growing of
alfalfa and hay, and the movement to sheep. Even the Two-Bar began the improvement of pasture and the
growing of hay to carry smaller herds over the winter.
Music this page, The Big Corral. Not all cowboy songs date to the 19th
Century. The Big Corral was written by Romaine Lowdermilk in 1922 and
based on the gospel tune Press Along to Glory Land.
The Big Corral
(Verse)
That chuckwagon brute from the cattle chute.
Press along to the Big Corral.
He should be branded on the snoot.
Press along to the Big Corral
(Chorus)
Press along cowboy, press along,
Press along with a cowboy yell.
Press along with a noise, big noise,
Press along to the Big Corral.
(Verse)
Well, early in the mornin' 'bout -- half past four.
Press along to the Big Corral.
You'll hear him open his face to roar.
Press along to the Big Corral.
(Repeat Chorus)
(Verse)
The wrangler's out a-combing the hills.
Press along to the Big Corral.
So jump in your britches and grease up your gills.
Press along to the Big Corral.
(Repeat Chorus)
(Verse)
That chuck we get ain't fit to eat.
Press along to the Big Corral.
There's rocks in the beans and sand in the meat.
Press along to the Big Corral.
Next Page, Roundups continued.
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