TX BIOS:  W. J. D. Carr
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   Interview
   
   Range-lore
   
   Elizabeth Doyle
   
   San Angelo, Texas.
   
   Page one Tales - Personal Anecdote
   
   RANGE-LORE
   
   W.J.D. Carr, old time rancher of Sherwood, Texas, was born in the
   Indian Territory before it became the state of Oklahoma. His father
   was principal of the Broomfield Academy, a government school for
   Indian girls, and Mr. Carr was ten years old before he ever saw a
   white child.
   
   "When I was a small boy in the Indian Territory," says Mr. Carr, "I
   got the fright of my life.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   00022My father was a very quiet, dignified man and our family had
   never been accustomed to much excitement, even though I was reared
   within a mile's ride of the painted Indian and wild buffalo I never
   saw either. But to tell you of my fright, we were all seated around
   the supper table when all at once we heard foot steps and the rattle
   of spurs on our front porch, then the sound of heavy treads coming
   right on in our front door. 'Hands up.' sounded a deep, gruff voice
   and we all looked at father and saw his hands go up and we did
   likewise. 'I am General Price,' announced the deep voice, 'and we only
   want food.' 'General Price,' exclaimed my father in friendly relief,
   'then we are friends, I am from Texas too,' and at that the general
   smiled and ordered us to put down our hands. Friendliness followed and
   the general was effusive in apologizing, saying that he had had so
   many dangerous experiences that he was not taking any chances when he
   started out for food.
   
   "I guess I was a pretty tame guy when I grew up and hit Texas as a
   ranch hand in my twenties. I managed to start off with sheep though,
   right here on Spring Creek, which was some tamer then the cow business
   and sort of helped to toughen up the soft spots before I got in with
   the real cowboys. I was with the Stillson and Chase outfit and we took
   1500 head of sheep to Central Kansas in the dry year of '86. We
   crossed all the big rivers between here and there and found them dry.
   There was no grass, just leaves for the sheep to eat. It rained
   00033in sight of us nearly every day we were out but not a drop on us.
   Truly we felt like the children of Israel. This trip was uneventful
   except for the memory of the drouth's severity. After I returned I got
   a job as cook for the 4-Cross L's. I worked there quite awhile and
   managed somehow to keep them from knowing that I was as green as I
   was, about the cow business. It came time for the boys to go into San
   Angelo to celebrate and I went along and played my hand pretty well at
   hiding my ignorance, for I knew there was no end to what they would do
   to me if they knew I was half as green as I was. I bought me a pair of
   chaps and a big hat and was doing my bit at helping toot 'em up in the
   days when San Angelo was considered wild and woolly. I can tell you
   right now though that there wasn't half as much danger in San Angelo
   then as there is now.
   
   "I worked my way into the good graces of my boss and soon he was
   sending me out on the drives just like the other boys. He sent me with
   a hundred head of cattle from Lamar County to Mason and sent a negro
   boy along to help me with them. That was the sleepiest negro I ever
   saw and I had all the work to do, myself, and try to keep that boy
   awake besides. I drove them right down what is now Main Street in
   Dallas and had to hold them over for the Trinity River to run down
   before I could cross. We held the cattle three days on the exact
   grounds where the Centennial was held. This was in 1881 and
   00044Dallas lacked a lot of reaching out that far then.
   
   "Like all old cowhands I had the usual and some very unusual
   experiences. The wildest stampede I ever witnessed was on the Sam
   Capps Ranch in Mason County. We were delivering 1,000 yearlings to
   another ranch and had camped for the night with the yearlings all
   rounded up and as we thought, about ready to bed down. They were all
   still but just bawl, bawl was all we could hear. All at once that
   bawling ceased as suddenly as if they had every one been shot at once.
   Several of the boys had laid down and were asleep but they were old
   cowhands and at the sudden cessation of the bawling one boy came to
   his feet shouting, 'Look out! Stampede!' He hadn't more then said it
   then they were off like a thunderstorm. They went right through a worm
   rail fence and piled rails ten feet high right where the boys lay
   sleeping. We grabbed our horses and were after them at once. They were
   easier to control than grown cattle and we got them stopped for the
   night in time to get a pretty good night's sleep after all but they
   were the wildest, worst scared things while they were running that I
   have ever seen.
   
   "The biggest round-up I ever saw was in May of '87. It had been dry in
   '85 and '86 and in May of '87 we had rain in old Tom Green County.
   Cattle come from everywhere, even hundreds of miles across the
   country. It took three days to work the round-up and for each owner to
   get his cattle. 00055"Cowboys had many dangerous experiences and
   narrow escapes, like down on the Middle Concho once we were all
   watching a bull fight between two big old Spanish Bulls. After awhile
   one out did the other and seemingly to celebrate his victory he ran
   under Buck Porter's horse and turned him completely over, Buck was
   sitting sidewise on his horse and it looked like he went about ten
   feet high. As he came down right on the old bull's horns he was grazed
   clear around the stomach and only escaped death by a miracle.
   
   "Speaking of Englishmen, I have heard that Claud Anson who ranched all
   over the west was in direct line for an Earldom. He specialized in
   fancy polo ponies and had eaten at our wagon many times.
   
   "The English people were very amusing. One of them who ranched near us
   had some of "blooded" friends from the Mother Country to visit him and
   they walked down to our pens one morning and one of the fancy guys
   rared back and said to me, 'I'll betcha $50.00 that negro boy can't
   ride that big bull lying over there.' 'I'll take your bet,' I says as
   I winked at the boy. 'Get on him lying down now,' ordered the smart
   man, and the little negro looked at me with all the mischief in the
   world in his big eyes. I nodded and Pete crawled on. The old bull
   lazily got up, stretched his tail and started walking off. 'That's the
   bull that Pete rides after the milch cows,' I said. In deep chagrin
   the Englishmen paid off and left. 00066"The English were no more
   comical, trying to ranch than the few Jews who came here and tried it.
   One old Jew by the name of Gronsky had a little money so he bought him
   a string of sheep and a section of land near Colorado, Texas. When
   neighboring ranchmen began talking of lambing he got all excited and
   began asking some of the fellows around, how many men he would need to
   help with the lambing. We told him several, so he hired four and kept
   them about two weeks. When no lambs came he began to investigate and
   found that every sheep he had was a ram. The old devil had a way of
   taking his herd over on any and everybody's grass to graze them. Will
   McCoy caught him over on his ranch for about the tenth time and Will
   had enough of it. He walked up to him and said, 'Now see here Abie, if
   you don't get those d--- sheep off my grass, I'm going to kick your
   old bottom clear out of the county.' 'Yes and while you are kickin' me
   bottom, me sheep will be eating the more of your grass,' Abie replied,
   with much satisfaction.
   
   "Wash Tankersley and Charley Binson were the best ropers I ever saw. I
   saw them rope 500 calves once, each by the forefoot and not miss a
   throw. I told that once at a small gathering and an old East Texas
   farmer rose up and says, 'Who told you that d--n lie?'
   
   "A Dutch boy was the best rider I ever saw. He learned to ride by
   penning wild horses and running them through a gate and dropping off
   on their backs. I never 00077saw a horse throw him.
   
   "Jimmie Craig was just a kid in our bunch and he was a wonder for
   distinguishing horses. He could identify and tell something different
   about any horse out of hundreds and he was never mistaken.
   
   "I felt so sorry about an other boy, I wont tell his name but he was a
   good boy and just happened to fall into bad company and get in jail.
   We had for a time through here, a self appointed vigilance committee
   (Vigilantes) who were supposed to aid the law in suppressing cattle
   rustling, etc. They abused the cause of their duties as is usually the
   case. When this boy was put in jail they rode by, threw a turpentined,
   lighted ball through his cell window and shot him by this light as he
   lay asleep on his bunk.
   
   "The Ketchum boys were fine fellows to be around just in a social way,
   but they were of a reckless, devil-may-care sort, who thought only of
   easy money. The Indian Territory was fertile soil for them in the
   boot-legging days.
   
   "I have also seen Quantrall and his men around Sherman, when they were
   said to have been on one of their prowling raids.
   
   "I knew a woman once who worked for the McCrowans on the Pecos for
   several years making every one, even the boss think she was a man. She
   really had a little beard 00088and looked for all the world like any
   other cowboy. Her regalia or get-up was perfect and she could do
   anything any other cowboy could do. Finally she fell in love with the
   commissary sergeant at Fort McKavett and married him. They were both
   educated dudes and I guess too much alike to get along. Anyway, they
   separated and several years later one of the cowboys saw her at a
   dance at Ben Ficklin all dressed up fit to kill and he eased up to her
   and said, 'Jack, what in the hell are you doing here like this?' 'Like
   what?' she asked. 'Why, like a woman.' says he. 'I've been a woman all
   the time,' she told him. 'My God!' exclaimed the cowboy, 'Let me out
   of here to the fresh air.' We never knew of her trying to pass as a
   boy again and never knew the real cause of her doing so that time but
   she certainly made a neat job of the act.
   
   "There in nothing I enjoy better than the stockmen's convention at
   Fort Worth. Last year I saw two hundred or more of the old boys on
   given name terms. 'Hey! John,' or 'Hello Bill,' could he heard on
   every side.
   
   "I went back to Mason County in 1935 and walked out to an old worm
   rail fence that I had split rails for in 1880. 'I'm going to take one
   back to Spring Creek with me.' I told my son, and I just put it in my
   car and have it standing up in the corner in that room there now.
   Sometimes if I live long enough I hope to write a book about myself,
   of all my ups and downs." 0009Range-lore
   
   Elizabeth Doyle
   
   San Angelo, Texas.
   
   BIBLIOGRAPHY
   
   W.J.D. Carr, Sherwood, Texas, interviewed, November 18, 1937.

************************************************************************
USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced 
in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of
this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives
to store the file permanently for free access.

http://www.usgwarchives.org/

Thanks to the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/txcat.html
***********************************************************************