The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 352
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
for a while as Mr Simmons and myself have to gather some milch cows
and gentle them.
Have just got back after a terrible ride and only penned one cow, of
course the calf had to be roped and dragged in the pen or we could
not have penned her, the cattle are wild in this country, I have seen
them frequently run in a thick brake crouch down among the grass
and brush, hiding to wait till you will pass and leave them,38 I like
this country very well and expect to make it my home, and wish you
all would move out here, am sure you can do very well out here. I
wrote a letter to Pa about two weeks since, but do not know whether
he received it or not. ivwo nights be fore the full of this last moon the
indians came in and stole a large herd of horses, got about forty odd
head from Dan Moore, a horse raiser, lives a half mile above us on
this creek, the scout of twenty trailed them a piece and a volunteer
company followed them up on the Llano R. but could not overtake
them. Ma if Pa has that watch yet I wish you would ask him to send
it to me, but before you send it, write, and then I will tell you in
whose care to send it Mr. Myer, a jeweler in F g31 or maybe direct
to me, write at any rate. How are all the children I would like to see
them mighty well, I would like to see their pictures. wish you would
send them, I still have yours yet, you look mighty young and pretty.
Well I must close as dinner is almost ready, Write soon and send me
some papers. Direct to Fredericksburg
Good Bye
From Your Affectionate Son
HORACE40
s8Dobie, A Vaquero of the Brush Country, 4-5, describes similar procedures in
penning a cow. "'Chousing' [the wild cattle] was extremely hazardous. They were
. cunning, and ready to fight anything that got in front of them. Most of them
stayed in the brush all day and came out on the prairie to graze only at night."-
Ibid., 14.
soFredericksburg, county seat of Gillespie County, just west of Blanco County. See
Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State (New York, 1940), 636: "Fredericksburg
11,742 alt., 2,416 pop.), snug in a green valley rimmed about by evergreen hills,
is a trim, clannish, thoroughly German town. .. The town retains an Old World
flavor in architecture and in the tenacious devotion of the inhabitants to the Ger-
man culture and folkways of the founders. .... The surrounding valleys ... were also
settled by German immigrants. The German settlers came in 1846."
After many hardships, the colonists began to enjoy prosperity. The above source
continues: "The surrounding country was rich in fish and game. Fertile valleys
were watered by abundant streams and the heavily wooded hills provided building
stone. Thriftily the settlers laid the foundations for the present prosperous region
of sheep, goat and cattle raising, with small plots, intensively farmed, in narrow
valleys."
See also Don H. Biggers, German Pioneers in Texas, Gillespie County Edition
(Fredericksburg, 1925); Handbook of Texas, I, 684-685; Rudolph L. Biesele, The
History of the German Settlements in Texas, 1831-1861 (Austin, 1930).
4oThis letter was enclosed in a small envelope addressed as follows:352
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959, periodical, 1959; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101173/m1/419/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.