Amarillo Sunday News-Globe (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 33, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 14, 1938 Page: 175 of 264
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nni.DKN ANNIVERSARY EDITION. 103S.
AMARTLLO SUNDAY NKWR AND OT.OBP: AMARTLLO. TEXAS.
SECTION E PA OR TWENTY-THREE
0. H. Nelson Leader
In Hereford Industry
By VANCE JOHNSON
People need meat for food. Meat
must be obtained for them.
Ohio-born O. H. Nelson made the
deduction. He was 18 years old and
a. thousand mile.s away from home.
He and his sweetheart had just rid-
den over the first 18 miles of the
Atchison and Topeka Railroad. They
were par.icipating In a meat cele-
bration at Carbondale, Kan.
The year was 1869. Winter was
over and grass was coming. Young
Nelson visioned ribbons of steel
pushing slowly, steadily westward
and with the grass he saw cattle
by the thousands coming to meet
them. Coming to provide people
back in settlements with meat they
needed.
Pinches of the Civil War still
were being felt in the North and
the first Texar.s had not yet pushed
up through Indian country with
their Longhorn herds.
But Texas cattle came. In the
winter of 1870-71. 20-year-old Nel-
son bought 300 3- and 4-year-old
Texas steers. Nelse Morris, a young
man who was to become a great
packer, came out from Kansas City
to look at the steers. He offered
3 cents a pound.
"Three and a hair," demanded
Nelson.
Morris went back home. Nelson
combined his herd with that of a
neighbor, drove into Kansas City.
On his 21st birthday, Oct 9, 1871,
he camped on the outskirts of the
town. But they were just a few
hours too late. A cow owned by a
woman named O'Learv had kicked
over a lantern; Chicago was burn-
ing and Kansas City's market had
suffered a sinking spell. They stayed
several days, finally sold for 2 cents
—but even at that made money.
Nelson had money in his jeans and
his eye on the future. In 1879 he
followed the buffalo hunters' trail to
Adobe Walls, where W. E. Ander-
son's Scissors Ranch had headquar-
ters. From there he bought cattle
from the Bar CC. the PO and the
Turkey Track. The Atchison and
Topeka had shoved westward, Santa
Fe had been added to its name and
Dodge City had become a cow town.
Nelson trailed his cattle there, sold
them.
And when he rame bark h^
brought something to sell. Already
he was a member of the well-known
firm of Finch, Lord & Nelson of
Burlingame, Kan., breeders, im-
porters and "jobbers" of Hereford I
cattle. Between 1881 and 1888 he sold
10,000 bulls to Panhandle cattle-
men, practically all after the first j
two years being whitefa cs.
"During the 50 years he devoted
to the handling of Herefords he
saw the whitefaces put their dis-
tinctive mark upon practically all
of the beef herds in the Southwest,
and perhaps no other man did more j
to bring Hereford supremacy in that j
section," says John M. Hazelton,;
author of "History and Handbook!
of Hereford Cattle."
"O. H. Nelson always played j
straight," said Charles Goodnight.!
"He handled more big deals, lost i
and won more money in cattle than
any other man in the Panhandle.
He knew the trail to Dodge City
like a book. He was a reckless sort
of devil but clean clear through."
The Panhandle got into Nelson's
blood. With Thomas S. Bugbee he
bought out the Flying T holdings
of Leigh Dyer and Mrs. Goodnight
at Deep Lake in Hall County, estab-
lished the Shoe Bar. The ranch grew
until it branded 15.000 calves an-
nually and covered a million acres,
touching the JA, the Quarter Circle
Heart, the Diamond Tail and the
Milliron,
• • •
His operations spread info widely-
flung sections. Laura V. Hamner,
who interviewed him many times,
says he owned several ranches,
maintained pastures in Kansas. "In
one year alone he pastured 50,000
head." A man of unbound energy,
he was on the trail much of the
time, once trailing cattle from Al-
pine, Texas, to Giles, in Donley
County—a distance of 650 miles.
Nelson liked his fun, and his cards.
He once told Miss Hamner about a
night spent at Hoodoo Brown's store
on Cripple Creek near Meade, Kan.
"Brown had a nice little stock of
goods and some horses and cattle,
besides some money," he said. "That
night we got into a poker game.
That is one time I win. He staked
his cattle; I win 'em. He staked his
horses; I win 'em. His stock of goods
followed; he had lost his money
first of all. At last he said he didn't
have a thing left but his wife, but
if I would put up one hundred dol-
lars against her we would play her
off. I balked."
Next morning, Nelson tore up pa-
pers conveying all of Brown's hold-
ings, but "kept the money to paint
Dodge with."
A shrewd business man, a hard
rider, lie also was capable of a scrap.
"He'll fight; that little devil will
fight," Goodnight once said of him.
"A man once threatened him. Nelson
heard about it. He searched for that
fellow; found him in a saloon in
Mobeetie and said to him: 'I'm here.
I don't want any trouble with you
but if you want to fight, I'm here.'
That's the type of man Nelson is
and always has been."
Once when Nelson was riding in
his buggy along McClelland Creek
a man rode up from behind, gun
in hand, grabbed the bridle of one
of Nelson's mules, commanding him
to "stick 'em up."
Nelson, who had his whip in hand, '
whacked a mule across the rump
and the team lunged forward. The
man was thrown to the ground,
dragged for several paces. By the
time the fellow got up Nelson had
his Winchester in action. One bullet
struck the dust at his feet, three
more struck a tree behind which
the fleeing would-be bandit hid.
Indians once stole 40 of his horses. ;
He rode, alone, toward the Anardar-
ko, Okla., Indian agency. On the way I
he met one Indian astride one of
his horses. He promptly dismount-
ed the rascal, proceeded on to Ana-
darko, where he told the Indian
agent there would be a killing if
he didn't get his horses back. Most
of them were rounded up.
Cowmen with whom he dealt be-
lieved in him explicitly. At one time,
he carried $60,000 of Hank Cress-
well's money in his pockets for 30
days "without a single inquiry from
him."
The railroads pushed westward,
as he had foreseen. As the Santa
Fe got inside Texas, the firm of
Finch, Lord & Nelson organized
and platted the towns of Higgins,
Canadian, Miami and Panhandle.
Nelson built the first house in Pan-
handle in 1887. The firm also es-
[ tablished Canadian's first bank.
Nelson offared himself for the of-
' fice of county judge in Carson
1 County's first election. In the voting
■ room, after the results had been dc-
[ termined, Nelson overheard an op-
ponent declare, "I'm defeated all
right. I grant it. But it certainly
hurts to be licked by a dirty dog."
To which he replied; "Well, I've
always heard that the lick of a
dog is good for a sore."
In 1889, he withdrew from the
firm of Finch, Lord & Nelson and
established a breeding herd of pure
bred Herefords at Romero, in Hart-
ley County, became the first presi-
dent of the Panhandle Hereford
Breeders' Association.
"Had Judge Nelson been born on
a southern plantation he could not
have been more typical of the Old
South than he was," says Miss
Hamner. "He had tlie soft drawling
voice: he bowed with a Southerner's
courtly grace; he was exquisitely
deferential in his manner to wom-
en; he had the gambling instinct
of the Old South; he had the ideals.
"His grandfather moved from Vir-
ginia to Highland County, O, When
Nelson grew to boyhood, old enough
to leave his home in Lebanon, he
spent all his summers on his grand-
father's farm. This was a bit of Vir-
ginia transplanted to Ohio soil. Here
Nelson lived the life of a Virginian."
So widely was he known that
even to the time of his death, at
more than four score years, he
sometimes received letters addressed
to "O. H. Nelson, Somewhere in the
Panhandle of Texas."
Golf Faith
Jack Bush, leasee and manager
of Wolflin Park Golf Course, an
18-hoIe layout located within the
city limits, has been a resident of
Amarillo for 22 years.
In 1916, Bush came to Amarillo
with his parents. He went to j
school, played golf, became adept at j
the sport, and in 1923 turned pro-
fessional.
He was lured away from Ama-
rillo for a brief time after becom-
ing a golf pro, but he soon came j
back to manage the Wolflin Park i
course in 1931. In 1935, he leased
the course.
Bush has implicit faith in golf, j
the only business he knows outside j
a few months' experience as a groc- |
ery clerk, and believes that Amarillo ]
is destined to become a great, sports -
center as well as an industrial and j
business city.
"I intend to live here and to op- |
erate Wolflin Park course indcii- j
nitely," he says enthusiastically.
EXCHANGE HOTEL IN OLD TASCOSA. Left of door,
A. F. Linpcr, manager of the LS ranch for Swift & Com-
pany; right of door, Snooks Edwards, then Jack Cooper
and John Snider, of Amarillo. On the bench, nearest
figure seated is Aunt Sue Jackson, well-loved resident of
Tascosa.
BATES AND BEALS
Shafter Lake In Andrews County !
| was named for a General Shafter I
I who was in charge of an army de- |
; taehmcnt in the Panhandle in the
I 1870's. I
(Continued from Page 22)
after Johnson got there with his
herd. Going to Wright and Beverly's
store, upon John's advice I pur-
chased a complete cowboy outfit
Irom hat to spurs, then went with
him to the wagon.
In about a week the steers were
loaded out and we started out on
our long ride to the ranch. On the
second night out we met Thomas
and his outfit at Crooked Creek,
with about 200 head of the John
Ray cattle that they had gathered
on the Cimarron and Beaver rivers.
The winter of 1884-85 was v*-y
severe and the loss in cattle on
the ranch was hpnvj*. The same ap-
plied to the saddle horses. All hay
used at headquarters was cut and
baled out on the Plains and hauled
in to the ranch as needed. The ice
get .so thick on the Canadian that
winter that it would hold up a
wagon loaded with hay, but it was
too siick for a mule to stand up on
and pull. So we boys would go to
the river and push the load across.
I believe that was the coldest winter
I have ever seen.
During the summer of '85 about
7,000 one and two-year-old steers
were brought down below the cap-
rock and driven to the ranch,
branded and turned loose. That
fall two herds of steers were driven
to Kiowa, Kan., for shipment and
two herds were also brought up there
from the Turkey Creek pasture. On
the death of Campbell, John Holli-
cott was made ranch manager. Bill
Ruth, who had worked on the ranch
for some time as a hand and also
as a wagon boss, was made range
boss. Ruth was very much the
same type of man as W. C. Moore,
a good cowman, a splendid horse-
man, and well liked by the cowboys.
Just a real man. He was range boss
for six years, until he married and
quit the ranch.
In 1888 an electrically charged
fence was built by the Pastoral
Company. The inventor of this
fence, David H. Wilson, came to the
Panhandle and got the management
interested in his invention. To try
out this idea, and experimental
ience about five miles long was built
around Bugbee Canyon, on the east
side of the LX range. At the head
of Bugbee Canyon there is about a
10-foot falls on the creek. Here a
water wheel was constructed and
this overhead water utilized to turn
the wheel and generate electricity
to charge the fence. This experi-
ment proved a succcss, so the com-
pany the following year decided to
build one on the south end of the
range. A power plant was built at
a camp maintained for the ranch
freight teams about half way be-
tween the Children's Home and
Amarillo Lake, northwest of the city.
A four-wire fence was built east
to the county line somewhere in the
neighborhood of St. Francis, here it
| ran north to the Canadian River,
j The current was sent out on the
top wire and returned .on the third
one. After a year's trial the fence
] was declared a failure. Cattle would
| keep it torn down, so the plant was
disposed of and a cowboy returned
to his old job of fence riding.
During the next two years most
I of the smooth school land north of
this fence was taken up by settlers
and as the company did not approve
of the settlers inside their range,
I they moved the fence back five or
I six miles, leaving the settlers on
i the outside. The four-section law of
1897 allowed settlers to file on graz-
| ing school land, which up to this
| time had been leased by the big
ranchmen. In no time almost all
the school land w:as filed on.
On some ranches the cowboys
! filed on those school lands and
I leased them to their employers for
i grazing purposes.
| John Hollicott arranged that 17
reliable LX boys should file on four
well-watered school sections on the
range and that the company would
lease those sections, paying enough
lease to take care of their obliga-
tions to the state. About this time
William Thompson, auditor and
manager of the Denver office, died
and his successor, a Mr. Gilmour,
vetoed Hollicott's proposition, avow-
ing that it would give the boys too
much of a hold on the company and
cause trouble.
The trouble they would have
caused, if so minded, was as nothing
to what did happen. In a short !
time every four school sections all
over the range had been filed on,
and almost every settler had a
bunch of cattle, more than enough
to eat up what grass they owned, j
There was no law regarding the j
number of cattle anyone could turn !
loose on a range. The only re-
course a ranchman had was to!
fence the lands of the offending
party. Of course, that was out of'
the question. I knew one man that
had 650 cattle on four sections,
Another one leased four or five sec-
tions from three different settlers
and then he turned two thousand
Oklahoma cattle loose in the LX
pasture.
John Hollicott was manager of the
LX from 1885 until 1898. After
| leavirfg he filed on four sections of
j school land located on the Canadian i
| River west of Tascosa. After proving j
I up this land, he sold out to the j
Matador Ranch. He then went to I
j Douglas, Ariz., to his old cowboy
, friend, Jim East, onetime sheriff of
Oldham County. Six or seven years
! ago Hollicott drew his money, j
| amounting to several thousand dol-
lars, out of the bank and left
Douglas without telling anyone
goodbye or where he was going. Un-
til this day not a word has been
received from him nor has anyone
even heard about him.
I was associated with John Hol-
j licott, found him a wonderful and
I highly educated man, and I shall
• always regard him as one of the best!
friends I ever had or expect to
| have.
J. W. Clark succeeded Hollicott.
| He came from Cheyenne. W.yo„
where he had been in the cattle
| business. Coming here just after the
changes mentioned, he stepped right
! into a hornet'j nest. Several hard
I characters had settled within the
i range and they took great pleasure j
in bull baiting Clark. They would i
! leave gates open, round up cattle
i on the range when the fancy hit
: them, and the beef that they ate
j did not taste good unless it had been i
decorated with the LX brand at
the time of slaughter.
To try to combat this rustling,
I he company, in conjunction with
! C. B. Willingham of the Turkey
| Track Ranch, hired John L. Sulli-
,van. a noted Texas ranger and
gunman to watch both ranges for
cow thieves, or anyone eating com-
pany beef. John stayed at the line
ramps and patrolled both ranges,
but he never had any luck in catch-
ing anyone depredating on the com- 1
panies.
The second winter of his employ-
| ment, John got after a dog that was
j either following him or chasing
; cattle. When he got within shooting
| distance he pulled his gun, and just
j as he shot his horse stumbled. He
shot himself through the leg just
j above the knee joint, breaking the
; bone. It was over a year before
i John could walk.
I After two very aggravating years
Clark resigned and went as manager |
for one of the Rowe brothers, who '
had leased a pasture from the T-
Anchor Ranch. The following year
he went to the JA as assistant to j
Dick Walsh, general manager, and
from there to the Corrallitos Cattle j
Company in Old Mexico. Shortly
after going there he was burned to
death in a prairie fire.
On Clark's resignation, Henry C-.'f
Harding, an experienced Texas cow-
man, was engaged in 1900 as man-
ager. Clark's experience was val-
uable to Harding, and he got along
well with the settlers within the I
range. During Clark's last year on i
the ranch, the settlers ran their J
own wagon during roundup, which
made the work considerably more j
satisfactory to all parties. This was ,
continued during the first few years
of Harding's administration.
In 1902 the management decided
to build new headquarters for the i
ranch. Bonita Creek on the south j
side of the Canadian was selected, j
since it was closer to Amarillo and j
the shipping pens. All available
lumber, doors, windows, etc . in the
old ranch and at Pitcher Creek were j
salvaged and used in the new build-
ings.
In 1910 the American Pastoral
Company decided to liquidate its
Panhandle holding's. According to
the records of Potter County the ;
late Lee Bivins, October fi, 1910, '
purchased from them 30.353 acres,
which included the Bonita Creek
headquarter- This purchase
amounted to $79,038, and May 19
1915, M'\ Bivins purchased an addi-
tional 53,328 acres for $203,491
Other purchases from the compan:-
and individuals at various times,
increased the Bivins holdings south :
of the Canadian River to almost!
100,000 acres. Mr. Bivins also pur- .
chased the last of the LX cattle
and with them he acquired the ,
brand, which he used until his j
death. When his estate was settled, ;
Mrs. Bivins acquired the brand with
her part of the cattle, which she
still uses.
The LX brand is undoubtedly the
oldest in the Panhandle, dating
back to 1874 or '75. Miles G. Bivins I
is now owner of the western end ;
of the lands south of the Canadian,
which includes the Bonita Creek
headquarters. The land amounts to
about 70,000 acres. Julian Bivins
now owns the eastern portion, and
recently built headquarters ori
Alice Bates Creek, almost in the
cenler of his 55,000-acre ranch. The
rest of the LX holdings eventually
'19111 passed into the hands of the
late R. B. Masterson.
I have told of the owners, man-
agers, range foremen and wagon
bosses of the LX. I conclude with
an eulogy to a class of men that
much of the smoothness and work-
ing conditions of a ranch depended
on. I refer to the various cooks that:
I knew on the ranch—Johnnie Rose,
Old Bill Kelly, J. W. McKinney,
Hannibal Blane, T. B. Riley (Pokes
Tom), Jake Lowmiller, and Gus Lee
(colored), and many more as good
but now forgotten men.
One of the tragedies of the disin-
tegration of the big cattle outfits1
I was the necessary elimination of
: the chuck wagon and the cook. In
I the days of the open range and big
1 pastures they were a necessity. With
the coming of the wire fence and
' small pastures, the cook and the
Paradise
Because he believed Amarillo wai
destined to become the "Paradise
of the Plains," John "Dock Gray,
who founded the first negro-owned
store in Amarillo on March 4, l //,
moved here from Paris, Texas, in
1908, when there weie only 8
negroes in the entire city.
Dock Gray was employed by the
E. R. Roach Wholesale Drug Com-
pany and other drug companies for
the r.ext 19 years. When he opened
the Corner Drug at 118 Harrison
Street in 1927, he had as his soda
fountain the first fountain ever
brought to Amarillo. He purchased
It from a storage warehouse.
Dock Gray operated the Corner
Drug until his death In 1930. Since
then It ha- been operated by his
widow, Harrietta Gray, who has re-
modeled. redecorated, and generally
improved the concern until its
fountain equipment, floor and fix-
tures compare favorably with Ama-
rillo's largest drug stores. G. W.
Carson manages the store.
Juvenile
One of the younger store.* In Ama-
rillo serving the younger generation
is the Juvenile Shoe Store at 112
East Sixth Avenue, which was
opened last August by John Ken-
Wit, h Mr. Kenyon, who for a num-
ber of vcai . was with the post office,
are Mrs. Kenyon and O. Turner. Mr.
Turner, who has been in the shoe
business since 1889, has lived in
Amarillo for the past 12 years and
for a num| er of years was associated
with the shoe department at Le-
vine's.
The store features children's and
growing girls' shoes, Boy Scout and
Girl Scout shoes, women's low-heel
sport shoes, and hosiery.
Newcomer in Business
A newcomer to the family of
Amarillo business firms Is the B and
M Auto Sales, located at Tenth Av-
enue and Taylor Street, which
opened July 1.
However, the two owners, who
purchased the used car lot from J.
C. Christopher, are not newcomers
to Amarillo.
Lester Brummett, a native of
Claude and long time resident of
Amarillo, has spent many years In
the automotive business and served
as used car manager for Tony Chis-
um. His partner, Davis Medley has
lived in Amarillo for 10 years and
formerly was credit manager for
Tony Chisum.
L. Hamilton, a pioneer automobile
salesman here, and E. L. Odom are
salesmen for the firm.
wagon have been crowded out. They
formed one of the mast, interesting
and glamorous phases of the cattle
industry.
A "sorry" wagon cook was the
most despised man in the outfit, a
good cook was a joy. If the cook
was sorry that was sure to be re-
flected In the work of the men in
the outfit; If he was cheerful, will-
ing and could turn out eatable food,
you were apt to find an outfit that
would turn out the maximum of
■ work without complaint. V
" - '>
Swisisi?
wmmm
These snapshots show
some of the $300,000.00
worth of range bum
and heifers which wore
sold by Coon & Cul-
bertson in 1937. This
firm offers yearlings
and two-year-old ranoe
bulls for sale any month
of the year. Heifers ara
offered only in the
months of August and
September. These pure
bred heifers are going
into prominent commer-
cial herds each year to
be used as foundation
stock.
-Tsi
. ' j
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COON
and
CULBERTSON
Dalhart, Texas
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Amarillo Sunday News-Globe (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 33, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 14, 1938, newspaper, August 14, 1938; Amarillo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth299921/m1/175/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hutchinson County Library, Borger Branch.