and stayed with the herd. Instead of going to Deer Trail, I delivered the herd on the north side of the Arkansas River at Coolidge, Kansas, or rather at Trail City, Colorado, there being only the state line between the two towns. My outfit went to a point about twenty miles north of Trail City, where the firm had 3,400 twoyear-old steers which they had sold to a man whose name I have forgotten. We cut them out and took them back to the south side of the Arkansas River and then up that stream for some distance where we delivered them. This man had a certified check to give me in payment for these cattle. He was in a buckboard with a driver, and getting out to ride with us on the herd he told his driver to go on ahead for some distance. The driver pulled out, traveled at a lively gait and got lost from us, being found two weeks later down at Dodge City with the buckboard and everything all right.

I left a part of my crew, some went on, while others came back home. George Mudd and Frank Blair had a fist fight on this trip which helped to liven up things in camp.

COLONEL DILLARD R. FANT

Sketch of One of the Most Prominent of All Trail Drivers

Colonel Dillard R. Fant, who died in 1918, was born in the Anderson district of South Carolina, July 27, 1841, his parents being W. N. and Mary Fant, who were also natives of that district. They moved to Texas in 1852, locating near Goliad. At the age of fourteen, the boy Dillard began freighting with ox teams between San Antonio and Goliad, and at the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the Confederate forces, enlisting in Captain Kinney's company of the Twenty-first Texas Cavalry and Carter's Brigade, serving in the Trans-Mississippi department in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

After the Civil War ended Colonel Fant engaged in farming for a short time in Goliad county, but in 1886 he went into the cattle business and rapidly rose to prominence because of the extent and importance of his operations. He drove cattle to Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and other markets, and for a number of years he had large contracts with the government to supply beef cattle to various military posts and agencies, including Yankton and Standing Rock agencies in Dakota, and Fort Reno and Fort Sill in the Indian Territory. These contracts extended over a period of about fourteen years, during which time Colonel Fant delivered many thousands of cattle to the government. During a period of about four years he wintered vast herds of cattle on the Loup and Platte Rivers in Nebraska, but his operations extended to Wyoming, where he sold a great many cattle, and even as far as Idaho where he spent two winters. Colonel Fant drove one of the largest bunches of cattle ever taken over the trail in 1884, numbering 42,000, going in several herds to Wyoming. The magnitude of this undertaking may be imagined from the fact that these cattle cost him from $12 to $20 per head, requiring 1,200 saddle horses in making the drive, and fully two hundred men were used to handle the herds and supplies on the trail.

After the quarantine laws against Texas became effective, Colonel Fant ceased taking his cattle to the north and confined his operations to trips to the Indian Territory, where he secured pasturage and grazing privileges for his herds. It is estimated that he took fully two hundred thousand head of cattle over the trail to the north during the fifteen years he was engaged in the business. During all these years Colonel Fant had continued in the cattle business at his home in Goliad county, and it is claimed that he was the second man to fence a pasture in Texas, enclosing his first range in 1874, when he began to improve his stock by the introduction of Durhams and

Herefords. He gradually extended his land holdings, placed more pastures under fence, and locåted ranches in Frio, Live Oak, Hidalgo and other counties, some as far north as Tarrant county. He owned and operated the Santa Rosa ranch in Hidalgo county, which comprised 225,000 acres, a pasture of sixty thousand acres in Live Oak county, and altogether had holdings amounting to 700,000 acres of grazing land in various parts of the state.

Colonel Fant was married at Goliad, Texas, October 15, 1865, to Miss Lucy A. Hodges, daughter of Colonel Jack Hodges, a prominent Texan who won distinction in the Mexican war. Eight children were born to Colonel and Mrs. Fant, and some of them are today prominent in the business and social life of the state.

A few years ago Colonel Fant disposed of his ranch holdings, retired from the cattle business, and established his home in San Antonio, where he resided until his death.

RELATES OF A TRIP MADE IN 1872

By M. L. Bolding, of Bartlett, Texas

I was born in Mississippi and there I spent my childhood and early manhood, coming to Texas in 1867 and settling in Williamson county.

My first experience on the trail was in the year 1871, which was followed by another trip in 1872, and concerning the latter I shall relate.

I was a member of the crew of W. T. Avery of Hutto, Texas, and after rounding up two thousand steers and with all the necessary paraphernalia consisting of chuck wagon, extra saddle horses and other things, we left Brushy Creek for Kansas on April 15, 1872. We crossed Little River west of Temple, Texas, which at that time

was a prairie; the Brazos at Waco, which was then a small town; the Trinity at Forth Worth, which consisted of a blacksmith shop, and Red

River west of Sherman, which was at that time a large country town. Upon entering the Indian Nation, now the state of Oklahoma, we encountered Indians, buffaloes and wild horses. We followed a trail known as the main western trail and, due to heavy rains and the cattle stampeding, together with trouble with the Indians, we experienced many hardships. We crossed the Arkansas River into Kansas and stopped at Baxter Springs, spending one month resting and fattening the cattle. From there we moved to Ellsworth, located on Smoky River, the extreme frontier of Kansas, from which point we shipped the cattle by rail to Kansas City and sold them. On the return trip I had charge of a wagon and some extra saddle horses and after spending six weeks on the journey I arrived home in November.

M. L. BOLDING

I am now seventy years of age and live at Bartlett, Texas.

PAID THREE DOLLARS FOR FIVE GALLONS OF WATER

By Sam Garner of Lockhart, Texas

I was born in Tennessee in June, 1847, and have lived in Caldwell county over sixty-three years, witnessing all of the wonderful changes that have occurred in that great space of time. When I was sixteen years old I went into the Confederate Army and "fit, bled and died" for the