sands of longhorns owned by him were driven over the trail to Kansas and the territories to market and the ranges. Before the Northern markets had opened to any extent Captain King erected rendering establishments on his ranch and shipped tallow and hides to market via water.

Captain King interested himself in every enterprise that was for the good of the Southwest. He was a builder in every sense, and was interested in the construction of the San Diego, Corpus Christi & Rio Grande Railroad.

At the time of his death Captain King owned outright more than 500,000 acres of land. He made his wife his sole legatee and executrix without bond. His son-inlaw, R. J. Kleburg, was placed in charge of the estate and under his management the King ranch has increased to more than 950,000 acres, on which today graze thousands of head of high-grade cattle. As many as 30,000 calves have been branded on this ranch in a single year.

In December, 1854, Captain King was married to Miss Henrietta M. Chamberlain, daughter of Rev. Hiram Chamberlain of Brownsville, Texas. Of this union the following children were born: Robert Lee, deceased; Nettie M., who became the wife of Brigadier General E. B. Atwood; Mrs. Ellen M. Atwood, Richard King and Mrs. R. J. Kleburg.

DROVE CATTLE FOR DOC BURNETT

By L. Beasley, Junction, Texas

I was raised on a ranch in Gonzales county, Texas, and moved to Kimble county and located a ranch in 1897, and am still here, raising high-grade cattle, goats, sheep and hogs. Have been in the cattle business all of my life. I drove cattle up the trail in the early eighties for Doc Burnett, and could relate many thrilling experiences of

those good old times, but I guess they have been pretty well covered by the sketches of other old-time cowboys.

I was a member of the local exemption board during the war just closed and served as county commissioner of Kimble county for four years. My ranch is located nine miles south of Junction, in one of the best sections of this part of the state.

WORKED WITH CATTLE FOR OVER SIXTY YEARS

By E. M. (Bud) Daggett, Fort Worth, Texas

I was born in Shelby county, Texas, in 1850, and have resided in this state ever since, following the cattle business all of my life. If there is one class of people I love better than another it

is the class that dates' back to my childhood days, for I went into the saddle at ten years old. The first night I can remember of camping out on a cow hunt was in the spring of the year. We camped on the banks of a creek called Deer Creek, south of Fort Worth about fifteen miles. At that time the boys carried their biscuits and dried beef and a little coffee in sacks tied behind their saddles, and their blankets generally piled on their saddle blankets and their saddles on top of that making pack horses out of the boys' saddle ponies. From that time on I have worked with cattle a part

E. M. (Bud) DAGGETT

of every year without missing a single year for over sixty years and am still handling cattle as a commission man and salesman on the stockyards, DaggettKeen Commission Co., at Fort Worth. I could give so many different statements concerning trailing and cattle driving that it would take too much space. Have been with scouting parties many times, day and night, in this section of the country doing such scout work against Indians and Indian raiders. Forty-nine years ago in this month was the last raid the Apaches and Comanches made in the vicinity about the stockyards. Fort Worth, Texas, at which time they killed hundreds of horses within a mile to ten miles of this location. At that time. I pulled twenty-seven arrows out of horses that they had shot. As to myself I used to be a bronco buster and an expert roper, not as a wild west show man but roping and riding at that day and time was part of the business. It was like going into battle to make charges on wild bunches and capturing the whole band of wild outlaw cattle if possible or else capturing a part of them without ropes. The same would apply with either horses or cattle, sometimes deer, antelope or wolves for a change. I have played checkers across parts of our country by driving cattle in different directions with herds.

The hardest trip I believe I ever made with cattle was in July, 1865, when I helped move a herd of steers, ages four to eight years to Shreveport, Louisiana. Seems to me they stampeded pretty nearly every night from the time we left the prairies directly north of Fort Worth, until we got them loaded on boats for shipment to New Orleans, and will say here that the net price of those cattle after the freight, feed bills, commission and yardage was paid was $6.00 per head. Our work taking the cattle through on that drive was just added in the steer and made a part of the steer, to say nothing of the expense for driving. From the time we arrived at Marshall, Texas, the road from that point was lined with

negro soldiers dressed in blue, called Yankee negro soldiers. They kept us in the brush from there on to Shreveport, most every prominent corner in that city had a negro soldier on it with a gun and a bayonet who would slightly touch the people with the bayonet and tell them to move on. Of course this was generally people that were not singing gospel Sam to them; those they would prod with the bayonet; I often wondered why this great American Government patrolled this beautiful American country with negroes instead of white men, when it had more than sufficient numbers of white men who could take the place of negroes. But I want it understood I am not especially a negro hater, as we owned a few negroes; we raised some of those negroes and those negroes helped to raise us. Mr. Negro is all right in his place.

I loaded out the first train of cattle that was loaded out of the Fort Worth stockyards in the fall of 1870, and had the first consignment of cattle on the North Side twenty-seven years ago.

MADE FIRST TRIP IN 1877

By B. D. Sherrill, Rocksprings, Texas

In 1877 I went up the trail with Dave Combs, who was then driving for Ellison & Sherrill. We left the coast country with 3,000 big steers and stags and delivered to Millett & Ervin in the Indian Territory. This was my first trip as a cow-puncher, and when we reached Red River a lot of Indians came and stayed with us all day. To me, a beardless boy, those Indians in the war paint was a wonderful sight. After delivering the cattle I went on to Wolf Creek, near Camp Supply, remained there two months and picked up sore-footed cattle and carried them to Ellison & Sherrill's Ranch on North Fork of Red River near old Fort Elliott. That was the

finest country I ever saw, and it was full of Indians, buffalo, antelope, deer, turkey and prairie chickens by the thousands. I remained in that region several years and finally drifted back to Staples on the San Marcos River.

I drove a herd from Staples to the San Miguel in Frio county, where we ranched a number of years, afterward going back to my old stamping ground, Staples.

In 1886 I drove a herd from San Marcos to Mobettie, sold out in the late fall and came home.

It is a great pleasure to attend the old trail drivers' meetings and meet my old time friends, especially my old comrade Dave Combs, a cowman and gentleman in every respect.

COWBOYS DRESSED UP AT END OF THE TRAIL

By R. J. Jennings, San Antonio, Texas

On April 10th, 1870, in company with George Lyons as trail boss for Ellison & Co., with 1,500 cattle, and I as boss for Crunk, Jennings & Co., with 1,600 cattle, we pulled out for Dodge City, Kansas. That was a good year, grass and water plentiful and a good open range. We had good horses and good men on that trip, our boys getting along like one large family. Went by way of Austin, crossed the Trinity River at Fort Worth and passed near where the union depot in that city now stands. There were but a few houses in Fort Worth then. We crossed Red River at Doan's Store and went up North Fork, which we crossed, and pulled on to Dodge City, crossing the Cimarron and Washita Rivers on the way. Indians, deer, antelope, and prairie hens were plentiful; there were a few buffaloes, too, but not many, but the prairies were covered with the skeletons of these animals which had been killed for their hides. When we reached Dodge City we crossed to the north side and remained there six weeks. These cattle were