The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928 Page: 355
390 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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A History of the J A Ranch
Comanches. None of the settlers could understand Spanish. The
old Indian was not making any headway and he saw that he was
not. I knew the old chief well. He then asked in Spanish where
I was,-"the man with heaps of cattle, heaps of land and heaps
of everything." Of course they did not understand that either.
At this crucial moment I spoke to the old chief in Spanish. He
recognized me instantly. I never saw anyone's face brighten up
so much as this old chief's did.
I explained to the settlers that these were Pueblo Indoans of
Taos, New Mexico, the most peaceful tribe of Indians, and the
settlers let them go.
I asked the old chief where they had been, and he said they
had gone down by way of the Canadian River to the reservation
to trade with the Kiowas and had decided to take a short cut
back to Taos. Then the old chief asked me a question that
dumfounded me. "How do you get back to Taos ?" I said,
"You surely know the way back to Taos. Haven't you lived in
this country all your life?" To which the old chief replied,
"Alambre! Alambre! Alnambre! todas partes! --Wire ! Wire!
Wire ! everywhere."
The J A people, as well as other cattlemen, had a great deal of
school land leased from the state and some that they grazed that
was not leased. When they began to fence their land, they fenced
this leased land and the other land which they had been grazing.
Io doing so they fenced in a good many squatters scattered at
various places. Other ranchmen did the same thing. This caused
trouble between the cowmen and the squatters, and it became very
acute by 1884. This gave rise to what is known in Texas history
as the "Fence Cutters." That is, the settlers who were fenced in
began to cut the fences of the ranchmen. It will be remembered
from Texas history that Governor Ireland was forced to call a
special session of the legislature in 1884 to see what could be done
about it. As a result of this special session, a law was passed
making it a penitentiary offense to cut a fence. At the same time
the ranchmen were required to put in gates every three miles for
the convenience of the settlers.
A state board was also appointed which drew up a law with
reference to the leasing of school land, which came very near ruin-
ing the cattle industry in the Panhandle before it was repealed.
Judge O. H. Nelson gives the following account of it:
Action of the State Land Board under what is generally known
as the Land Board Act passed in the administration of Governor355
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928, periodical, 1928; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101088/m1/379/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.