The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 349
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Horace M. Hall's Letters from Gillespie County
MOUTH OF WILLIAMSON Nov 13th 1872
DEAR BROTHER BILL29
I expect you are like the famous Thomas cat could not lick milk
8c and what was more could not m--e--o--w so sign says if a letter is
a sign, but you cannot be blamed much as I have heard from you
and dont know as you have heard from me. Well I am still out in
the mountains running wild beeves0 and ripping around generaly,
and am bigger than your Pa ever will be, but I am going to join
the Texas Rangers will be out a year, going right out where the
Commanchee dwells not to make a war treaty neither.31 And have
just put a Seventy Four Dollar and Ten cents $74.10 outfit of clothes
in my trunk for the purpouse.32 Tell Ma I recieved her picture and
letter and am proud of both, will be honest & upright as a town clock
good as I know how to be, will have honor if nothing else, and maybe
something else "along side". I will close this poor excuse and Bid You
Farewell
From Your Affectounate brother Hod
Love & best wishes to you all, and all enquirring friends, and do not
write till you hear from me again which will be soon I assure you
HORACE M HALL
WILLOW CREEK GILLESPIE CO TEX June 26th 1873
DEAR FATHER
It has been some time since I wrote home, but now I am at liesure
I will drop you all a few lines. I have been getting plenty of papers,
and am sorry I have not been able to reply, have been on a big beef
29Bill, Hod's brother, was William Hubbard Hall, who was born in Tallahassee,
Florida, in 1856 and was named after the editor of the Bellefontaine (Ohio)
Gazette. This editor was the author of a poem, "The Vale of Dead River," which
Horace prized.-Horace Hall to Joseph S. Hall, February 17, 1937. Dr. Jesse C. Hall
and his family lived in the South for four years, two in Warrenton, Mississippi, and
two in Tallahassee, Florida.-Undated Memoir of Horace M. Hall.
soThis is the first known recorded use of run in the sense of grazing, ranging, or
gathering cattle, far antedating the 1907 entry in the Dictionary of Americanisms,
1431. Horace uses the term again in his letter of November 17, 1873: " .. I ...
have all Johnsons brands to run . ." Cf. Dobie, A Vaquero of the Brush Country,
13: "When we gathered cattle, we said that we were on a 'cow hunt,' a 'cow work,'
a 'work,' or a 'cow drive,' or maybe we said we were out 'running cattle.' "
31At the age of eighteen Horace was a little young to be a Ranger. "That night
the ranger boys told me that in order to enlist I must be twenty-one years old .... "
-Ibid., 86.
32"In addition to paying the forty dollars [monthly wages], the state furnished
a carbine to each ranger, ammunition, and rations for himself and mount. The
ranger furnished his own mount, his own six-shooter, and his own clothing.
Most of the rangers wore the boots and hats appropriate to cowboys. Most of them
had been cowboys."-Ibid.349
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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/m1/416/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.