Texas Almanac, 1949-1950 Page: 259
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CATTLE INDUSTRY. 259
following the Civil War, the tremendous in-
crease in cattle in Texas during the four-year
struggle when Northern blockades were in ef-
fect, and the difference in cost of production
between the two areas, combined to give in-
centive for the trail-driving period, 1866-95.
The USDA Yearbook of 1870 has the following
on this subject: "Farmers upon land costing
$20 to $200 per acre, in climate requiring four
or five months of winter feeding, cannot com-
pete with stock raisers operating under a sky
that demands no shelter, and upon a soil
yielding perennial supplies of green food
where land is now so cheap that a single stock
farm includes a whole county."
King and Kenedy.
Mention has been made of a few of the early
larger operators. Richard King occupied Santa
Gertrudis below Corpus Christi in 1853. In
1860, he was joined by Mifflin Kenedy. When
they dissolved partnership eight years later,
King retained Santa Gertrudis while Kenedy
acquired Laureles. Both now are owned by
the Kleberg family, who operate in the name
of Kinq Ranch, Inc. Kenedy sold Laureles in
1882 to Underwood, Clark & Co., who were
buying ranching property all over the West
for British capitalists. This ranch became the
South Texas holdings of the British-owned
Texas Land and Cattle Co., about which more
later. Kenedy then blocked out La Parra
which today stretches for miles along Laguna
Madre.
For many years the holdings of King and
Kenedy acted as a buffer between Anglo-
Americans on one hand and the Latin Ameri-
cans on the other, who were in ceaseless strife
over the Trans-Nueces country. The two men
co-operated in developing the southern ex-
tremity of Texas, including moral and finan-
cial backing to the railway systems which
today haul supplies and produce to and from
that region.
Richard King died in San Antonio in 1885.
His widow employed Robert J. Kleberg Sr.,
as ranch manager, and soon received him as
a son-mn-law. Mrs. King lived forty years
longer. Specific instructions were given in her
will as to the disposition of the estate, but
partition was not to take place until ten
years after her death. In 1935. this vast prop-
erty, which had been consolidated and ex-
panded under the Kleberg management, was
apportioned. The Kleberg family, through
terms of Mrs. King's will, by purchase of the
allocations of some of the other heirs, and
by individual purchases from Ed C. Lasater
of Falfurrias and others, wound up with
around 950,000 acres of valuable land with
even greater potential mineral wealth.
Trail Driving.
As the curtain lifted on the trail drives,
W. A. Pettus and Dillard R. Fant were
branching out around Gollad. In the Tilden
country. James Lowe was buying whole herds
on tally book count mostly in McMullen and
Atascosa Counties; Jerry and Robert DriscollI
were operating in Refugio. Victoria and Bee
Counties; A. C. Jones was in Bee County;
William and Robert Adams were pioneering
in the Alice country; the Acadian families
were ranching along the coast from Galveston
Bay to the Louisiana border, and there were
many others to be mentioned briefly for their
operations on the trails. All through the
country below and west of San Antonio. the
ranch land was being claimed by hardy souls
who, in the language of an earlier pioneer,
"put their faith in the Lord, but at the same
time, kept their powder dry." These early
cattlemen in that section had to withstand
almost constant Indian raids.
From the early 1840's to the Civil War
there was always some movement of cattle
out of Texas, but it was irregular and incon-
sequential. Trailing to New Orleans was wellunder way in 1842. There is an accepted
record that Edward Piper trailed a herd from
Texas to Ohio in 1846. T. J. Trimmier took a
trail herd from Washington County to the
California gold fields in 1848. This far-western
movement totaled about 100,000 head in the
next two decades.
From separate South Texas points two trail
herds were started toward Quincy. Ill., in
1857. From Hays County went Jesse Day and
son (J. M. or "Doc"), and from Bastrop went
William and Willis McCutcheon, father and
son. Oliver Loving drove a trail herd from
Jack County to Quincy in 1858. and to Colo-
rado via Oklahoma in 1860. He was shaping a
trail herd In 1866 in Young County destined
for Fort Sumner. N.M., when he was
joined by Charles Goodnight. The two opened
the western route via the Conchos. Horsehead
Crossing on the Pecos. and up that stream to
Fort Sumner. The next year on their third
drive, Loving was wounded by Indians, dying
later from infection at Fort Sumner. His
body was brought back by Goodnight and
buried at Weatherford.
Baxter Springs. Mo., lost a great chance as
a trail terminal when Missouri farmers in
1866 established* a "shotgun quarantine"
against the passage of trail herds from Texas.
Eastern or Chisholm Trail.
Abilene, Kansas. in 1867, was the first great
terminal for the Eastern Trail, up via Fort
Worth and Red River Station. This trail is
often referred to as the Chisholm Trail, but
the Old Trail Drivers Association of Texas
went on record in 1931 as preferring the name
Eastern Trail. Later Kansas trail towns were
Newton, Caldwell, Ellsworth and Wichita; and
the last and greatest-Dodge City. Dodge City
was the Kansas terminal for the Western
Trail, which came up via Fort Griffin and
crossed Red River at Doan's store.
Ten Million Head.
Ike T. Pryor, one of the great trail drivers,
is the authority for some detailed summations
on the trail drives of 1866-95. He estimated
10000,000 cattle were driven from Texas in
4,000 herds averaging 2,500 head. The average
sale price was $20 per head, the total. $200.-
000,000. The herds averaged 10 to 14 miles
per day. Each herd had twelve men with six
horses per man. These make a total of 48,000
men (but many made several drives) and
288.000 horses. Few of these horses were
brought back to Texas. Colonel Pryor said
that a herd could be driven 1.200 to 1,500
miles in three months at a total cost of 60c
per head.
John R. Blocker made his first drive in
1873: with various partners he had 88,000 cat-
tle on the trails in 1886; his last drive was to
near Deadwood, S.D., in 1893. Blocker became
the first president of the Old Trail Drivers
Association when it was organized in 1916.
John T. Lytle spent his last years as secre-
tary of the present Texas and Southwestern
Cattle Raisers Association. With various part-
ners, Lytle is said to have owned 450,000 cat-
tle that went up the Eastern and Western
Trails. One main partnership was with
Charles Schreiner and John W. Light: an-
other was with T. M. McDaniel.
Other Trail Drivers.
Other large-scale trail drivers included D.
H. and J. W. Snyder of Georgetown; J. T.
Driskill, for whom the Driskill Hotel in Aus-
tin was named; James Daugherty, later of
Abilene (Texas) and the Trans-Pecos, who
was flogged bs a mob of Missouri farmers
while on a drive in 1866 to Baxter Springs:
John O. and Thomas Deweese of Atascosa,
Karnes and Wilson Counties: J. J. Meyers of
Lockhart; Eugene and Alonzo Millett of San
Antonio; Monroe Choate of Karnes County;
C. W. Merchant and J. H. Parramore of Abi-
lene. Texas; William and J. J. Hittson of Palo
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Texas Almanac, 1949-1950, book, 1949; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117167/m1/261/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.