"Between the Creeks" Page: 57
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post was the most western settlement on the Red River. On reaching the river, Cooke and
his men built a stockade called Fort Johnson, between Holland Coffee's trading post and
Basin Springs. A supply post was established with Captain William G. Preston in charge.
The post at the big bend in the river became known as Fort Preston. Later a village grew
up about the fort and was called Preston Bend or Preston. The segment of the military
road from the Trinity to Preston on the Red became known as the Preston Road.
The story of the road was just beginning, for in those early days the route was
little more than stakes in the prairie and blazed trees through the bottom lands.
Contrary to legend, cowboys often were boys 2-11-90
North Texans in the early history of Texas' cattle industry have for the most part
been ignored. One of Texas' most imminent historians stated that early Texans learned
the cattle business from South Texas Hispanic ranchers-everything from branding and
free-ranging to herding on horseback and the vocabulary. Later historians have
perpetuated this misconception. Hispanic ranchers did furnish most of the words now
accepted as part of ranching (including the word ranch), but most importantly, they
brought from old Spain the original stock that developed into the hearty animals that
could stand up to Texas' extremes in climate, ticks and scarcity of range grasses-the
Texas Longhorn.
However, Anglo-Americans were branding stock that they free-ranged in the
backhills of Virginia and the Carolinas in colonial days. The Revolutionary War Battle
of Cowpens in South Carolina was fought on grounds where the local people periodically
rounded up their free-ranging stock. Later, cattle drives were made to coastal cities from
Illinois, Indiana and other western states. To Anglo-Americans, the horse had long been
an essential part of ranging and driving cattle before the Anglo settlement of Texas.
North Texans in the early days did not use the Hispanic terms that were later in
common use. A round-up was a cowhunt, a corral was a cowpen, and herd owners were
stockmen (because stock also referred to horses, which were valued more highly than
wild cattle). On census records, they were listed as farmers or by another trade or
profession. There was only one exception: an early Hispanic settler said that he was a
vaquero.
Cowboys were known as stockhands. They did not have the appearance of the
traditional cowboy of the 1870s, as depicted in western movies. Recent studies have
shown that a large percentage of the cowboys were black. They may have received their
first experience as Carter Smoot did. He was 83 in 1931 when he told of his early days in
Texas. Carter Smoot was an 8-year-old slave when he came to Texas from Missouri with
his master, Homer Smoot, to live on a farm in present-day Parker. He recalled seeing
children crossing the prairie on foot to attend Professor Clay Thomas' school (Jupiter and
Chaparral). Only a young child himself at that time, Smoot said he "used to go by there
when we would be looking for the stock that had strayed from their range."
Did the use of the word cowboy evolve because herding on the range was a chore
given to the young boys? The recollections of Judge Frank Wilcox shoot down the idea
of a cowboy in chaps, 10-gallon hat and high-heeled boots. The Wilcox family lived on
the prairie west of the old Rowlett Church. After their father bought some horses from a
neighbor, Frank and his brother, George, were given the job of herding the stock. The
horses continued to try to go back to their old range, and the boys had a difficult time57
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[Name Index to Gwen Pettit Articles] (Text)
Spreadsheet index of personal and family names found in the compiled transcriptions of newspaper articles written by Gwen Pettit about the local history of Allen, Texas.
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Pettit, Gwen. "Between the Creeks", book, July 2006; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth752794/m1/62/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .