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trades were made In the West hadBandagreedClari1883, L. B. Har _______ wages while he I ris, who owned land on both sides I chairslived-out the claim with the! of the Colorado River, was pre- J for theunderstanding that the cowboy I paringtransfer title to the ranch-1 of land. He had 10,000 cedar er. it is said that many large j posts and two railroad carloadsbarb wire on the ground readynor.) IV. beginbegan to see the! a mob destroyed the posts andj^advantages to be derived by hav-1 wire. They piled the wire on top |posts and burned the postswould prevent cattle from stray-1 The wire melted and ruined.This burning occurred threemixedDrurTronComDianaSaxeRobert Leeand thethe cattle fenced inrustlers” fenced out.Barb wire fences would help todiscourage the brand runners— plain cattle thieves. Barb wire would discourage the over-zealous •‘maverick’* hunters.Not all ranchers saw eye to eye. Some ranchers were greatly disturbed. They saw barb wire as a throat to the free open range. Some cattlemen who owned little or no land had sizeableherds on the open range. They saw barb wire as a threat to their domain. Morever, nesters (farmers) were beginning to fileon land and fence It, and this sometimes cut off a rancher's cattle from a watering place.in the basin of CRMWD’a Robert Lee Lake. Mrs. John McCabe and Mrs. C. D. Stewart, the first two white women to come to this area told the writer about this. Mrs. McCabe said, 'The pile of posts looked as big as a two story house or a hotel building!'* Mrs. Stewart saw the smoke and fire as they were going to their homestead west of here in early November 1883. She said, People told us that men who opposed fencing the range had burned 10,000 posts and a lot of win This writer found some chunks of the burned wire in 1953, someLowftOWE*Grai Fort Lone lt;afterutilitySine in 194 in G CraneGhadtA I write ing «70 years after the buring.Wire and posts were bui bout half-way between 1open range*' I and Banco and at a few other argued that if men were allowed places. Wire fences In manyotherssoonCattlemen called for a law towife,andgrandMr.mentfruitsprotect fences as well as otherthis they were ri| Cowboys hated sometimes had toproperty. Governor Ireland sent Rangers into the flunnels-Coke area to quell the wire cutters.to get around a drift fence. They were guarding fence in Cowboys began carrying wire | area lying between Ballingercutters. OnetimeRET1Mrtumeter a Coosvisit*Sayncowboy J Tennyson, or so I have been lt;now deebieed) told this writer when a fence-cutting mob sur that fences new bothered him. prised them, disarmed them am Ho Mid, .‘1 carried a pair of wire I forced the Rangers at gun point I Mrs. cutters in my hip pocket, and I to cut wire ail night. SundThe Cattlemen's Association | gas decided to employMiwar rode miles to get aroundDance.*To fence or not to fence be-llhey hired Ben Warren of Hyl dune the burning question of the I ton. sent him to Austin for trainMrsThe controvery raged. The ing and put citato came in 1883, when there catch the wire cutters. Warren «aa a real boom in the cattle j and one of the OdomW.• St. -_V .. •iy.thieving business.^ ______ Sweetwater to testify againstCWttomen who were losing cat- who cutters when someone, sup-1 and tie had “blood in their eyes. poaedly oneThev had organised cattlemen's shot through a window of tha witt ■wirlstl— to meet and discuss hotel and Wiled Warren. This in-1W. warn and rnasTii to cope with the| formation came to 'this writarlroll gSSr The one in this a«a|from th* la*. R. G. Crane cfjmsi- 'J.- -t
Newspaper Details
Bronte Enterprise
Bronte, Texas, US
Thu, Oct 12, 1967
Page 2
Full Page
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Anonymous
TX, USA 18 Dec 2019
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