A history of Texas and Texans, Part 28

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 906

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Judge Bogel is senior warden in the Episcopal church of Marfa, and fraternally is affiliated with the Ma- sonic Order from the Blue Lodge to the Shrine, and with the Woodmen of the World. In his larger rela- tions with the public life of his county, Judge Bogel has shown himself to be not only a public-spirited citi- zen in the ordinary sense of the term, but has manifested a practical effectiveness in his publie work. He is the energetie president of the Presidio County Commercial Club, and has been an influential member of the Repub- lican organization in this county. For nearly ten years he has held the office of county judge, and during this time has also performed the work of superintendent of county schools. While his management of the fiscal affairs of the county has been excellent in every par- ticular Judge Bogel has probably directed his most enthusiastic efforts toward the improvement of the pub- lie school system, and it is as a result of his practical efforts in that direction that Presidio county now has a school system much better than the average county with such a large area and such a scattered population. During the past year an addition was added to the Marfa school building at a cost of $15,000. Judge Bogel is very fond of automobiling and horseback riding, and has a prominent place in the social affairs of this com- munity.

OLIVER LOVING. In proportion as the cattle industry was for many years foremost among the productive forces of economic wealth in Texas, in like manner will the name Loving, through its prominent connection with the live stock business, both as an individual under- taking and in the organization of cattlemen, always have pre-eminence among early Texas captains of industry and great men of the frontier and the range.

During the early history of the cattle industry, from the beginning of settlement in north Texas until his death soon after the close of the war, there was no more striking figure than that of Oliver Loving. He was a pioneer among cattlemen, and it was largely through his enterprise and forethought that the ranchmen of his state first found a market for their surplus cattle among the miners of the Rocky Mountain regions and the United States troops who were placed on the frontier for their protection. He was a recognized leader among men, and was possessed of great decision and firmness of mind-traits of character which were of especial value in those days of constant danger, when a moment's indecision might cost a human life or the loss of a

cattle herd representing a hard-earned fortune. His death was a loss to the state at large, and among all the old cattlemen who survive from that early time his memory is cherished and kept green,

Oliver Loving was born in Hopkins county, Kentucky, in 1813, and grew up to manhood in that county. He moved to Texas with his family in 1845, and in the fall of 1846 located in Collin county, before that was an organized county, and secured a homestead of six hundred and forty acres of land. His home was near where the town of Plano now is located, where he be- came engaged in farming, raising cattle and buying and selling cattle and horses; also in freighting with ox teams. At that time there were no railroads in the state, and all merchandise for North and Northwestern Texas was freighted on wagons from Jefferson, Texas, Shreveport, Louisiana, and some from Houston, Texas. He owned and operated several large ox wagons and teams hauling for merchants, and for the United States government, to the military posts on the frontier. In 1850 he hauled supplies for the government from Pres- ton, on Red River in Grayson county, to Fort Belknap on the Brazos river, now in Young county, going through the wilderness with the first soldiers that explored the country, and the same that established Fort Belknap.

In 1855 settlement had progressed so far that Collin county was being included within the scope of opera- tions by small farmers, and this fact caused Mr. Loving to sell his homestead and go further west. In October, 1855, he settled in what is now known as Loving's Val- ley. This valley took its name from Mr. Loving and is situated in the northeast corner of Palo Pinto county. Here he engaged more extensively in raising cattle and in trading in cattle and horses than before. In 1858 he and John Durkee, his neighbor, drove several hundred beef steers from Texas to some point in Illinois, driving them overland all the way and making good money on them. In 1860 he and three other men drove the first herd of cattle, consisting of several hundred head, that was ever driven from Texas to Colorado territory. He remained in that territory for twelve months, and until after the Civil war had begun. On his return he found his family living in Weatherford. During his absence the Indians had broken out and killed many of the settlers along the frontier, and near his home and ranch, causing his family to move to Weatherford for safety.

During the war Mr. Loving became a contractor for the Confederate army, furnishing beef and hacon, and driving several herds of beef steers to various points on the Mississippi river and delivering his cattle to the army on the east side.

In 1866 Oliver Loving formed a copartnership with Charles Goodnight, the noted Panhandle cattleman, for the purpose of buying and driving cattle to New Mexico and Colorado. They drove several hundred head of beef steers in the same year to New Mexico.

The following incidents, constituting one of the trage- dies of the early Texas cattle industry, and containing the circumstances of Loving's death, were written by H. C. Holloway of Fort Worth, who was with one of the herds of cattle belonging to Loving and Goodnight and was familiar with all the circumstances:

"In the spring of 1867 Oliver Loving and Charley Goodnight commenced to gather another herd of cattle around Black Springs in Palo Pinto and Jack counties, to drive to New Mexico and Colorado. They were en- gaged in gathering this herd of cattle until about June 1. About this time they left Black Springs with two thou- sand beef cattle for Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

"The first event of note that occurred on the trip was on the south bank of the Brazos river in Young county, near old Camp Cooper. At this place, while iu camp at night, the Comanche Indians crawled up behind a bank nearby, and opened fire on the cattlemen with both guns and arrows. The only man wounded in this fire was Long Joe Loving (no relative of Oliver

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Loving), who was shot back of the ear with an arrow which Guodnight pulled out with a pair of nippers next morning. They then proceeded with the drive by way of Phantom Hill and old Fort Chadburne and the Concho River, from there to Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River. The trip from Brazos River to this point was uneventful, except the great hardship of doing without water for the distance of ninety-six miles. At Horse- head Crossing, on the Pecos River, they remained for several days, resting themselves and grazing their horses and cattle.

"The manner of making these drives was to drive cattle and loose horses all together, through the day; at night, each man selected one horse on which to do guard duty of about three reliefs through the night. The balance of the horses were herded close to the beef herd, so as to be close by in case of surprise. It was always the prime object of the Indians to get the horses, and in the spring of 1867 they captured at Horsehead Crossing several herds of cattle and horses complete.

"From this place they proceeded up the Pecos River, about three days' drive, when Oliver Loving and 'one- armed' Bill Wilson left the herd to go on ahead to Fort. Sumner, a distance of about two hundred and fifty miles, to look out for the sale of cattle and to look after some unsettled business of the previous year. Loving and Wilson were traveling together up the Pecos River, and on the third day had reached a point about twenty- five miles above the Delaware River, and about five miles below where the river and the Apache Mountains come together, when about the middle of the afternoon they saw, off to their left, coming out from the moun- tains, about eighty Comanche Indians. The Pecos River was just to their right, and near by; a glance at the situation showed them that it was no use to run. Loving and Wilson dropped back toward the river and aban- doned their horses. The Indians came up near and com- menced a conversation with them in Spanish, Wilson being able to speak Spanish to them. The Indians pro- posed to Loving and Wilson that if they would lay down their arms they would not molest or hurt them. In the meantime some of the Indians showed a disposition to get around to the bank of the river, where short cane was growing in which one could secrete himself. While Wilson was holding a conversation with the Indians, he told Loving to look out that the Indians did not reach this cane or hiding place before they themselves did; for he thought that if the Indians reached concealment they would commence firing on them. But in the anxiety of the conversation Loving and Wilson allowed some of the Indians to reach the hiding place unnoticed by them- selves, and, as expected by them, the Indians com- menced firing on them as soon as they reached that point. In the first engagement Loving was wounded, the ball striking him in the wrist and passing through and enter. ing the side, making only a flesh wound. Loving and Wilson immediately dropped back under the bank of the river. The firing then became general from the In- dians, bullets and arrows falling thick around them, in very many cases the arrows passing over the bank and sticking in the ground an arm's length from them. When this condition had prevailed for some time Loving and Wilson crawled up from under the bank and secreted themselves in this cane. At that time the firing by the Indians had ceased and all was quiet. While in this condition Loving had lost much blood, and was grow- ing weak and faint. The exact position in which they were in at this time was as follows: Wilson was lying on his side, the side next the ground on which there was no arm, in the shape of a man sitting in a chair if he were laid over on his side, and grasping his six-shooter in his only hand. When this stillness had prevailed for some length of time they heard a noise in the cane about fifteen or twenty feet away; the noise did not seem to be confined to exactly one spot, but was a noise as if of an Indian crawling through the cane with a

spear, the noise apparently being made by the Indian and the point of his spear passing through the cane. About this time they heard the rattling of a large rat- tlesnake. The noise made by the Indian just at this point ceased, but the rattlesnake came toward Wilson and Loving, they lying perfectly still. The snake came and coiled itself up in the lap of Wilson, its head being not more than twelve inches from Wilson's face. Shortly after this they heard the noise made by the Indian receding. All was still. The next thought was to get rid of the snake. Wilson began moving his upper knee slightly, until he saw the snake turu its attention to- ward his knee, and in a short while the snake commenced to crawl off around his knee, across his feet and went away.

"It was near sundown. Loving and Wilson remained there in that place until after dark. Then Loving began to importune Wilson to make his escape. Wilson refused for a considerable time to do so. Wilson thought from Loving's conversation that he was growing a little de- lirious. Loving continued to insist upon Wilson trying to escape, and about midnight Wilson concluded to un- dertake it. He removed all his clothes from his body except his shirt and drawers. The moon was about two hours high, casting a shadow over about half the river. Wilson got out into the water and commenced to float down the river on the dark side. At about twenty-five yards below he passed an Indian on his horse leaning forward with his head beside his horse's neck, whipping in the water with a switch or an arrow. Wilson passed the Indian unobserved by him. Some two hundred yards further on down the river he got out of the river and started back for the herd, barefoot with only his wet underclothes on. He traveled all that day, the next day and the next night, when he gave out and became exhausted. About eight or nine o'clock the next morn- ing Goodnight came along with the herd, and found Wilson sitting up in a hole in the cleft of a rock.

"The Indians remained around Loving, at the place where Wilson had left him, until a little after sunrise the next morning, when they left, never venturing into the place where Wilson and Loving were supposed to be hiding.

"Wilson quickly told Goodnight the story. They at once mounted their horses and started back for the scene of the tragedy. Loving had told Wilson that if the Indians did not kill him, or if he lived from the wound that he had received, he would remain at that place until Wilson would return with help. The distance was about sixty miles from the herd back to where Loving was left wounded. They rode the distance that day, reaching the place late in the evening. They made close and diligent search, but were not able to find Lov- ing. They then returned to the herd, thinking that Lov- ing was killed. In the meantime, instead of Loving re- maining there, as he had agreed to do, he went up the river five miles, to where the mountain and river are so close together that there is just a roadway between. He remained there in that condition five days, at the end of which time three straggling Mexicans happened to pass that way. When found, Loving was burning his buckskin glove on a little fire in order to eat it. Loving gave these Mexicans one hundred and fifty dollars to take him to Fort Sumner, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. Fort Sumner was at that time the Navajo Reservation, where about seven thousand Indians were being fed by the Government. When taken there the army surgeon thought it necessary to amputate his arm. He did so and Loving seemed to be doing well until about the ninth day, at which time the taking up of the artery in his arm became loose, from which there was consider- able loss of blood, resulting in his death soon after.

"Mr. Loving was buried at Fort Sumner, in a coffin placed in a large box filled with charcoal. Some time in January, 1868, he was taken up by Charles Goodnight, H. C. Holloway and Joe Loving, his son, was placed in a

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wagon and brought back to Weatherford in Parker connty, and there buried. "

Early in his young manhood Oliver Loving was mar- ried in Kentucky to Miss Susan D. Morgan. They came to Texas with five children, one child was born during their first year's residence in Lamar county, and alto- gether there were nine children, all of whom lived to be grown, and eight of them lived into the twentieth cen- tury. The children in order of birth were: Sarah 1., who married John Flint; James C. Loving, a famous Texas cattleman whose sketch follows; William W. Lov- ing, who died in 1861 at Weatherford; Susan M., who married Mack B. Roach; Jane E., who married Professor O. W. Keeler; Joseph B. Loving; Mrs. I. N. Roach, who was the wife of Judge Roach, of Weatherford; George B. Loving; and Maggie, married to Thomas Wilson, and after his death to Dr. C. B. Raines. Mrs. Loving lived at Weatherford after the death of her husband until her death in 1882. Loving county in Texas was named after Oliver Loving.

JAMES C. LOVING. As long as the Cattle Raisers Asso- ciation of Texas shall have a place in the history of the Lone Star State the name of James C. Loving will be appropriately honored. At the time of his death in Fort Worth on November 24. 1902, Mr. Loving had served nearly twenty-six years as secretary of the association and eighteen years as its general manager. To him, more than any one man, was dne the success of the association, and he enjoyed and deserved an unbounded esteem from all the old-time Texas cattlemen.

A son of the pioneer Texas cattleman, Oliver Loving, whose career has been sketched above, James C. Loving was born in Hudson county, Kentucky, June 6, 1836. He was nine years old when the family moved to Texas, and spent most of his early life on the frontier. At the age of twelve he began work as a teamster in driving an ox team. His father, as has been mentioned, was engaged in freighting during the years before the war, and for six years James C. Loving was almost all the time on the road with a long team of oxen, and was regarded as one of the ablest "bullwhackers" in the business.

In 1855, when he was nineteen, the family home was transferred from Collin county to Loving's Valley in Palo Pinto. The freighting business was then discon- tinued except for home supplies, and J. C. Loving was admitted to partnership with his father under the style of O. Loving & Son. They engaged in a general mer- chandise business, in cattle raising, buying and selling cattle, horses and mules. They handled nearly all of the leef produced in the country surrounding their head- quarters for several years, from 1855 to 1862. J. C. Loving has been described as a merchant, cowboy and beef drover, and a kind of all-round man. Opportuni- ties for education were extremely limited on the frontier, and he never had the advantages of common school edu- cation, but made up for these handicaps, and was one of the most practical and able men in Texas for manv years. On January 15, 1857, he married Mary E. Willett. and they became the parents of three children.

From 1862 until the close of the war Mr. Loving was in the State service on the frontier against the Indians, and with the rank of first lieutenant commanded a company of fifty-seven men. The mercantile business had been discontinued and the partnership between him- self and his father dissolved soon after the beginning of the war. In 1866 Mr. Loving once more resumed merchandising at Weatherford, and continued in that line for three years. He also assisted in buying and collecting cattle for the firm of Loving & Goodnight, and after the death of his father in 1867 it became necessary for him to go to Colorado territory to assist Mr. Goodnight in closing up the copartnership. In the spring of 1868 he collected a large herd of cattle, and started with them across Indian territory and through

western Kansas to Colorado. This was a drive fraught with many risks and hardships, and while in southwest- ern Kansas at Great Bend of the Arkansas River the outfit was stopped by a large war party of Comanche and Kiowa Indians, and it was only after a prolonged parley that the Indians refrained from an attack and allowed the cattlemen to proceed. Mr. Loving remained in Colorado three months, assisting Mr. Goodnight in selling out the cattle and winding up the business, re- turning to Texas in January, 1869.

The career of such a man as Mr. Loving affords many incidents which are interesting of themselves and fur- nish illustrative matter on the conditions and difficulties which surrounded the prosecution of the cattle business during the decade following the close of the war. The literature of the Texas cattle industry has already been enriched by description of a number of adventures in which Mr. Loving had a part, but for this publication it will be necessary to condense the abundant material at hand, and to give only one or two striking incidents with some detail.

In 1870 Mr. Loving bought one-half interest in the cattle and ranch owned by Charles E. Rivers, then located in San Valley in Palo Pinto county. At the close of the year they divided the cattle, and Loving ranched on Dillingham prairie in Jack county, some six or eight miles from the Rivers ranch. In the spring of 1871 the two ranches made a joint cow hunt of several days, west and north of their range. Loving and Rivers were both in the work, and while on the hunt a trade was agreed on, by which Loving bought out Rivers' entire stock of cattle, horses and outfit, and was to take possession as soon as the hunt was over. They camped on the night of the 15th of June, 1871, at the Loving cattle pens, on Dillingham prairie, the two outfits camping some three hundred or four hundred yards apart. There were some twelve or fifteen men in each outfit, and some fifty to sixty head of horses in each. The horses were put under guard that night as there was great danger of the Indians running them off. Some time in the night the Indians attacked the Rivers' camp and horse herd, wounding Mr. Rivers, and driving off the horses, some fifty odd head. The shooting aroused the Loving outfit, who rounded their horses into a close bunch and prepared to defend them, but the Indians did not attack them. A messenger from the Rivers camp brought the word that Mr. Rivers was shot, and wanted Mr. Loving to come to his camp at once. On the arrival of Mr. Loving he found Mr. Rivers wounded by a gun shot, which after- wards proved fatal. The sale to Mr. Loving of the Rivers herd as agreed upon was made final by Mr. Rivers before his death, after making proper reduction for the horses taken by the Indians.

Mr. Loving continned in the cattle-raising business on Dillingham prairie under many disadvantages, as the Indians continued to depredate on his range, and at sev- eral different times drove off all the horses owned and used by him in herding and looking after his cattle, and he had several engagements with the Indians, and it was almost a miracle that he passed through all these dangers with his life. In 1873 he was in the town of Palo Pinto when some boys came from Keechi and re- ported that a band of Indians had run them some dis- tance that morning, on the north side of the Brazos river. A party was hastily gotten up to go over and find the Indians, and Mr. Loving joined them. The trail of the Indians was soon found, and followed to the foot of a mountain, near the mouth of Keechi Creek, on the Brazos River, and there it was found that the Indians had gone up on the mountain, which was so steep and so covered with rock and timber that it was almost impossible to ascend it on horseback. Accordingly six of the party left their horses and took the trail on foot, while the remaining six followed with the horses as hest they could. The advance party when within three or four hundred feet of the top heard the sound of horses'

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feet up on the level. Thinking the Indians had heard their pursuers and were running away, the men ran forward as fast as they could, and on reaching the level were in plain view of about twenty Indians. The In- dians had been in camp since some time in the forenoon, and were then rounding up their horses preparing to start for the purpose of raiding some settlement near by. The Indians and their pursuers discovered each other at the same time and opened a lively fire on each other, the Indians keeping up the most unearthly yelling that ever was heard in those mountains. The men had run some distance up the mountain, and in consequence of the fatigue and the excitement were somewhat unsettled and in no condition for accurate shooting, still they sent the bullets fast and thick over towards where the Indians were, and in turn the Indians cut the leaves and small limbs from the trees over the boys' heads, showing that they too were excited and shooting too high. In a few minutes the Indians fled down the mountain on the other side, leaving six or eight horses and a lot of their camp equipage. The six men back with the horses had heard the shooting, and pushed for- ward with all possible haste to help the boys on foot, and reached the top of the mountain just in time to see the last Indian disappear on the other side. No attempt was made to pursue the Indians just then, as the moun- tain side where they disappeared was very rough and rocky.

In August, 1873, Mr. Loving moved his cattle from Dillingham prairie to Lost Valley in Jack county, some twenty miles or more north of the Dillingham prairie ranch. The Indians still continued to depredate on his horses and cattle at the new ranch. A few days after reaching Lost Valley the Indians ran through his camp one night, whooping. yelling and shooting, and ran off nine head of horses belonging to some beef buyers, who had stopped for the night at Mr. Loving's camp. In June, 1874, the Indians killed one of Mr. Loving's cow- boys by the name of J. K. P. Wright, some four miles from the ranch, near the foot of a mountain on the west side of the valley. 'The mountain is known in that coun- try as the Wright Mountain, taking its name from the murdered cowboy.

The last raid on Mr. Loving's stock was made in May, 1875, when a party of six Indians visited the ranch one night, coming in on foot, and mounted themselves on his horses. The rangers camped close by were noti- fied early the next morning, and following the trail, overtook and killed five of the Indians. Lieutenant Long was in command of the rangers, and deserved and re- ceived much praise for the good work done on that occasion. That ended the Indian trouble in that coun- try, as no raids were made by them after the killing of the five by Lieutenant Long.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 28

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960 Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society Number of Pages: 906

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 906