Gove County KS Archives History - Books .....The Smoky Hill Cattle Pool 1930 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com July 22, 2005, 6:13 pm Book Title: History Of Gove County, Kansas CHAPTER XI THE SMOKY HILL CATTLE POOL At different times between 1878 and 1886 the following post offices were established in Gove county: Willow, Lulie, Locket, Tiffany, Hackberry, Sarah, St. Sophia, Mahan, Sloey, Hackberry. (The latter was not the present office of that name, but another one in the western part of the county.) These posts were generally short lived and unimportant and a history of them would be hard to obtain. The State Board of Agriculture first recognized Gove county in its reports in 1881. That year it was reported as having a population of 650, with 3,243 acres under cultivation, 646 of which was wheat and 1,610 was corn. Horses and mules, numbered 200, milk cows 311, other cattle 2,594, sheep 4,760. In the report of 1884 the population is put at 700 and the principal industry as stock raising, but no figures are given. In 1885 the population was 595, number of horses 444, milk cows 194, other cattle 7,855, sheep 5,167. But now for a few years the development of the country and its resources was to be in the hands of the cattle men. Such farming as was done was carried on in the northern part of the county near the railroad. The Shoen brothers ran a sheep ranch on the North Hackberry, but the whole southern part of the county was a void till the cattle men began to take possession. These cattle men met in the fall of 1882 and organized the Smoky Hill Cattle Pool. The Pool was similar to other cattlemen's organizations then existing everywhere in the range country. Each member had his own cattle and his own brand, but the cattle all ran together on a common range and were "rounded up" once a year. The organization had its officers and constitution, it hired range riders and other employes and incurred other necessary expenses which were met by assessments on the members according to the number of cattle each one had in the pool. The territory claimed by, the Smoky Hill Cattle Pool was thirty miles along the Smoky and about twelve miles each way from it north and south, though this territory varied in extent at different times. The principal watering places for the cattle were on the river, but drinking places were also maintained at the old Grannal Spring and Indian Spring on Indian creek and at various other places within the territory claimed by the Pool. The Pool was organized in August 1882 at Farnsworth postoffice in Lane county. The first officers were S. S. Evans president, W. A. Stern-berg secretary and treasurer, Noah Chenoweth and J. W. Felch directors. The Pool headquarters were at Farnsworth at first, but as its membership grew and its territory extended its headquarters were changed to Grainfield and E. A. McMath of that place was made secretary and treasurer. The membership of the Pool was never very large; it seems to have been its policy to keep the membership small and not overstock the range. At the time of the organization of the Pool there were the following cow camps along the Smoky in Gove county from east to west: Felch, Evans, McCafferty & Swartz, Bowman Brothers and Sternberg. Bowman Bros, held their cattle on the site of old Fort Monument on the Butterfield Trail. Each member of the Pool advertised his brand in the Kansas Cowboy at Dodge City, and these ads filled a whole column of that publication. Here are the names of the advertisers, which probably constitutes nearly a full list of the membership of the Smoky Hill Cattle Pool at the time of its greatest prosperity: S. S. Evans, John W. Felch, Frank McCafferty, Sylvester Swartz, E. M. Prindle, Samuel Bowman, George Bowman, Rochester Land & Cattle Co. (W. A. Sternberg, Sup't), Wm. Lenihan, Robert Hickman, James Rider, Frank Davis, John Mueller, N. Chenoweth, Curtis & Campbell, J. J. Baker, E. A. McMath. When organized the pool represented about five thousand head of cattle. This number increased till it was estimated at fifteen thousand head in 1884. The Pool was prosperous. At the end of its first year, in the fall of 1883, it gave out a report showing that the expense for keeping- the cattle had been but twelve and one half cents a head per month. Fifteen hundred calves were branded that, year and the number of cattle in the Pool had increased to more than eight thousand. A contract was let to build a drift fence forty eight miles long on the south and east sides of the range. This fence was a substantial affair with galvanized wire and oak posts. Joshua Wheatcroft of Lane county was given the contract to build the fence. The fence proved its worth. In the spring of '84 it was announced that the cattle were badly scattered by storms but that the fence had held them on the range and kept them from drifting away. Losses had not been heavy, though the cattle had been subsisting entirely on grass. There was fear that the range would be overstocked. Members were complaining that a "carpet bag" outfit was preparing to move in on the range to take advantage, without paying, of the accommodations afforded by the Pool. The Pool this spring bought 140 high grade Shorthorn animals for breeding purposes and allotted them among the members. Fifteen hundred Pool calves were branded in 1884. The calf crop was smaller than expected. (Wonder if the fact that the cows had been "scattered by storms" and "subsisted entirely on grass" had anything to do with this?) It was stated that some of the cattlemen were putting up windmills on fresh ranges. A new pool was formed this fall in the southeast corner of Gove county, known as the Forrester Pool. The headquarters of the Forrester Pool were at the Forrester ranch at the big spring north of the Smoky now owned by Dave Bollinger. An irrigation expert from the state agricultural college once inspected this spring and estimated that it has a flow sufficient to irrigate ten acres of ground. The pool had twenty miles of fence and four thousand head of cattle; its members were Forrester Bros., Kellerman Bros., I. P. Olive, Joseph Gotier, E. R. Moffit and Joseph Middleby. This man Olive was an old time cattleman with a history. A native of Texas, a Confederate soldier, wounded at Shiloh, captured at Vicksburg, he had been obliged to leave Texas for cause, after the war. Settling next in Custer county, Nebraska, he took part in a war between cattleman and settlers and was leader of a party which lynched a couple settlers in 1878. For this crime he served a term in the Nebraska penitentiary. The details of this affair are given at considerable length in S. D. Butcher's "History of Custer County." Olive's conduct in Gove county seems not to have been such as to get him into trouble, but a couple years after finally leaving Kansas he died with his boots on in Colorado, being shot by a man who it was said had followed him clear from Texas to get him. Prosperity continued in 1885. At the first calf round up two thousand head were branded; the calf crop was estimated at three thousand for the season. "Jack" Thomas makes his first appearance in Gove county history; he is hired to "ride the line" and keep the cattle from bothering the settlers on the Hackberry. During the season seventy four car loads of cattle were shipped from Buffalo Park, forty seven of them going in the month of October. The winter of 1885-86 put the finishing touches on the Smoky Hill Cattle Pool. It was the hardest winter that western Kansas had ever known. The cold was long continued and intense, with frequent blizzards and the ground covered with snow; and without either feed or shelter only the strongest of the cattle could survive. Human lives were lost likewise in the storms of this winter. August Johnson, one of the Pool cowboys, was frozen to death on Salt Creek in January. After this storm in January newspaper reports estimated that there were ten thousand dead cattle in western Kansas between Garden City and the White Woman. Many cattle which survived the winter storms were so weakened that they died in the spring. The cattlemen held their last meeting at Grainfield in the spring of 1886. Grainfield had another paper then, the Cap Sheaf, and from it we take the following account of the meeting: "The regular semi-annual meeting of the Smoky Hill Cattle Pool was held at Grainfield on Monday, April 5. Besides the regular routine of business important action was taken toward the winding up of the association. The directors were instructed to take immediate steps to remove and dispose of the wire fence erected by the Pool three years ago. They were also authorized to prosecute any person found stealing posts or wire. "The following action was taken relating to the general round up: "Whereas, the cattle owned and controlled by the members of this Pool are, on account of the unsually severe winter and late spring, in a much weaker condition than usual at this season, therefore be it "Resolved, that the general round up shall commence upon our Pool range June 1st, 1886, and as a matter of self protection no rounding up of the cattle on the range prior to that date will, under any circumstances, be permitted. "Resolved, that the secretary be instructed to notify secretaries of interested stock associations of the date fixed for said round up and that a copy of this resolution be published in the Grainfield Cap Sheaf for the information and guidance of local stock men. "On comparing notes and opinions among the stock men assembled here this week it seems to be the unanimous conclusion that the range cattle business in this country is played out, we are getting too much rain in summer and too much snow in winter. "To be sure, the hide business has been extremely good this spring, but it does not pay to raise cattle just for the hides. Stockmen also recognize the fact that the farmer has come to stay, and there is no disposition to contest the territory: They have been slow to admit but now fully recognize the climatic change which this region is undergoing. They "cuss" the country because it is too wet for the successful raising of stock on the open range system. They will, move on west or else hold in smaller bunches, close herd and feed. There will be no issue between the stock men and the granger. "Newcomers who are inquiring about the rainfall need no stronger evidence than this of the climatic changes that are taking place in this region. The fence belonging to the Pool was bought by T. L. Smith for his ranch at Goodwater. The number of cattle found at this round up is not given, but the Cap Sheaf said "The loss on the range for the three years last past has been from sixty to eighty per cent, of the book count. The storm the first of April killed more cattle than all the other storms during the three years previous." The raising of cattle on the open range system of "making them rustle" had proved a costly failure. The cattle men could not change their ways and stay in the county under new conditions. Of those prominent in the Smoky Hill Cattle Pool only McMath, Baker and Prindle ever cut any figure in the subsequent history of Gove county. One more incident in the history of the Smoky Hill Cattle Pool remains to be written. In July, 1886, the members of that organization and the Forrester Pool were arrested by the U. S. marshal on the charge of fencing government land. They were defended by Lee Monroe and E. A. McMath. In the days of their prosperity the members of the Pool had felt and expressed some indignation against the outsiders who had brought cattle into their range; but circumstances alter cases, and now they were glad to point to these outsiders as evidence of the fact that the Pool had not monopolized the land or kept anybody out. As for the Pool fence, they contended that it was not an enclosure at all, merely a drift fence on one side of the range to keep the cattle from straying. The court took this view of the case and when it met at Leavenworth in October the action against the cattlemen was dismissed. Additional Comments: History of Gove County, Kansas by W. P. Harrington Gove City, Kan. 1930 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/gove/history/1930/historyo/smokyhil13ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ksfiles/ File size: 12.6 Kb