TX BIOS:  O. T. Cardwell
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   Folkstuff - Range Lore 4,125 Words
   
   EDITORIAL FIELD COPY
   
   by
   
   Mrs. Florence Angermiller, P.W.
   
   Page 1
   
   232
   
   From F. C. by
   
   Mrs. Gussie Hale, P.W.
   
   Tales of Early Days. UVALDE COUNTY, DISTRICT #10
   
   Received
   
   APR 15 [?]
   
   WORKS PROGRESS
   
   ADMINISTRATION
   
   [??]
   
   [?]
   
   O. T. CARDWELL
   
   Uvalde, Texas.
   
   O. T. Cardwell, who lives on 502 South Getty Street, and ranches out
   near Spofford is active and up and going inspite of his 77 years. He
   seems to greatly enjoy being in the cattle business and is very
   capable. His parents who were farmers, first lived in Caldwell County
   where he was born in 1861, then they moved to Gonzales in 1861. The
   following is in his own words:
   
   "At the outbreak of the Civil War, I was too young to remember war
   times, of course, but soon after, felt the effects of it. I was the
   youngest of our family of four boys and two girls. There were thirteen
   other children besides, that my mother cared for during the war. She
   took care of them till they were old enough to make their own way in
   life. Their fathers had been killed in the war and their mothers had
   died of grief or hardships. It was necessary for my mother to take a
   count on the children of nights and I well remember the touch of her
   hand on my forehead at night when she came to our beds to take her
   count. I remember the old trundle bed that was pulled out from under
   my mother's bed and three to five of us youngsters tucked in for the
   night.
   
   "One night, the count was one short. Mother could not find him. She
   roused the little army of kids and sent us out in search of the lost
   one. We had been playing 'Hide and Seek,' and this one had hid himself
   so well that he could not be found. The play had gone on without him
   and he was forgotten but not by mother when she took the count. When
   we found him, he was covered up in the corner of the fence with some
   rubbish he had pulled over himself to hide him and he was dead to the
   world in slumberland.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   00022
   
   "However, every night was not a night of play for the children. The
   older ones were usually kept busy. That was in the day before we had
   gins and we smaller children would sit up many a night picking seed
   out of the cotton, while the others would be carding bats or running
   the spinning wheel or throwing the shuttle for mother as she sat at
   the old loom making clothing for us children. Why, if the girls could
   get a calico dress, they were far more /proud of it than they would be
   today of their silks and satins.
   
   "A woman's work in those days was never done. They never had many
   conveniences and it is marvelous how much work they could turn off.
   Soap had to be made. Cheeses were made besides the butter and curds
   and other things they fixed. That soap-making was lots of trouble. My
   father had made a hopper out of a log by hollowing it out. There was a
   trough underneath to catch the drippings to make lye. Many a bucket of
   water I've carried and poured in that hopper. She would take that lye,
   then, that dripped through the ashes and make soap out of it.
   
   "My oldest brother would sit at the sewing machine when he came from
   the field at noon till dinner was ready. Then after we ate, he would
   go back to the machine and sew till the others were ready to go to the
   field. The rest of us was cutting wood or 'tending to the horses or
   shucking corn.
   
   "I never had any Indian experiences myself, but I remember hearing my
   mother tell about an incident that happened in their community one
   time that I thought was rather exciting. The Indians had made a raid
   in the neighborhood. All the men had gone scouting and the women folks
   had been left in a log cabin. Well, along in the night, the women
   heard a strange noise in one side of the cabin which was built
   00033with a small window just large enough for an ordinary man to get
   through. Old Grandmother McCurley opened the door and as she did, she
   saw an Indian about half-way through the window trying to pull his way
   inside. A pair of scissors was the most convenient weapon she could
   find, so she took them and run and caught him by his long hair and
   stabbed him three times in the back and killed him. He fell backward
   outside. The other Indians outside took him off about two-hundred
   yards from the house and buried him. Someone later found his carcass
   and they knew it was the one she had killed with the scissors.
   
   "I looked after my father's stock, for he never liked to work with
   stock but turned his time and attention to farming. I worked with his
   stock till I was seventeen years old and he said to me one day, 'Son,
   I am in debt so you get out now and make a little money for yourself,
   so you can finish your education.' So I spent three years trying to
   get an education and also sent my two sisters to school.
   
   "In my [DEL: [?] :DEL] younger days, I had a lawsuit testing the
   rights of some horses I had taken a mortgage on. The case was decided
   in my favor. When court adjourned for dinner, my contestant said,
   'Well, you won the case.' I said, 'Yes.' Then he said, 'By swearing a
   d--- lie!' I knocked him down and he rose with his six-shooter drawn
   but he was overpowered by others and disarmed. The next day, I was in
   town and rather hurriedly galloped up in front of a drug store. I
   threw my bridle reins over the hitching post and ran on into the
   store. My man was in there. He told me afterwards that when he saw me
   come running and jump off of my horse and come on into the store, he
   thought I was after him. He jerked his gun. I caught it before he
   leveled it on me just above the cylinder. It was an old-time cap and
   ball pistol. Three shots were fired but the only damage that 00044was
   done was a bad powder burn on my wrist and a badly-scared drug-store
   man. I had taken the gun from the fellow just as the sheriff came in.
   He laid a heavy hand on me, marched me across the street, opened the
   jail door and shoved me inside. When he closed the door and started
   off, I said, 'Wait a minute. Are you going to keep me in here all
   night?' He said, 'Do you think I would turn a man loose when he has
   attempted to commit murder?' He turned to go again and I said,
   'Captain, you had better hear what I have to say before you go, or you
   may not live to hear it after I get out of here.' He said, 'Tell it
   d--- quick!' I told him he had the wrong man but he said he heard
   three shots and took the pistol away from me. I said, 'It was the
   other man's gun.' He asked me if I could prove it and I told him I
   could if I had a chance so he unlocked the door and gave/ me my
   freedom. He interviewed the drug store proprietor then told me to go
   home, but to appear at 9 o'clock A.M. next morning. They fined the
   other fellow for disturbing the peace and let me go.
   
   "Three years later, this fellow and I met in a lonely by-way. We both
   began to slow up but never stopped until we got in arms' length of
   each other. I said, 'Sam, I heard you were tired of carrying this
   trouble between us.' He said, 'I am.' Our hands met in a friendly
   clasp and we laid our guns away.
   
   "When I was about twenty-three years old, I was married to Miss
   Frankie Lowry. This was in '84. We settled down on a 1,500 acre farm
   close to Gonzales and I also traded in the cattle business for five
   years. But the boll weevils was so bad and cotton went down to three
   and five cents a pound. I didn't give up. I turned my whole attention
   to the stock business and I managed to pay off the lease on 00052the
   land that way.
   
   "When I was about twenty years old, a man named McCullogh told my
   brother four years older than me, that if he would move him west he
   would give him a yoke of white oxen he had. Well, my brother was
   married and had a family, and didn't want to make the tripe He asked
   me if I would like to go. I told him I would. It was a pleasure to me
   to get out and see the country. McCullogh was moving to the Thompson
   ranch out near Eagle Pass which was a big sheep ranch. When we reached
   the ranch what interested me most was, when the boys came in at night
   to the ranch house, there was a big table in the living room and they
   would unbuckle their six-shooters and throw them on this table. And
   the whole table would be covered with six-shooters. It was different
   to anything I had been used to. I thought, 'My Lord, I've got into a
   regular outlaw den. But they were all very nice.
   
   "As we came through Uvalde, the Southern Pacific Railroad was just
   being built here. There had never been a passenger train here at the
   time. The Mexican teamsters were passing through with freight headed
   for / the west. So when they went to drive their wagons across the
   railroad ties they hit it sideways with the wagon wheels and stalled
   their team. Well, they tried and tried and could not get across. They
   had the road so I had to wait till they got out so I could go on. I
   got out of my wagon and watched them and wondered why they didn't get
   out and cut some of that mesquite brush end build up to the top of the
   ties so the wagon would roll on. They had eighteen mules to the front
   of the wagon so they hitched sixteen to the back and this way they
   pulled the wagon back and forth for an hour and couldn't get it
   across. They finally took the lead mules off and pulled the wagon
   00066back thirty or forty yards and made a pull and hit it straight
   and went over. I liked the country so much that I said if I ever came
   west, Uvalde would be my home, and I always kept it in mind.
   
   "When we reached Old Man Thompson's , he told us we would have to go
   seventeen miles up the river where Mr. McCullogh was located. But
   while I was talking to Mr. Thompson I learned that wagons were in
   demand for hauling wool from San Felipe to San Antonio. You know there
   wasn't any Del Rio then; it was before there was ever any Del Rio
   there. Anyway when I reached San Felipe I was disappointed for there
   was no wool there. They told me to go to a ranch about forty miles
   from there and I would find plenty of wool. But I had gone far enough.
   I didn't care to go any farther and turned back.
   
   "On my way back I had staked out my horses one night and sometime in
   the night, they broke loose. I thought sure they were gone for good
   that someone had stolen them in the night. You can imagine about how a
   kid would feel away out there in that lone country with a wagon and no
   way to get away. But the horses came into camp next morning while I
   was eating breakfast. I sure felt good when I saw them coming in.
   
   "Old Man McCullogh had furnished me provisions to get home on and I
   only had 45¢ in my pocket and when I reached the Gaudelupe River I had
   to be crossed [in?] a ferry boat and that cost me thirty-five cents.
   So I had a dime in my pocket to get home on. But I reached home all
   right; you didn't have to have so much money those days to travel.
   
   "Sometime after that trip, I took charge of my father's farm. We had
   open range then and I had to gather cattle for Captain George
   Littlefield. He was a big stockman and was moving his stuff to Brady,
   Texas. And in connection with my farm and ranch business, I bought
   00077cattle for the Union Meat Company of San Antonio.
   
   "In my early experience of cow driving I felt like I had to have a big
   outfit and put on a big show, and handle cattle just as overyone else
   did. But experience has taught me later that fewer men and a smaller
   outfit could be more successfully handled than such a big outfit. And
   later in life, I learned that one man could do the work of an outfit,
   do it just as successfully with a very little expense. On one occasion
   I had gathered without the aid of anyone , six-hundred and
   seventy-five head of Mexico steers in one of the bushiest pastures in
   southwest Texas in less than a weeks time. Now some people won't
   believe that but I have living witnesses and can prove it.
   
   "I have had lots of experience in the cattle business and of course I
   have seen quite a few runs in my life. I remember once one of our
   neighbors back in east Texas had come west and bought six-hundred head
   of big steers and was taking them back east to feed out. So about the
   sixth day, the cattle began to get draggy and the man were all getting
   tired. Mr, Wells had an old Negro working for him, his name was Sam
   Price/ and he was a great favorite of Mr. Wells. Well, this Negro and
   myself was behind bringing up the cattle and we passed an old
   five-gallon can on the side of the road and this Negro roped it and
   tossed it over in the herd. Some of them kicked it and it began to
   rattle and of course we had a run. We rounded them up five miles from
   there in the forks of the Gaudelupe and San Marcos Rivers. After we
   got them to going again the boss came around and asked the reason of
   the stampede. When he came to Sam and asked him he said, 'I done it,
   boss.' 'How did you do it , Sam?' 'I roped an old tin can and throwed
   it in the middle of them.' Mr. Wells said, 'You black devil you, if it
   had been any other man in the outfit I would have fired 00088him.' And
   turned and rode off.
   
   "Once back in Sequin , a man named Thad Miller was feeding six-hundred
   head of big steers in pens and every night they would stampede. He
   phoned me at Gonzales to come up there and I went and he told me what
   was happening and said he couldn't stop them. That he had even hung a
   bunch of lanterns around on the pens and that didn't do any good. I
   told him all I knew for him to do was to get out and buy up two or
   three carloads of bulls and put them in the pens with the steers. The
   bulls were of a restless nature and some of them, would go walking
   around the pen all night bellowing and that seemed to quiet the herd.
   So he did that and never had any more trouble.
   
   "Once two other boys and myself were moving some cattle from one
   pasture to another. We had gotten over near one corner of the pasture
   where another herd was grazing when we noticed a cloud that had
   suddenly come up. So I told the boys to ride over there and turn them
   the other way so if we did have a run, they wouldn't all get started
   and run together. That left me there with about two-hundred steers to
   drive by myself. Well, after they left, there came a loud crash of
   thunder and they began to run. I managed to stay with them till the
   other boys got there but they had run two or three miles already.
   
   "Not so very long ago, I was feeding out a bunch of calves and had
   gone down to the pens to feed one evening and all of a sudden those
   calves stampeded and run over me and knocked me down and broke a lot
   of wire and fence posts down. When I got up and looked around to see
   what in the world had happened, I saw a polecat trotting across the
   pen. I said well, I didn't blame them much.
   
   "When I moved to Uvalde, I was running from the boll weevil and got
   caught in a western drought and have not been able to get away. When I
   first came here, I worked with Crowley Perrian Commission Company and
   00099the Commercial National Bank employed me to gather cattle for the
   A.B. Dockery estate. On one occasion, we pitched camp near Batesville.
   I had Billy Lewis, Jim Dockery, Frank Parsons, Alvin Blalock and
   others with me. There was an outlaw bull that had outwitted us on our
   former workings and he came bellowing near the camp. Billy Lewis said
   to Jim Dockery, 'If you will let me have old Jack, I'll get that
   bull.' Jack was a famous roping horse of W.H. Parsons, Jim's
   father-in-law, and Jim had the horse in his mount. Jim gave his
   consent and Billy saddled up and rode out for the fun. Billy was
   successful in his cast, but caught too dead a hold around the neck,
   instead of the horns. The neck/ hold is much harder to handle on a
   bull than a girl. So when the bull hit the end of the rope, the
   off-strap of Billy's saddle broke and Billy and saddle went up in the
   air. Billy was all arms and legs as he went over but the bull went to
   the brush like a kite in the air with Billy's saddle holding the
   string. The boys trailed a short distance and found the saddle where
   the rope had hooked over a snag on a tree. The rope was broken so the
   saddle was brought back to camp and dropped down a short way from the
   camp fire. Everything got quiet toward night and the boys made down
   for a night's rest. A neighboring dog raised a howl and a mad wolf was
   suggested. One of the boys declared he could smell him, finally all of
   them could smell him. Then they could see him. A gun was called for
   but none in camp had one. They could see him moving around and the
   last one of them rolled up in their tarps, head and ears, waiting for
   further action.
   
   "I had fitted myself out with a hammock and had it well swung between
   two trees so I took it on myself to stand watch for the boys. I kept
   my eyes on what I thought they had mistaken for a mad wolf. It was in
   the glimmer of a campfire, but never did move. I finally called to
   001010the boys and told them it was a false alarm. Two of them
   summoned courage enough to venture out to the thing and drug Billy's
   saddle in to camp.
   
   "I worked seven years soliciting loans and inspecting cattle for
   Dover's National Bank of Kansas City, Missouri, and during that time,
   I never lost a loan. I don't know if I deserved the credit or the
   cowmen.
   
   "I believe I have served my county in the capacity as a juror as
   faithfully as any men living today. I served as foreman in Gonzales
   County before I was thirty years old; later, as foreman of the Federal
   Grand Jury in San Antonio. And I served as foremen of the grand jury
   in Uvalde County too many times to remember, also foremen of the
   Federal grand jury in Del Rio three times. At another time I was
   summonsed as a grand juror. I had had my foot broken by the fall of a
   horse, but answered the summons on crutches. The judge sent me a note
   asking me to lunch with him. He asked me why I was there on crutches?
   Didn't I know that was a legal excuse. I told him I did but I was so
   tired of lying around home I really wanted to get out. He said, 'Well
   those crutches saved you from being foremen again.'
   
   "On another occasion, I was summonsed to serve on the grand jury, but
   I had sold a big bunch of steers to go to Kansas grass and had set the
   time to deliver them. Later, the same day, I was summonsed to appear
   for jury service. I rendered my excuse tothe sheriff but the judge
   would not accept it, and fined me. I refused to pay the fine and was
   cited to appear before the next term of court, to show the reason why,
   if any, the fine should not be made final.
   
   "When the next term of court met, I was there. My case was called and
   the judge asked me if I had a reason to offer to the court why I did
   not appear as I was summonsed. I told him I had. Then he said,
   001111'You and Judge Harris (who was district attorney at the time)
   will have to fight it out!' Judge Harris being a good friend of mine,
   I eased out of the court room, found Judge Harris and stated my case
   to him. He said he would be upstairs in a few minutes and get the
   judge to remit it. I went back to the court room and Judge Benny saw
   me and asked if I had seen Judge Harris. Of course, I did not care to
   let him know I had but told him yes. He said, 'What did he say?' I
   told him. Then he said, 'I told you you had this fine to pay.' He said
   Joe Davenport paid his and I had mine to pay. I told him, 'Joe
   Davenport is one man and O. T. Cardwell is another. Then he said he
   ought to fine me for contempt of court. I arose and told him I didn't
   agree with him as I had been cited to appear before the court and I
   felt like I had a right to defend myself, but if the court was fixed
   in it's opinion and no evidence would change him, then it was useless
   to take up any time of the court. But if there was no law by which a
   citizen could protect his private affairs it was high time our
   law-makers were enacting some. The good old judge smiled and said, 'I
   will remit your fine.' I said, 'Thank you.' and walked out of the
   court room. Judge Benney was a politition and in a few days he come to
   me put his arm over my shoulder and said, 'We had some very important
   matters to come before this grand jury and I did want you as foreman.
   
   "I was sheriff of Uvalde county in 1910. Nothing exciting occurred
   during that time, but after serving that one term I quit, for I saw
   that I could not serve in a public office and do my duty to the public
   and attend to my private business. And I couldn't give up the cattle
   business.
   
   "As sheriff, I had one little interesting event come up in the court
   room. Frank [Fisher?] was on trial for bootlegging. So Old attempted
   to impeach me. He asked me if certain things were not true. I told him
   no. He twisted the question around two or three times and then said,
   'Mr. 001212Cardwell, it is a fact, and why don't you admit it?' I
   asked him if he knew it to be a fact. He said, 'Yes.' I said, 'You
   knew a lie.' So he picked up n big law-book and threw at me and I
   dodged it and he grabbed up a chair and I jerked it from him and fell
   across a table, but I soon got to my feet and demanded order in the
   court room. Judge Milam fined us both for contempt of court. So
   sometime later, Judge Milam told me he was in a tight and whenI I
   asked him why, he told me Judge Old had not paid his fine and he did
   not want to impose on me to collect it. I told him it would be a
   pleasure to me. For Judge Old and I were the best of friends.
   
   "For the past 27 years I have ranched at Spofford. I am 77 now and if
   I can live 77 more years no telling how much knowledge I will have in
   regard to/ gathering cattle. My father lived to be 84 my grandfather
   97 and my great-grandfather 114 and if I can overlap him, it will be
   plenty.
   
   "I have many a good friend here and elsewhere too. I lost one in
   February. And I prized his friendship. He was J. C. Swift of the Live
   stock Exchange in Kansas City. He had lots of dealings with them,
   borrowed money, shipped to them, paid it back and borrowed it back. He
   has been out here and visited me many a time. Here is a letter he
   wrote me in December before he died:
   
   Mr. O. T. Cardwell,
   
   Uvalde, Texas.
   
   Dear Friend:
   
   As we travel through the country there are always a few rugged
   landmarks that stand out, and as I have traveled along through life I
   have been privileged to know quite a number of rugged characters that
   have made an indelible impression on me and have unconsciously served
   to stimulate me to greater endeavor.
   
   You are one of them. And you may have forgotten all about the time
   001313you had the accident and broke your leg and I came to your house
   just two or three days afterwards, expecting to fin you in bed, and
   they told me you were out in the pasture looking after the cattle,
   then after awhile you came riding in, one foot in the stirrup and the
   broken leg in splints and just as useless as no log at all; but there
   was not any moaning, nor whinning, nor pla for sympathy, and I went
   awa from there saying that that was the kind of man that helped this
   country in its pioneer days - and I am glad I have been privileged to
   know you.
   
   With best wishes for the holiday season and the New Year, I remain
   Yours, Sincerely
   
   J. C. Swift
   
   -30-

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