TX BIOS:  Fogg Coffey
   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.
   
   0001
   
   Folk stuff - Rangelore
   
   Range-lore
   
   Annie McAulay
   
   Maverick, Texas
   
   RANGE-LORE
   
   Fogg Coffey was born in Parker County, Texas, in 1863. His father,
   (Uncle) Rich Coffey, spent a few months in Runnels and Coleman
   counties in 1862, moving with his family to a place near the mouth of
   Elm Creek and on the Colorado river in Runnels County in 1865. There
   were five families in the settlement and they called it Picketville.
   Since that time Mr. Fogg Coffey has made his home on or near the river
   in Runnels and Coleman Counties.
   
   Mr. Coffey says: "My father moved to Runnels County with his family in
   1865. There were five families in the settlement, and they moved in
   wagons drawn by oxen. They built their houses by putting posts in the
   ground as close together as possible, then they put a few poles and
   brush
   
     NOTE: [C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   00022on top, and stretched buffalo hides over all that. My mother said
   it made a very comfortable shelter.
   
   "I think we dreaded the Indians in the early days more then anything.
   We had to be on the watch constantly or they'd take all we had.
   
   "A bunch of Redskins (Comanches, I think they were) visited our
   settlement on June 1, 1871. We had just got all the cattle and horses
   rounded up. There were 1,050 head of cattle and 54 saddle horses. The
   men had left a few boys to guard the herds while they went to take
   another look for stragglers, and some to eat. Nobody suspected an
   attack for they'd seen no Indians or signs or nothin'.
   
   "Well, before the men could get in their saddles them low down Indians
   had drove off every cow and all the horses except three or four. Two
   of our men were killed and my brother John, then just a boy, was
   wounded.
   
   "The very next Christmas them Indians come back and drove off 350 head
   of cattle. There weren't more than twenty men in the neighborhood and
   they were scattered or course, so before they could get together, the
   Comanches were gone.
   
   "My brother Bill and me had a little run-in with the Indians when I
   wasn't more'n eight or nine years old. My father had sent us out to
   look for some horses near our home. We was afoot and saw the Indians
   after the horses before they saw us. We managed to catch two of the
   horses and beat 'em 00033back to the house. They took after us, and
   all the time they was shooting at us with old flint rock guns. These
   guns had a little pan like thing full of powder and a place on one
   side of it for the flint rock. The trigger would hit the flint and
   fire it and catch the powder and explode it. We was some scared boys,
   but nobody took a little thing like that too serious them days.
   
   "When I was just a small shaver I was sent with my brother John to
   look for some stock one day. We had gotten hold of a small cap and
   bell pistol. Brother John rode off one way and me another. He let me
   keep the gun, but told me to be sure and not fire it unless I saw
   Indians. A gun shot was a signal for help. I didn't go far before I
   ran onto a polecat and then I let loose shooting. It wasn't any time
   at all before my brother and everybody in hearing distance was there
   on the spot. They thought, of course, we had spotted some Indians. My
   father sure gave me a trimin' down. It was worth it though, just to
   get to shoot that gun.
   
   "I remember another incident that happened when I was a boy that sure
   did tickle me. Old Dad Guest had a hog ranch at Fort Chadbourne along
   in the early seventies. He came by our house one day on his way to
   Fort Chadbourne, and I teased my father and my mother to let me go
   with him. They consented and I [rigged?] me up an old shot gun muzzler
   and started off feeling proud as a young cock.
   
   "When we were in a few miles of the fort we looked around 00044and saw
   a band of Indians coming not more'n a half mile away. They chased us
   to the fort, shooting and yellin' for all they was worth. When we got
   there some of the folks asked dad if they'd shot at him. He said,
   'Yes, we heard the bullets twice, once when they passed us, and again
   when we passed them.' If they had attacked us a little further back,
   before we got so near the fort, they'd a scalped us sure.
   
   "My father never went to the Civil War. He joined, but they kept him
   here on the frontier to help guard the settlers and fight the Indians.
   
   "I never did any long trail driving; I worked on the range always. I
   guess I was a pretty fair bronc rider, but everybody was them days. We
   had to be good riders. It was useless to try to live if you couldn't
   ride and shoot. I rode, or broke, lots of wild horses when I was a
   young fellow.
   
   "I remember some Rangers came to our house from Coleman as late as
   1875 or '76. They had camped the night before in "Curely Ratchet Bend"
   about one-half mile from our house. The Indians had stolen their
   horses and left 'em afoot. My father thought that was a good joke on
   the Rangers.
   
   "The biggest round-up I ever helped with was along about 1887. We
   rounded up 50,000 head of cattle and brought 'em together over on
   Fuzzy Creek. The cattle had drifted into Concho, Coleman and other
   counties. Jim Johnson was big boss of the round-up. Other bosses were:
   Irie Fitzgerald, Bill 00055[Mcnaley?] and John Davison. It took
   several days to gather them. They was worked in three bunches. After
   we'd worked (cut and branded) them they was turned loose again.
   
   "There was a man by the name of McMahon killed in that outfit. He was
   shot and killed by a boy who worked for him, whom he had whipped. The
   boy drew his gun and told him to apologize to him, and pay him. But
   McMahon laughed instead and the boy killed him on the spot.
   
   "My father built a two-story rock building on the line of Concho and
   Runnels counties and near the Colorado river in 1881. The house is
   still standing. Practically all my life, with the exception of a few
   years, has been spent in that part of the country.
   
   "I live at [LeDay?] now. I have been in the sheep business for many
   years. I was the first man in West Texas to run sheep on open range.
   
   "The sheep and cowmen didn't mix in the early days. Cattlemen thought
   the sheep business undignified. There were many differences among men
   on that account and many were divided and became enemies who were once
   friends. But it all worked out for the best and now we have
   communities and towns of which we can justly be proud."
   
   ************
   
   REFERENCE: Fogg Coffey. Leday, Texas. Interviewed June 8, 1938.

************************************************************************
USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced 
in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of
this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives
to store the file permanently for free access.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/

Thanks to the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/txcat.html
***********************************************************************