TX BIOS:  Eem Hurst
   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.
   
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   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
   
   [????]
   
   Gauthier, Sheldon F.
   
   Rangelore
   
   Tarrant Co.,Dist.#7 [38?]
   
   Page #1
   
   FEC
   
   Eem Hurst, 72, living at Hurst, Tex., was born in Claiborn co. Tenn.,
   Mar. 5, 1866, at which time his father, W.L. Hurst, operated a whiskey
   still. [??] Hurst emigrated to Texas in 1877 and settled on a tract of
   land in Tarrant co., located adjacent to Bear Creek, two miles N. of
   [?], Tex. He farmed the land for four years, then moved to Bedford,
   Tex., 12 miles [?] of Fort Worth. There he bought a 70 acre tract of
   land for the sum of $70.00 and one yoke of oxen. Eem Hurst was reared
   to manhood at the Bedford settlement. At the age of 18, he began his
   range career on a horse ranch owned by the Slaughter brothers. His
   next place of employment was in Young county on the Hoffman brothers'
   ranch. After terminating his service with the Hoffmans' ranch, he went
   to the Pecos River range section of Texas and worked at a 'Lazy S'
   cowcamp, owned by the Slaughter brothers. He remained with the 'Lazy
   S' ranch for two years and then returned to the Bedford settlement,
   where he farmed and has since remained. His story:
   
   "I'll be 73 years old if I stay with this game of life for a tudder
   year, that is for the most part of it. That thar will be Mar. 5, 1939.
   I saw the light of day for the first time back yonder in Clairborn
   co., Tenn. We lived in the uplands and my pappy, W. L. Hurst was his
   name, raised corn and made whiskey. Them thar days 'twas not 'gainst
   the law to run a still without a permit and such, but the way my
   father run his, it was called a wildcat still.
   
   "When things got sort of settled after the Civil War, we piled our
   stuff in a covered wagon, hitched two mules to it and started a drag
   for Texas. That was in 1877. It took us six weeks to make that thar
   drag. We hit rocks, mud, hills, sand, streams and rivers on the way.
   Thar whar times when we could ford the streams and some of 'em we had
   to float 'er. But, we got here and landed in Tarrant county.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   00022Pappy found a piece of land on Bear Creek, two miles N.E. of [?].
   Of course, [?] warnt thar then, the land belonged to [?] Daniels then.
   That thar land pappy rented and thar we settled and we farmed four
   years on that thar place.
   
   "At the end of four years work farming on the [?] Daniels' place,
   pappy had made enough to buy a piece of land by throwing in an ox team
   with what he had. He bought a 70-acre piece in the Bedford settlement
   for $70.00 and one good yoke of oxen and got a clear title to the
   land, and 'twarnt bad land either.
   
   "Most of the houses then whar built of logs, but our farmhouse was
   better than that, because 'twas built of weatherboard and reckoned as
   a right pert house them days.
   
   "The Hurst clan must have liked the Bedford district, because thar has
   been Hurst folks living thar every since.
   
   "A spell of time after we settled at the Bedford settlement a
   postoffice was put in and the burg of Bedford was started. Thar soon
   was a blacksmith shop, store, and a bench for the loafers to sit and
   do thar whittling. After all these years the burg is about the same,
   except it has lost the postoffice.
   
   "Bobo was the first postmaster, DeCamp was the blacksmith; Bobo also
   sold the groceries and dry goods and furnished the whittling bench. My
   brother, M.B. Hurst, fetched the mail from Dallas to Bedford and rode
   a hoss, thar and back, carrying the mail sack.
   
   "I worked up a job with a few of the settlers, toting thar mail from
   the Bedford office to the homes. One of the places I fetched the mail
   to was old man Booth's cow ranch, father of Ray 00033Booth, who farms
   the old headquarters location and is a cattle buyer and lives on the
   old place. I rode a hoss and learned to ride a hoss to perfection
   toting the settlers' mail. Of course, riding a hoss was learned by me
   back yonder in Tenn. But thar is a difference twix sitting on'em and
   riding 'em. Back yonder in Tenn., all our hosses whar raised as sort
   of pets and thar whar no wild pitching critters to handle. When we hit
   Texas 'twas the Texas cowpony we had to straddle; and handling 'em
   took riding, not sitting.
   
   "Them Texas critters had the staying ability far beyond the Eastern
   critters. Hearken to this, what my brother did one day on a trip to
   Dallas to fetch the mail. He had agreed to ride a hoss in a match race
   for a fellow at 2 [??]. Thar whar many match hoss races them days and
   my brother was a top rider, also a light weight, so was called on to
   do riding often.
   
   "It was 32 miles from Bedford to Dallas, whar the postoffice was.
   Brother made that drag, to Dallas and back, in six hours on a Texas
   pony, and the critter warnt any the worse for wear.
   
   "My first ranch work was on the hoss ranch belonging to the Slaughter
   boys. That whar in 1884 when I took up with the outfit. The camp was
   located near/ whar Coppell is now located, just about on the line of
   Tarrant and Dallas counties. Five waddies worked thar, looking after
   around 500 hosses.
   
   "We roosted in a tent and one or the tudder of us waddies messed up
   the chuck. When I say 'twas messed up chuck, I mean 'twas sure messed
   up at times. Thar whar one or two fair-to-middling chuck messers in
   the crew, but most of the time we 00044whar too damn ornery to do the
   job right.
   
   "The outfit fetched us plenty of chuck supply, such as canned
   vegetables, sorghum, corn meal, wheat flour and beans by the bushel.
   The beef whar more or less all around us. If we needed beef, and warnt
   too ornery to go fetch it, all we needed to do was pick out a fat
   yearling which suited us. I worked a spell of years for different
   outfits and I don't think I ever lined my flue once with beef
   belonging to the outfit I was with.
   
   "Just so sure as the sun sat at night and came out in the morning,
   beef, beans, sop, lick, biscuits and black coffee whar dished out for
   our tape worms. Some of the times, when we wanted to get some fancy
   chuck, we'd have a mess of son-of-a-gun stew. Now, that thar is a mess
   fitting for lining your flue. It has all the ingredients in it which
   the cooky can lay hands on. The portions of each ingredient is judged
   by instinct. If you go measuring stuff the stew will sure be spoiled.
   
   "Anyway, the chuck must be fitting for humans, because we whar always
   in tip-top shape for doing our work. We could stay with our work long
   as conditions called for.
   
   "When a norther hit we'd be called on to stay with the herd from start
   to the finish of the storm, because the critters whar bent on finding
   better shelter than whar we had 'em.
   
   "Hosses are not so tolerably bad about going on a stomp, but two
   critters sure would drift fast for shelter. The stallions would lead
   the mares to some river bottom, or some such place whar thar was some
   timber for a wind brake. Hosses will come back to thar home range,
   after a buster stops, but it may be a spell 00055of two or three days
   before the critters would show up.
   
   "Thar whar certain folks tolerable bent on picking up stray hosses for
   the purpose of giving the critters a home. Them kind of folks got busy
   during the time a buster was raging, sort of looking to help the
   critters to find a shelter. The critters them folks found we'd not see
   again. So, to prevent the loss of critters, we'd stay with the
   critters during a storm. Maybe we'd be a couple days and nights in one
   stretch without any sleep.
   
   "Sometimes when the buster warnt so bad, we'd give each other a little
   spell of rest, but when a fellow had a chance to get a spell of rest,
   he'd have to do his sleeping fast, because it would be only for a
   couple of hours at best.
   
   "Of course, when the weather was decent, we sat pretty. 'Warnt much
   work to do then and was sort of a lazy man's job, except during the
   roundups, then thar whar plenty work to do. Also, when wrangling
   critters, we had some tough work which took the leaf lard off our
   ribs.
   
   "The roundups whar held in the Spring and Fall. We worked one bunch at
   a time. Hosses of a herd don't range together. The animals stay in
   bunches. Each stud would have around 25 mares and with the bunch of
   mares would be the colts and the geldings, to the total bunch around
   one stud would be twix 75 and 100 critters. The hosses ranging on the
   Coppell range generally were separated into four or five bunches which
   grazed off by tharselves.
   
   "The roundup job was to brand the colts, castrate the young males and
   cut out the critters we'd want to wrangle. Those we'd 00066cut out for
   wrangling would be placed in the corral and after the roundup work was
   finished we'd do the busting.
   
   "We had to work one bunch of hosses at a time, because it wouldn't do
   to throw the bunches of hosses together unless the studs whar snubbed,
   because those critters would more than likely get into a mixup, and
   I'm telling you 'tis a mixup when two stallions gets to fitting. One
   of the things we'd have to watch for all the time was to stop a mixup
   if two studs met.
   
   "The mixups generally started because one of two studs tried to steal
   a mare away from the tudder. Stallions wont 'low any tudder stud to
   fool around his ladies, but will try to coax a mare away from a herd.
   Well, if he gets catched at it he's in for a mixup.
   
   "Stallions do about as much fitting with thar teeth as with thar foot,
   and they try for the throat to shut off the wind. [With?] thar teeth,
   the animals can cut out hunks of meat. Thar are plenty of gore spilled
   during a mixup twix two studs, and the critters will stay right in
   thar and pitch till its power runs low and can't go on.
   
   "We wrangled around 100 hosses a year. Those critters whar for
   supplying the cowponies to the Slaughter cowcamps which the Slaughter
   people run in different places.
   
   "Our way of busting hosses was to just bust it and no monkey work. Of
   course, we had 'em in the corral and we'd rope and snub 'em, then put
   a blind over its eyes and a saddle on its back. We'd let the critter
   stand with the saddle on its back for several hours, and then mount
   it, take the blind off and take the rocking. The 00077hosses then
   would go to pitching. Some would pitch like hell and tudders would
   come to thaw in just a few minutes. But, with any of 'em, you'd have
   to know your riding.
   
   "I've seen stars and moons, in all sizes and shapes, and four or five
   million at one time, while arguing with a critter about letting me
   stay on its hump. I'll say I whar a top wrangler and my deadly enemies
   gave me that kind of a send-off, but I've argued with some critters
   which busted me. Ride any of 'em - hell, thar whar some critters which
   the only fellow that could stay with 'em whar a dead man tied on. Say
   fellow, thar whar some critters that died in thar tracks pitching.
   I've had two that did and several which may as well have been dead for
   all the good they whar after the argument.
   
   "We'd ride 'em from a half to a dozen times and then the critters whar
   ready for cow work.
   
   "I nested with the Slaughter outfit four years and then joined up with
   a cow outfit. I went to Young county with a herd of critters for
   Hoffman brothers. The outfit whar drifting through Tarrant county to
   the Young county range section and needed a hand, so I joined up.
   
   "We drifted the herd of about 1,000 to a camp south of Olney and
   turned 'em loose on the open range.
   
   "Thar whar several camps thar then. [?] had a camp thar at the time
   and was about the biggest outfit in the section.
   
   "Thar is whar I got some knowledge of pert rustling twix two ranchers.
   Both men whar hipped to the tudder fellow picking critters and working
   the brand over. One fellow's brand was 'IC' 00088and the tudder's
   brand was 'IG'. It warnt much of a trick to change a C to G or a G to
   a C. So, to beat the game, one fellow changed 'IC' brand to read
   'ICU'. But, the change didn't work, because the tudder fellow changed
   his brand to read 'ICU2'. The last I heard of that mess the two
   fellows agreed to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. Hoffman
   had a fair camp for the waddies to roost in and we whar dished up
   about the same kind of chuck the Slaughter hoss outfit put out, only
   we had a belly-cheater which was pretty fair and the chuck warnt so
   hard to take.
   
   "That thar Young county section was about all a cattle range at that
   thar time and all 'twas to be seen was waddies and critters. While
   going through a herd you'd see many different brands mixed in from
   tudder herds. Of course, at the roundups all the outfits would work
   under one [head?] and the different critters whar cut out and the
   calves branded with the iron according to its mother's brand.
   
   "While with the Hoffman outfit I saw a real cattle drift. 'Twas in
   February and a real sleet buster hit in and the critters drifted from
   more than a 100 miles from the N. of us. Critters in our section went
   that far S. we just quit trying to hold the critters because 'twarnt
   any use.
   
   "Thar whar thousands of critters drifting past that had gotten away
   from tudder ranches N. of us and just swept past our camp. The first
   night of the storm I layed awake all night, listening to the horns of
   the drifting critters clashing.
   
   "The critters started moving the day before the buster hit and the old
   rawhides calculated a hard spell of weather was 00099behind the
   movement, and so 'twas. 'Twas sleet, snow, rain and bitter cold along
   with the rest. Lots of critters whar lost, being too weak to stand the
   chill.
   
   "Thar whar a drift fence running from about 20 miles S. of Olney to
   the Archer county lines, but the critters went around it and what
   didn't whar piled up at the fence, and thar whar hundreds found dead
   at the fence.
   
   "I reckon I stayed with the Hoffman outfit about two years, then
   jiggled out to the Pecos country, S. of Pecos City. Thar I nested with
   a Slaughter cow outfit. 'Twas called the 'Lazy S' ranch, because thar
   S was made laying down for thar brand.
   
   "A fellow named Conners whar the top-screw at that cowcamp and he
   worked from 15 to 20 rawhides. The names of the rawhides who worked
   thar I can't remember, because most of them whar called by thar
   nicknames. Like the belly-cheater, he was called 'Cooky' or 'Punk'. If
   Punk had a tudder name, it whar tethered out somewhar and out of use.
   
   "We did lots of riding on the Lazy S, because the critters held fairly
   well bunched. We stayed with the herd until the animals whar bedded
   down and then just two riders kept an eye on 'em through the night.
   The night riders changed shifts every two hours. The main thing night
   riders had to keep thar eyes peeled for was the rustlers. The rustlers
   would watch for a chance to scatter a herd and then pick up the
   strays.
   
   "When I worked for the Lazy S the law had rustlers fairly well under
   cover, but once in a while thar whar a steal.
   
   "Our shelter whar tents in the Winter time and we slept in 001010the
   open during the nice weather of a Summer. [?] built a shelter for the
   hosses out of mesquite posts set upright in the ground. 'Twas a shade
   for them in the Summer time and a wind brake in the winter.
   
   "The wages paid run around $5.00 a month for the general run of
   cowhands, which whar about the average wages them days. Compared with
   today, them thar wages [??], but we had heaps of fun with what we got.
   
   "When we had a few bucks in our pockets, and we'd have 'er after pay
   time, after the roundup we'd drag the town without fail. The waddies
   would do anything they set their heads to doing and generally they
   would get plenty of foolishment in thar noodles.
   
   "I never [?] with a gang of men who liked to blow thar horn as them
   waddies did, and 'twas about the ability of their hosses that they
   seemed to do the most blowing. When we whar holding the roundup, we'd
   set around the camp before rolling in for the night and chin. Some of
   the blowing whar stretched right smart.
   
   "J.W. [?], who [???] well digger here in Fort [Worth?], used to tell
   some good hoss deals. Lewis whar about the top hoss rider in the
   country, besides a good teller of hoss deals.
   
   "One night [while I whar with the Lazy S,?] the waddies got to
   [telling about the great?] hosses they'd seen and rode. One waddy
   chinned about a hoss that could tell time on a watch. The waddy said:
   
   "[???] to do whar to point to the hour I wanted to be rolled out and
   lay the watch whar the critter could see it. [When?] the hour came
   around the hoss would poke me with its nose'.
   
   "That whar a pretty smart hoss, but a tudder waddy comes in 001111with
   this [?]:
   
   "'I rode a hoss while with the 'JA' outfit which could read the JA's
   brand'.
   
   "Well, that hoss whar a pretty smart critter, too, but J.T. Lewis [?]
   comes in with a [?] and told of a critter he once owned. He said:
   
   "'I owned a hoss once which never stepped in a hole or stumbled in a
   ditch. This hoss was a pert jumpey and when we'd come to a ditch or a
   stream the critter would jump 'er'.
   
   "At that point, a tudder waddy chinned in and asked:
   
   "'Suppose the stream whar too wide for the critter.'
   
   "Lewis answered:
   
   "Well, sar, that very thing happened with us once or twice, but the
   critter was smart. After it had jumped 15 or 20 feet and saw it
   couldn't make 'er, then the critter just turned back. It just couldn't
   be made to stumble in a stream. I trained the critter about jumping
   wide streams afterwards so that instead of turning back it would make
   the streams in two jumps'.
   
   "I never rode a hoss that would turn back after it saw 'twas no chance
   to finish a jump, but I have rode 'em that would never step in a hole.
   [?] hosses whar few in number and in great demand and whar always
   saved for night work, and whar called night [critters.?] Once in a
   while a critter would show up that never would miss a [hole?] such
   critters were soon shunted.
   
   "When I left the Lazy S outfit, I came back to Bedford and [?] to
   farming. I have been thar pretty much ever since.

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