TX BIOS:  W. T. Padgett
   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
   
   Range-lore
   
   Annie McAulay
   
   Maverick, Texas
   
   Page one
   
   RANGE-LORE
   
   W. T. Padgett was born in Coryell County Texas, June 25, 1859. He
   moved to Runnels County in 1889 and settled on a ranch on Valley
   Creek, a few miles northwest of Ballinger.
   
   Mr. Padgett says: "My father was a millright before he become
   interested in stock raising. He started ranching in Coryell County
   where I was born. A little later he moved to McClennan County, where
   he operated a pretty big stock ranch. We lived in Waco during the
   Civil War. My father raised horses as well as cattle. He always had
   three or four hundred head of horses on his ranch.
   
   "I began riding when about ten years old. There was always plenty of
   wild horses, and so after a few years, I learned to ride the meanest
   of 'em. I really enjoyed it, I guess. I thought it a pack of fun then.
   I always helped to break my
   
     NOTE: C.12 [???]
     
   00022[DEL: fathers :DEL] father's horses. But of course that wasn't
   all I did, and I never rode for money. It was all open range country
   then and our cattle would drift plum down as far as Little River and
   other streams. We tried to sort of keep up with the herd as there were
   cattle thieves them days.
   
   "We always had two big round-ups a year, one in the spring and one in
   the fall of the year. Here is the way we'd do it. We , with other
   neighboring ranchers would round up all the herds, not all at the some
   time but we'd take one small section at the time, round up everything
   in that part, brand the calves and cut out what we wanted to sell,
   hold them, and when we were through, turn the others loose. We usually
   rounded up several hundred at a time. They'd have a range boss, then
   there'd be all the ranch bosses, most of their cowhands, and as many
   cooks and horse wranglers as was needed. Sometimes there'd be a
   hundred or more men in the whole outfit.
   
   "I remember one trip my father and me made. It was worse than any
   cattle drive I was ever on. It was sometime in the early seventies. We
   took sixty-five saddle horses to Arkansas to sell. We had to watch our
   horses mighty close on account of Indians. They wasn't on the warpath
   then but they would sure steal horses if they got a chance.
   
   "I had to ride nearly every one of them horses. Some of 'em had been
   ridden one or two times and some of 'em not a-tall. You see they was
   saddle horses and when we'd sell one we'd have to ride him for the
   buyer before he'd take him. I was sure 00033glad when we had sold the
   lost ones and turned our faces toward home.
   
   "The women didn't ride much in McClennan County, except on a side
   saddle and they had to be helped on then.
   
   "There was a ranch woman in Posque County, aunt Liza McFall, that had
   several girls, and they could ride outlaw horses or anything. She
   didn't have a cowboy on the ranch that could beat 'em ridin' broncs,
   or working cattle either.
   
   "I still remember the Indians. My father said he'd helped to chase
   lots of the Redskins but never killed one.
   
   "When father and mother married, they went from Coryell to Comanche
   County on their bridal tour. They rode mules rather than horses
   because, as my father said, a mule could smell an Indian for miles.
   And that helped to make the trip safer.
   
   "I can remember when the Indians would try to steal the stock,
   especially horses from the settlers. When I was about twelve years old
   some Indians made a raid on a ranch in Bosque County, not so many
   miles from us. The owner caught them stealing and tried to stop them
   but they killed him. Some of the white settlers nearby took in after
   the Redskins, and shot one. The other Indians were so frightened or
   surprised that they went off and left the dead one where he fell and
   never did come back for him. I guess they must've give 'em a real
   scare that time.
   
   "In 1889 I moved with my wife, a few belongings and three 00044hundred
   and fifty head of cattle to Runnels County. We settled on Valley Creek
   a few miles went of Runnels City. We had a heck of a time moving to
   Runnels. It rained on us all the way. It had been dry I think, but it
   was sure plenty wet that spring.
   
   "The county up and down Oak and Valley Creeks was all mostly open
   range then. In 1890 we had a big round-up, or I should say, round-ups.
   There were three- one near the Wylie ranch and the river, one further
   north near where Norton now is, and the last on Valley Creek three or
   four miles south of Wingate.
   
   "We had some drouths to contend with after I came to Runnels. In 1892
   many of the ranchers were forced to seek water and grass elsewhere. I
   moved my cattle south, down near Fort McKavett. It was move or let 'em
   starve. I've seen good times and hard times, I've had my ups and downs
   of course. I had an up and a down too last year. I climbed a tree to
   thrash some pecans on my place, and fell down out of it all the way to
   the ground, crippling myself for life, and I'm almost helpless now.
   But I console myself that I had already lived and enjoyed a long and
   active life." 0005Range-lore
   
   Annie McAulay
   
   Maverick, Texas
   
   BIBLIOGRAPHY
   
   W. T. Padgett, Ballinger, Texas, interviewed March 15, 1938.

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