TX BIOS:  J. D. Shannon
   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
   
   Wm. V. Ervin, P. W., Wichita Falls, Texas.
   
   Page 1.
   
   No. of words, 540. [?]
   
   Interview with J. D. Shannon, Early Settler, Iowa Park, Texas(Wichita
   County).
   
   "We came here from Pottsboro, Texas, over near Caddo in the Choctaw
   nation. But I was born originally in Illinois, and the family came to
   Texas about 1872.
   
   "When we came here there wasn't anything here but ranches and a store
   or two. I worked on ranches/ as cowpuncher around here and in the
   Territory. There ain't no more real cowpunchers any more. This ridin'
   fence ain't nothin'. We ain't got any but Sears-Roebuck cowboys now,
   and what do they know about real cowpunchin' [DEL: [?] :DEL] , like
   when we had eight or ten thousand head of longhorns. Ever' mornin'
   we'd have to top off our horses. Maybe there'd be forty or fifty
   horses pitchin' at once, most of 'em four-year-olds that'd been
   runnin' loose on the range and hadn't felt a rope since they was
   branded. The cowmen wouldn't let you use a [bridle?] with bits. You
   had to use a hackamore so the horses wouldn't get their mouth sore and
   cut up. Then they wouldn't graze good and would get in bad condition.
   Then, too, they'd [DEL: runn :DEL] run along in chasin' cattle and
   sling their head from side to side which kept them from watchin' their
   rootin' and they was liable to fall, and maybe break a leg. Drivin' a
   herd on the trail you couldn't take your own horse. You had to use the
   cow outfit's horses so you couldn't quit the outfit on the trail.
   
   "One time we was goin' up the trail and got into the Territory, and we
   had a good big bunch of horses and about ten thousand head of cattle.
   I was about thirteen years old. A bunch of Comanches and Kiowas jumped
   [DEL: [?] :DEL] the boys [DEL: [?] :DEL] ridin' guard on the herd and
   killed four of the boys. I wasn't in that as I was at the camp at the
   wagon. They come up on us soon after sundown, so we couldn't skyline
   'em.
   
   "We punchers maybe wouldn't get to town more than once in six months,
   but the folks in town would probably remember us till the next [DEL:
   [?] :DEL] six months was up.
   
   "A bunch of/ about twelve [DEL: [?] :DEL] of us went [DEL: [?] :DEL]
   over to Denison once, when it was the nearest place of any size. We
   were all armed with sixshooters and saddle guns. We got drunk, and
   decided to raise a lot of excitement by [DEL: [?] :DEL] doin' some
   shootin'./ We wanted to be as showable as we could. The sheriff and
   all the citizens it looked like got after us and run us plumb to the
   Red, and we jumped in and started swimmin' across, leavin' the sheriff
   and his bunch lined up on the bank because they couldn't follow us
   into the Indian Territory. We made it all right, none of us got
   drowned. But one of the bunch, Key Durant; he was a fullblood Choctaw,
   saw a forked log comin' toward him and his horse with one fork
   stickin' up. He thought it was an alligator, 00022and got scared and
   left his horse and swam off downstream. He had a sort of a hard time
   gettin' across because the Red [DEL: [?] :DEL] has got a mean current
   for [DEL: [?] :DEL] swimmin' across to the Oklahoma side, it keeps
   goin' toward the Texas side. Key had been down about Bonham and saw
   some alligators in the swamps around there.
   
   "I am a small man, but I got pretty small feet. I don't believe they
   developed as much as they ought to because I started ridin' when I was
   so young."

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