TX BIOS:  Ernest Spann
   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
   
   Tales - Personal Anecdote [?]
   
   Gauthier.Sheldon F.
   
   Rangelore.
   
   Tarrant Co,Dist,,#7 [49?]
   
   Page #1
   
   FC 240
   
   Ernest Spann, 56, living at 1007 Woodard St, PO Box 298, R #2, Fort
   Worth, Texas, was born May 8, 1882 at Bedford Co, Tenn.
   
   His father, Robert Spann, moved his family from Tennessee to Texas and
   settled in Fort Worth in the year of 1892. [?]
   
   Ernest Spann and his wife, Eva Spann, acepted a job with the 'HF'
   ranch, in 1900. located in Baylor Co, 15 miles S. of Seymour and
   worked there for a period of four years.
   
   His story of Range life follows:
   
   "I was born in Bedford Co, Tenn, 1882 on a farm that my father owned
   and operated. My father moved his family to Texas in 1892, coming to
   Fort Worth.
   
   "I spent my time going to school during my teens until I was about 16
   years old. During my school years I learned to ride a hoss. My father
   owned a couple saddle animals and those critters provided me the means
   to learn.
   
   "I married when I was 17 years old, then was put to calculating on
   getting a job. I got wind of a job for a cowhand and a cooky on the
   'HF' outfit, owned by Hamp Franchee, located in Baylor Co, 15 miles S.
   of Seymour. Eva, my wife, and I started for the ranch each straddled
   on a bronco and dragged out to to 'HF' ranch. We were taken on, she as
   cooky and I as a cowhand. That was in 1900 and we stayed with the
   outfit four years.
   
   "My wife had, on the average, 15 hands to fix chuck for. Sometimes the
   number would be as low as eight and at times high as 20. During the
   [?] season the number of waddies would be just enough to attend to the
   general work, but during branding season and when there was a lot of
   shipping the number of hands would be up to 20.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   00022"We had the best of everything to eat and did most of our flue
   lining in the cook shack. Only during branding seasons, occasionally,
   we used the chuck wagon. My wife was ordered to feed the hands well
   and that she did. Of course, there were no fancy dishes fixed, but
   plenty of good solid food of all kinds needed, including chuck for the
   sweet tooth.
   
   "The 'HF' out was a fenced range of 4000 acees. The [DEL: outfir :DEL]
   outfit also had an open range camp in the Skillet section of Texas.
   The critters were ranged in the Skillet range until the animals were
   to made ready for the market, then they were driven to the Baylor Co,
   camp for fatening. There was a steady movement, more or less, of
   critters from the Skillet range to the Baylor Co, ranch and from this
   ranch to the market. When a bunch of critters were ready for the
   market they would be driven to Seymour and there loaded on a train for
   shippment to Fort Worth.
   
   "The cattle were the white face Herfords and easily handled. A
   stampede was a rare event and then it didn't amount to anything. The
   white face critters coundn't run fast no how. Once in a while a bunch
   would break for a run back to the ranch while we were driving the
   animals to Seymour. On the range we never had any stampedes.
   
   "Our big worry was caused by the cattle rustler and the brand artist.
   The rustler kept us peeling our eye all the year while the brand
   artist worked in the spring when the calf crop was coming on.
   
   "The brand artist would watch for an unbranded calf and 00033and put
   the iron on it, toss the critter over the fence and take it to some
   other bunch of cattle. We lost many calves to the brand artist. We
   could tell when a calf was stolen by a calfless mother cow showing up.
   Of course, after we did the spring braning the calves would be safe.
   
   "The cattle rustler stole stock for sale. That breed would cut the
   range fence and drive the crittees off. Later, after I quit the range,
   the rustler used the auto-truck and loaded the critters at the range,
   and then drove to market. We could always tell when a bunch of
   crittees were rustled by finding the range fence cut and the tracks of
   the crittees leading out through the gap.
   
   "Fence ridees were kept busy riding the fence line watching for gaps
   cut by rustlees and broken wire. There was two men that did nothing
   else but repair the fence and keep it in good condition.
   
   "Only once were we able to catch [the?] rustlers in the act. That time
   the fence rider rode up on the bunch as they were driving 25 head to
   the highway. Five men were too many for him, so the rider hit for the
   camp with the news. Ernest Dawson was top-screw and he sent six of us
   after the gang, while he hit for Seymour to notify the High-Sheriff.
   
   "Us waddies caught up with the rustlers, about five miles from where
   the gap was cut, driving the crittees down the highway. It was dark
   and to trail the outfit we had to frequently get off of our hosses and
   examine the road for tracks. Ever 00044cross trail had to be watched
   and we had to keep our eye peeled for the trail taking off a cross the
   prairie. We finally spied a bunch of moving objects ahead. We all gave
   our mounts the gut-hooks and lit out to cut down on the rustlees
   suddenly, but when we drove into the herd there was no rustlers in
   sight. They had sighted us coming and lit out leaving their loot.
   About that time, Davis, the Sheriff and several deputies arrived. They
   took up the trail of the hosses's hoofs and it lead them into Seymour
   where the trail was lost.
   
   "Occasionally, a rustler or two would be caught, arrested and tried
   with some convections, but far more steals took place than
   convections.
   
   "The steady hands on the 'HF' ranch, during my stay there, were Erenst
   Dawson, the top-screw, second to Clyed Franchee, the main screw's son.
   Then the regular hands, Odd Hutchinson, Tom Toliver, Tex Mathews, my
   wife and I.
   
   "While we did not have to herd the critters to keep the herd on the
   range, because the fence took care of that job, we did a tolerable lot
   of range riding, watching for injured and sick animals. Two riders
   were used to do nothing else but ride the range.
   
   "The critters were fed grain feed regularly and that job kept four of
   us busy taking feed to various spots on the range, where all of the,
   two to three thousnad, critters could get at it.
   
   "One thing stands out in my mind about the bunch of waddies on the
   'HF' and that was the way we all got along together. We were just like
   one [DEL: gig :DEL] big family and I don't mean a fighting
   00055outfit.
   
   "The boys called the cooky 'Queen' and they treated her as one. She
   called the waddies 'her boys' and treated the bunch as she would her
   boys. So between the boys and the cook things ran smooth. If the bunch
   hankered for some special chuck they would tell the Queen and always
   get it. The Queen had a system about her goodness, because she knew
   the bunch would not forget her on paydays and there always was
   something coming her way in the form of presents.
   
   "We had our good times as well as lot of work. We did a lot of card
   playing and poker was the main game we played the most. Then we did a
   lot of target [shooting?], had looping matches, hoss wrangling and
   sports of that sort. Tex Mathews was able to agitate the cat gut so we
   had fiddle music occasionally. All in all we had a pert time.
   
   "The best hoss wrangler and all around rider I have ever watched
   straddle a hoss was Odd Hutchinson. He did the wrangling of the wild
   critters brought in from the range, which were broke to the saddle.
   Wrangling a hoss was play for Odd and he wouldn't trade his job to
   being King of Gila Gulch. I, or anyone else I ever chined to, had
   never seen Odd take a spill off of a critter. He knew hoss character
   and every movement of the pitcher and could sense what move was coming
   in time to be sit for it.
   
   "There was not much roping necessary on the 'HF', because those white
   face critters are a tame breed and will not run from a rider[?]
   Therefore, I did not see much real range looping, done 00066except
   when the boys practiced. Tex Mathews was the handy boy with the rope
   in our bunch. He could swing a pretty loop and put it just at the
   point he wanted it placed. Now, I want to prattle about the real
   artist with the six-gun, that was Tom Toliver. He was just as good
   with a moving target as with a still one. I have many times held a
   match between my fingers, off 25 paces, and he would light the match
   with a bullet from his gun.
   
   "If you ask whom I consider the best camp cook that I know off, I'll
   have to give that honor to the [DEL: Queer :DEL] Queen, because I am
   still living with her and want to continue doing so, but at that she
   is entitled to the honor.
   
   "At the end of four years work my wife insisted that we quit and set
   to building a farm home for our selves. I consented and ended my range
   career.

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