TX BIOS:  W. H. Thomas
   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
   
   Belief and customs - Occupational lore
   
   Phipps, Woody
   
   Rangelore
   
   Tarrant Co., Dist. #7 [117?]
   
   Page #1
   
   FC
   
   W.H. Thomas, 67, was born on his father's farm in Collin Co., Tex. His
   father moved to Johnson Co., in 1872, and established a stock farm.
   Thomas learned to ride at an early age. He made a regular cow hand at
   15. His father moved to Brown Co., in 1890, to establish a larger
   stock farm. After a crop failure, he moved to Throckmorton Co., in
   1891, where he established another stock farm. Thomas was employed by
   Lyt Johnsonof Throckmorton Co., in 1892, by [?] Davis in 1894, and Sam
   Davis from 1908 until 1914. He married Cobina Johnson of Brown Co., in
   1894, and they now reside in the city of Throckmorton, Tex. His story:
   
   "I was born on March the 11th, 1870, on my father's farm in Collin
   County. He moved the family to Johnson County in 1872 so he could take
   up stock farming. He was a man that loved stock but he knew more about
   farming than he did stock so he farmed for a living while he studied
   cattle raising. Being around folks that love stock and fine hoss
   flesh, a youngster will just naturally drift into the same feeling for
   cattle and hosses. I don't know just when I did learn to ride but I
   can't remember the time when I couldn't. Why, I made a regular cow
   hand at 15. Did everything any cowhand could do.
   
   "I didn't have any real cowhand experience besides just herding and
   ordinary cowhand work because dad never had over 50 head at any one
   time. This was big enough a herd to give me experience in riding a
   hoss and getting cattle out of all sorts of scrapes but what I craved
   was the real West where there were outlaws, rustlers, and such. One
   day, dad comes in and says he has made enough money to get a bigger
   place in Brown County.
   
   "Man! Man! Was I tickled over this news. Thinks I, now we'll get some
   real western stuff.
   
     NOTE: C.12 - 2/11/41 - Texas [?]
     
   00022I couldn't hardly wait to get there. I visioned thousands of
   cattle grazing on a limitless, fenceless range. Well, when we got
   there, dad established another stock farm with about 50 acres more
   land in cultivation than he had before which meant more work. There
   were fences and everything else just as there were in Johnson County.
   
   "The year's result was a failure for everybody but me. I met the one
   gal that I wanted, and I sure wanted her but I wasn't but 18. The
   folks talked me into waiting 'til I got of age. Well, we sparked each
   other, and thought we would just be close to each other 'til I became
   of age, then we would get hitched up. That's where we counted our
   chicks before the eggs were laid. Crops made a failure and dad moved
   us to Throckmorton County, where he established another stock farm. I
   thought I never would get away from farming.
   
   "Why, we had to haul our cotton 40 miles to Graham to the closest gin.
   Of course, that was in the day of old Jim, Beck, and the Springfield
   wagon. I remember my dad buying a Studebaker wagon after the first
   year's crop was marketed. Was he proud!? We went around to all the
   neighbors so he could show them the red wheels with the yellow spokes
   and all. I'll admit it was the classiest wagon but the only kind of a
   wagon I wanted to be around was a chuck wagon out on the range at
   stuffing time.
   
   "I griped and squawcked around 'til dad let me go find myself a berth
   on a ranch. The first day in Graham, I met old Lyt Johnson and he gave
   me a job right away. We had a spread about 17 miles Northeast of
   Throckmorton and run about 2,000 head with a YOU brand. 00033"When I
   went to Lyt's place, I didn't have the right kind of clothes for range
   work. I just had some blue denim work clothes because that's all dad
   would get me. You can sure bet your socks that it didn't take me long
   to get some clothes together. [Well?], in a way it did because my
   first month's salary was a saw buck with chuck. It took me seven
   months to get my stetson, boots, gun, and chaps. I got a little raise
   every month 'til I was getting $25.00 and chuck a month.
   
   "While I was working for old Lyt, I got the thrill of eating at the
   chuck wagon during the roundup. Eating around a chuck wagon is the
   best eating in the world. Nothing special, but good solid food like
   whistle berries, beef, sow belly strips, and some of the best sop in
   the world can be made from the grease you get from fried sow belly.
   One thing you could depend on at any time of the day or night,
   especially in the winter and that was the blackest coffee that can be
   made. I can just see the old coffee pot now, big enough to hold a
   couple gallons at a time, and a couple of egg shells floating around
   in it to settle the grounds. You hear different things about settling
   coffee grounds but the egg shell way worked pretty good. We never got
   but few eggs to eat and we always accused cooky of carrying the same
   egg shells around from year to year. We had a good cooky on Lyt's
   place, though. If everything was favorable, you could depend on a
   slice of pie two or three times a week, sometimes more.
   
   Now, I haven't said anything much about the way we slept. During the
   Spring, Summer, and Fall, we would be out on the range nearly all the
   time. [hen?] we were into the ranch house, we had 00044bunk house. The
   bunk house life was swell for sure. We had music and singing just like
   you hear over the radio. I often hear folks saying that the cowboy
   never heard any of those songs. Well, a good many of the songs are new
   but we sang some songs that would burn the other up. The good church
   women would be trying to put the radio companies out of business. Out
   of 25 cow hands, you could always find three or four fiddle players
   and guitar pickers. While I never made a hand at singing, I could make
   a fourth when they needed a bass. I would be glad to name you some of
   the songs but they're about the same stuff you hear every day. The
   ones I could talk about, I mean.
   
   "Now, about sleeping away from the bunk house, many's the night I
   spent out under the stars with a slicker for a cover, my saddle
   blanket for a mattress, my boots under my neck and my saddle for a
   pillow. Don't worry, after a hard day in the saddle, you'd be able to
   sleep well too. Occasionally, I've had a bed partner that I didn't go
   to bed with.and you'll think I was lucky for sure when I tell you that
   I was never bit. These bed partners were rattlesnakes. I've woke up
   with sand rattlers and diamond backs too. They would crawl in under
   the blanket or slicker for the warmth. [As?] long as you didn't hurt
   them, they wouldn't bite you. [A?] snake never bites unless he is
   afraid he will get hurt. I never rolled in my sleep because I was so
   tired when I went to bed that I just wanted to lay still and rest. If
   anything strange came around, I could depend on my hoss to come over
   and nudge me.
   
   "When I come into Fort Worth here, I always look up my old cronies and
   we get together for a gab fest. Old Joe Reynolds 00055brought a news
   paper in here and showed us an article about a hitch hiker that saw a
   shelter and crawled in to go to sleep. A short while later, he felt
   something crawling on him. He felt of it, and it was several snakes.
   They had come to him for the warmth of his body. He didn't stay any
   longer but took right out and found out later that he had gone to
   sleep in the zooological gardens and the shelter he had picked out was
   for the snakes.
   
   "The very worst stampede I ever saw was near Coree Texas. We had about
   3,000 head of fat steers rounded up for auction, and had over a 100
   head of hosses in the remuda. Well, about midnight, the steers and the
   remuda just scattered in all directions. You know, ordinarily, a
   stampede will go in a general direction and have a leader but this one
   didn't. They acted just as if the devil had jumped right up in the
   middle of them and hollered, 'Boo! Well, we boys sure had a tough
   time. We rode all night and regathered a few of them. The next
   morning, we discovered that we had bedded them down right over some
   rattlesnake dens and there were three big fat ones stomped to pieces.
   We were a whole week gathering them back up.but we lost about 200
   head. We got all the hosses back, though. This stampede business was
   tough and you had to expect them at any time. [Right?] when you
   weren't looking for one, that's when it come off. Especially if you
   weren't prepared. The rustlers used to cause stampedes but they were
   pretty well put down in my time. We missed a few mysteriously.
   
   I went to work for [?] Davis in 1894. We ran about 3,000 head about 20
   miles south of Throckmorton and his brand was, '666'. One of the
   things that happened while I was on Eel's place was 00066seeing
   antelope roped. Now, there used to be lots of antelope but they were
   getting pretty well thinned out and the only way we got one was by
   shooting it. We were rounding up a herd on Eel's place and somebody
   hollered, 'Antelope!' All the boys just stopped everything they was
   doing, no matter what position they were in. Even if they were
   branding, they ran for a hoss and a rope. All they boys closed in on
   the [antelope?]. The herd started to scattering but the boys didn't
   pay it no mind. One of them hollered, 'We can get it any time! Let's
   get the antelope.' Well, old Jim Carr roped that animal. He did it
   near where the present postoffice of Elbert is. Rufe Walker, the ram
   rod in charge at the time of the Coree stampede roped the other. He
   was a Mexico man and had a ranch in Presidio County but the ranch
   houses were on the other side of the river in Mexico.
   
   "There is one thing a fellow has to watch out for the same as he
   watches for stampedes and that is, range fire. One can put a rancher
   out of business in a day's time. I recall back in 1908 when a traveler
   drove into a pasture owned by the Reynolds Land and Cattle company of
   Graham. Their brand was a big 'X', so we just called their property
   the, 'X pasture'. Well, this fellow let the fire get away from him and
   it burnt 40 sections of grass before we got it under control. We put
   that fire out by splitting cows open and dragging a half at a time
   across the edge of the fire. You know, a fire has a sort of a ragged,
   feather edge in front of it. Well, if you can get the leading part of
   it, you can best the main body of it. We commenced fighting about 9:30
   P.M., and got it out about noon on February the 23d, the next day.
   00077"Along about midnight while fighting the fire, I had coffee with
   J.D. Mounts. Now, there's a fellow for you. He would do anything and
   could say anything in front of anybody and get away with it. He goes
   down to Brewster County to marry a gal by the name of, Jane House.
   J.D. has an Aunt there and she asks him if he has a house in
   Throckmorton. J.D. says, 'Yes.'
   
   "His Aunt says, 'When are you going to move in?' "He says, 'Tonight!'
   Old J.D. pulls a trick that I never saw outside of a movie. Four of us
   punchers are coming out of a saloon in Graham along in the wee wee
   hours of the morning when a masked gunman sticks us up. Well, with
   that thing looking as big as a cannon to us, we, 'Put 'em up'. He
   tells us to pass our sixers to him, one at a time and with the butts
   toward him. Now, J.D. was rolling a bull durham when we come out of
   the saloon, and he still had the t'baccy in the paper in his hand, and
   up over his head. When his hand gets even with his mouth on it's way
   down to his scabbard, he blows the t'baccy in the gunman's eyes and
   jumps to one side. The gunmen shoots but he can't see where he is
   shooting because the bull durham is burning him up. You try that some
   [DEL: - :DEL] time and see how it burns. Well, all four of us jump
   right on him and am stomping him right into the board walk when the
   sheriff comes running up after hearing the shots. He takes the man to
   jail but you know how those old time jails were. He got out that night
   and is still gone but he's carrying a souvenier from that stomping.
   
   "Eel dies in 1908, and his son, Sam S.R. Davis takes over. [All?] the
   hands stays on because Sam is a square shooter. In 00088fact, he was a
   whole lot better to us than his dad was. I worked for Sam until 1914,
   when I left him to work with my brother, L. H. Thomas. L.H. married
   Eel's widow and they split the property in half. The widow took one
   half and gave it to L.H. and Sam took the other half.
   
   "After several years with L.H., I borrowed some money to invest in oil
   land in Throckmorton. My investments were the best I could have ever
   made so I'm riding the crest now. I don't have to work any more. I
   just go around anywhere I want to, buy up some cattle and sell for or
   to somebody. In other words, in the days when I should have some money
   saved up to retire on, I'm making more money than I ever made in my
   life before.
   
   "Cobina and I now live in Throckmorton by ourselves, and she does
   pretty much as she pleases the same as I do. We don't have any
   children. I sometimes think I would like to have some around but none
   has ever come our way so we help others in a small way to take care of
   theirs.

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