TX BIOS:  Jeff Waggoner
   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
   
   Major, Lettie, PW, [Wichi?] Falls, Wichita.
   
   No. Words 635
   
   Page 1 [?] JEFF WAGGONER--COWBOY
   
   "When I think of those days as a cowboy on the range I get real
   lonesome. I was born in Wise County, and lived there until I was
   eighteen years old.
   
   "On June 10, 1879, I passed through the unsettled townsite of Wichita
   Falls and joined the outfit of W. T. Waggoner, three miles from
   Wichita Falls.
   
   "For seven years I rode the plains, living in a dugout in the winters,
   and spending the spring and summer on the range. They sent out
   provisions from headquarters about twice during the winter. We killed
   beef once in a while, and got by till spring.
   
   "In the spring usually April three neighboring ranches of Worsham,
   Burnett and Waggoner started south to gather up the cattle. You see,
   they drift south during the winter. As the whole region was unfenced,
   it took considerable scouting before the round up was over. There were
   about twenty outfits. In each outfit, was a cook (who besides cooking
   drove the supply wagon), a horse wrangler who drove the extra horses,
   and eighteen or twenty cowboys. Each cowboy head to furnish his own
   saddle, but board was furnished and a small sum of money besides.
   
   "During the day the boys herded the cattle. At night they watched in
   relays. Some times they sat around the camp fire and listened to one
   of them playing the fiddle. Sometimes they all sang the cowboy songs.
   This had a twofold purpose. It made the boys feel better and was
   soothing to the cows. You see, if cows get nervous or startled they
   start a stampede, and that is something to reckon with.
   
   "To relieve the [nonotary?], the boys played poker. When we came to a
   town we tried to stir up a dance. 00022"We would send out word to
   headquarters when we had some fifteen hundred head of cattle rounded
   up. Then the three ranches would send out men to bring their own brand
   home. The rest of us would stay to finish the round up.
   
   "Some of the boys I knew traded a dressed beef for a town lot in
   Wichita Falls, but I was not interested in any such trade. I did not
   care to burden myself with city property. I wanted to be free to go
   and come as I chose.
   
   "I enjoyed the trips to Kansas City. There were eight cowboys, a boss,
   a cook and a horse wrangler in the expedition. The boss traveled ahead
   and located water and a camp site. Then the wagon driver stopped at
   the place and made camp. We boys drove the cattle till they got to the
   wagon. We made about twenty miles a day.
   
   "It usually took about two months to reach Kansas City. We would let
   the cattle graze along the green pastures. We wanted them to get fat
   for market. Every bit of grass they ate, was eaten while traveling
   along. We would let them lie down and rest while we ate. We would not
   let them rest long, or they would be restless at night.
   
   "The first night out there was a stampede on [Oashe?] Creek. We did
   not know the cause. About five hundred cattle were lost. It delayed
   the trip two days before we found them all.
   
   "The boss wrote W. T. Waggoner about the time the cattle were due to
   arrive. So he went by train to make arrangements for the sale.
   
   "On one of our trips, we found that the cattle were too poor for
   market. They had to be pastured for two or three months. They had
   nearly run themselves to death as far as North Canadian, stampeding
   every night. We were in the long grass, and the wind blowing through
   the grass would startle one of them. 00033One of them, jumping up or
   even snorting, would scare the bunch and away they would go.
   
   "About the wisest thing ever did was when I married Mary Cose of
   Decatur, February 23, 1888. I settled down then, on the twenty
   thousand acre tract that W. T. Waggoner had fenced in on Gilbert
   Creek.
   
   "I looked after two thousand cattle for nine years. I accumulated
   quite a stock in that time, so I decided to lease the pasture. My
   brother, John J., went in with me on the seven year lease. He lived in
   Iowa Park during that time. We later bought an eight thousand acre
   ranch on Beaver Creek. I turned over my interest to my oldest son,
   Merle.
   
   "We moved to Wichita Falls in 1905. We wanted our children to have
   educational advantages.

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