TX BIOS:  W. O. Eubanks, Coke and Comanche Counties, Texas

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 
1936-1940

Item 22 of 100 

[W. O. Eubanks] 

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Range-Lore 
Annie McAulay 
Maverick, Texas 
RANGE-LORE 
W. O. Eubanks was born in Comanche County in 1887. His father, Alec Eubank moved 
with his family to Coke County in 1889, and settled on a ranch near Robert Lee. 
W. O. Eubanks says: "I was so young when I started riding that I can't remember 
just how old I was. My father always had plenty of saddle horses on his ranch 
and of course it was natural that I learn to ride purty young. 
"We done most of our work, rounding up, when I was a kid on the O'Daniel ranch. 
All the neighboring ranches would throw in together and have one big round-up. 
They'd always round up in the fall and spring. 
"I can remember the first big round-up I helped with on the O'Daniel's ranch. I 
was ten or twelve years old. All the ranchers got together and made J. R. Smith 
the wagon boss. There was 



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about 4,000 head to be rounded up. They brought them together on the old 
round-up ground west of the river. I helped to hold the herd while the older 
ones rounded up and did the cutting, branding, and all the harder work. They'd 
usually pick the very best riders to hold the cuts, as they were pretty hard to 
hold away from the main herd. 
"I was helpin' to drive three hundred steers to a northern market once. We was 
camped near Blackwell when they went loco and stampeded on us. We had penned the 
stuff in a small enclosure on a ranch. Around ten o'clock one of the boys 
unsaddled his pony out near the cattle pen, and not thinking, threw his chaps on 
something. In doing that, he made a sudden noise which frightened some of the 
steers. The whole herd started running and in just a moment they broke through 
the fence like it wasn't there, and they were gone. They ran several miles 
before we could ride in front of them and get them started to milling. 
"There was a good many horse ranchers in this country when I was young. My 
father raised horses for saddle use. He used to take them East and trade 'em for 
cattle. Brother and I did nearly all the breakin' of the horses. We'd ride 'em 
when they were two year olds and then sell or trade them. 
"[??] and I took a small bunch of cattle to Sweetwater for Lee Richards when I 
was about fifteen years 



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old. Mr. Richards had told us to try to get 'em up there at a certain time. But 
they got tired and finally got so slow we couldn't get 'em to move. 
"We found an old worn wash tub by the side of the road. I picked it up, rode at 
the herd and banged it as hard as I could. Well, the old pokeys left out. They 
ran and ran and got so scattered that it took us about three hours to get 'em 
together again. 
"Dessa Calloway was the best lady rider I ever knew. She could ride horses and 
work cattle like a man. She could ride broncs or anything. She learned to ride 
on her father's ranch. 
"Henry Alsup was the best all 'round rider and bronc buster I ever knew. He 
could ride 'em forwards, backwards, upside down or any old way. He was one good 
horseman. I've seen him ride lots of broncs. He broke some horses for my father 
and showed me the works some, too. 
"How quickly times change things. When I was a small boy I could walk out in the 
pasture anywhere and pick up sets of buffalo horns. Carcasses covered the 
hillsides everywhere. There were deer, wild turkeys, and panthers in the rougher 
section of the county." 
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REFERENCE:- W. O. Eubanks, Bronte, Texas. Interviewed September 13, 1938. 
Information about SGML version of this document. 



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