TX BIOS:  R. A. Perry, Coke, Pecos, and Travis Counties, Texas

   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.
   
   0001
   
   Range-lore
   
   Annie McAulay
   
   Maverick, Texas [???]
   
   RANGE-LORE
   
   R. A. Perry was born in Travis County, Texas, January 5, 1877.
   
   Mr. Perry says: "We moved with our household furniture, a few plow
   tools and two hundred head of cattle, to Runnels County in 1890. Much
   of the country was still open range then. My father leased fourteen
   sections of land at five cents per acre. He liked the looks of the
   country around Rowena, which was just a flag station on the Santa Fe
   then, and he purchased enough land near the station for a little farm
   and ranch.
   
   "I learned to ride in Travis County. Everybody rode horseback then of
   course. My father always kept several saddle horses and a bunch of
   cattle so I learned to punch cattle while just a kid.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   00022"After I was about grown I got a job from Perry Gay. I learned to
   ride broncs and the harder they bucked and the more devilish they was
   the more I enjoyed conquering them for the saddle.
   
   "I worked in Pecos County for the 3C [?] for a few years. It was a big
   outfit. They always kept lots of horses. The best bronc buster I ever
   knew was Walt Spears. He broke horses all over this country, and later
   rode with rodeos. They never got too bad for him to try, and he
   generally rode 'em, too.
   
   "I knew a woman rider, a Mrs. Day. Her husband was a ranch foreman.
   She rode lots and always helped with the round-ups. She made a real
   good cowhand.
   
   'Then Mr. [Lummus?]- a rancher I worked for had a couple of daughters
   that were good riders. They could ride and rope as good as any hand on
   the place and better than some I've seen.
   
   "I remember a stampede over near Mt. Margaret in Coke County. A feller
   named Murry was bossing the drives. We was movin' a herd from the 3C's
   at Pecos to Ft. Worth. Sam Neff, a brother of ex-Governor, Pat Neff,
   was with us. We had camped for the night in Lum [DEL: Hudson :DEL]
   Hudson's six-section pasture. We had just got the cattle bedded down
   for the night and feeling safe and sound. We didn't intend to even
   keep a watch that night, so sure were we that the cattle couldn't get
   very far. Well, it began lightning and thundering and soon a heavy
   cloud made up and looked very threatening. The cattle got restless. We
   tried to hold them together for a while, but soon they broke into a
   run. The boss told us to let 00033em go. We just knew they couldn't
   get very far. But they broke the fence, in feet they tore down a
   string of fence two miles long. It was some frightened herd. Next
   morning, to our surprise and sorrow, we couldn't find hair nor hide of
   any of them. They was clean gone. It took us three weeks to get 'em
   together again and then I think we lost a few.
   
   "When I worked for Mr. Gay, he had a pasture that extended from the
   Colorado river to the Concho. When he got ready to work the pasture or
   to have a round-up, we'd usually begin at the Concho and work north,
   rounding up on the bank of the Colorado. But at Pecos where I worked
   it was all open country and we'd work only a small area at the time.
   They'd always have a range boss and maybe several outfits and some
   nesters. And they'd all take orders from the range boss and cut their
   cattle as they were rounded up and hold them until all the territory
   had been covered.
   
   "They used to deal out misery to the green hands. Sometimes they'd
   hold Kangaroo Court, and of course find the accused one guilty of some
   made-up crime. Then he had to take his punishment. Often they'd whip
   him with leggins, or make him ride a buckin' horse. Maybe they'd have
   him do some onery job for some of the boys just to embarrass him. Of
   course it was all in fun and he didn't get mad, he had to take it.
   
   "I still keep a little bunch of cattle and sheep, just for company,
   and to keep me from getting lonesome for the old ranching days."
   
   REFERENCE
   
   R. A. Perry, Miles, Texas. Interviewed May 19, 1938.

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