Tarrant County,Texas - Bios: Clifton Bonner
**************************************************************************
USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced 
in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of
this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives
to store the file permanently for free access.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/

Thanks to the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/txcat.html
**************************************************************************

	TX BIOS: Clifton Bonner - Tarrant county
	
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  
FOLKSTUFF - RANGELORE  
Phipps,[Woody?] 
[Rangelore?]
Tarrant Co., Dist. #7 81 
Page #1 FC
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Clifton Bonner, 67, was born in Faro, Ark. Bonner left his home when
he was 20, to see the world. [When?] he reached Childress, Tex. he was
broke and had to beg for a meal. The Horseshoe Nails Ranch was short
of cowboys, and Ed Smith, the foreman of the ranch, promised Bonner a
job if he learned to ride horses in a month. [This?] was just what
Bonner wanted, and he learned in the set time, then was given a job.
He quit the range in '95, to prospect for minerals, which occupation
he follows today, and when in Fort Worth, Texas, he resides at 3215
Elm St. His story:

"Yes sir! I've rode a many a broom tail on the range. While the fences
were getting a good start at that time, still, there was a lot of open
spaces then. I wasn't really born on it, but I got on it back in '91.
I was really born in [Faro?], [Ark.?], and came to [Texas?] on my way
around the world. I still can't tell you why I got way out to
Childress, Texas, but there's where I was when my little old wad
played out, and I had to wash dishes for my meals in a little old
apple pie joint there.

"I got my break one day when the cow punchers from off the Hossshoe
Nails Ranch come in to make whoopee. While I was waiting on the
foremen, he asked the boss if he knowed where he could get some hands.
He said, 'Sure! There's a mighty good man just a-sp'iling for a job!'

"[The?] foremen, his name was Ed Smith I found out later, he looked me
over, and said, ' You never rode a hoss in your life, did you?'

"I wanted a job so bad I was willing to try anything, so I says, I
never yet saw the thing I couldn't do partly, that somebody else could
do. Just give me a go, and I'll show you that I'll ride anything you
got in a couple of days.'

00022

" The boss and Ed Smith just roared and a couple of other cow punchers
that were in there at the same time, bent nigh on to double,
a-laughing at me, but the foreman ended up by saying, 'Well podner,
we'll give you your change. If you'll learn to ride them there broom
tails we got out there in the corral, in less than a month, I'll put
you on the pay roll.'

" That was an good as I wanted, and when the gang left, I rode up
behind one, then another, as they got tired of carrying me. By the
time we got to the ranch, my setter was so sore that they give me some
chores to do to for a couple of days, then bright and early one
morning, Ed Smith [called?] me out to the [corral?], and showed me a
hoss all bridled and saddled. He says, ' Ride her, kid, and you've got
a job.'

" I wasn't a bit scared of the nag [because?] I'd never seen anybody
throwed before. I climbed into that saddle just like I'd been [born?]
to it, and I don't guess I'd left the ground a half a minute 'til I
was on it again, flat of my back. Well, for a couple of hours there, I
was on again, off again, [Flannigan?].

" The whole time, the boys were all around the corral, and laughed
themselves plum sore at me. Ed finally let me quit, and I crawled off
to the corral. I really walked, alright, but I'd have felt a sight
better if [?] have got down and crawled.

" The next day was the same thing over again, only I got a little
better. It was high time I was getting better, because I'd rubbed a
lot of skin off me, trying to ride that broom tail. In a couple of
weeks, [?] got so's I could ride that nag, then they shifted another
to me that was a little meaner. Then, when I got that one, they gave
me another, 'til In less than the month's time, I rode 00033every
[broom?] tail there was on the place except the wild ones they had
shipped in from the South.on the Denver. You see, all the native wild
ones had been caught up by that time, and these wild ones were caught
in the sage South of [San?] [Antonio?].

" [Even?] after I learned to ride them broom tails, I still got
throwed a couple of times. [?] little old 500 pound mule that was
supposed to be so lazy you had to prod it to get it to move, throwed
me clean over a little old mesquite tree. Clean over, and all the boys
gave me the hoss laugh about it.

" [Another?] hoss so old that he was about to be shot for not being
able to carry a man, throwed me and nigh onto broke me left arm. You
see, the catch was that he used to be abad one, and his name was even
' Dynamite.' I wasn't thinking about him being able to pitch, and
wasn't ready for anything. Some little old something or other scared
him, and up I went.

" I was sure proud [when?] [?] let me go otu to the herd and help
around. [The?] gang had just begun the Spring roundup, and I was put
to riding herd. I can't recall the [words?] we used, but, why, we sang
to them cows. Yes sir! Sang to them as we rode around at night. Just
most anything would do, but we done that to quiet the herd so's they'd
stay down when they [beaded?].

"I never did know just how many head the ranch run, but it must have
been a-plenty because in one year, they shipped four [train?] loads of
beef to Montana, and I couldn't see as they'd made much of a dent in
the cattle on the ranch.

" The ranch was owned yb old Judge Ellison, a big monied man that
lived in Fort Worth and came up to the ranch about every six weeks.
His brand, the ' Hossshoe Nails, was made like this:

00044

FC . [There's?] nothing to be seen of the old ranch now, as its all
cut up into farms now.

' [?] had plenty of trouble on the place, with the stampedes, fence
cuttings, and water hole poisonings.

" You could expect a stampede any time you had a herd rounded up,
because any little old thing would put them to running with all their
might. Just to give you an example, [?] [?] went to Denton, and
brought back what they called, ' a herd of Eastern Dogies.' Called
Eastern because they came from what was then called 'East Texas,' by
the folks that live in West Texas. These Eastern dogies [would?]
stampede quicker'n the dogies we were used to, and a little old wolf
come up to the herd, and that herd just run lickity split for no where
fast. I [reckon?] it took us almost a week to catch it up again, and
got it started on to [?] where we'd started with it in the first
place.

" The fence cuttings come off because there were still ranchers
[that?] felt like the range ought to stay open, and they'd sure cut a
fence down when you stuck it up.

The water hole poisonings come off when some of the small fry
ranchers, or nesters, thought old Judge Ellison was getting too
powerful or something, and they'd poison a hole. [?] cost the old
judge a sight of money every time they done that, but they'd get
caught up before they done much more damage when they started on a
[rampage?] like that.

[The?] man that generally took the slack up out of their ropes when
they started on one of then rampages, was old Ed Smith. [He?] was one
of them there now, ' champeen riders and gun shots.' 00055I never saw
him in action, but only knowed what the rest of the boys said, and
they said he could draw and shoot quicker'n you could wink your eye.
He was that fast. They said that back in '85, a rustler gang led by '
The Big Wolf,' raided the Hossshoe Nails, and Ed happened to be close
by when they done.it. He didn't have no time to go and got help, so
jumped the gang up by hisself. He went ahead of the herd, and when
they started past an arroyo, he was in it, and shot six rustlers
before the rest of the gang run off, thinking there were more men
there then just old Ed hisself. I'd sure like to have been close by
and looking on when [all?] that come off. Just [looking?] on, though,
and not in on it.

" I do know this, though, and old Ed forked a broom tail nobody else
could [touch?]. That hoss wouldn't let anybody else get straightened
out in the saddle before he upped them. He wasn't a killer, but he
just didn't allow any messing around by the boys. They tell me that
[?] made quite a bit of money, betting riders that they couldn't stay
on his nag. They'd see him come into town onit, and maybe get
interested. He'd see they were interested, and angle them into some
sorta bet.

The best cutting hoss belonged to Rufe [Ballett?] hisself. He brought
the hoss with him when he hired out the season before I come to the
Hossshoe Nails. Just watching that hoss work proved that if a man had
a good cutting hoss like that, he didn't have much else to do at
branding time but show the critter he wanted, to the hoss, and that
hoss would put it out of the herd in jig time. Another real important
thing, is the timing in the roping. Your [hoss?] has to learn just
when to set down on his uppers after you cast 00066your lasso. If he
had any sense a-tall, he'd soon learn that when he sat down too soon,
the roped critter'd jerk him over, and if he didn't sat [down?] soon
enough, the critter'd drag him on.

" Rufe had such a good cutter hisself, that Ed put him to busting and
training all the stuff used on the Hossshoe Nails. He sure done some
pretty work, and many's the time I've let work go just to watch him do
his stuff. I'd a heap druther watch him then any of these here
rodeoers, because he didn't do anything for show, but he put it over
in a workman like way.

I quit the Hossshoe Nails just before the Spring roundup in '95, and
went to Fort Worth. Not long after that, I left Fort [Worth?] to
prospect, and been a-doing it every since. I can tell you a-plenty
about minerals right now, and right around Fort Worth here, there's
going to be a mighty big surprise some day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------