The Cattle Kings

Lewis Atherton

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780253039019
• eBook ISBN: 9780253039033
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

"The new image of the cattle country that emerges from Atherton's pages is no less romantic than the prior stereotype; he writes vividly." — Chicago Tribune
Cowboys, gunslingers, and superpowered marshals dominate fictionalized accounts of the American West, but they were minor figures in the true history of the region. In The Cattle Kings, Lewis Atherton restores the leading role to the cattlemen—the genuine adventurers who opened the plains, built empires, and brought prosperity, law, and order to the West.
This classic history of the West tells the true stories of rugged cattlemen like Charles Goodnight, Shanghai Pierce, the Lang family, the Marquis de Mores, and Richard King, who were attracted by the challenge of the frontier and the astounding economic opportunities it offered. Self-reliant and progressive, these young individualists revolutionized ranching. The new industry transformed the West, bringing law and order to infamous sin towns like Abilene and Dodge City and leaving an indelible mark on America's national history and character. Atherton dramatically recreates the realities and economics of everyday life on the ranches, including the role of women, attitudes toward education and religion, and the philosophy of the cattle region. Now with an updated foreword by Western historian Timothy Lehman, this new edition of a beloved classic reveals the true heroes of the legendary cattle kingdoms that created the West.
"Containing little glamour and much neglected history, this excellent book will appeal to students of the West, Old and New, and to addicts of history who prefer fact to fireworks; it belongs in all comprehensive collections of Western Americana." — Kirkus Reviews

Notes

CHAPTER ONE. CHANGE AND CONTINUITY

1. Introductory essay by the editor in Ralph P. Bieber, editor, Joseph G. McCoy, Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest (Glendale, California, 1940). McCoy’s account in book form first appeared in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1874.

2. The Bancroft interviews are summarized in Maurice Frink, William Turrentine Jackson, and Agnes Wright Spring, When Grass Was King (Boulder, Colorado, 1956), p. 20.

3. J. Marvin Hunter, compiler and editor, The Trail Drivers of Texas, two volumes in one (Nashville, 1925). This compilation consists almost wholly of biographical data.

4. James Evetts Haley, The XIT Ranch of Texas and the Early Days of the Llano Estacado (Norman, Oklahoma, 1953). Chapter three lists the early ranchers in the Panhandle. The term “ranching frontier” as used in the current work applies to that stage in ranching economy characterized by open-range ranching on government land.

5. Frink, Jackson, and Spring, When Grass Was King, p. 20.

6. John Clay, “The Cheyenne Club,” Breeder’s Gazette, LXX (December 21, 1916), 1182-1183, 1265.

7. Ernest S. Osgood, The Day of the Cattleman (Minneapolis, 1929), pp. 43-44 calls attention to the widespread report of this apocryphal story.

8. McCoy, Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade, pp. 76-77.

9. Theodore Roosevelt, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail (New York, 1902), p. 6.

10. See Buford Elijah Farris, “An Institutional Approach to the Texas Cattle Ranch,” unpublished M.A. dissertation, University of Texas, 1949, for a discussion of Toynbee’s comment.

11. S. Daniel Neumark, Economic Influences on the South African Frontier 1652-1836 (Stanford, California, 1957), pp. 4-5.

12. Roosevelt, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, p. 15.

13. Biographical sketch in Portrait and Biographical Record of Denver and Vicinity (Chicago, 1898), pp. 1046, 1049.

14. Frink, Jackson, and Spring, When Grass Was King, pp. 337-339.

15. Introductory essay by Ralph P. Bieber in McCoy, Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade.

16. Ibid.

17. Osgood, Day of the Cattleman, p. 23.

18. Paul C. Phillips, ed., Forty Years on the Frontier, as seen in the Journals and Reminiscenses of Granville Stuart, two volumes (Cleveland, 1925), II, 97-98.

19. Charles L. Sonnichsen, Cowboys and Cattle Kings: Life on the Range Today (Norman, Oklahoma), 1950, p. 30.

20. Ibid., p. 41.

21. Ibid., pp. 32-33.

22. Ibid., p. xiv.

23. Ibid., Chapter 4.

24. Ibid., pp. 6-7.

CHAPTER TWO. WHY BE A CATTLEMAN?

1. Ralph P. Bieber, editor, Joseph G. McCoy, Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest (Glendale, California, 1940), pp. 315-321.

2. Michael Slattery interview at Bell Ranch in New Mexico Territory, July 18, 1885, Bancroft Library.

3. Baron de Bonnemains interview at San Francisco, “Stock Raising in Montana,” October 18, 1883, Bancroft Library.

4. Letter dated August 27, 1886, in Letters to and from Richard Trimble and his parents, Archives in Western History, University of Wyoming, Laramie. The contents of the letter indicate that the date given above may be in error.

5. William Curry Holden, The Spur Ranch: A Study of the Inclosed Ranch Phase of the Cattle Industry in Texas (Boston, 1934), Chapter 6.

6. McCoy, Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade, p. 322.

7. Theodore Roosevelt, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail (New York, 1902), contains numerous comments on the beauty of the region.

8. Lincoln A. Lang, Ranching With Roosevelt (Philadelphia, 1926), p. 46.

9. Paul C. Phillips, editor, Forty Years on the Frontier, as seen in the Journals and Reminiscences of Granville Stuart, two volumes (Cleveland, 1925), I, 23-29; 58-59.

10. J. Evetts Haley, Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman (New York, 1936), p. 142.

11. Ibid., pp. 42-43.

12. John Clay, My Life on the Range (Chicago, 1924), Chapter 1.

13. Hermann Hagedorn, Roosevelt in the Bad Lands (Boston, 1921), and Lang, Ranching With Roosevelt both contain the story of Gregor Lang’s career and his relations with Roosevelt.

14. J. Evetts Haley, George W. Littlefield, Texan (Norman, Oklahoma, 1943), Chapters 1 and 2.

15. Letter Joseph M. Carey, Wyoming Territory, to R. Davis Carey, Philadelphia, October 24, 1869, Archives in Western History, University of Wyoming, Laramie.

16. Haley, Charles Goodnight, Chapter 18; Herbert O. Brayer, “Moreton Frewen, Cattleman,” The Westerners’ Brand Book (Denver), V (July, 1949), 1-21.

17. Maurice Frink, William Turrentine Jackson, and Agnes Wright Spring, When Grass Was King (Boulder, Colorado, 1956), pp. 367-368.

18. Ibid., p. 91.

19. Ibid., p. 47.

20. Ibid., p. 60.

21. Ibid., p. 215.

22. General James S. Brisbin, The Beef Bonanza: or, How to Get Rich on the Plains. Being a Description of Cattle-Growing, Sheep...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Introduction
• I Change and Continuity
• II Why Be a Cattleman?
• III Code of the West
• IV Live and Let Live
• V The Moderating Hand of Woman
• VI The Cult of the Self-Made Man
• VII God’s Elect
• VIII Changing Tides of Fortune
• IX Land, Labor, and Capital
• X Poker on Joint-Stock Principles
• XI The Vanguard of Change
• XII Cattleman and Cowboy: Fact and Fancy
• XIII The Cattleman’s Role in American Culture
• Notes
• Index