The Wild West 6: Tales of the West

Published Sep 15, 2023, 7:31 AM

From Stetson hats to barbed wire, this episode sheds some light on little-known Wild West icons and how they came to be. 



In the mid eighteen hundreds, settlers on the East coast began to look west. The territories there promised a new life and a place to generate wealth. Beginning there was fraught with peril, and some of the best lands were already inhabited by the indigenous peoples. Of course, building homesteads and raising crops and cattle meant a lot of work. Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas Nebraska Act of eighteen fifty four, allowing the territories to permit slavery or stay a free state. Nebraska remained a free state. Kansas turned into a battleground, and so began the era known as Bleeding Kansas. Abolitionists arrived hoping to keep Kansas a free state. Thousands of heavily armed settlers also came to Kansas with the intent to cast illegal votes and harassed voters opposed to slavery. Murder and destruction escalated, with activists from each side patrol neighborhoods for their enemies, destroying property without mercy. The physical and psychological warfare forced many families to flee. It's not a story we often associate with early life on the frontier. But then again, the West is full of legends, some familiar and some not so much. I'm Aaron Manke, and welcome to the Wild West. When we picture cowboys, we envision men like Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. We see ten gallon hats and men driving herds of cattle across in open range. The image of men wearing caps, spurs and the iconic stets and hat riding down dusty trails is an image that we all have in our heads. But did you know that cowboys didn't wear cowboy hats for starters? The traditional stetson hat wasn't invented until eighteen sixty five, and even then people didn't frequently wear them until the late nineteenth century. So what did cowboys wear? They wore bowler hats, which were originally designed in London in eighteen forty nine. The bowler was a hat of choice from Batmasterson to Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid. All right, so there's one myth dispelled. Next up, how did the stetson earn the nickname the ten gallon hat? Well, some stories claim that it could hold ten gallons of water, which would honestly take a hat of cartoonish size. Experts believe it might have gotten the nickname from the braided headbands called galons that Mexican vakos put on their sombreros. Some of their sombreros were tall enough to fit ten headbands. American cowboys referred to the ten gallon hats as ten gallon hats. So where did the word cowboy come from? Anyway? Well, again, you might be surprised. With the gold Rush, the Civil War, and the push to colonize the West, settlers saw the open and often cheap land out west as an opportunity for those looking to escape debts. The Mexican territory is now Texas was an attractive place to start fresh, whatever the reasons. When the farmers and ranchers left the coast, those who trafficked and enslaved people often took them along. Over one hundred and eighty two thousand enslaved people lived in Texas by eighteen sixty. When the Civil War started in eighteen sixty one, Texas joined the Confederacy. Barbed wire hadn't been invented yet, and keeping cattle from straying was impossible without someone to round them up, so many of these ranchers relied on enslaved people to work with the cattle and other livestock. After the war, ranchers hired freed African Americans as cowhans. The work was tough, often dangerous, and physically challenging, but it's important to remember that those who worked cattle in livestock were a very diverse group. Most cowboys were either freed black men, Mexican or Native Americans. But the word cowboy itself wasn't a post war term. In fact, that word might have first appeared during the American Revolution, when loyalists stole cattle to sell to the Red Coats. In the Civil War, the term became a sonociated with bushwhackers, men who took to forms of guerrilla warfare and raids. In eighteen eighty one, a newspaper referenced cowboys, writing that they were nothing more than lawless roaming gangs. President Chester A. Arthur told Congress that cowboys had become a menace in Arizona. In other words, those who worked as cowboys were not well respected. It wouldn't be until much later, though, that we idolized cowboys as the rough and rugged men in movies and books. Earlier on, though, because society looked down on cowboys, the men who worked that job tended to form close bonds, and in a job where longhorns needed extracting from shrubs and cattle needed moving from one location to another, it's easy to see the men had to depend on each other. In movies and other media, cowboys are sometimes depicted as loaners, yet life on the frontier met depending on others for survival. Cowboys worked roads, slept, and ate together for companionship, safety, and job efficiency. According to the te teen fifty California census, ninety percent of the state's population were men, and sure there were red light districts in cities and towns, but life for extended periods at a time on the range was typically void of women. Derogatory or not. Being a cowboy was still a man's job, and like miners, the men depended on each other, and while many did not engage in sexual activities, they still created the same intimacy and bonds found in traditional family units. Others, though, did become more intimate, and remember, humans need love and companionship, and without much human contact, especially from women, some of the men found love where they could like William Drummond, Stuart and Antoine Clement. When William's older brother died, William returned to Scotland and Antoine followed. For several decades, we've called the Old West the wild West, and while we think we know how most people lived and worked, it turns out life on the frontier didn't exactly fit Hollywood's description. Charles Goodnight had a lot to say about Bo's I Card brave, honest, and hard working, like so many enslaved people. I Card's birthday was never recorded. The best estimate is that he was born between eighteen forty three and eighteen forty seven in Somerville, Mississippi, but that's a huge gap. He and his mother were both owned by doctor Milton I Card. Bows grew up with the doctor's son, and there is some speculation that the doctor might have also been Boz's father. The i Cards moved to Texas in eighteen fifty two, settling in Parker County. Settlers there often fought with Comanche and Kiowa tribes, who were less than pleased with settlers encroaching on their homeland. The I Cards took to cattle ranching, and young Bos helped with the livestock. Doctor Icard served with the Confederate Army during the Civil War, leaving Bos and others to manage the cattle. He returned after the war, but the Emancipation Proclamation forced him to free his enslaved people on the ranch, although he did offer to hire them instead. All of them chose to stay, but it isn't clear if they did so because they had no other opportunities, or if they stayed because they wanted to. In eighteen sixty six, Bose took a job with Oliver Loving. The ranch had a particularly stubborn horse that threw everyone who tried to break it. The other ranch hands challenged Bos to ride it to stop the bronco from bucking Bows bit the horse. Instead of working the ranch as merely a cow hand, Bos helped drive the cattle to market. Now it took ten cowboys to drive the cattle, and each cowboy had three horses. In addition, the crew included a trail boss, a cook, and a horse wrangler to care for the spare horses on trail drives. The cook was the one who was the most respected. Their job entailed driving the chuck wagon, preparing the meals, and managing medical supplies. The horse wrangler held the most entry level position, and every drive cost a rancher one thousand dollars in wages and supplies. Once the cowboys got the cattle to their destination, to brancher sold the herd for roughly twenty to thirty five dollars per head, and then the trail boss paid the crew, cutting them loose to do as they wished. After spending months on the road, the men naturally headed to towns for baths, shaves, haircuts, and to do some drinking and gambling. Now typically the cattle were loaded onto trains heading out to Dodge City, although some drives took the crew as far as Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and other northern cities. As for Bos, who worked for the team of Oliver Loving and his partner Charles Goodnight, they stuck to a stretch of trail from Texas to Wyoming. The trail, created in eighteen sixty six became known as the good Night Loving Trail. The journey to Wyoming came with plenty of danger too. The cowboys and crew traveled a long distance, some of which took them across hostile Native American territory. And of course there was the cattle to care for. A crew of eighteen cowboys set out from Fort Belknat, Texas on June sixth of eighteen sixty six, with two thousand Texas Longhorns in their care. Bows not only he helped drive the cattle, but good Night also trusted him to carry the money that they made while on the road. The crew made another drive in the summer of eighteen sixty seven. This time Oliver Loving and another crew member rode ahead. Comanches attacked the men, and Loving later died from his injuries. The drive couldn't be stopped, though, and they pushed on, collecting Loving's body on the return trip. They carried his body home and gave him a proper burial. Bows decided to retire from life on the trail in eighteen sixty nine. Initially, he planned to settle in Colorado, but Goodnight talked him into purchasing a farm in Weatherford, Texas instead. Bo's agreed. Good Night visited his friend whenever he passed through Parker County. Census data shows that Bos and his new wife, Angelina settled into a farming life and raised their children there. Every now and then, Bows reunited with his fellow cowboys and friends. He lived a good life and passed away on January fourth of nineteen twenty nine at his sister's house in Austin, Texas. His family returned his Bo to Weatherford and buried him in the Greenwood Cemetery. Charles good Night more in the loss by making sure Bo's could never be forgotten. He paid for a monument to mark his friend's grave. Women had few opportunities in the nineteenth century. The law prohibited women from inheriting or owning property. In many of the Eastern States, jobs were limited for single women. The most common forms of employment were teachers and governesses, and neither paid enough to live on. Others turned to sex work. The only financial security women had was to marry well. Marriage presented another set of problems, though many had to choose between financial security and physical and mental well being. And although the West was just as male dominated as the East, if a woman had a little money and a lot of tenacity and luck, she just might have a few more options, including purchasing land, and such was the case for Elizabeth with Ellen Johnson, her parents Thomas Jefferson Johnson and Catherine welcomed her as their second child in eighteen forty. After Elizabeth, the couple would have five more children together. They moved from town to town to follow her father's teaching jobs, before settling in Bear Creek, Texas. Now. Elizabeth's father believed in giving his children a solid education, and Lizzie and her siblings went to the Johnson Institute for their basic education. There's no evidence suggesting that the Johnsons had any affiliation with the institute of the same name, though. Lizzie, as she'd come to be known, earned her degree from the Chapel Hill Female College in eighteen fifty nine, and she followed in her father's footsteps becoming a teacher. She worked at the Johnson Institute before founding a primary school in Austin, and then more teaching jobs followed after that. She taught at the Lockhart Pleasant Hill School, the Parsons Seminary, and the Oak Grove Academy. Lizzie eventually bought property in eighteen seventy three, choosing to teach classes on the first floor of her two story home. In addition to teaching, she wrote and submitted stories to popular magazines and kept books for local ranchers, and because of her interactions with them, Lizzie learned how profitable cattle ranching could actually be. Her investment in a cattle company earned her a nice profit. She took the money and bought land and more cattle, registering her brand on June first of eighteen seventy one. Seven years later, in eighteen seventy eight, she received a grant for the one hundred and sixty acres, which allowed her to run her business without consulting the men in her life. Lizzie married Hezekiel George Williams on June eighth of eighteen seventy nine. Hez, as his friends and family called him, had been a widower with children in a reverse role. He might have been looking for financial support, but Lizzie knew enough to protect her hard earned money. Hez signed a prenup agreement before their wedding. He and Lizzie kept their business and their money separate. Hez didn't share in his wife's business sense, and Lizzie often loaned him money, although she was clear that he had to pay her back. While there were other female ranchers out there, Lizzie might have been the first to participate in a cattle drive. She made the two month journey up the Chisholm Trail several times, earning her the title of the Cattle Queen of Texas. Now and then, Hez would join his wife on the trip. Ever, the entrepreneur, Lizzie branched into real estate after that, purchasing land and ranches in several counties. At one point, she even owned the Brugerhoff Building, which had been a temporary home to the Supreme Court. Her husband's lack of financial finesse, though, caused a couple plenty of problems. During a negotiation with Cuba over cattle, Hez was actually taken hostage. Lizzie paid the fifty thousand dollars ransom to rescue her husband. In eighteen ninety six, she bought her husband's cattle business for twenty grand. Whatever storms the couple weathered, though, it was clear to everyone how much they loved each other, and when Hez passed away in nineteen fourteen, Lizzie became a recluse. After that, she moved to an apartment in Austin. Who met her there believed that she was poor. Imagine their surprise after her death on October ninth of nineteen twenty four, when Lizzie's heirs learned that she still owned several properties and distributed on each of those properties, they found diamonds, other expensive jewelry, and other valuables. Her total worth came to nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Her family buried her next to Hez in the Oakwood Cemetery. Lizzie, the cattle Queen of Texas, proved that even in the earliest days of the West, women could still break the glass ceiling. To this day, we are fascinated with the American West, and for good reason. There's no shortage of stories and interesting details. From bowler hats and stetsons to how cowboys got their name, there is always an interesting detail or two. The Gold Rush and the westward expansion during the mid eighteen hundreds brought on a new problem though, feeding all those settlers. While we think of cattle, sheep became a necessary commodity and provided food and wool. The favored sheep were Marinos, a breed that originated in Spain. The Germans crossbred the marino with a Saxon sheep and brought this new breed to Australia. Basque herders from Spain traveled to Australia, bought sheep, and then sailed to the American West. And while we think of cowboys on horses, to herd cattle sheep were a bit different. For that cowboys used dogs. Eastern settlers often used English shepherds, border Collies and other collie breeds, but the Basque herders brought rough and rugged dogs with them that were a cross between English herding breeds, and these new dogs took on a lot of responsibilities too. They herded the sheep, provided companionship, and sometimes even served as guard dogs. Of course, the herding dogs from Great Britain inner bread with the newcomers, creating a new breed. Frequently, these new dogs sported merril coat colors and were sometimes born without a tail or a short bob. Their intelligence, their bravery, and their strong work ethic caught everyone's attention. Native Americans revered the dogs, calling them ghost Eye for their pale blue eyes. Shaggy and powerful. The dog's endurance and loyalty made them a favorite for tending sheep and companionship during long months on the trail. Although this new breed had been created in America, Western settlers knew them as the little herding dogs from Australia. In the following decades, the breed's courage and agility made them favorites at rodeos and as circus performers. The Australian shepherd began in the Old West and is as American as the cowboy. Keeping a thousand head of cattle or sheep from wandering off was hard work, though dogs helped, but the real change came in the early eighteen seventies. On October twenty seventh of eighteen seventy three, Joseph Gliddon, a farmer in Illinois, changed life for the cowboy when he applied for a patent on his own version of the barbed wire fence. His take improved the design by twisting two strands instead of one. As you might imagine, a single strand of wire was no match for a longhorn steer intent on grazing a green patch of grass on the other side of a fence. Ranchers needed something more than just stronger wire, though they needed something spiky. But the barbed single strand version had a devastating effect on cattle and bison. It turned out that neither animal could see the single strand very well, and they frequently became ensnared, unable to free themselves bow they died of starvation, thirst one, or infection that mustard told cheap and counted. Through this brief sponsor, farmers and ranchers across the nation found the improved version of barbed wire indispensable for keeping livestock from roaming off or eating certain crops. The fence was great news for farmers and ranchers, but not the cowboy driving cattle to the railroads. Those fences blocked off the land that they had once driven their cattle across, and now there were fewer cowboys at that time to handle these more complicated drives. In a way, barbed wire did exactly what it promised to do to keep boundaries secure, but in the process it put an end to one of the ideals that made the West so wild to begin with, proving once again that progress isn't always a friend to folklore. The cowboy is a central figure of wild West folklore, so I hope you enjoyed today's journey through some of those tales.

Hollywood has created quite a few notable wild West characters. One of The most recognizable is the Lone Ranger. Children across America tuned in to watch the popular TV show featuring a masked white man on a white horse, riding wrongs and serving justice alongside his Native American sidekick Tonto. Few know that the character is inspired by a real Old West hero, Bass Reeves. Despite being one of the most accomplished lawmen of the time, Bass's story has been largely overlooked by mainstream history books. Born into slavery in Crawford County, Arkansas, in eighteen thirty eight, he was just eight years old when State Legislator William S. Reeves moved to Grayson County, Texas and took Bass, his parents, and other enslaved workers with him. Not long after they arrived, Reeves gave Bass to his son, Colonel George R.

Reeves.

Over the years, Bass grew to be an enormous man, standing at over six feet two inches tall. Sources say he possessed good manners and an even better sense of humor. But when the war broke out, George Reeves took Bass with him when he went to fight for the Confederacy. It was during the war that the two parted ways. Some say Bass managed to escape. Other sources claim that Bass and George got into a fight over a card game and the argument turned violent. According to the story, Bass seriously injured George, and either way, Bass fled to Native American territory, where he couldn't be pursued. Over the years, he lived among the Seminole and Creek tribes and learned their languages and customs. With the Emancipation Proclamation, Bass could leave the tribes and return to the United States and to Arkansas. In eighteen sixty three, he settled down and became a farmer. A year later, he married Nellie Jenny, and the two started a family, eventually having five girls and five boys. To supplement the family income, Bass occasionally worked for the US Deputy Marshals. Fate had something exciting in store for Bass. In eighteen seventy five, Isaac Parker, the newly appointed judge of the Western District of Arkansas, was looking for a US marshal to bring law and order to the lawless Indian territory. Parker was known as the Hanging Judge and was famous for his tough stance on crime and his determination to bring order to the wild West. Parker appointed U. S. Marshal James f fakein to up approximately two hundred deputies. Fagan learned that Bass could speak several different languages and that he had a solid knowledge of the area. Bass Reeves was clearly an unmatched asset and was hired in short order. Fagan appointed Bass as a deputy U. S. Marshal, making him the first African American to hold the position. Bass was a skilled tracker and marksman, and he quickly gained a reputation as a fearless lawman who always got his man. Throughout his career, Bass arrested more than three thousand felons and was credited with killing fourteen outlaws in self defense. Bass was ingenius. He created clever disguises, using everything from a preacher's frock to farmer's overalls to blend in with his surroundings and catch his targets off guard. One of Bass's most famous cases involved taking down the notorious outlaw Bob Doser, who had been terrorizing the Oklahoma territory for years. Bass spent months tracking Doser, known for his sharpshooting ability and his talent for eluding the law, but Bass finally caught up with him and in an epic shootout killed Dojer, ending the outlaw's reign of terror. Bassue cut an imposing figure on a large white stallion and dressed sharp, with a pair of cold pistols at his hips. Adept at shooting from his right or his left hand, bass was a quick draw and usually hit his mark. Bassa's exploits became legendary in his own time, and he inspired countless dime novels and tall tales, but his legacy goes beyond his feats as a lawman. Basa's story is a testament to his resilience and determination during one of the most challenging periods in American history. Bass's life also serves as a reminder that history is often shaped by the stories that are told and retold. Today, the story of bass Reeves is finally being rediscovered and rightfully celebrated.

Grimm and Maud Presents The Wild West was executive produced by me Aaron Manky and hosted by Aaron Mankey and Alexandra Steed. Writing for this season was provided by Michelle Mudo, with research by Alexandra Steed, Sam Alberty, Cassandra de Alba, and Harry Marx. Fact Checking was performed by Jamie Vargas, with sensitivity reading by Stacy Parshall Jensen. Production assistance was provided by Josh Stain, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about this and other shows from Grim and Mild and iHeartRadio, visit Grimandmild dot com

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