WORK

After reading the first few chapters in Cordia Sloan Duke and Joe B. Frantz's book "6,000 Miles of Fence," you start to get a bit of understanding of how intense life was for people who lived and worked on the XIT. With around "150 COWHANDS" and some "150,000 cattle" at any one point during the XIT's operations all spread out over some "3,000,000 acres" you bet work was done (Duke 8). One of the stories told in these chapters is of a cowhand named W. A. Askew, Askew was around the age of twenty when he first came to work for the XIT and did not have a ton of ranching experience (9).  Askew started off with plenty of "odd jobs" that were necessary and hard facts of life on the XIT, such as "rescuing cattle bogged in quicksand" (9). This job was certainly not easy or enjoyable, but through many "trying experiences" he found out the proper ways to work the cattle (9). The big reason why so many cattle would get stuck in the quicksand was because of the "heel flies" that attacked the cattle, the cattle would try to escape the flies by going into water or mud and eventually getting stuck (9-10). Another young worker named Bill Benson tells his stories about the tedious job of "drilling wells" (10-11). Drilling watering wells was crucial to everyone and every things survival, and the process of properly drilling wells was long. Benson tells of how it took "over a year" to finish one well and get back to working on another well (11). J.S. Beasly tells his story of hunting and killing "wolves and lobos," "no mercy was shown to wolves" because of they were the ranches biggest enemy (11). Killing of the wolves also provided extra income from the county or boss (11). The process of branding is told as well showing the amount of time and man power it took and needed to properly label the cattle. The labor included, "two ropers, two bulldoggers, two men to handle the irons, and two men to use the knife (for earmarks and so forth)" and "usually some several hundred head were rounded up at a time" (14). The story of S.R. Cooper is quite an amazing tale; leaving home at the age of "sixteen" to find work he found himself at the XIT Ranch (16). With no ranching experience and only a bed and saddle to his name (no horse), he just walked up one afternoon to some workers and asked for a job and was granted one (16). Cooper goes on to tell of how strenuous the first day was but that night thinking it over in his bed he thought, "we got the full benefit of dust, smoke and noise of it all but I was enjoying it as I was now a cowboy and on a big ranch" (17). Some aspects of the ranch were very mentally draining as well, such as the windmill jobs. Earl Davis tells his story about how he "wouldn't see anybody for eight to tend days," and how lonely most men got while having to camp out alone for "months" at a time to watch over the windmills and make sure they would run properly (18-19). A young lady at the time who lived on the ranch recalled seeing the living quarters of the windmill men and seeing "poetry written by cowhands eaten by loneliness and boredom" (18). Imagine being alone in the middle of no where with nothing more than maybe a horse and the wild around you, it would be easy to lose one's mind. Many men could not take even the more lively jobs just because of the amount of work and enviornment that came with the XIT. A cowhand named Blue Stevens was quoted saying, "It took a boy with 'guts' to stay in those days. Those that stayed were the best cowboys I ever saw. I loved them all" (22-23). From unpredictable weather to unforeseeable events that led to constant labor, it took a special breed of man to work on the XIT. For those who stayed and worked on the XIT they would have found themselves doing any number of activities over their lifetime even if they never had any experience in the field, they would learn quick and on the run. There are many more stories in Duke's book that go over many more amazing struggles of work that took place during the years of the XIT. Hopefully these stories will give you a better understanding of the type of people who made up this part of history.

Duke, Cordia Sloan, and Joe Bertram Frantz. 6,000 Miles of Fence: Life on the XIT Ranch of         Texas.Austin: University of Texas, 1961. Print.

 

XIT Setup

The XIT Ranch was set up with multiple ranches or towns inside its vast 6,000 miles of fence. Each ranch area has its own specific purpose, the Southern most areas were for raising calves and steers while you got further North the cattle slowly made the transition up till they were two years old and ready to be driven. The Buffalo Springs division is the Northern most division of the XIT and it is comprised of many different pastures. Buffalo Springs is where the XIT was started, particularly at the Northwestern most corner of Texas bordering New Mexico (Cates, 19). To recent day (2003) there has been border disputes between Texans and New Mexicans in this area (19). "The Buffalo Springs division took in 476,000 acres and, being the northern point, became the starting point for the Montana Trail later on" (21). The next stop was the Middle Water division and Middle water was similar to Buffalo Springs in that it was northern and near the finish for the cattle, but Middle Water had a lot more than just pasture. "Raising everything including potatoes, cotton, and grains..." Middle Water turned out to be one of the most agricultural areas of the XIT and made some of the most profits off selling the land once the XIT operation was over in 1912 ( 25). Ojo Bravo was the next division and it indeed lived up to the name. Having probably the most water on the XIT in the old days it was so it "provided water for buffalo, the Indian, Kit Carson, soldiers and since old XIT Ranch days, water for livestock and folks, as well"(27). From the Ojo Bravo came the Rita Blanca division then the Escarbada division which Escarbada in particular had one of the best headquarters on the old Syndicate although possibly the driest of all the divisions it comfortably housed many cowboys (38). Spring Lake was the next division and the "largest division" being divided up into three pastures (39). In the early days Spring Lake would run around "30,000" head of cattle on "787,000 acres" (39). This is where most of the South Texas cattle drives ended up because the Yellow House division could not hold any more cattle (39). The Yellow House the seventh and by far most historical of all the divisions of the old XIT (43). "The most fabulous on the South Plains. Ancient Indian campground visited in the 17th century by Spanish missionaries. Here the whites recovered through trade property stolen by Indians. Campsite for buffalo hunters, freighters, and cattlemen. Acquired by the XIT syndicate in 1882: By George W. Littlefield, 1901"(44). This is written on the Texas State Marker at Yellow House Ranch (44). This is by far the most important of the divisions of the XIT Ranch because of its Southern location and how this is where most all of the business took place at the XIT (43-44). There are a few other divisions that made up the syndicate of the old XIT Ranch but from the Yellow House up is where the majority of action took place. In Cates' book he takes a much more modern look at each division and what is going on there now in the 21st century. Most of the old XIT is being used for cow-calf or stocker operations now a days and most all the land has been bought up one way or another. This book gives you a good idea of how expanisve the XIT Ranch was and how amazing of a story it was just to see cattle work their way through the XIT before being driven around  the U.S..

Cates, Ivan. The XIT Ranch: A Texas Legacy. Channing: Hafabanana, 2008. Print.

XIT Origin

The Panhandle of Texas to this day remains a vast, dry, almost empty part of  the world. With its flat landscape, little vegetation, intense summers and icy winters, it is not the ideal place for anything to live. In the 1880 United States Census, a man "carefully explored the Panhandle" and came to the conclusion that "not more than 7,000,000 acres of the Llano Estacado within the state of Texas can be regarded as an absolute desert..."(Haley). In Haley's book "The XIT Ranch of Texas" he looks at everything from the creation of the XIT Ranch in the Panhandle, to the cattle, to the people who started it, lived on it, and were a part of it. In 1879 the Texas legislature set aside "three million acres of land" in the Texas Panhandle for a Chicago firm who processed cattle (Haley). In exchange for the land the Chicago firm contributed to the building of the Texas State House in Austin (the Capitol building, pictured above) (Haley). This is a huge part of Texas history that not many people probably know or realize. The cattle industry in Texas has always been HUGE to say the least and it truly has shaped the culture in Texas. So how could the XIT possibly have been successful with all these odds against them? A big reason for the XIT's success steamed from the type of cattle that the XIT ran, Texas Longhorns (Haley). The Texas Longhorn is able to survive off the "mesquite" grass exceedingly well (although it does not produce much fat) and the Longhorn is also known for its durability through extreme weather (Haley). The Texas Longhorn has become an iconic symbol of Texas and rightfully so. The Longhorn not only helped boost Texas's economy, it represents the rugged people that tame the Longhorn throughout Texas. The XIT Ranch very much contributed to many things that make Texas, Texas today.

Haley, J. Evetts. The XIT Ranch of Texas: And the Early Days of the Llano Estacado. Norman:          Univ. of  Oklahoma, 1953. Print.

Picture:  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjkglHlD048WPKQYiP7xLaUmtvxvlSqPgQJTNrcvBsKr4qk_8ooTEhufldYnEFN2ludOA9yil3y0s_hceiUbU3l4HKrJ1zkYvx9mxotBvW9m0onuMKsCKIto6H_LP6Oi14l24E8ittR3D3/s1600/Texas_capitol_goddess_1888.jpg

XIT Montana Trail

After reading J. Evetts Haley's "A Log of the Montana Trail -as kept by Early Moore," the reader gets a sense of the life and hardships that surrounded the XIT cowboys. The late 19th century cowboy faced many difficulties that today would just seem ridiculous. This short but meaningful piece really gives the reader a true appreciation for the early cattle industry. "From 20,000 to 30,000 steers were kept upon this range. Each year 10,000 to 15,000 were driven north to replace those shipped to Chicago" (Haley). The massive amount of cattle that were driven from the panhandle of Texas all the way up to Montana to be fed, then shipped off to Chicago to be processed, was truly an amazing feat. The log shows how slow things moved on the trail, lasting from "April 20, 1892"-"July 26 1892" then having to reload on supplies and turn around and head back to Texas. With all the chaos of driving a large heard of cattle across the untamed West, Early Moore's preciseness in keeping track of everything from each head of cattle lost (60), to each horse lost (9), to all the previsions needed and money divided up is truly amazing. Although the log is not very detailed, it tells what needs to be told to understand the hardships of what happened along the trail and one's imagination can do the rest. All of this work and time put in to processing food and these people along the trial and back at the XIT ranch will probably never see where their meat finally ends up. This piece was the most interesting of all my sources just because of how interesting I found the actual cattle drive aspect to be.


 

Moore, J. Ealy, and J. Evetts Haley. A Log of the Montana Trail as Kept by Ealy Moore. Canyon,TX:        Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, 1932. Print.