The Holly chieftain., 1904-02-19

moved from Old Granada. Old Gran
ada was located where Byron now is
on the Ky ranch and was for a long
time the terminus OF the Santa Fc rail-
| road. In those days Mr.. Charles Dyer
was the chief representative of tho rail-
road, and Governor Otero, now gov
| ernor Of New Mexico. lived there. Gov
ernor OterOs father was partner in
n firm which sold supplies and traded.
| When the terminus of the railroad
moved west, these houses were moved
| here.
In 1883 company Of Engiishmen.
| under the name Of the Arkansas Val
| ley Land and Cattle Company, bought
the 'SS" ranch from MIR. Holly and his
associates. Those of our townspeople
| who worked on the ranch at that time
were Mr.. John Luke, foreman; John
| Cores, Charlie Cores, ]. w. Lyon, Lish
House and Ben Riley kid" Baxter
was at that time the broncho buster for
the ranch and had to ride six wild
| horses each day. In 1884 MIR. Fl. A.
Pettee. who conducts the present meat
| market, was made foreman of the
| ranch Mr.. c. l.. Mcpherson was en-
| ployed by the English company to
keep their accounts and run their store
in 1888. He was made postmaster at
that time and has been postmaster
ever since.
Some history of the old "SS" ranch,
at whose headquarters Holly is now
| located. may be Interesting to some OF
our citizens.
This was one OF the largest cattle
ranches in the West The cattle owned
under the "SS" brand amounted to
about 35,O00 and at one time they
| branded as high as $4,000. To handle
| these cattle there were employed on
the ranch about thirty cowboys. out
| side of cooks and foremen.
A pasture on the north side OF the
river was under fence, and three sides
| of the fence owned by the company
were It's miles in length. One man
was employed whose sole business was
to ride this fence, and it took him q
weeks constant riding to made the
round trip The fence began at TIE
river, little east OF where the Jones
ranch is now located, a little west OF
Cheyenne creek and went north thirty
five miles to Barrell Springs. From
that point the fence went west to what
was known in the parlance OF the COW
puncher as the battle-ground. This was
| the site OF the noted and much-talked-
OF massacre OF Indians by Colonel
| Chivington. From this point 1t ran
| south to the river, just opposite a. Il.
| Blacks ranch, about three miles east
| OF Lamar. The pasture contained ap-
proXimately 100000 acres Of land
| Some Of our townspeoplo had. dur
ing the life OF the ranch. experiences
which showed the stuff Of which they
wero made.
In 1886 there was terrible blizzard
which was hcralded all over the coun-
| try as one costing a phenomenal num-
| ber of lives, even In q country SO
| sparsely settled as this was. The two
sons OF DR.. Rogers, of Coolidge. start
| ed out to ride from Coolidge and were
| frozen to death in their buggy. Big
| fat bulls that were kept at the head
quarters of the ranch, were found fro1-
zen dead in the pasture. Jack-rabbits
were frozen stiff and were found dead
| Just as they sat behind g clump OF s2Sa
| brush.
At that time Jack Lyons was doing
the freighting for the ranch, and his
duties were to carry feed and hay from
tho headquarters to the different win
ter camps On the morning OF tho
blizzard, at O'Clock. he left the win
ter camp located Mt the mouth Of Big
Sandy, and started to drive to Holly
with a six-horse team, distance Of
twenty miles. At that time it was
showing heavily but the weather had
not taken on the aspect OF blizzard.
About O'clock in the morning the
blizzard began to blow from the north
| in 10 faChinn
team consisted OF May" and Alice"
mules, pair of black colts which Ly-
ons was then breaking in the swing,
and old Frank" and Dick" in the
lead. All of the cow-punchers who
lived on the ranch in those days will
tell you what a wonderful team Frank
and Dick were Their fame is still
with us.
This drive Of twenty miles, not e1-
actly facing the wind. but driving quar-
tering to it. without unusual protection,
In a blizzard OF this sort. is one OF the
wonderful feats OF which the cow
punchers delight to tell AS soon aa
the blizzard got down to real business
and the binding particles OF ice we're
driven in the face OF Lyons and the
team as it can only be driven by wind
on the prairie, Lyons began to under
stand that he had cut out for him a
task in which, II he succeeded in sav-
ing the life Of himself and his team, he
would be possessed Of nerve more than
the ordinary man has If you have
ever tried to make a six-horse team
face q snowstorm, you will know that
it requires judicious and constant ap-
pl,cation Of the whip to keep their
heads up to the direction yOu wish to
30 You will also have learned that
The six lines in your fingers impede
| tho flow Of blood and make the difi-