The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-20
KANSAS NEWS.
Mention of a Blizzard Now
Causes a Broad Smile
From Old Timers Who Had
Fortunes In Cattle.
ON THE STOCK TRAIL.
Some Experiences of the VIM
ter of 1871 and 1872.
Men, Horses and Thousands of
Cattle Persisted.
ON THE STOCK TRAIL

of a blizzard, based upon the FURRY Oh
snow, temperature at Is above zero and
"a stiff north wind, make the old-timers
smile. They recall the experiences of
the early days, when the weather was
something to arouse actual alarm. 1t
was an early winter that ended the
cathedral days for Abilene and caused
the greatest suffering among stock ever
known on the plains. 1t was in the win
ter of 1871-72, and the fourth year of
the Texas cattle trade. Each year,
commencing with 1867, when J. G. Nc
Coy first opened the old trail up from
Texas to meet the Kansas Pacific at
this point, the number of long horns
increased. In 1857 about $4,000 head, or
L per cent of the number in Texas, came
over the trail The following year there
were 10000 head, and in 1869 fully $780,
600. This was again doubled, and it
was estimated that 600 600 head were
brought to this section in the next sea-
son. OF these half, or SOC, 900 head, were
unSold when fall came, and the owners
were compelled to keep them through
the winter. In telling of the condition
Mr.. Mccoy says in a personal nara
tive:
For miles north, south and west of
Abilene you could scarce be out of
sight of a herd, and when on any COM
handing hillock as many as 80, 900 to
$4,000 head could be seen grazing over
the prairie, like vast columns of human
beings.
THE season was a stormy, rainy one
and the cattle stampeded. Besides, the
grass was coarse, washy and spongy
and would not make taIIow The rail-
roads had adjusted their difficulties and
the cut rates that had been responsible
for the large shipments early in the sea-
son We're off. They had agreed on a
high freight tariff from Chicago east
and there seemed to be an entirely diff
ferent feeling regarding cattle, a re-
versal of the situation of the previous
year. There were but few buyers, and
the cattle daily grew poorer in flesh in
stead of fatter &c. when anywhere put
on the eastern market they brought low
prices and weighed very light, thus dis
couraging further shipments. A great
number of the herds were held until
would improve, but as the days went
by there was little better demand Null
uplied thousands were sent forward. In
consequence the markets were oversup-
piled and many shippers met ruin and
financial crashes among them were fire.
quent. Finally shipping had to be en-
tirely abandoned and other sources of
disposal looked to as an outlook for the
come from Texas with their herds.
1T was estimated that 800, 600 went in
to winter quarters on the dEOVerS' own
account. OF course, no amount of grass
or hay could be secured for any such
number, and most of them were driven
west to feed on buffalo grass, but many
remained and the feeders tried to utilize
the blue stem. But the tall blue stem
was swept day after day by the prairie
fires, and the ground was left blackensd
and bare, with no sustenance for herds.
The cattle, which had been in most in
stances held on the dried grasses, hop
ing to find a purchaser, had become
poor in flesh and weak from sheer
starvation. Finally, when they were
taken to the buffalo grass regions, they
were in very bad condition for open-air
w iS Sf1 Orf
that prairie fires make but slow prog
resS consuming it and are easily ex-
tinguished. Before the herds had scarce
arrived at their winter feeding ground
early in November, a great rainstorm
swept over western Kansas and q keen,
cold wind set up from the northwest,
freezing the water into ice soon after
reaching the ground. The whole sur
face of the earth thus became cased
with a mixture of snow and ice, the
thickness of 2 to 8 inches covering the
short buffalo grass with a coating that
could not be broken. Then the furious
gale increased, continued with sweeping
force, and for three days and nights the
sleet and snow fell Many men and
horses froze to death; and as for cattle,
they persisted by the tens of thousands.
They drifted before the storm, and
wherever they stopped there they lay
until they were frozen stark. 1t was
wholesale slaughter, and ruined the
owners Many drovers lost their all.
4
$3.50 to 100000 found themselves af-
ter the skies cleared bankrupt. 1t was
| a disaster amounting to millions of dol
| lars.
Perhaps one-third to one-half of the
dead animals were skinned after the
storm abated and the weather mod
Grated; the remainder were left to the
coyote and buzzards. At one railway
station 100000 at another $4,000. at an
other nearly SO, 900 hides were collected
and shipped east. A single firm placed
on the Republican river over 5000 head
of cattle, and in the spring could mus
ter only Ito living animals. Numerous
other instances of similar losses could
be recSunted. 1t is estimated that over
| $50 600 head of cattle and hundreds of
COW ponies narfshed in that storm, and
that by the holidays the profits of the
years of effort had been wiped out
| One firm that had 900 head northwest
of here is reported by the papers of that
time as having lost 700 head before De-
cember Is. That was the end of the
cattle shipping days at Abilene.