Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1911-09-07
SAYS ABILENE COWBOYS
NOT REALLY BAD MEN
y. II. Anderson, Pioneer Driver, De-
tends the Cattle Drivers.

| Inc texas COWBOY mas COLu0 uOWH
in the history Of Kansas as the bad
man" who made Abilene. Dodge City
Newton and other Kansas cattle
shipping stations bad towns" says
the Hutchinson News.
But according to Thomas J. An
derson, a former ranchman, now
living a reired life in Hutchinson,
the Texas cowboy has been much
ma1igned all of these years.
For decade following the close
of the war, Mr.. Anderson was en-
gagged as drover in bringing big
herds from Texas to Abilene and
Dodge City. He is native Of Texas
and an Confederate soldier. He
knew the Texas cowboy of the so s
and '7O's intimately, being one Of
them.
There was no more honorable,
upright, honest and kind-hearted
man living than the Texas cowboy"
said Mr.. Anderson. 1T makes my
blood boil sometimes to-. read the
things printed about the 'toushs'
from Texas. l knew all OF the
droyers who brought cattle up to
Abilene over the old Chisholm trail,
and don't know one who could
be regarded as tough.
1.-THE bad men of Abilene and
Dodge City are not from Texas.
They were not cattle drovers. The
real bad men were the blacklegs
from Kansas City, Chicago and the
East, who had come out here to
Kansas to rob our Texas boys When
they would get to market.
When Dodge City Was BAD"
Naturally, after being on the
trail for two or three months, with
out getting sight of white person
or a human habitation, our boys
would be ready to have good tine
in reaching Abilene or Dodge. But
their good time did not consist, as
has been charged of shooting up the
town and sometimes they would re-
sist, and shooting down bystanders.
"But they would fall into the
hands of eastern sharps and thugs
who would get them drunk, inveigle
them into card games and try to rob
them. There would be a shooting.
GOTTEN, when we would approach
Abilene with our herds 1t would be
with fear and trembling, for our
boys realized that they would have
to go up against the tough blacklegs
from the East. In all of the trips
I made to Abilene in the tough days
Of that town | never spent a night
there. was disguised with the way
they carried on.
"Our Texas cowboys are honorable
and upright gentlemen compared
with lot Of the people who held
themselves to be leading citizens Of
Abilene and Dodge City in those
days"
On the Chisholm Trail.
Mr. Anderson used the main CHS
holm trail as did the other Texas
drovers in bringing their herds
north. This trail ran from the Red
river station in Texas, across the
Indian territory, striking Kansas at
Blubb creek crossing, thence passing
directly over the present site of
Wichita, striking where Newton now
stands, and ending at Abilene, where
the railroad was struck.
There was another branch Of the
Chisholm trail which branched off
about where Pond Creek, Okla, is,
crossing Bluff creek about at the
present site Of Caldwell, passing
through Reno county midway be-
tween the present towns of TurOn
and Langdon, and thence through
stafford county. This trail forked
at the Arkansas river, one branch
going to Dodge City, and the other
to Ellsworth.
The Chisholm trail was so named
because 1t was first used and broke
through" by a Texas cattleman
named Chisholm.