The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

or the past, wonders at the present and
Is bewildered at the future
Having seen all these changes cona
TO the west in my time have not i'm
agination enough to even BEGIN TO for
see the future he says But II is go
ing to be so great that no man has I'M
aSlhatlon 10 even conceive of IT, lust
think of it. When / took nv bride
10 Texas. there was not a railroad west
or the Mississippi river There was no
Kansas CITY, no Kansas, no Oklahoma.
nave seen those states carved out of
the range where my cattle roamed and
srazed. l have seen railroads come and
citles spring up where there was not n
renee III l000 miles, and the church bells
ring IN 1000 towns where the savages
camped when I was young man.
II all those changes have come in
my life what are to be the changes In
the next 90 years? 1t would be a bold
man who could guess. The progress of
the past seems unreal. like magic, but
Know the progress of the next so years
Is to be far greater"
A Drive 20 Days Long
Mr.. Mabry is one of the pioneer cattle
men of the southwest. lie was 90 years
old when he took his bride to his cattle
ranch in Llano county, Texas. That was
10 years before the first gun of the civil
war was fired at Fort Sumter.
w hen the call to arms came he enlisted
IN the Confederate Seventeenth Texas
infantry under Gen. Kirby Smith and he
went out and fought through the whole
Tour years of the war. His wife remained
on the ranch. which was managed dur
ing the war by his partner, Pail Deats.
Mabry went into the army as captain
He came out major. and went back to
ms family and his cattle and to fighting
Indians and cattle rustlers.
Those were the days of the big herds
and the long trails. To start out from
Texas with herd of 5000 cattle and drive
1t for 10 days through a roadless, house
less country, fighting off Indians all the
way, was nothing. Those were the ordi-
nary things of the cattle business then.
In 1866 Mabry brought 500 heal to Bax-
ter Springs, Kan, crossing the Red river
at Fort Worth and the Arkansas at Fort
Gibson.
1000 Cattle Total Loss
In 1867 he started with 1000 head to Fort
sumner N NJ, to sell them to the gov
ernment, but on the way the Indians
swooped down upon them and stampeded
the cattle and killed one of his COWBOYS
That drive was total loss
In 1868 he drove 2500 cattle to Wichita
being 10 days on the road, and in the
next seven years he delivered from 5000
Oklahoma and Kansas
His big year was in 1879 Then in
partnership with other men, he drove
1900 head Of cattle up by the long trail
from Texas. Thirty thousand of them
went, on government contracts, to the
Indians oil the Missouri and White rivers.
ara the remainder were cows and young
stuff that went to ranchmen,
Picking Up 800 Pounds En- Route
IN Bi6 Mapry contracted With the gov
ernment to furnish from thirty to forty
thousand cattle year to the Sioux In
dams on the reservations in the Da-
kotas. One hundred days it took him
and his COWBOYS to drive the cattle up
from Texas. They would star. in March.
following the upspringng grass to the
northward with the spring and the mi
grating birds, and, feeding on the lus-
cious young buffalo grass all along the
long trail the cattle would pick up from
two to three hundred pounds in weight
on the trip.
Swimming Cattle
When they reached the upper waters
OF the Missouri. close to the end of this
iong trail, there were no bridges and the
vast herd had to be swum across
This required SKILL" says Mr.. Mabry
I'VE could not swim them ever in the
Forming, when the sun was in their
| eyes. We waited for sundown, and then
| We would bring UP a herd OF five thou
sand and station men in canoes or on
| horseback above and below the point OF
| crossing to keep the cattle from turn
| ing back to the shore. Then we would
drive the herd into the water and keep
| them swimming Often the strong cur
rent would sweep them down stream five
| miles before they reached the opposite
shore. When they landed my men were
there to drive them up to a point oppo-
site the place where the main herd was
and all through the night their lowing
! could be heard by the cattle remaining
on the south shore, and gradually they
would all plunge in and swim across"
Fencing Many Acres
In 1882 Mabry bought $4,000 acres in
Mason and Menard counties, Texas, and
fenced it, This was one of the first wire
fences In that part of Texas. At the
l