The Ely miner., 1932-10-28

ed for it on long run. Dsmounting, they hid
I'm the cane brakes An Indian, creeping through
the cane shot Loving in the arm and side. Not
wishing to die and his folks not know of his
end, Loving persuaded Wilson to go for help.
Wilson swan the river and barefooted, walked
three days down the Goodnight trail, through
cactus, mesquite and other plants containing
thorns until he came to the Goodnight herd.
Colonel Goodnight took all available hands
and set out for the scene of the fight, sixty
miles away. Late the next day the party
rived, but there was trace of Loving. Two
weeks later a Texan told Goodnight the star
tling news Loving was at Fort Sumner Good
night fastened there and learned that the day
after Wilson's departure for help the Indians
had left Lovings Bend, as the place is now
called. Loving had dragged himself five miles
to a narrow pass, where he remained five days,
and was eating glove when some Mexicans
found him. He gave the Mexicans $3.50 to take
him the $50 miles in cart to Fort Sumner. AL
though Loving was walking about, the wound
in his infected, and nine days after
Goodnight's arrival Loving died.
Goodnight went up into Colorado and in
January returned. Exhuming the coffin, he
drove with it 600 miles to Weatherford, Texas,
where he delivered it to Lovings family. A
year later he turned over to the Loving estate
$4,000, gave his partner, Sheek, $4,000, and
with $4,000 as his own share, went his way
alone.
The second of the famous trails blazed by
the colonel that known as the New Good
night trail from Alamogordo, N. NJ, to Gra-
NADIA, Colo.
Colonel Goodnight found ten cents head
was being charged for all stock which passed
through Ration Pass the only known passage
through the Ration mountains, in New Mexico.
by the famous Uncle Dick" Wooton, the "keep-
er of the gate through the mountains" The
%ro;I
100 miles shorter, through the mountains and
up to Cheyenne.
Goodnight was married on July &C. 1870, to
Miss Mary A. Dyer of Tennessee, and soon aft
erwards established a ranch in Colorado. But
the panic of 1873 ruined him financially and
he had just 1,SOO head of cattle with which to
make a new start He turned his face as al
ways toward the new country and the Pan
handle seemed to hold the greatest possibilities
with the fewest inhabitants, in fact, none but
Indian and buffalo. 1t held, though, that great
Palo Duro canyon, with its rim Of Cap Rock, its
ragged depth of 1900 feet its marvellous valley
15 miles wide in places, paradise for cattle.
Palo Duro canyon proper begins in the western
part of Randell county and extends approx
mately 75 miles.
Colonel Goodnight took supplies for six
months erected a fOur-roOm log house and re-
turned to Denver for Mrs. Goodnight.
At this time John George Adair Of Wrath
dair, Ireland, was consumed with the idea Of
a ranch in America He was breezing about
In Denver, talking cattle and range and look
ing for a man big enough to handle his prof.
ect. few years previous John Adair had
opened brokerage Office in New York city,
had met and married an American girl in 1869.
and they then divided their time between their
estate in Ireland and the joys of the New
world. Mrs. Adair was the daughter Of Major
General Wadsworth and the young widow of
Montgomery Richie attached to General Wads-
worth'S staff.
John Adair and Charles Goodnight met in
Denver and made contract which brought
the first development to the Panhandle 1t is
there today, the ]. A. Ranch, with its 100000
acres and its 19-roOm ranch house that was
built around the log home of Charles Good
night The ranch at one time comprised 1300,-
600 acres and more than 100000 head Of cattle.
The first contract made was to run five years
and specified that $4,000 acres should be bought
the first year with additional increase to 25OO0
acres Adair, however. so respected the judg-
ment of Charles Goodnight that he gave him
personal authority to buy what he saw fit, and
at the end of the first five years 92,629 acres
were on record.
Goodnight bought land at various prices as
well as in various places, paying on an average
of 25 cents to 50 cents an acre. He admitted
that he bought up every good water hole;
every good range; every place a rancher was
likely to go. and that it was the "very devil to
survey" This original section was called the
Old Crazy Quilt
John Adar bought the land gave Goodnight
a $500 yearly salary and at the end of the
five years one-third of the land and cattle,
but charged 10 per cent interest for the use of
the money during that time. 1t might seem
little salary, and big rate Iof interest but
Charles Goodnight knew he would be rich in
the end, and incidentally the contract was
renewed for another five years.
From the j. A. ranch Colonel Goodnight next
laid off a trail to Dodge City, Kan. traversing
territory then inhabited only by Indians and
buffalo. It was $50 miles in length and known
as the Palo Duro-Dodge City TRAIL This
the third of the great trails he had blazed.
Colonel Goodnight sold his third interest in the
property to his partner and together with q
man named Moore from Kansas City bought
the Quitaque ranch. Later he sold this property
and in 1883 purchased what was known as the
Goodnight ranch which he operated until recent
years. Mrs. Goodnight died in 1926 and year
later Colonel Goodnght's marriage to Miss
Corinne Goodnight, a twenty y-six-yearold tele-
graph operator and former nurse in Montana
attracted nationwide attention. Although bear
ing the same name, the ninety -year-oid
plainsman and his young bride were not related
their romance developing during correspond
ence started by the similarity of their names.
CO by Western Newspaper unionr