Cowboys could do more than rope and ride herd

Murphy Givens
Corpus Christi

W. G. Sutherland was a schoolteacher and historian who lived in the Bluntzer community. In an article in the Caller in the 1920s he wrote that the old-time cowboy was sometimes described as ignorant and uncivilized.

That was a libel and a slander, Sutherland said. Some may have been unschooled but others were well-educated, some the products of great universities. Many cowboys who worked on ranches and went up the trail on cattle drives became bankers, lawyers, judges, businessmen and ranch owners.

Erwin E. Smith photo shows a cowboy breaking a wild bronc on the LS Ranch in Texas in 1907.

Sutherland was right. I thought of a few off the top of my head. Shanghai Pierce worked as a cowboy for the Grimes Ranch near Indianola before he became one of the great cattle barons of South Texas.

W.W. Jones trailed cattle to Kansas before he started his own ranch in Jim Hogg County south of Hebbronville. In 1905, Jones moved to Corpus Christi and turned to banking and real estate. He invested in building the 278-room Nueces Hotel, which opened in 1913, and later bought out the other investors. As sole owner, he became a fixture in the lobby and hotel employees learned not to notice his tobacco-chewing and errant aim. Besides the hotel, he bought the Jones Building (first called the Sherman Building) across the street.

D.C. Rachal of White Point was a cowboy before he became a rancher. He and his brother Nute trailed huge herds to Kansas. The Rachal brothers were known for pushing their herd at a fast pace and then let the cattle eat and fill out after they reached Kansas. The technique became common. A trail boss hurrying his herd in similar fashion would say, “Rachal ’em, boys, Rachal ’em.”

Tom Coleman, one of the founders of the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company, got his start as a ranch hand and so did Thomas Beynon, who bossed trail herds for King Ranch. He served as sheriff of Nueces County and established a successful livery business in Corpus Christi. Archie Parr of Matagorda Island worked as a ranch hand when he was 11 years old and became a full-fledged cowboy. He was hired as foreman of a ranch in Duval County. He was elected to the state Senate, established a political empire, and became known far and wide as the Duke of Duval.

Josiah “Si” Elliff ran away from his home in Tennessee as a teenager when his father died and his mother remarried. He got work as a cowhand, for $10 a month, on Frank and Martha Rabb’s “Bow and Arrow” Ranch. Years later, he started his own ranch and bought land until he had some 50,000 acres, one of the larger ranches in Nueces County.

One of the most famous cowboys was Charlie Siringo, who also came from Matagorda Island. Siringo’s father was an Italian immigrant and his mother Irish. After his father’s death, Siringo worked as a cowboy for “Shanghai” Pierce and then went up the trail to Kansas. After that, he worked on a Panhandle ranch and led a posse chasing Billy the Kid. Siringo later became a Pinkerton detective and tracked down wanted men all over the West.

It was said that a good cowhand, besides being a good roper and rider, had to understand the nature of cattle and make them understand him. A good cowhand was known for intelligence, determination, independence, and self-sufficiency. Not bad traits for any other profession.

Cowboy Words

Cowboys are not remembered for their literary efforts but they certainly had a way with words. They were specialists and like other specialists created their own colorful and piquant language. Walter Prescott Webb wrote that cowboy sayings took on the character of the land, close to primal elements.

Some years ago, in preparation for some project that was never finished, I created an index file of cowboys’ pithy expressions. I relied on Ramon Adams’ “Western Words” and on my own gleanings from Western literature, such as there is. Here are a select few, revisited.

Angry: Someone in a bad mood was “all horns and rattles” or “touchy as a teased snake.”

Bath: “Wash out the canyon.”

Clumsy: “Always saddling the wrong horse.”

Confused: “Spurs tangled up.”

Confusing others: “Clouding the trail.”

Cow manure: “Compressed hay,” “Prairie pancakes.”

Cowboys talking about the weather: “A hard-winter bunch.”

A reliable cowboy: “Good to ride the river with.”

Delicate situation: “Hair in the butter.”

Depressed: “Down in the boots.”

Emergency: “Requiring all hands and the cook.”

Evade responsibility: “Beat the devil ’round the stump.”

Experienced hand: “Bone seasoned” and “Wrinkles on his horns.”

Farming: “Turning grass upside-down.”

Flexible: “Can ride any horse.”

Friends: “Made of the same leather” and “Chews tobacco from the same plug.”

Hanging: “To decorate a cottonwood,” “trim a tree,” “hang out to dry.”

Hungry: “Narrow at the equator” and “Empty as a banker’s heart.”

Opinionated: “Has a saddle to fit any horse.”

Opportunity: “Take advantage of a situation while the gate is still open.”

Ready to fight: “On the prod.”

Ride a bucking horse: “Waltz with the lady.”

Roll a cigarette: “Fill the blanket.”

Rustler: “Brand artist with a long rope.”

Small outfit without a chuckwagon: “A greasy sack bunch.”

A flock of sheep: “Herd of underwear.”

Shootout: “Powder-burning contest.”

Shoot up the town to make a cheerful departure: “Wake up the sheriff.”

Shooting victim: “Leaned against a bullet going by” or “Got sawdust in his beard.”

Six-gun: “Black-eyed Susan,” “Smoke Wagon” or “Artillery.”

Someone religious: “Raised on prunes and proverbs.” Shut up: “Hobble your tongue.”

Tough customer: “A curly wolf.”

Unloaded gun: “No beans in the wheel.”

Useless: “As socks on a rooster” or “Lipstick on a pig” or “A three-legged horse.”

Welcome: “As hard rain in dry country.”

Whisky: “Tarantula Juice,” “Coffin Varnish,” “Who-Hit-John,” “Kill-Me-Quick” and “Whoop-’Em-Up-Liza-Jane.”

Wine drinker: “Has an educated thirst.”

A saloon drunk: “Had blisters on his elbows.”

Work: “Every bull has to carry his own tail.”

A full day’s work: “Entitled you to a warm place by the fire.”

I still have an index box filled with cowboyisms in case I ever get around to writing whatever it was I was going to write.  

Caller-Times columnist Murphy Givens, June 2014.
