Transcript

9.25.26 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome. This is Radio Eye's History Show and
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Speaker 1: I'm your host and reader for today, Joseph Bolt. So
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Speaker 1: happy to be with you for this time and before
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Speaker 1: we begin, we always need to remind you that Radio
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0:26
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0:39
Speaker 1: let us know what you're thinking about a history program
0:43
Speaker 1: and about Radio Eye in general. Radio Eye is a
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Speaker 1: reading service that's intended for people who are blind or
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Speaker 1: have other disabilities and make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 1: I'll cite the sources as we go along. So let's
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Speaker 1: get to reading. Today I thought we would cover two
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Speaker 1: fellas that goes back a little ways in history out west.
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Speaker 1: And names are people you might recognize. Oliver Loving and
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Speaker 1: Charles Goodnight. So let's read about these guys and see
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Speaker 1: what they're up to. The Goodnight Loving Trail has inspired
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Speaker 1: songwriters and novelists. Cattleman Charles Goodnight became one of the
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Speaker 1: iconic figures of Texas and the West and helped save
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Speaker 1: the American bison from extinction. Oliver Loving, whose death was
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Speaker 1: in 1867, led to one of Robert Duvall's most endearing
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Speaker 1: acting roles, has a Texas county and an Eddy County,
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Speaker 1: New Mexico village named after him. Goodnight and Loving are
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Speaker 1: credited with blazing the trail to deliver cattle to the
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Speaker 1: Basque Redondo Reservation at Fort Sumner in New Mexico Territory.
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Speaker 1: and that was in about 1866. The trail eventually stretched
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Speaker 1: to Denver and then up into Cheyenne in Wyoming. The
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Speaker 1: trace that led from Texas to Fort Sumner is generally
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Speaker 1: known as the Goodnight Trail, while that which Goodnight later
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Speaker 1: blazed direct to Cheyenne is called the Goodnight and Loving Trail,
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Speaker 1: though sometimes the terms are used interchangeably, says J. Evitz Haley,
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Speaker 1: who wrote in his book, Charles Goodnight, Cowman and Plainsman,
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Speaker 1: published in 1936 by Hofton Mifflin. At least, that's the legend.
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Speaker 1: Two historians, however, have recently suggested that maybe the trail
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Speaker 1: should be known as the Chisholm Trail. Erroneous popular mythology
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Speaker 1: holds that Charles Goodnight, and Oliver Loving made the first
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Speaker 1: drives across West Texas and up the Pecos River to
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Speaker 1: New Mexico markets in 1866 and 67, says James Bailey
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Speaker 1: Blackshear and Glenn Sample Eli, who argued in their book
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Speaker 1: Confederates and Comaches, Skullduggery and Double Dealing in the Texas-New
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Speaker 1: Mexico Borderlands, which was... printed in 2021 by the University
3:49
Speaker 1: of Oklahoma Press. They go on to say, in fact,
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Speaker 1: this route was established prior to Goodnight and Loving and
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Speaker 1: was known as the Chisholm Trail decades before Goodnight's biographer
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Speaker 1: branded it the Goodnight-Loving Trail, end quote. The authors partially
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Speaker 1: base that argument on a 1897 civil engineer's map that
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Speaker 1: labels the cattle route leading from the Concho River watershed
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Speaker 1: to Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River as, quote, the
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Speaker 1: Chisholm Trail, end quote. The Goodnight Trail was called for
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Speaker 1: the men who opened it and drove cattle over it
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Speaker 1: for years. Charles Goodnight, says the Galveston Texas Daily News,
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Speaker 1: reporting on November 25th 1892. It goes on to read,
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Speaker 1: it started in the country southeast of Fort Worth and
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Speaker 1: led southwestward to the Pecos, which it crossed at Horsehead Crossing,
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Speaker 1: followed the river up through New Mexico, and went on
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Speaker 1: into Colorado, ending near Pueblo, Colorado. End quote. With the
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Speaker 1: establishment of In 1863, of the million-acre reservation near Fort Sumner,
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Speaker 1: beef was needed at that remote outpost in present-day DeBaca
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Speaker 1: County before 1866. The Santa Fe Gazette ran a notice
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Speaker 1: from the Army's Department of New Mexico's chief commissary seeking
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Speaker 1: delivery of good marketable beef cattle to be delivered to
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Speaker 1: Fort Sumner. 200 by May 31, 1864, 300 by June 30, 1864,
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Speaker 1: and then 500 by July 31, 1864. Well, by then,
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Speaker 1: Chisholm was tired of selling beef to the Confederacy. Born
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Speaker 1: in 1824 in Tennessee, John Simpson Chisholm had moved to
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Speaker 1: Texas by 1837, where he worked in Paris as a
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Speaker 1: store clerk. After stints as an owner of grocery stores
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Speaker 1: and also working in politics as a county clerk, Chisholm
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Speaker 1: turned to ranching in North Texas, where he lived. When
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Speaker 1: the Civil War broke out, he was placed in charge
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Speaker 1: of getting herds to the Confederate Army along the Mississippi River.
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Speaker 1: Chisholm later moved his operations to the Colorado River east
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Speaker 1: of present-day San Angelo and also ran a store in Trickham.
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Speaker 1: which became a point on the Western Cattle Trail. After
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Speaker 1: the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1863, Chisholm learned that
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Speaker 1: selling beef to the Confederacy was a money-losing operation. By 1864,
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Speaker 1: a Confederate dollar was worth about 10 cents. Union contractors,
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Speaker 1: Blackshear and Eli wrote, paid in a currency that actually
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Speaker 1: had value, end quote. inter-union operators James Patterson, William C. Franks,
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Speaker 1: Thomas L. Roberts, and James Conwell. They rode into Texas and,
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Speaker 1: with Chisholm's help, gathered a herd of Confederate cattle and
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Speaker 1: moved them into New Mexico territory in the spring of 1865.
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Speaker 1: Patterson and his associates weren't alone. Other unionists managed to
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Speaker 1: slip Texas beef into Mexico by loosely following John Butterfield's
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Speaker 1: overland mail company route. Chisholm soon had a New Mexico connection.
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Speaker 1: Relocated there, and Blackshear and Eli write, quote, West Texas
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Speaker 1: cowmen were calling this Texas-New Mexico cattle rode the Chisholm Trail,
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Speaker 1: end quote. Not that it matters, because in In 1866,
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Speaker 1: Goodnight and Loving teamed up to make history and legend.
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Speaker 1: Goodnight was born in Illinois in 1836, and his family
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Speaker 1: moved to Texas when Goodnight was nine, four years after
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Speaker 1: his father's death. At age 11, Goodnight started hiring out
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Speaker 1: to farms. He tried other jobs. And in 1856, three
8:35
Speaker 1: years after his mother remarried, Goodnight partnered with his stepbrother,
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Speaker 1: John Sheik, in the cattle business. In 1857, Goodnight and
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Speaker 1: Sheik moved their cattle operation to Palo Pinto County. Oliver
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Speaker 1: Loving was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky on December 4, 1812. Loving,
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Speaker 1: the son of Joseph and Susanna Mary Borland Loving, grew
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Speaker 1: up to be a farmer in Muhlenberg County. He married
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Speaker 1: Susan Doggett Morgan in 1833, and ten years later in 1843, Loving,
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Speaker 1: at 30 years of age, and his brother and sister,
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Speaker 1: along with their families, moved to the Republic of Texas.
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Speaker 1: There he acquired over 600 acres of land in Collin, Dallas,
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Speaker 1: and Parker counties, where once again he farmed and worked
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Speaker 1: as a freight hauler. Loving had previously driven herds up
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Speaker 1: the Shawnee Trail, and in 1860 he partnered with John
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Speaker 1: Dawson to bring 1,500 cattle to Denver. Commissioned to drive
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Speaker 1: cattle to Confederate forces on the Mississippi later that year,
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Speaker 1: Loving soon found himself in a situation similar to Chisholm's.
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Speaker 1: The Confederate government reportedly owed Loving between $ 100, 000 and $ 250, 000
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Speaker 1: after the war. Again, the Confederate money being worthless. Loving
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Speaker 1: soon earned the nickname of, quote, the Dean of Texas
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Speaker 1: Trail Drivers, end quote. It was Goodnight's idea to take
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Speaker 1: a herd to Bosque Redondo, and newspapers had spread word
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Speaker 1: that there was a market for beef at Fort Sumner.
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Speaker 1: The Office of Supervising Commissary announced that it sought bids
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Speaker 1: for delivery of 6,000 cattle beginning July 1st, quote, for
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Speaker 1: issue to the Indians on the Bosque Redondo Reservation, end quote.
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Speaker 1: A notice in the March 22, 1866 edition of the
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Speaker 1: Leavenworth Kansas Daily Conservative read, quote, The cattle must all
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Speaker 1: be weighed upon the scales at Fort Sumner, New Mexico,
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Speaker 1: or some other point of delivery upon the reservation, under
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Speaker 1: the personal supervision of the ACS at Fort Sumner, and
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Speaker 1: His certificate of weights must accompany the accounts of the
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Speaker 1: contractors when presented for payment. Goodnight could have asked for
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Speaker 1: Chisholm's advice on the cattle drive. Goodnight was quoted as
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Speaker 1: saying that Chisholm was a great trail man. No one
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Speaker 1: had any advantage of him as an old-fashioned cowman. and
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Speaker 1: he was the best counter that I ever knew. He
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Speaker 1: could count three grades of cattle at once and count
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Speaker 1: them accurately, even if they were moving at a trot,
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Speaker 1: end quote. Instead, Goodnight sought Loving's input. Loving warned Goodnight
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Speaker 1: of the hardships on such a drive across dry county,
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Speaker 1: or dry country, Seeing that Goodnight was undeterred, the older
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Speaker 1: cowman said, quote, If you will let me, I will
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Speaker 1: go with you, end quote. Goodnight replied, I will not
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Speaker 1: only let you, but it is the most desirable thing
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Speaker 1: of my life. I not only need the assistance of
13:03
Speaker 1: your force, but I need your advice, end quote. So,
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Speaker 1: With Loving's knowledge of cattle and Goodnight's background as a
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Speaker 1: Texas ranger and an Indian fighter, the two hatched a
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Speaker 1: plan to run cattle from Fort Belknap, Texas, to Fort Sumner,
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Speaker 1: New Mexico, and then go northward into Colorado and Wyoming.
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Speaker 1: Through dangerous Indian country, this new trail would become known.
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Speaker 1: as the Goodnight Loving Trail. In June of 1866, they
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Speaker 1: set out with some 2,000 head of cattle and 18
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Speaker 1: armed men, including former slave boss, or rather former slave,
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Speaker 1: Bowes Eichard, and one-armed Bill Wilson, to blaze the Goodnight
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Speaker 1: Loving Trail from Texas to Colorado, This route went on
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Speaker 1: to be well-traveled to both Colorado and Wyoming. Goodnight and
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Speaker 1: Loving learned how things were managed when they reached Fort Sumner.
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Speaker 1: Government contractors bought only steers, and the Texans had driven
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Speaker 1: a mixed herd. You'd think that if indeed Goodnight sought
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Speaker 1: out Chisholm's advice, Old John would have mentioned the fact
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Speaker 1: that Sumner was a steer-only market. Maybe he did. Maybe
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Speaker 1: Goodnight and Loving also had eyes on the Northern Plains.
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Speaker 1: They sold the steers at Sumner for $ 12, 000, and Goodnight
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Speaker 1: returned to Texas, while Loving and his crew pushed the
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Speaker 1: 700 to 800 remaining cattle to Denver. Well, there, John W. Iliff,
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Speaker 1: who had the title the Cattle King of Colorado when
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Speaker 1: he died in 1878, bought the herd. The Goodnight Loving
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Speaker 1: partnership was strong, so they drove another herd the following
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Speaker 1: year in 1867. Taking the same route, Loving might have
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Speaker 1: thought it was a good time to get out of Texas.
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Speaker 1: A notice in the Dallas Herald said the Parker County
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Speaker 1: Sheriff directed Loving to appear in district court in Weatherford
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Speaker 1: in August after Robert E. Bell filed a petition against
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Speaker 1: Loving and his son, James, alleging that Bell.
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Speaker 2: Was owed $ 1, 432. 92 for cattle that had been delivered in
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Speaker 2: October in 1866. Said amount is now due and unpaid,
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Speaker 2: for which Bell prays judgment against said defendants for said
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Speaker 2: debt and cost of suit. Well, by the time that
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Speaker 2: notice appeared in the press, Loving was dead. In the
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Speaker 2: summer of 1867, while riding ahead of the herd to
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Speaker 2: initiate and contract bidding at Sumner, Loving and Wilson were
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Speaker 2: attacked by Comanche Indians in southern New Mexico. Loving was wounded.
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Speaker 2: So he sent Wilson for help, which gave us Larry
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Speaker 2: McMurty's lonesome dove and made Robert Duvall the favorite trail
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Speaker 2: boss and ex-Texas Ranger of many Americans. A group of
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Speaker 2: Hispanic traders found the wounded Loving and brought him to
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Speaker 2: Fort Sumner, where he died from gangrene on September 25. 1867.
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Speaker 2: Goodnight pushed the herd into Colorado where he began a
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Speaker 2: ranch and cattle relay station near Trinidad. In 1868, Goodnight
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Speaker 2: returned to Fort Sumner, loaded Loving's coffin onto a wagon
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Speaker 2: and brought him back to Texas for burial Weatherford's Old
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Speaker 2: City Greenwood Cemetery. Bose Eichert, who died in 1929 at
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Speaker 2: the age of 85, is buried nearby, complete with good
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Speaker 2: night's praise. Quote, Served with me four years on the
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Speaker 2: good night loving trail. Never shirked a duty or disobeyed
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Speaker 2: an order. rode with me in many stampedes, participated in
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Speaker 2: three engagements with Comaches. Splendid behavior, end quote. Goodnight and
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Speaker 2: Loving and Chisholm weren't the only cattlemen.
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Speaker 1: Who would follow their trail. By 1870, author Haley wrote,
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Speaker 1: The trade along the Goodnight and Loving Trail was well established,
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Speaker 1: and the amount of money handled by its western bankers
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Speaker 1: was noted as enormous. Goodnight eventually married Mary Ann Molly Dyer,
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Speaker 1: a schoolteacher from Weatherford, Texas, on July 26, 1870. Six
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Speaker 1: years later, in 1876, Goodnight founded what was to become
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Speaker 1: the J.A. Ranch, in Palo Duro Canyon in Texas. He
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Speaker 1: partnered with a fellow named John Adair, and the ranch
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Speaker 1: would eventually encompass a million acres. There, they managed and
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Speaker 1: maintained a herd of about 100,000 cattle and preserved a bison,
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Speaker 1: which continues, a bison herd which continues to survive today.
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Speaker 1: In the summer of 1878, good night, took the first J.A.
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Speaker 1: herd north to Dodge City, Kansas, the nearest railhead. Blazing
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Speaker 1: the Palo Duro-Dodge City Trail, the path would quickly become
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Speaker 1: well used by several panhandle ranchers in the upcoming years.
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Speaker 1: Just a few months later, when destitute Indians from the
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Speaker 1: reservations in Indian territory, arrived to hunt the now scarce buffalo,
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Speaker 1: Goodnight made his famous treaty with Quanah Parker, in which
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Speaker 1: he promised two beeves every other day if Parker and
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Speaker 1: his followers would not disturb the J.A.
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Speaker 2: Herd.
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Speaker 1: In 1879, Goodnight moved to the ranch headquarters, to Turkey Creek,
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Speaker 1: farther east, to be close to the railroad. He built
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Speaker 1: a new ranch, a log home for himself, and later
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Speaker 1: a stone house for the Adairs to live in. By 1880,
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Speaker 1: the area was suffering badly. several cattle rustlers, and having
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Speaker 1: warned the Texas Rangers that if they could not handle
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Speaker 1: the problem, he would. He established the Panhandle Stockmen's Association,
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Speaker 1: and this association, located in Mobete, Texas, immediately began to
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Speaker 1: take care of the cattle rustling problem by applying vigilante
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Speaker 1: justice to to the area's outlaws and cattle thieves. Well,
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Speaker 1: foreseeing the end of the open range, Goodnight ended his
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Speaker 1: association with Adair and the J.A. Ranch in 1889 and
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Speaker 1: bought his own ranch at what would become the village
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Speaker 1: of Goodnight, Texas. He was reportedly the first panhandle rancher
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Speaker 1: to build barbed wire fences. Throughout the following years, Goodnight
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Speaker 1: dabbled in several other endeavors, establishing Goodnight College in Armstrong County, Texas,
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Speaker 1: and working as a newspaper man and banker. However, an
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Speaker 1: investment in Mexican silver mines eventually brought him financial ruin.
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Speaker 1: Forced to sell his ranch, Goodnight conveyed the property to
23:04
Speaker 1: a friend, oilman W.J. McAllister. in 1919, providing that Goodnight
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Speaker 1: and his wife could stay in the home until they died.
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Speaker 1: His wife passed before him in 1926, and Charles Goodnight
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Speaker 1: lived there until the end of that year before moving
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Speaker 1: to Clareton, Texas, and he passed away on December 12, 1929.
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Speaker 1: The J.A. Ranch continues to operate as an active ranch today,
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Speaker 1: located within the Palo Duro Canyon and owned by Adair descendants.
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Speaker 1: The original buildings erected in 1879 are still standing, including
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Speaker 1: the big stone house built for the Adairs. Though modernized
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Speaker 1: and expanded, it continues to dominate the cluster of buildings
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Speaker 1: at the ranch headquarters. The site of Goodnight's original dugout
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Speaker 1: cabin is located within the Palo Duro Canyon State Park.
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Speaker 1: The frame house where Goodnight lived from 1889 until 1926
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Speaker 1: is still standing in the town of Goodnight, Texas and
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Speaker 1: was a private residence until 2005 when Mr. and Mrs.
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Speaker 1: Bent Cabinus and Mr. and Mrs. March Pittman donated the
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Speaker 1: home and 30 acres of land along with the initial
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Speaker 1: investment toward preservation for the Charles Goodnight Historical Center. The
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Speaker 1: Charles and Mary Dyer Goodnight House is considered one of
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Speaker 1: the most important historic structures in the Texas Panhandle, and
24:40
Speaker 1: for that matter, the state of Texas. The house's restoration
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Speaker 1: was completed in 2012, and it operates as a museum
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Speaker 1: and learning center. In 1985, Texas author Larry McMurty published
24:54
Speaker 1: his 11th novel and 12th book, Lonesome Dove. Nearly four
24:59
Speaker 1: decades later, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Bestseller is considered one of
25:04
Speaker 1: the greatest and most popular American novels of all time.
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Speaker 1: And while Lonesome Dove, an 843-page novel, cannot be considered
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Speaker 1: a whim, McMurty himself never considered it as great an
25:18
Speaker 1: American novel as it is. He was even quoted as
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Speaker 1: saying it was, quote, the gone with the wind of
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Speaker 1: the West, which is good and bad, end quote. Well,
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Speaker 1: that could be challenged. McMurty's modesty, In the pantheon of
25:35
Speaker 1: American literature, Lonesome Dove should be side by side with
25:39
Speaker 1: James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, Mark Twain's
25:44
Speaker 1: Huckleberry Finn, William Cather's O'Pioneers, Edna Ferber's Cimarron and John
25:50
Speaker 1: Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, Wallace Stigner's Angle of Repose, and
25:56
Speaker 1: of course, Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. Sources for
26:04
Speaker 1: this story came from True West Magazine, stories entitled Two
26:10
Speaker 1: Road Together, written by Johnny D. Boggs, February of 2023.
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Speaker 1: Another story, Oliver Loving, Pioneer Cowboy, written by Kathy Alexander
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Speaker 1: in June of 2025. And Charles Goodnight, Blazing the Cattle Trails,
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Speaker 1: Kathy Alexander, March of 2025. Well, that about does it
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Speaker 1: for today's chapter of Radio Eye History. I sure hope
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Speaker 1: you enjoyed today's show. I thank you for listening and
26:39
Speaker 1: giving me your time today. I'm your host, Joseph Bolt,
26:44
Speaker 1: and I'll be back next time with another chapter of
26:48
Speaker 1: Radio Eye History. Until then, happy trails to you.