The Gruene Cowboy - Cowboy Blog

The Gruene Cowboy Blog

Breaking News, Info & Great Commentary

One hundred thirty-one years ago today, Texas cattlemen proposed creation of a national trail from the Red River to the Canadian border. Some say it marked the beginning of the end for trail drives. Read more...

"Open carry" is now the law in Texas. Gun owners who complete special training and get a permit can carry guns into stores, college campuses and restaurants.

Texas is a state which reveres its past. Few Texans are aware that back in the old days, cowboys were required to check their weapons with the local marshal or sheriff when entering frontier cow towns. The law broached no tolerance for gunplay or showdowns later immortalized in Hollywood westerns.

It's going to be a Gruene Cowboy Christmas in Gruene! We just delivered a large shipment of books to Cotton Eyed Joe's, located just around the corner from the mansion H.D. Gruene built after his trail days ended. The Gruene Mansion Inn is now a bed and breakfast. Buy a book and make your reservation!

... it was a way station for Gruene cowboys headed south to families in Central Texas.

Gruene cowboys frequently interacted with members of the Choctaw Nation. Less than 50 years later, the descendants of these former enemies fought a different battle, together.

On Veterans Day, we remember and posthumously salute the many Gruene cowboys and their fathers who served during the U.S. Civil War. Although they fought on both sides, the majority joined the Confederacy. Few had little to say about their service in what one vaguely referred to as "internecine strife" that devastated most families. However, by the end of the war, it's estimated that wartime neglect resulted in five million longhorns roaming the Lone Star State. This is where our cowboy stories begin...

What scared cowboys the most? G.W. Mills, of Lockhart, Texas, explains on p. 193: "As I got on the ground on the side next to the creek I heard the most horrifying yell, or more of a scream, that I had ever heard in all my life. This bloodcurdling scream came from a bending tree about sixty yards from the herd. My thick hair went straight up and has never thoroughly settled down since that memorable night." War whoop, or ________?

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Cowboy Stories

“May we not venture to predict that in another sixty years somebody will have established a trail to Mars or other planets, and our descendants may be signaling the latest market quotations to the cowmen of those parts.”
William J. Bennett, Pearsall, Texas

“I was just a farmer boy, started to church at Prairie Lea one Sunday, met Tom Baylor (he having written me a note several days before, asking if I wanted to go up the trail) and the first thing he said was, “Well, are you going?” I said, “Yes,” so he said, “Well, you have no time to go to church.” So we went back to my house, got dinner and started to the chuck wagon and remuda, which was camped six miles ahead. There I was, with a white shirt, collar and cravat, starting on the trail. You can imagine just how green I was.”
W.B. Hardeman, Devine, Texas

“Just as the head cattle came within about one hundred yards of camp at the foot of some high hills the blizzard broke forth with increased fury. The cattle at once turned their heads to the south and began to drift with the wind. I knew we were in for a bad night of it, and there was not a man in the outfit over 20 years old.”
George W. West

“We crossed the Red River into the Indian Territory at Doan’s Store, and here we struck the Indians by the thousands. We managed to keep peace by giving them a beef every day. They would come to us fifty and one hundred at a time. Some would ride with us all day and they always asked for a cow, which they called “Wahaw, Wahaw,” and, of course, we acted like we were glad to give it to them. We all had our guns and knew how to use them if we got in a fight.”
F.M. Polk, Luling, Texas

“The storm hit us about twelve o’clock at night. There was some rain, and to the northwest I noticed just a few little bats of lightning. Then it hit us in full fury and we were in the midst of a wonderful electrical storm. It first commenced like flash lightning, then came forked lightning, then chain lightning, followed by the peculiar blue lightning. After that show it rapidly developed into ball lightning, which rolled along the ground. After that spark lightning, then, most wonderful of all, it settled down on us like a fog. The air smelled of burning sulfur. It grew so warm we thought we might burn up with it.”
G.W. Mills, Lockhart, Texas

“In 1872 on the Smoky River near Hays City, Kansas, while with a herd of cattle we had a big stampede. While running in the lead of the steers I saw by a flash of lightning that I was on the edge of a big bluff of the river. There was nothing left for me to do but jump, so I spurred my horse.”
M.A. Withers, Lockhart, Texas

“In the latter part of 1889, a then noted frontier officer by the name of Pat Garrett was detailed to bring “The Kid” in, dead or alive, and as he knew our boys had been bothered a great deal and had lost several cattle, he came to our camp for help. I was detailed as one of the posse to go with Garrett, and we finally located the outlaw in a ranch house about forty miles from White Oaks.”
Fred E. Sutton of Oklahoma City, Okla.

“When we arrived within eight or ten miles of Dodge City, a beautiful city, situated on the north bank of the Arkansas River and about one month’s drive from Red River, we could see about fifty different trail herds grazing up and down the valley of the Arkansas River.”
S.H. Woods, Alice, Texas

“Like most of the boys of the early days, I had to sow my wild oats, and I regret to say that I also sowed all of the money I made right along with the oats.”
S.B. Brite, Pleasanton, Texas

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Trail’s end?

No open carry

Cowboy Christmas

Before Austin was trendy...

50 years after they fought on the plains

Thank you for your service, cowboys

What scared cowboys the most?

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