The Cowgirl Who Passed Herself Off as a Cowboy

Samuel Dunn Houston told of his experiences on the cattle trails in the latter part of the 1800s.  He had worked his way up from being a hand on the trail to being a trail boss, having previously done enough cattle drives that he felt that he had made more trips over the cow trail from Southern Texas and New Mexico than “any man in the country.”  He had been engaged by the Holt Live Stock Company of New Mexico to head up a trail drive in the spring of 1888.

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Death of Oliver Loving

Charles Goodnight wrote of the death of his friend Oliver Loving in the book The Trail Drivers of Texas by J. Marvin Hunter.  The book is widely available for purchase, and also can be downloaded.  In it, Hunter has assembled sketches and observations of the cattle drivers of the 1800s.

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William Cowper Brann

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(Image credit: Texas Co-op Power Magazine)

William Cowper Brann was born in Coles County, Illinois in 1855 and was raised by a local farmer after his mother died when he was 2 1/2.  His first job was to serve as a bell boy at a local hotel.  Following that, he worked as a painter, a drummer, a grainer, a printer, a reporter and an editorial writer.  It was written that he talked his way into a position as chief editorial writer for the Houston Post.  Brann earned a reputation for being a hard worker at whatever he attempted to do.

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