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Reference Library
THE GATHERING OF THE TEXAS HERD
by
T. J . Barragy
In a short article published in The Cattleman in March 1926, J. Frank Dobie
called for the establishment of a herd of Longhorn cattle in Texas and presented
an excellent summary of the historical significance of the Longhorns: In
the annals of history no other animal can be found paralleling the part
that this bovine specimen played in building an empire. He stands alone.
He came from Texas and he belongs to Texas.1 The estimated ten million Longhorns
that were driven to northern markets between 1866 and 1895 were worth approximately
$200,000,000. This money, Dobie asserted, "saved Texas during the dark
days that followed the Civil War."2 The Longhorn, not the plow, opened
up the vast territory west of the Missouri River to white settlement. Only
the Texas Longhorn was physically capable of covering these great distances
and enduring the vast extremes in temperature. Upon the sturdy legs of the
Texas Longhorns rested western empire building - the cattle drives, drovers,
western frontier towns, ranches, range wars and lawmen - indeed, almost
a half a century of American history that is as mesmerizing to the American
people today as it was a century ago. The American post Civil War frontier,
which has been so romanticized, commenced with the Texas Longhorn and abruptly
ended with his abrupt decline. The Longhorn was genetically assaulted, starting
as early as the 1870s, because of the bottom line. Then, as now, the vast
majority of cattle were sold by the pound and ranchers quickly discovered
that by importing bulls from the British Isles they could produce much heavier
cross bred cattle. Most ranchers loved and respected the hardy Longhorns,
but economic survival required that they utilize imported bulls on their
Longhorn cows. By the early 20th century the once dominant Longhorn could
be found only in small scattered numbers in remote and brushy parts of Texas
and Mexico. By the 1920s the surviving Longhorns in Texas were being hauled
to slaughter houses as part of the effort to eliminate "tick fever."
Facing extinction, some Texans rallied to their cause. About a dozen different
herds were established as part of the successful effort in the first half
of the 20th century to save the Longhorns. All have received extensive historical
scrutiny except the so-called Texas Herd. This herd was assembled as a result
of the financial contribution of a Fort Worth oilman, Sid Richardson, and
the tireless efforts of two Texans who had been friends for almost forty
years, J. Frank Dobie, University of Texas professor and folklorist, and
Graves Peeler, a renowned range detective and Texas Ranger. Although, as
a young boy, J. Frank Dobie was close to many of his relatives, his "idol"
and "his hero" was Uncle Jim Dobie, who owned the Kintuck Ranch
in Live Oak County.3 Shortly after 1900 Jim sold Kintuck and purchased a
56,000-acre brush-covered ranch to the west in LaSalle County which was
watered by the Nueces River.4 Named Rancho de Los Olmos (The Elms), it would
alter the life of J. Frank Dobie. There "in 1902 or 1903"5 when
Frank was 14 or 15 years of age, he met and became close friends with Graves
Peeler, who was two years older. Grave's Uncle, Will Irvin, owned a nearby
ranch. Freed from parental supervision, the two boys hunted, fished and
rode their horses at break-neck speed over the countryside. It was the foundation
of a lifelong friendship, which would culminate in the establishment in
1941 and 42 of a herd of cattle in Texas to aid in the preservation of the
Longhorns. On two different occasions, 1927 and 1941-42, Dobie and Peeler
joined efforts to locate and gather Longhorns. In both cases the pattern
was identical. Dobie filled the role of promoter and organizer while Peeler
actually chose and collected the cattle. However, in 41-42 both men participated
in the final selection. In articles written in December 1925 and March 1926
Dobie solicited public support for the preservation of the Longhorns through
the establishment of a herd of Longhorns in Texas and a federal herd to
be established at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Reservation near Cache,
Oklahoma. Will C. Barnes, who worked for the forest service, was in charge
of the federal effort. After obtaining information from Dobie, Peeler, and
others, he gathered seventeen Longhorns in the Edinburg area and twelve
in Liberty County.6 Peeler aided in the selection and collection of the
East Texas cattle. Although Dobie made important contributions to the establishment
of the Wichita Wildlife Herd in 1927, from 1925 on his public and private
focus was on the establishment of a Longhorn herd in their historic home
in the United States - -Texas. Great confusion has existed concerning the
exact time this herd was established. The author has located sixteen books
or articles that discuss the date of the collection of the Texas Herd. All
recently published numbers are off by about ten years, a huge error if you
are attempting to save a specie of cattle from extinction. Graves Peeler
illustrates this fact by pointing out that he started out with ten Longhorn
cows and a Longhorn bull and in ten to twelve years bred them up to 350
head. 7 Identifying the correct date for the establishment of the Texas
Herd is also important because at least two other Longhorn herds were gathered
at the same time. There has been no agreement on when Dobie and Peeler collected
the Longhorns for the Texas, Peeler, and Groce Herds because all authors
to date have relied on the memory of Graves Peeler, who was sixty-six years
of age when first asked about the date and was last interviewed on the subject
on his eighty-eighth birthday. The first interview, in 1952, was ten or
eleven years after the Texas Herd was actually gathered and the newspaper
reporter, Grady Stiles, wrote that the Texas Herd was collected "some
15 years ago...." 8 Five years later, when Peeler was seventy-one years
of age, he said 1936, which was slightly closer than the earlier general
statement. However, in this interview Graves committed a more serious error.
Peeler assisted in the collection of cattle for the establishment of the
Wichita Wildlife Herd in Oklahoma in 1927. When asked about it in 1957 Graves
stated that a total seed herd of "eleven head" was gathered, which
is less than half of the actual number of cattle gathered even when excluding
steers.9 Other errors of memory appeared in 1968 when Peeler was eighty-two
years old. By that time the date was "1933 or maybe late 1932...."
For the first time Graves mentioned that some of the cattle had been collected
for the western movie star Tom Mix, and over the years at least four other
publications repeated the Tom Mix story, unaware that in fact the individual
was Gene Autry. In the 1968 interview Graves also reported that all of the
cattle were taken to his brother Alonzo's ranch, which, although minor,
was still in error. Only half of the cattle for the Texas Herd were taken
there.10 In 1982 Walter B. Scott, a noted Longhorn breeder and friend of
Peeler, published an important and otherwise excellent article that stated
that the year was 1931; and that has served as the general guide for all
who followed. Don Worcester in his book The Texas Longhorn, Relic of the
Past, Asset for the Future that was published in 1987 chose 1931,11 and
Stan Searle, editor of the influential Texas Longhorn Journal in 1985, chose
the year 193312 When publishing a 61-page pamphlet on Graves Peeler in 1994,
the well known western writer Lawrence Clayton repeated the Tom Mix legend
and stated that Graves collected the cattle "around 1930 - dates range
from 1928 to 1932."13 Most recently, in 1996 Dr. D. Philip Sponenberg,
who "has been involved with Texas Longhorn cattle for over 20 years,
and has done much research on the breed" stated that Graves collected
cattle for his own herd of Longhorns and for the new Texas Herd in 1931.14
The correct answer, 1941 and 1942, has been resting undisturbed in the Dobie
Archive at the University of Texas for over thirty years. Approximately
a dozen letters between the two men clearly document the collection of a
herd for Lake Corpus Christi State Park in 1941 and for Lake Brownwood State
Park in 1942. Dobie provided instructions and guidance and Peeler actually
collected the Longhorns. Oddly enough, Graves' brother Travis gave the correct
date when interviewed in 1978 but the newspaper source was so obscure that
historians failed to locate it. It reads as follows: One newspaper article
said Peeler's six-month search started in 1932. But Travis Peeler said he
knows it was in 1942 because he helped in the search in the Rio Grande Valley
and he was not transferred there by the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers
Association until after 1940.15 While historians have been unable to agree
on the year that the cattle for the Texas and Peeler Herds were gathered,
there is universal agreement on the three men who were involved in the project.
Sid Richardson provided the funding for the project, and J. Frank Dobie
and Graves Peeler were given the task of gathering and selecting the cattle.
However, in the past because of a lack of source material, no publication
has devoted more than a few paragraphs or pages to the subject. Dobie in
fact carefully described the arrangement in 1956: About the time ...[ The
Longhorns ] was published Sid Richardson of Fort Worth told me that if I
would buy some Longhorns to breed he would present them to the State of
Texas to be pastured on park lands. I commissioned Graves Peeler to buy
a bull and some cows and also two or three steers. Sid Richardson paid for
them and the cattle were put in the Texas State Park on the Nueces River
near Mathis.16 Dobie began promoting the establishment of a Texas Herd of
Longhorns in the December 15, 1925, issue of the San Antonio Express but
he did not find committed allies until 1941. Dobie's closest association
with Richardson seems to be in the period 1939-1941. Tom Lea had illustrated
Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver, which was published in 1939, and then immediately
agreed to also illustrate Frank's next book, The Longhorns.17 However, Dobie
had not fully completed the research for the book and he always found writing
difficult and suffered frequent serious bouts of writers block. As isolation
and a ranch atmosphere seemed to always help, Sid Richardson allowed Dobie
to use his ranch on Saint Joseph Island near Corpus Christi. In the spring
of 1939, he went by barge across the bay to the isolated island ranch. Writing
by day, he rode a horse for three hours every evening. Frank wrote to Tom
Lea urging him to visit the stock yards in El Paso and Gilroy in order to
carefully observe the Longhorns there: You will never again perhaps see
the time when you can find as many spanish cattle in the yards at El Paso
as now - varieties in color, dew-lapped, stag horned, etc. Don't leave for
Missouri until you have gone out there and drunk in memories that will keep
as long as you live. The sun is going down on the old breed. You have a
chance to see it set. Go to both stock yards.... 18 Frank felt great relief
and satisfaction as he completed the manuscript in December 1939. He headed
back into the brasada or brush country of South Texas in December for a
well deserved deer hunt and was relieved that he had the next semester at
UT off. Dobie had ample reason to feel satisfied. The Longhorns "was
immediately and widely acclaimed. It became, and still is, Dobie's most
popular publication."19 Frank had also just launched a successful syndicated
newspaper column call "My Texas." He had earlier become the "first
Texas-born member of the University of Texas English faculty to have been
made a full professor..." and he had done it without the Ph. D. The
great success of Coronado's Children in 1933 had "made him a national
figure..." and since then he had become "a symbol of the state...."
20 It was a great honor, and Dobie took the responsibility seriously. In
late 1940 he obtained a personal bank loan and purchased three Charlie Russell
paintings from a saloon in Great Falls, Montana, so "we'll get them
in Texas and place them where eventually they will become public property."21
Dobie convinced Sid Richardson to purchase two of them for that purpose,
and he apparently kept the third for himself. It depicted two Longhorn bulls
engaged in mortal combat.22 It was apparently at that same time that Frank
convinced Richardson over a social drink to cover the cost of collecting
cattle for a Texas Longhorn herd. Dobie explained that he could not get
away from the University long enough to personally collect the cattle and
suggested that they have Graves Peeler handle the job as he had worked for
the Association and had "seen thousands" of Longhorns. 23 In May
1930, after a decade of full time employment with the Texas and Southwestern
Cattle Raisers Association, Peeler hired on as foreman of the Groce Ranch
in Brazoria County. He remained there until moving to his own ranch in McMullen
County in 1944.24 The two widows who owned the ranch in 1930, Mrs. W. R.
Nash and Mrs. Kitty Nash Groce, faced a bleak future at the time as cattle
prices had plunged along with the stock market. They had just experienced
a winter die off of 500 head of their cattle and owed the bank $60,000.
Without additional money they would lose the ranch. Graves accompanied Kitty
Nash Groce to the bank in Houston. The incident provides us with a good
look at Peeler in 1930. In his prime he could scare the hair off a cat.
Mrs. Groce had been forced to purchase $12,000 worth of the bank's stock,
and the bank's president refused to even allow her to cash it in so Graves
intervened. "Well, by God, you either pay Mrs. Groce that stock or
loan her the money. If you don't, I'm just going to take it out of your
damn old hide. I mean what I say...." After Peeler called the bank
president an "old hardheaded son of a bitch...his face kind of got
red..."25 and he decided that cattle, even at the depressed market
price of $39 a head, looked like a great investment. Graves explained to
the ladies that he would work on the ranch day and night and save them from
bankruptcy, but as he still held his Texas Ranger's commission he would
occasionally do work for the Association, and every fall he would absolutely
go hunting as it was his one great vice. Frank called his old friend at
the Groce Ranch,26 and Graves agreed to begin collecting Longhorn cattle
for the Texas Herd at that ranch which Frank could then come and inspect.
Since cross-breeding had been so extensively utilized in Texas by the 1940s,
locating essentially pure bred Texas Longhorns was a serious challenge for
Peeler. Two sources, published twenty-six years apart, indicate the direction
of his search. In 1926, when Dobie called for the establishment of a Texas
Herd in the brush country of South Texas, he recommended that "the
border country on both sides of the Rio Grande be combed" for Longhorns
suitable for the herd. He expressly excluded from the herd any Longhorns
found in East Texas or the coastal area south and east of Houston. "No
gimlet butted 'coaster,' no knot headed piney wood runt" would be allowed
in.27 When interviewed in 1952 Graves described his travels in search of
Longhorns for Dobie. The trip carried him "through the cactus-adorned
landscape between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, and finally into the rugged
ranch country of Mexico."28 By mid August 1941 all three men had agreed
that Dobie would travel to the Groce Ranch and select ten cows for Lake
Corpus Christi State Park at Mathis from the fourteen that Graves had collected.
The price was $60 a head, and two other men were eager to purchase the remaining
four cows. 29 The immediate problem facing Graves, Frank, and Sid was that
the ten Longhorn cows were without a bull so, no long term preservation
was under way. As Graves searched for a bull in East Texas, Dobie wrote
to a Longhorn breeder he had met only about a year earlier at Barker, Texas
- E. H. Marks. Unlike Peeler, Marks had a large family to support and on
March 16, 1942, he offered eight cows at $150 each and a two-year-old brindle
bull, who was a "full brother to the brindle bull, you have pictured
in your book..." The Longhorns, for $500. E. H., who was a highly intelligent,
pragmatic businessman, enclosed with the letter two cards advertising "my
rodeo in the spring."30 Several days later Frank informed E. H. that
his prices were "steeper than my friend, who is buying some to put
in Texas parks, can pay." 31 By April 19, 1942, Graves was finally
able to report that he had at the Groce Ranch a bull for the Mathis herd
but it had not been easy. Graves was led astray by a cattle buyer who said
that he knew many people in East Texas and frequently purchased cattle there
and assured Peeler that there were good Longhorn bulls and cows available
there. Graves agreed to pay the man to go along for three days but "we
drew a blank on what he knew." After ten or eleven additional days
and a total of 2,865 miles searching for nonexistent Longhorns, Graves returned
to the ranch of Sam and Oscar Jourdan in Hardin County where he had obtained
Texas Longhorns for the Wichita Wildlife Reservation Herd in 1927.32 The
bull cost $80, but Graves was terribly embarrassed by the boondoggle, as
Sid Richardson had agreed to pay his expenses and $5 a day, the rate the
Association had earlier paid him. However, the total cost of $313.25 was
still considerably better than the price of the Marks' bull. Peeler valued
nothing more than his reputation and, concerned that Richardson, whom he
did not even know, might think that Graves was deliberately running up the
price, he insisted on accepting only $170. On May 17 Graves explained to
Frank that if he had used better judgment, he could have "gone to the
Valley in two days time [and] gotten the bulls and cows needed...."
The chief value of this trip lies in the fact that it tells us indirectly
that Graves had obtained the first 14 Longhorns in far South Texas or Mexico
as by this late date the entire state of Texas north of the Valley was heavily
populated by eager Hereford or Brahma bulls. If suitable bulls and cows
had been available in East Texas, certainly Peeler would have purchased
them. Graves informed Frank that he bought the one bull from Sam and Oscar
Jourdan because he didn't want to make a "water haul."33 Dobie
had traveled to the Valley during the first week in April, when the War
Department sent him to boost morale at Forts Brown and Ringgold. Accompanied
by his loving wife Bertha, who usually stayed behind to teach his classes,
Frank used the trip to scour the Valley for Texas Longhorns; and he located
a bunch. The three men had earlier agreed to collect ten additional cows
and a bull for Lake Brownwood State Park, and Graves had decided to start
his own herd of Longhorns as well as one for Kitty Groce. They were late
getting into the Longhorn preservation business, but there were plenty of
good cattle left in far South Texas and Mexico. On April 19 Graves informed
Frank that if Richardson "wants me to go down in[to] Mexico for some
cows and two good bulls, [I] would do so for as small a cost as possible.
I have two Ranches in mind where I am sure [I] can get these cattle."34
We know from Jack Phillips that Graves in fact purchased Longhorns in the
1941-42 period in Mexico35 and combined with the above statement it seems
virtually certain that Graves had purchased the original 14 Longhorns in
Mexico. The information and actions that followed strongly indicate that
Graves had not previously searched the Valley for Longhorns. Dobie was the
friend of the man who had the money, and Frank had his own ideas on the
cattle to be chosen. In a lengthy letter on May 8th Frank described his
trip to the Rio Grande Valley. At Hidalgo he had talked to Joe Pate, who
had only steers but "might bring some cows over [the river]."
Frank's "good friend" Robert Davenport, who was a lawyer in Brownsville,
informed him that "Fausto Yturria of Brownsville has 10 Longhorn cows
and a bull which he gathered up to sell to Gene Autry. It seems that Autry
hasn't called for these animals. He [Fausto] wants to sell them." Frank
had looked at bulls, cows, and calves on both sides of the river owned by
Ruben Guerra at Roma and had been given a price of $50 to $60 for a cow
and calf. The Longhorns didn't have "any foreign blood in them."
Dobie wanted all of the various colors, body types, and horns represented
in the two state parks. "You know the colors and shapes of the cows
we already have. Get all of the other colors and shapes you can." Frank
instructed Graves to get a "black lineback..." and "something
well speckled and another shade of dun..." and "one more red cow.
This is a great chance to fill out colors and shapes so that in the whole
20 head of cows we will have about everything represented." But Dobie
still didn't want to choose any cattle on his own. He and Sid asked Graves
"...to go down there as soon as you can get off and buy 10 cows and
a bull..." for the State Park at Brownwood. Frank ended the letter
with a reminder "please don't put off going too long." 36 Graves
had informed his old friend as early as April 26 that he could not "look
at those cows..." in the Valley for two weeks and if Frank could not
wait "you can get some one down there, I am sure, to get the cows."37
Dobie opted to wait for Peeler who obtained the Longhorns and shipped a
bull and 10 cows, of which about half had calves, to a 650-acre trap on
his brother Alonzo's ranch in Atascosa County. Locted south of San Antonio,
it was closer to Austin and Brownwood. Frank inspected them there on June
23, 1942 and informed Graves that in a few days they would be trucked to
Brownwood, but Frank was not totally satisfied. "I hope that you will
keep looking out for black and blue cows of various shadings that also have
good frames."38 Prior to 1941 approximately a dozen herds had been
established for the preservation of the Longhorns, but certainly none was
gathered with greater care or expertise than the Texas Herd. As The Longhorns
well demonstrates, Frank was an authority; and Graves knew even more about
Longhorns. After teaching for a year at Cambridge University in 1943-44,
Frank was awarded an honorary Masters Degree with an inscription that read
in part: "De longibus cornibus quod ille non cognivit, inutile est
allis cognoscere," which when translated from the Latin states, "what
he does not know about Longhorns is not worth knowing."39 One important
question remains concerning the Texas Herd. As Peeler or Dobie was familiar
with all of the major herds that had been collected before 1941, why not
simply select cattle from these herds? Dobie and Peeler never addressed
the question directly. The best answer comes from Walter Scott, who stated
that non-Longhorn "blood has infiltrated from time to time and with
varying degrees into all of the various herds." 40 Apparently, Peeler
believed that he could find truer to type Texas Longhorns in Mexico in the
40s and 50s, and even the 60s, than had been collected in Texas earlier
by other men. Prior to the 1930s only a small, primitive park system existed
in Texas. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's establishment of the Civilian Conservation
Corps brought about dramatic change. Between their first arrival in four
state parks in June 1933 and congressional termination of the CCC program
in 1942, the young, dedicated volunteers "developed 56 parks in Texas,"
of which 31 were in the state park system. Two hundred-man teams began laboring
at the state parks at Lake Mathis and Lake Brownwood in 1934 and completed
their work at Mathis in 1935 and at Brownwood in 1941. 41 The Texas Herd
established at Mathis in 1941 and Brownwood in 1942 caused little difficulty
during World War II, as strict rationing of gasoline and tires limited the
number of park visitors to a trickle. With the surge in park attendance
in the post-war era, serious conflicts developed between man and bovine.
Given the paucity of visitors during the war, park employees failed to grasp
the absolute necessity of isolating the hungry and inquisitive Longhorns
from the picnic and camping areas. When the people went hiking or swimming
the Longhorns dined out - with loaves of bread becoming the main delicacy.
The cattle were having a great time in the face of rising opposition. One
woman complained that a Longhorn steer that apparently turned canivorous,
consumed her entire baked ham as it sat on the picnic table.42 The Longhorns
enjoyed rummaging about through the tents; and when an irate woman chased
one out of her tent, it became entangled in the ropes and the Longhorn,
with tent in tow, quickly disappeared off into the brush. Several years
into the post war period, the cattle at Brownwood were consolidated with
the Mathis herd, but the problems continued at Mathis. When Graves Peeler
and Jack Phillips inspected the herd, they found the Longhorn bull penned
up. Dobie summed up the general consensus: "They didn't do well there
on account of the two-bit man who wanted the grass for his own stock."43
That problem was compounded by a general reduction of the available grazing
land. It was felt that the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts should not be subjected
to Longhorn antics so the grazing area was reduced by 200 acres. By 1948
the herd had increased to 60 formidable animals, and the State Park Board
wisely determined to cull the herd to 20 and truck them to the much less
crowded Fort Griffin State Historical Park. The move to historic Fort Griffin
in Shackelford County and its 506 acres of park land ensured the survival
of the Texas Herd. Located along the Dodge City, or Western Cattle Trail,
the new home was historically correct and its remote location assured that
the number of visitors would be limited. With ample acreage available, the
Longhorns were fenced out of the camping and dining area along the Clear
Fork of the Brazos River. Until 1950 herd bulls were provided by Graves
Peeler. During the next twenty years herd sires were procured from the Wichita
Wildlife Refuge near Cache, Oklahoma. Since 1972 bulls have been obtained
from Charles Schreiner III at the Y O Ranch. For over twenty years management
of the herd has been in the capable hands of Lester Galbraith. The official
State Herd of Texas has been rigorously culled to hold the number to approximately
125 Longhorns. Starting in the 50s a policy was initiated of lending Fort
Griffin Longhorns to other state parks in the region. Possum Kingdom got
Longhorns in the '50s; Palo Duro in '69; Dinosaur Valley in '71; Copper
Breaks in '73; and Colorado City in 1986.44 The purchase of twenty Longhorns
in 1972 by Watt Matthews of the famous Lambshead Ranch brought brief attention
to the Texas Herd, which to date has been widely ignored by Longhorn breeders.
With the complete historical record of the Texas Herd now available for
the first time, perhaps Texans will take a renewed interest in this vital
part of their historical legacy. 1 J. Frank Dobie, "The Texas Longhorn's
Dying Bellow, Plea for Preservation of State's Greatest Symbol," The
Cattleman, March, 1926, 143. 2 Ibid. 3 Lon Tinkle, An American Original,
(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1978), 14-15. 4 Ibid. 5 George Carmack,
"Peeler Helped To Restore Longhorn Herd," The San Antonio Express
- News, May 11, 1974, 1-C. 6 The San Antonio Light, August 7, 1927. 7 Leonard
Stiles interview of Graves Peeler for his Hall of Horns collection. At item
#66. 8 Grady Stiles, "Last of the Longhorns," Corpus Christi Caller,
June 19, 1952. 9 Jimmy Walker, "Great Horns," The Cattleman ,
January, 1957, 326. 10 Pleasanton Express, August 21, 1968, 8D. 11 Don Worcester,
The Texas Longhorn, Relic of the Past, Asset for the Future ( College Station:
Texas A & M University Press, 1987), 82. 12 Charles B. Searle, "Graves
Peeler-Larger than Life", Texas Longhorn Journal, May/June, 85, 48.
13 Lawrence Clayton, Longhorn Legacy, Graves Peeler and the Texas Cattle
Trade (Abilene: The Cowboy Press, 1994), 36; 39. 14 D. Philip Sponenberg
DVM, PhD, "Texas Longhorn Bloodlines, Foundations Of The Present Breed,"
1996 TLBAA Breeders Handbook, 14. 15 Bill Cunningham, "Longhorns Leaving
South Texas," San Antonio Express, no date. The article discusses the
purchase of the last of the Peeler Herd by John Ball in 1978. 16 Letter,
April 17, 1956, J. Frank Dobie to Jimmy Walker, Walker File, Dobie Archive,
UT. 17 Tinkle, 164. 18 Ibid., 165. 19 Francis Edward Abernethy, J. Frank
Dobie (Southwest Writers Series, No. 1; Austin: Steck-Vaughn Company, 1967),
21. 20 Tinkle, 166; 169. 21 Ibid., 173. 22 Author's interview of Charles
Schreiner III, Fort Worth, June 6, 97. 23 Leonard Stiles interview. At item
no. 66. 24 Wooster, 82. 25 Typescript of the 6/5/69 interview of Graves
Peeler by Jane Patti, 55-56. 26 Leonard Stiles interview of Peeler. At Item
#66. 27 Dobie,"The Texas Longhorn's Dying Bellow," 143. 28 Grady
Stiles, June 19, 1952. 29 Graves Peeler to J. Frank Dobie, 8/6/41 and Dobie
to Peeler, 8/15/41. Graves Peeler File, James Frank Dobie Papers, 1923-1967,
Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. 30 E. H. Marks
to J. Frank Dobie, March 16, 1942, E. H. Marks File, Dobie Papers, UT. 31
Dobie to Marks, 3/20/42. Dobie Archive,UT. 32 Walter B. Scott, "Graves
Peeler and Texas Longhorn Cattle One and the Same," The Longhorn Scene,
August, 1982, 63. When interviewed in 1968 Peeler stated that he obtained
the bull "from Doug Davis on the Trinity" River. See The Pleasanton
Express, August 21, 1968, 8D. 33 See Peeler to Dobie, 4/19/42; 4/26/42;
Dobie to Peeler, 5/8/42; Peeler to Dobie, 5/17/42, Dobie Archive, UT. 34
Peeler to Dobie, 4/19/42. Dobie Archive, UT. 35 "7 Families of Longhorns,"
Part I, Texas Longhorn Journal, Jan., 1990, 58. 36 Dobie to Peeler, 5/8/42
and 4/21/42. Dobie Archive, UT. 37 Peeler to Dobie, 4/26/42; 5/17/42 and
5/17/42. Dobie Archive, UT. 38 Dobie to Peeler, 6/23/42. Dobie Archive,
UT. Walter Scott, 63. 39 Abernethy, 21. 40 Walter B.Scott, 63. 41 James
Wright Steely and Joseph R. Monticone, The Civilian Conservation Corps In
Texas State Parks, no publisher and no pages. 42 Grady Stiles, "Last
Longhorn Round-Up In South Texas," The Cattleman, Oct., 1948, 23. 43
J. Frank Dobie to Jimmy Walker, letter April 17, 1956. Jimmy Walker File,
Dobie Archive, UT. Walter B. Scott, 63. 44 Author's June 11, 1997 interview
of Lester Galbraith.
- Reprinted with
permission of Texas Longhorn Trails Magazine
- and/or
TLBAA (Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America)
Lucky S&L Ranch P.O. Box 18757 Corpus Christi, TX 78480-8757
Phone: (361) 949-7197(H) or (361) 949-6919(O) Fax: (361)
949-7405
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