Chief of the Pastores Casimiro Romero

Just northeast of the New Mexico line on U.S. 54

 "Moved to Texas, 1876, from New Mexico-- wife and two children in a coach, goods in 14 wagons. Owned 6,000 sheep. A Castilian Spaniard by birth, Romero spoke for pastores (sheep herders), who built eleven haciendas and plazas in Canadian River area. Cattle rancher Chas. Goodnight in late 1876 made a pact with Romero to respect right of the pastores to valley of Canadian River. But, railroads and cattle ranches in 1880s cut into sheep lands. Romero returned to New Mexico, selling Texas lands, 1897. He is memorialized in this area by town of Romero (3.5 miles southwest of here)." Romero spent his last years ranching sheep on a couple of quarter sections near Bard, New Mexico. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the Endee Cemetery.

"Catch-'em-alive Jack" Abernathy

Jack Abernathy holding a wolf by the mouth, with Teddy Roosevelt in the background. (Library of Congress)

(White Mountain Independent) John Abernathy, or Jack as he was called, was born in Texas. At the age of 6 he and his older brother would sneak away from home to play piano and violin in the local saloon. Following a Christmas shootout in the saloon with several victims, his parents discovered what he was doing, thus ending his entertainment career.

But that didn’t inhibit the enterprising young man. By the age of 9 he was working as a cowboy, and at 11 he went on his first cattle drive. At 15 Jack was a full-fledged cowboy breaking horses for Charles Goodnight. Continued



Abernathy and sons, more on them tomorrow.

Bose Ikard dies

Bose Ikard

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1929, Bose Ikard died in Austin. Ikard, born a slave in Mississippi in 1843, became one of the most famous black frontiersmen and trail drivers in Texas.
The Civil War left Bose a free man, and in 1866 he went to work for Oliver Loving as a trail driver.
After Loving's death, Ikard continued in the service of Loving's partner, Charles Goodnight. The two men became lifelong friends.
Goodnight later commented that he trusted Bose Ikard "farther than any living man. He was my detective, banker, and everything else in Colorado, New Mexico, and the other wild country I was in." Continued

Oliver Loving

(Wikipedia) Oliver Loving (December 4, 1812 – September 25, 1867) was a rancher and cattle driver. Together with Charles Goodnight, he developed the Goodnight-Loving Trail.
... In the spring of 1867, Loving and Goodnight returned to Texas, ready to start a new drive. This third drive was slowed by heavy rains and Native American threats. Loving went ahead of the herd for contract bidding, taking only Bill Wilson, a trusted scout, with him.
Although he told Goodnight that he should travel at night through Native American Indian country, he pushed ahead during the day. In a Comanche attack, he was seriously wounded at Loving Bend on the Pecos River.
The weakened Loving sent Wilson back to the herd, eluded the Indians, and, with the aid of Mexican traders, reached Fort Sumner, only to die there of gangrene.
Before he died on September 25, 1867, Goodnight assured him that his wish to be buried in Texas would be carried out. Continued

"Wolf of the Washita" born in Tennessee

Photo by Plazak

(TDbD) On this day in 1840, gunfighter Clay Allison was born on a Tennessee farm.
After serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, Allison moved to the Brazos River country in Texas. He soon signed on as a cowhand with Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight and was probably among the eighteen herders on the 1866 drive that blazed the Goodnight-Loving Trail.
In 1870 he left Texas and was involved in a number of violent incidents, including lynchings, brawls and gunfights, in Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico during the 1870s. Continued

John Chisum

(Wikipedia) John Simpson Chisum (August 15, 1824 – December 23, 1884) was a wealthy cattle baron in the American West in the mid-to-late 19th century.
... In 1854, Chisum became engaged in the cattle business and became one of the first to send his herds to New Mexico Territory. He obtained land along the Pecos River by right of occupancy and eventually became the owner of a large ranch in the Bosque Grande, about forty miles south of Fort Sumner, with over 100,000 head of cattle.
In 1866-67, Chisum formed a partnership with cattlemen Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving to assemble and drive herds of cattle for sale to the United States Army in Fort Sumner and Santa Fe, New Mexico, to provide cattle to miners in Colorado as well as provide cattle to the Bell Ranch. Continued

JA Ranch Founded

Photograph shows cowboys tending a herd of watering cattle on the JA ranch in the Texas panhandle. To the left in the background is a photographer's wagon with a sign, "W. A. Harper, Special Photographer, St. Louis Exposition 1903." (Library of Congress)

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1876, Charles Goodnight and John G. Adair drew up the contract that brought the JA Ranch into being. The JA is the oldest privately owned cattle ranch in the Panhandle.
Goodnight had met Adair, an English aristocrat interested in going into the cattle business, in Denver. Adair agreed to furnish the capital Goodnight needed to build up his "Home Ranch" in Armstrong County. Continued

"Catch-'em-alive Jack" Abernathy

Jack Abernathy holding a wolf by the mouth, with Teddy Roosevelt in the background. (Library of Congress)

(White Mountain Independent) John Abernathy, or Jack as he was called, was born in Texas. At the age of 6 he and his older brother would sneak away from home to play piano and violin in the local saloon. Following a Christmas shootout in the saloon with several victims, his parents discovered what he was doing, thus ending his entertainment career.

But that didn’t inhibit the enterprising young man. By the age of 9 he was working as a cowboy, and at 11 he went on his first cattle drive. At 15 Jack was a full-fledged cowboy breaking horses for Charles Goodnight. Continued



Abernathy and sons, more on them later.

Black cowboy Bose Ikard dies

Bose Ikard

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1929, Bose Ikard died in Austin. Ikard, born a slave in Mississippi in 1843, became one of the most famous black frontiersmen and trail drivers in Texas.
The Civil War left Bose a free man, and in 1866 he went to work for Oliver Loving as a trail driver.
After Loving's death, Ikard continued in the service of Loving's partner, Charles Goodnight. The two men became lifelong friends.
Goodnight later commented that he trusted Bose Ikard "farther than any living man. He was my detective, banker, and everything else in Colorado, New Mexico, and the other wild country I was in." Continued

150 Years ago: Oliver Loving dies in Fort Sumner

(Wikipedia) Oliver Loving (December 4, 1812 – September 25, 1867) was a rancher and cattle driver. Together with Charles Goodnight, he developed the Goodnight-Loving Trail.
... In the spring of 1867, Loving and Goodnight returned to Texas, ready to start a new drive. This third drive was slowed by heavy rains and Native American threats. Loving went ahead of the herd for contract bidding, taking only Bill Wilson, a trusted scout, with him.
Although he told Goodnight that he should travel at night through Native American Indian country, he pushed ahead during the day. In a Comanche attack, he was seriously wounded at Loving Bend on the Pecos River.
The weakened Loving sent Wilson back to the herd, eluded the Indians, and, with the aid of Mexican traders, reached Fort Sumner, only to die there of gangrene. Before he died on September 25, 1867, Goodnight assured him that his wish to be buried in Texas would be carried out. Continued

Historic ranch formed by partnership of legendary pioneers

J.A. chuck-wagon, getting dinner c1907 (Library of Congress)

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1876, Charles Goodnight and John G. Adair drew up the contract that brought the JA Ranch into being. The JA is the oldest privately owned cattle ranch in the Panhandle. Goodnight had met Adair, an English aristocrat interested in going into the cattle business, in Denver. Adair agreed to furnish the capital Goodnight needed to build up his "Home Ranch" in Armstrong County. Continued

John Chisum

(Wikipedia) John Simpson Chisum (August 15, 1824 – December 23, 1884) was a wealthy cattle baron in the American West in the mid-to-late 19th century. ... In 1854, Chisum became engaged in the cattle business and became one of the first to send his herds to New Mexico Territory. He obtained land along the Pecos River by right of occupancy and eventually became the owner of a large ranch in the Bosque Grande, about forty miles south of Fort Sumner, with over 100,000 head of cattle. In 1866-67, Chisum formed a partnership with cattlemen Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving to assemble and drive herds of cattle for sale to the United States Army in Fort Sumner and Santa Fe, New Mexico, to provide cattle to miners in Colorado as well as provide cattle to the Bell Ranch. Continued