1176. COSTIGAN, Edward P. Papers
of Edward P. Costigan Relating to the Progressive Movement in Colorado, 1902-1917.
Edited by Colin B. Goodykoontz. Boulder: University of Colorado, 1941. xiv,
379 pp., frontispiece portrait. 8vo, original green cloth. Very fine in very
good d.j. (lightly chipped).
First edition. University of Colorado Historical Collections
4, Political Series 1. Wilcox, p. 34. Wynar 7718. Includes information on cattle
grazing on public lands; suggests streamlined legislation to allow stockraisers
and farmers to more easily market their products; discusses the necessity for
a law to protect farmer’s crops from destruction by large herds of cattle; promotes
protecting agricultural and livestock interests in Colorado (“realizing these
allied industries are the foundation of our permanent prosperity”); etc. The
pro-and-con debate on stockraisers paying a fee per head for grazing cattle
on Forest Reserves includes this observation by a delegate from the Colorado
Stock Growers’ Association: “I am in favor of this resolution.... I want to
tell you...what the Forest Reserves are doing for my little county, Hinsdale
County, up here in the mountains. We graze during the summer more sheep and
more cattle and horses than any other single county in the Rocky Mountain region.”
$40.00
1177. COSTIGAN, Edward P. Papers of Edward P. Costigan.... Boulder: University of Colorado, 1941. Another copy. Spine and portions of covers faded, otherwise fine. Dust jacket not present. $35.00
1178. COSULICH, Bernice. Tucson.
Tucson: Arizona Silhouettes, [1953]. xvii [1] 310 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait,
plates (illustrations by Bruce Marshall), endpaper maps. 8vo, original red cloth.
Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Powell, Arizona Gathering II 390. Wallace,
Arizona History IX:24. History of Tucson with discussion of ranching
activities over the centuries, beginning with Father Kino, founder of the cattle
industry in the Southwest. The chapter on the bloodless conquest of Tucson includes
an account the “Battle of the Bulls” (see item 1140 herein). $50.00
1179. COTTEN, Kathryn. Saga
of Scurry. San Antonio: Naylor, [1957]. vii [1] 165 pp., plates. 8vo, original
tan pictorial cloth. Endpapers lightly browned, otherwise fine in lightly foxed
d.j.
First edition. CBC 4028. Herd 586: “History
of various ranches of Scurry County, Texas.” $35.00
1180. COTTLE, H. J. “Studies in
the Vegetation of Southwestern Texas” from Ecology 12:1
(January 1931). Extract containing pp. 105-155, photographs, tables, graphs.
8vo, original plain white wrappers, stapled. A few stains to wrappers, otherwise
fine, with clipping about Texas bird life laid in.
First separate issue. Scientific study of the grasslands
of southwestern Texas, with particular emphasis on the effects of grazing (and
overgrazing). $35.00
1181. COUNSELOR, Jim & Ann Counselor.
Wild, Woolly, and Wonderful. New York: Vantage Press, [1954].
vi [2] 392 pp. 8vo, original green cloth. Slight shelf wear, otherwise fine
in chipped d.j. with sunned spine.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 6 (“Collecting
Modern Western Americana”): “About ranching in another part of New Mexico, the
Navajo country, where they combined sheep raising with keeping a trading post.”
$50.00
1182. COURSEY, O. W. Beautiful
Black Hills: A Comprehensive Treatise on the Black Hills of South Dakota....
Mitchell, South Dakota: Educator Supply Company, 1926. 265 [3, ads] pp.,
text illustrations (mostly photographic, including Annie Tallent, the first
Anglo woman in the Black Hills). 12mo, original red cloth. Slight shelf wear,
endpapers lightly browned, a few short tears to blank margins, and one text
leaf wrinkled, overall very good.
First edition. Guns 500: “Chapters on Wild Bill Hickok
and Calamity Jane.” Jennewein, Black Hills Booktrails 225. The author
draws on several pioneer accounts of the Black Hills, including Maguire’s The
Coming Empire (Herd 1428), Tallent’s The Black Hills (Herd
2232), and Brown and Willard’s Black Hill Trails (Herd 342). The
author adds subsequent history and outlines features and scenic wonders of the
Black Hills region. There is scattered ranching interest in the volume, including
an account of the Maxwell Fight (1877). The Maxwell family was driving their
cattle and belongings from Miles City to the proximity of the Stanley military
road in order to establish and develop a large ranch. Their cattle were rustled
by Sioux and Nez Perces, followed by an attempt to murder the Maxwells and their
party. Maxwell and his four men quickly threw together an improvised fort and
held off the war party during three days of intense onslaught. The war party
left on noon of the third day because they were out of ammunition. $70.00
1183. COURSEY, O. W. Pioneering
in Dakota. Mitchell, South Dakota: Educator Supply Company, [1937]. 160
pp., frontispiece portrait, text illustrations (many photographic, several full-page).
12mo, original brown textured cloth. Fine. Author’s signed presentation copy
to Elsie Snow-Hanson dated December 30, 1938.
First edition. Home-spun pioneer recollections, with much
on women and social history. Included is a chapter on “A Pioneer Fourth-of-July”
in which the local cowboys come in from the range to dance, “each with a buxom
pioneer girl on his arm.” In the chapter on “Our Loyal Animals” Coursey recalls
“Old Watch” the faithful shepherd dog who was invaluable in tending and herding
the cattle and “Old Jim” the cow pony (a Mexican mustang who was “A Dr. Jekyll
and a Mr. Hyde,” and “a regular man eater and a woman hater”). $50.00
1184. COURSEY, O. W. Wild
Bill (James Butler Hickok). Mitchell: Educator Supply Company, [1924]. 80
pp., photographic text illustrations. 16mo, original red cloth. Slight shelf
wear, cloth buckled in dime-size area on upper cover, otherwise fine.
First book edition (first printed as an article in the Sioux
Falls Argus Leader). Adams, One-Fifty 35: “The author tames down
the McCanles-Hickok affair somewhat. While some writers have claimed the fight
was the result of McCanles’s horse stealing and others have stated that he was
trying to collect a debt, this author says the trouble started over the woman
Kate Shull. But he makes quite a to-do over the marvelous shooting of his hero:
‘Wild Bill was a sure shot. He never missed! He could shoot backward and forward
at the same time; and he is undoubtedly one of the few men who ever lived that
could.’” Guns 501: “Scarce.... Only a few of these little books were
printed.” Jennewein, Black Hills Booktrails 109. $220.00
1185. COUTANT, C. G. History
of Wyoming from the Earliest Known Discoveries. In Three Volumes. Volume I
[all published]. Laramie: Chaplin, Spafford & Mathison, Printers,
1899. xxiv [17]-712 pp., frontispiece portrait of author, 76 illustrations (including
map with color outlining) on 27 half-tone plates (photographic, from vintage
prints, and after the work of Wyoming artist M. D. Houghton). Thick 8vo, original
three-quarter dark brown morocco over dark brown cloth, gilt seal on upper cover.
Very fine.
First edition. Flake 2543: “Mormons in Wyoming; Mormon trail;
Mormon colonization.” Graff 889: “Only the first volume was published.” Howes
C810 (erroneously calling for 76 plates). Jones 1683. Malone, Wyomingana,
p. 3. An important aspect of this book is the many illustrations of the original
art work of Merrill Dana Houghton (1846-1918), “Wyoming sketch artist in watercolor
and pen and ink of landscapes, mines, and ranches.... His drawings and maps
are important historical records” (Samuels, Encyclopedia
of Artists of the American West, p. 238 & plate 146). This history
ranges from early exploration to the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad,
which does not include the hey-day of ranching in Wyoming. However, there is
much fugitive information on the earliest activities in the area relating to
livestock and ranching. A chapter is devoted to Mormon pioneers, some of whom
remained in Wyoming, becoming early stockraisers. Coutant documents some of
the early ranches that were used by the military as headquarters or bivouacs
during the many engagements with tribesmen and discusses the constant depredations
of stock on the Bozeman Trail. As time passed and more Anglos came into Wyoming,
the identity of the rustlers became somewhat murky: “It sometimes became a nice
question to determine whether a robbery had been committed by Indians or white
outlaws, as their methods in most cases were alike. During the month of September
the beef herd at Fort Fred. Steele...was run off and while an effort was made
to recapture them, not a hoof was recovered.”
Among the pioneer biographies are stockraisers: Captain Henry E.
Palmer, with information on his participation in the Grinnell Live Stock Company;
W. P. Noble, a South Pass miner who afterward was a prominent stockraiser in
Fremont County; F. G. Burnett, who in addition to his own ranching activities
served as “head farmer” on the Shoshone Reservation teaching agriculture and
stockraising; John M. Hornecker, who turned to stockraising to supply mining
camps; John Hunton, who arrived at Fort Laramie in 1867, clerked for the sutler,
and in 1882 established his own ranch on the Chugwater (“this ranch became one
of the best of the territory”). Coutant interviewed many of the early pioneers
and old mountain men and includes their recollections. $415.00
1186. COUTANT, C. G. History
of Wyoming from the Earliest Known Discoveries.... Laramie: Chaplin, Spafford
& Mathison, Printers, 1899. Another copy, in original binding. Light outer
wear, rubbed along joints, grey paper pasted over original endpapers at an early
date, occasional short tears to blank margins and a few old tape repairs, generally
a very good copy, with interesting provenance. Preliminary blank with contemporary
ink presentation to H. W. Zeemen. Ink ownership stamp and pencil notation of
Grace Raymond Hebard (occasional additions and corrections in Hebard’s hand).
Later ownership inscription of Agnes Wright Spring. Related newsclipping pasted
to front endpaper. The 1941 index is included with this copy.
First edition. A first-rate copy regarding provenance, having
been owned by two fine Wyoming historians: Agnes Wright Spring, noted librarian
and historian of Colorado and Wyoming (inducted into the National Cowboy Hall
of Fame and National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and recipient of many other honors);
and Grace Raymond Hebard, Wyoming feminist writer, librarian, self-taught historian,
and educator. The pasted-in newsclipping gives the difficult history of the
publication of the present work, the only published volume of Coutant’s projected
three-volume history of Wyoming. The First National Bank of Laramie underwrote
the cost of publication, and lost money on the project, making publication of
subsequent volumes difficult. Grace Raymond Hebard purchased from Coutant’s
widow the unpublished manuscript and research materials for Coutant’s second
volume, used it for her own research, and later sold it to the Historical Department
of the State of Wyoming. In 1940 Coutant’s second volume began publication as
Annals of Wyoming. Also included is the W.P.A. Index to History of
Wyoming by C. G. Coutant (Cheyenne: Wyoming State Library, 1941. 45 leaves.
12mo, green mimeographed wrappers, spine stapled and taped. Wrappers chipped.
Agnes W. Spring penciled on cover. First printing. Graff 890. Howes C810.)
$385.00
1187. COUTS, Cave Johnson. Hepah,
California! The Journal of Cave Johnson Couts from Monterey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
to Los Angeles, California during the Years 1848-1849. Tucson: [Designed
and printed by Lawton Kennedy for] Arizona Pioneers’ Historical Society, 1961.
[4] 113 [10, index] pp., frontispiece portrait, 9 maps (1 foldout), 4 illustrations
after sketches by Samuel E. Chamberlain. 8vo, original blue cloth. Very fine,
mostly unopened.
First edition, limited edition (750 copies). Edwards, Enduring
Desert, pp. 59-60. Powell, Arizona Gathering II 393. Rocq 16232.
Thrapp IV, pp. 116-17: “Best summary of the march.” Couts (1821-1874) accompanied
the Graham expedition from Monterrey, Mexico, to Los Angeles (1848-1849), and
his penetrating insights, sharp tongue, and youthful exuberance provide quite
a different perspective than that found in the official accounts. Couts mentions
various ranches along the route, including Warner’s Ranch “San Jose is owned
by one Warner, a white man, famed for his ability in telling lies, but
not surpassed even in this by his notoriety as a rascal. He, Warner, stole my
stallion as the horses passed. Luckily for him that it was not known to us until
we had left him” (p. 91). Couts preferred the owner of the next ranch (Ojo Caliente),
“a fine old Indian, Captain Antonio” (a Northern Diegueño whose claim to his
ranch Warner would subsequently preempt). Couts later became a rancher in San
Diego County when he married Ysidora Bandini, who was given the square-league
Rancho Guajome as a wedding present by her brother-in-law Abel Stearns. Couts
made a very successful ranch from what had been a wasteland, with extensive
herds of cattle, horses, sheep, and mules. As we see in the present work, Couts
was already attuned to livestock, placing a high value on them and frequently,
as a good cavalryman, expressing disgust at their mistreatment. (From 1856 Couts
frequently held the office of “judge of the plains,” regulating and overseeing
livestock matters). $95.00
1188. COWAN, Bud [Robert Ellsworth
Cowan]. Range Rider. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company,
1930. x [2] 289 pp., 7 sepia-tone plates by Ross Santee (including frontispiece;
one plate illustrates brands). 8vo, original orange cloth. Very fine in very
good clipped d.j. (illustrated by Santee). Bookplate of Claude L. Peterson,
with his engraved portrait.
First edition. Introduction by B. M. Bower. Campbell, p.
85: “Recollections of a musical cowboy, of his experiences in Montana, Texas,
etc. Readable.” Dobie, p. 97. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Santee
36). Guns 503: “A chapter on the Hole-in-the-Wall and its bunch of outlaws.”
Herd 588. Wynar 6404. Chapters on “The Trek North,” “Trail Work,” “Rustling
Trouble,” and “Round-up Technique.” $80.00
1189. COWAN, Bud [Robert Ellsworth Cowan]. Range Rider. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1930. Another copy. Moderate outer wear and soiling, upper joint with one small puncture, spine faded, front hinge cracked. Dust jacket not present. $30.00
1190. COWAN, Robert E.
A Bibliography of the History of California and the Pacific West, 1510-1906.
Columbus: Long’s College Book Company, 1952. xxxvii [3] 279 [3] [62, index].
4to, original salmon cloth. Very fine.
New edition, with introduction by Henry R. Wagner, and additional
notes by Robert G. Cowan. The original edition was published by the Book Club
of California in 1914. Cowan, p. 146. Zamorano 80 #23n. A useful research
tool with good leads into the history of ranching and the cattle trade.
$80.00
1191. COWLING, Mary Jo. Geography
of Denton County. Dallas: Banks Upshaw and Company, 1936. xii, 132 pp.,
plates, including one of cattle brands, text illustrations, maps, tables. 8vo,
original red cloth. Top edge lightly foxed, otherwise very fine.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:96. CBC 1333.
Guns 504: “Condensed account of the highlights in the life of Sam Bass.”
Herd 592. Designed to be used by teachers of Denton County history, with
much on ranching and ranchers: cattle baron John Chisum, Burk Burnett (whose
famous “6666” brand was adopted in honor of a lucky poker hand which won him
a ranch and herd of cattle); Luther Clark (the last surviving cowman from the
first organizational meeting of the Texas Cattle Raisers’ Association in 1876),
Crow Wright (said to have had the largest ranch of horses in the Southwest),
etc. $175.00
1192. COX, Edwin T. History
of Eastland County, Texas. San Antonio: Naylor, [1950]. xii, 95 pp., photographic
plates. 12mo, original blue cloth. Very fine in very good d.j.
First edition. CBC 1461. The chapter “Occupations of Eastland
County” includes a discussion of early ranchers and ranching. There is also
a section on goats and sheep. $50.00
One of the Big Four
1193. [COX, James]. Historical
and Biographical Record of the Cattle Industry and the Cattlemen of Texas and
Adjacent Territory. St. Louis, Missouri: Woodward & Tiernan Printing
Co., 1895. 743 pp., color frontispiece, 16 photographic plates, numerous text
illustrations (portraits, ranches, activities with cattle, etc., many photographic),
tables. Folio, original brown pictorial morocco stamped in gilt and blind. Light
wear to spinal extremities and joints beginning to crack, otherwise an exceptionally
well-preserved, complete copy, in slipcase. Difficult to find in this condition.
First edition. Basic Texas Books 34: “This compendium
on Texas cattle and cattlemen is also one of the rarest Texas books.... Nearly
400 pages are devoted to biographies of some 449 Texas cattlemen, and these
sketches are a gold mine for research into the cowboys.... The other half of
the volume...provides one of the two or three best contemporary accounts of
the history of the Texas cattle trade.” Campbell, My Favorite 101 Books about
the Cattle Industry 23. Dobie, p. 100: “In 1928 I traded a pair of store-bought
boots to my uncle Neville Dobie for his copy of this book. A man would have
to throw in a young Santa Gertrudis bull now to get a copy.” Dykes, Collecting
Range Life Literature, p. 12; Kid 29; Western High Spots,
p. 27 (“My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West”); p. 103 (“The Texas Ranch
Today”). Graff 891. Herd 593: “Very rare.... One of the ‘big four’ cattle
books. An important book on the history of the cattle industry, and no collector’s
library would be complete without it. It is rarely found with the frontispiece,
and since it is an unusually heavy book and the leather has deteriorated with
age, its back strip is usually missing or in bad condition. It is said that
the scarcity is due to the fact that nearly all the edition was lost in a warehouse
fire.” Howes C820. King, Women on the Cattle Trail and in the Roundup,
p. 15. Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, pp. 9-10, 17: “Great
source book for both history and biography.” One Hundred Head Cut Out of
the Jeff Dykes Herd 51. Rader 1891. Reese, Six Score 24: “One of
the ‘big four’ cattle books, and after Freeman’s Prose and Poetry, the
most important.... Vital and useful.” Saunders 2846. Vandale 44. The only thing
we can add is that this is a superb source for women in the cattle country,
with many biographies and portraits of the distaff side of the ranching world.
$11,000.00
1194. COX, James. Historical
and Biographical Record of the Cattle Industry.... New York: Antiquarian
Press, 1959. [8] 293 [1] pp. + [16] 297-743 pp., color frontispiece, 16 photographic
plates, text illustrations, tables. 2 vols., 4to, original dark brown leather
(blindstamped with brands) over brown buckram, t.e.g. Very fine in publisher’s
slipcase. Laid in is the original announcement for this edition.
Second edition, limited edition (#223 of 550 copies), facsimile
reprint with a new introduction by J. Frank Dobie—his Uncle Jim Dobie’s biography
appears in the book. Basic Texas Books 34A. Dykes, Western High Spots,
pp. 86-87 (“A Range Man’s Library”): “First reprint of [this] exceedingly rare
book.” Herd 593n. McVicker B114. $400.00
1195. COX, James. My Native
Land: The United States, Its Wonders, Its Beauties, and Its People, with Descriptive
Notes, Character Sketches, Folk Lore, Traditions, Legends, and History, for
the Amusement of the Old and the Instruction of the Young. Philadelphia:
Blair Publishing Co., 1903. 400 pp., plates (many photographic, including frontispiece).
8vo, original blue cloth. Binding rubbed and worn, hinges cracked, front free
endpaper absent.
Reprint of the first edition (Philadelphia, 1895). Eberstadt 111:174.
Flake 2564n. Herd 594n. Chapters on “The Mormons and Their Wives,” “The
Invasion of Oklahoma,” “Wards of Our Native Land [Indians],” “Cowboys,” etc.
$20.00
1196. COX, Mary L. History
of Hale County, Texas. Plainview, Texas: [Privately published by the author],
1937. xi [1] 230 pp., frontispiece, photographic plates. 8vo, original orange
cloth. Fore-edges lightly foxed, endpapers browned, otherwise fine in publisher’s
original glassine d.j. (chipped).
First edition. CBC 2140. Herd 595. The chapter
on industrial and agricultural development includes a section on cattle. There
are also several pioneer accounts of Slaughter’s Ranch, other ranching tales,
and much on buffalo. $165.00
1197. COX, W. W. History
of Seward County, Nebraska.... Lincoln: State Journal Company, Printers,
1888. 290 pp. 8vo, original gilt-lettered blue cloth. Light outer wear, some
darkening at lower margin of upper cover, otherwise fine.
First edition. County history with discussion of ranching
enterprises in the late 1800s. The author first visited the Salt Creek area
in 1861 and recalls many of the early settlers’ ranches and farms (Wilson’s
Ranch at Wilson Creek, McKee’s Ranch on the Nemaha, Mr. Meecham “a weak-kneed
Mormon who had fallen out by the way,” etc.). What drew the settlers to Salt
Creek at that time was the possibility of finding salt, which was in short supply
during the war. The author and his family joined these settlers in 1862. There
follows a litany of Midwestern pioneer concerns and events—bitter winters, troubles
with Native Americans, grasshoppers, dust storms, Fourth of July celebrations,
poor crops, good crops, etc. Chapter 2 contains a section on stock breeding
and feeding, in which the author rejoices that the myth of “The Great American
Desert” has been shattered. $95.00
1198. COX, W. W. History of Seward County, Nebraska.... Lincoln: State Journal Company, Printers, 1888. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original gilt-lettered maroon cloth. Spinal extremities frayed, overall fine. $95.00
1199. COX, W. W. History of Seward County, Nebraska.... Lincoln: State Journal Company, Printers, 1888. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original gilt-lettered olive green cloth. Some outer wear and staining, but generally very good. $95.00
1200. COX, William R. Luke
Short and His Era. Garden City: Doubleday, 1961. 214 pp. Small 8vo, original
green cloth. Light foxing to fore-edges and endpapers, otherwise fine in very
good d.j.
First edition. Adams, Burs I:97. Guns 505:
“Contains many errors of fact and some wrong dates.” Biography of a famous gambler,
an important ally of the Earps in Tombstone, and a power in Fort Worth in his
own right. Luke Short, like many icons of the old West, traded his career as
a cowboy for that of a gambler and gunman. $80.00
| <Back to Table of Contents | Home | <View previous group of items | View next group of items> |