1490. DENHARDT, Robert Moorman. The King Ranch Quarter Horses
and Something of the Ranch and the Men That Bred Them. Norman: University
of Oklahoma Press, [1970]. xiv, 256 [2] pp., photographic plates, tables,
map. Large 8vo, original tan cloth with “Running W.” Minor spotting
to binding, else very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #65: “Some
ranch history and much on the men who guided the remarkable breeding and selection
programs that brought about a superior race of sturdy and fleet cow horses.” $150.00
Item 1490
1491. DENHARDT, Robert Moorman. Quarter Horses: A Story of
Two Centuries. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1969]. xiv, 192
[2] pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original brown cloth. Very fine in fine
d.j.
Second printing (first printing 1967). See Herd 676-77
for two related works by the same author. $45.00
1492. DENTON, B. E. (“Cyclone”). A Two-Gun Cyclone:
A True Story. Dallas: B. E. Denton, [1927]. viii [4] 145 pp., frontispiece
portrait, 7 plates (one in color—a 1926 invitation to “The Last
Buffalo Hunt in America” at Antelope Island in Salt Lake), cartoons
by Jack Patton (of Texas History Movies fame). 12mo, original orange
pictorial cloth stamped in dark green. Signed by author in ink on front free
endpaper. Spine a bit light, small snag on spine, corners bumped, interior
fine.
First edition. Guns 583: “Scarce.” Herd 678: “A
little book of reminiscences written by an old-time cowboy after he had reached
his seventies. He was a typical old-time Texas cowboy, uneducated and big hearted.
I knew him well.” The author, who was born on Hog Creek in Brazos County,
Texas, cowboyed and herded in Texas, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming,
and the Cherokee Strip in Indian Territory (he participated in the Run). In his
later years, he performed in Cody’s Wild West Show.
Denton lit out for the West at age sixteen and drifted to
Arizona, where he worked on a ranch on the Gila River. Denton remarks in the
chapter on “Buffalo Huntin’” that the extermination of the
buffalo “was pretty bad at the time, but if they was still there on the
plains in the same numbers they was before, there would be no big cow ranches,
no farms, no people livin’ out there and nothin’ but a wild country
with buffalo herds and Indians and bad men.”
Denton’s first cattle drive was for the XIX outfit,
from Colorado City, Texas, to the Cherokee Strip. Because of his raw youth and
perceived greenness, he was given an outlaw horse that had already killed two
men, but he won the respect of the trail boss and other cowboys by taming the
beast on his first ride. Near the Wichita Mountains, rustlers shot off one of
Denton’s fingers. Denton describes a stampede: “Cattle, hosses and
men were often killed in the stampedes. You can hear a stampede comin’ for
miles, with a roarin’ and a clickin’ of horns, it sounds like a storm.
The cow critters when a stampede is goin’ on, will run over anything or
into anything.... Herds of cows has lots of heat and they draws litenin’,
and it was nothing unusual to see flashes of fire playin’ over their horns
and backs.” Denton laconically sums up this drive: “It shore was
a kinder tame sort of drive.” $200.00
Item 1492
1493. DENTON, B. E. (“Cyclone”). A Two-Gun Cyclone: A True Story. Dallas: B. E. Denton, [1927]. Another copy. Other than mild dust-soiling to binding, a very fine copy. $125.00
1494. DERBY, George Horatio. The Topographical Reports of
Lieutenant George H. Derby. With Introduction and Notes by Francis P. Farquhar. [San
Francisco]: California Historical Society, [1933]. [2] 81 pp., frontispiece
portrait of Derby (from a portrait by F. B. Carpenter), maps (two of which
are large and folding), text illustrations. 8vo, original grey printed wrappers
bound in dark green buckram. Very fine.
First edition (most of the reports originally appeared
in government documents: San Joaquin and Sacramento Valley report: HRED 17, 1850,
pp. 941-43; SED 47, 1850, pp. 2-16; SED 110, 1852, pp. 1-17; Colorado River and
Gulf of California report: SED 81, 1852, pp. 1-28; Oregon military roads: SED
1, 1855, 502-03; Derby’s previously unpublished report from San Diego is
from the archives of the U.S. Army Engineers). The present work consists of reprints
from the Quarterly of the California Historical Society 11:2-4, with additional
material (CHS Special Publication 6). Barrett, Baja California 680. Farquhar, The Colorado
River and the Grand Canyon 15b. Graff 1058n: “First reconnaissance
of the Colorado River.” Powell, Arizona Gathering II 457n.
Rocq 16819. Wheat, Maps of the California Gold Region 79n; Transmississippi
West 668 & III, pp. 212-13 (citing Colorado River–Gulf of California
map): “The basis for cartography of the singular area until the Ives map
appeared in 1860.”
Although best known for his humorous writings under the pseudonyms
of John “Phoenix” and “Squibob,” Derby served with distinction
as a topographical engineer with the U.S. Army, creating an important map of
the California gold regions and performing the first reconnaissance of the Colorado
River (see Thrapp I, p. 394). The emphasis of the present work is Derby’s
topographical surveys, but also present are interesting comments on various ranches
in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valley region. Even in this bureaucratic report,
Derby’s sensitive intelligence and keen wit shine through. Describing Nicholaus
Altgeier’s rancho, Derby comments: “He...owns a large adobe house
of two stories in height, which presents quite an imposing appearance in this
country of log-huts and Indian rancherias. About 100 wretched Indians, playfully
termed Christian, live in the vicinity upon the bank of the Feather river....
The more intelligent and docile of these creatures are taken and brought up on
the farm, where in time they become excellent vaqueros, or herdsmen, and
where they are content to remain, receiving in return for their services such
food and clothing as it may suit the interest or inclination of its owner to
bestow upon them.” $100.00
1495. DESPREZ, Frank. Lasca: The Story of a Texas Cowboy—Down
by the Rio Grande [wrapper title]. Waco: [Privately printed
by Roger N. Conger at Davis Brothers Publishing], 1980. [8] pp., text illustrations
by Wilfred Stedman. 8vo, original white printed wrappers, stapled (as issued).
Light marginal browning to wraps, otherwise very fine.
Limited edition (#175 of 300 copies, signed by Roger
N. Conger; type and illustrations photographically reproduced from the 1931 edition
by the Rein Company). The poem Lasca first appeared in a London periodical
in 1882. Campbell, p. 227: “An Englishman from Bristol, who went to Texas
and probably up the Chisholm Trail, as his reference to Kansas seems to show....
There is scarcely any early poem so generally known in Texas, or one which lends
itself so well to declamation.”
Desprez (1853-1916), of French descent but born in England,
was a playwright, essayist, poet, jeweler, and silversmith who moved to Texas
in his teens and worked three years on a Texas ranch. “His best known work...is ‘Lasca,’ about
a Mexican girl and her cowboy sweetheart caught in a cattle stampede ‘in
Texas down by the Rio Grande.’ The ballad-like poem...has often been reprinted...and
recited in the English-speaking world” (Handbook of Texas Online: Frank
Desprez). $40.00
1496. DEVINNY, V. The Story of a Pioneer: An Historical Sketch
in Which Is Depicted Some of the Struggles and Exciting Incidents Pertaining
to the Early Settlement of Colorado. Denver: Reed Publishing
Co., 1904. 164 pp., frontispiece photographic portrait of author, 6 photographic
plates, illustrations. 12mo, original green pictorial cloth stamped in black
and red. Light shelf wear, but generally fine.
First edition. Introduction by Buffalo Bill Cody (one
of the plates is a portrait of Cody, and the text includes an heroic account
of fifteen-year-old Cody halting a stampede of buffalo during the author’s
overland trek). Eberstadt 138:204. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains
and the Rockies 131. Howes D294.
This work is primarily an overland and Colorado gold rush
account of 1860 centering on pioneer Neal Norton and his family, but the final
chapter (pp. 136-64) “Minta Abel, the Cow-Herder Girl” chronicles
the unusual life of young bookworm Minta at the well-stocked ranch outside Denver
belonging to her mother and cruel stepfather. “Most of her time was occupied
in herding the cows on the prairies, often five or more miles from her home.
She naturally thus became a skillful rider, could ride a horse bareback sideways
or otherwise, with a wondrous grace and security. And, as she thus did a ‘cowboy’s’ work,
she was named ‘the cowboy-girl.’” At the age of thirteen, Minta
was named best young lady rider at the Colorado Agricultural Fair held in Denver,
winning a purse of three hundred dollars in gold, which she used to obtain her
education in Denver. After many hardships, Minta received her law degree from
an eastern university and practiced law in Helena, Montana. The author imbues
this account with a breathless air of fiction, but the authorities seem to agree
that the work is nonfiction. $250.00
1497. DEVINNY, V. The Story of a Pioneer.... Denver: Reed Publishing Co., 1904. Another copy, variant binding. 12mo, original beige pictorial cloth stamped in tan and red. Slight shelf wear, but generally fine. $250.00
1498. DEVOE, Caryl. In Borderland: A Story of Frontier Life
in the Early Eighties. N.p., n.d. [1920s or 1930s]. 36 pp. 8vo, original
red pictorial wrappers, stapled (as issued). Two-inch clean diagonal cut
to upper wrapper and first few leaves, wraps and a few leaves slightly stained.
With J. Frank Dobie’s signed and dated ink note: “Very strange
that such as this should be printed as it is printed. Yet it is no worse
than most of the picture shows—just as convincing. J. Frank Dobie 11/4/38.” No
locations cited by OCLC or RLIN.
First edition? Lively novella about a band of rowdy
Texas cowboys, set in a cowtown named Coltsville, with dialogue along these dreadful
lines: “Now, Pap, them cow punchers ain’t done nothin’ onlawful,
an’ what’s more, if they’re treated right, they ain’t
goin’ to. There’s no better hearted man livin’ than th’ average
cowboy, ’f he does shoot up the town once in a while.” The author
also wrote nonfiction, including Legends of the Kaw: The Folk-Lore of the
Indians of Kansas River Valley (Kansas, 1904). $35.00
1499. DEVOL, George H. Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi:
A Cabin Boy in 1839; Could Steal Cards and Cheat the Boys at Eleven; Stock
a Deck at Fourteen; Bested Soldiers on the Rio Grande during the Mexican
War; Won Hundreds of Thousands from Paymasters, Bottom Buyers, Defaulters,
and Thieves; Fought More Rough-and-Tumble Fights Than Any Man in America,
and Was the Most Daring Gambler in the World. Austin: Steck-Vaughn, [1967].
[16] 300 pp., portrait, plates. 8vo, original maroon cloth gilt with gilt
illustration of a hand holding three playing cards. Very fine in publisher’s
slipcase. Christmas card from Steck-Vaughn laid in.
Facsimile of the first edition (Cincinnati, 1887). Introduction
by John O. West. Graff 1071n. Howes D295n. In the introduction, editor West discusses
the strange coincidence of two orphan runaways both on board the steamer Corvette on
the Rio Grande during the Mexican-American War. One was George H. Devol, and
the other was Richard King, who went on to found the King Ranch. West also reveals
that early in his gambling career, Devol played roulette alongside Juan Cortinas,
the noted Mexican bandit and cattle rustler. Among Devol’s anecdotes are
some relating to cowboys, a favorite target of gamblers of the day. In “Rattlesnake
Jack” Devol tells of cleverly extracting several thousand dollars from “Rattlesnake
Jack” (Jackson McGee) in a game of three-card monte. In an ironic twist, “Rattlesnake
Jack” had told Devol that he was on his way to Texas and intended to utilize
three-card monte to win the money of Texas cowboys. In “The Cattle Buyer” Devol
tells of “getting a nice slice” ($4,700) from a good-natured, cool-headed
Texas cattle buyer in a game of euchre. In “The Green Cow Boy” Devol
used the old reliable game of euchre to sucker $10,000 from an El Paso cowboy.
$75.00
1500. DeVOTO, Bernard. Across the Wide Missouri,
with an Account of the Discovery of the Miller Collection by Mae Reed Porter. Boston & Cambridge:
Houghton Mifflin Company & Riverside Press, 1947. xxvii [1] 483 pp.,
81 plates (16 in color) after artwork by Bodmer, Catlin, Miller, et al.,
endpaper maps. Large 8vo, original red pictorial gilt cloth, t.e.g. Exceptionally
fine in original glassine d.j. and publisher’s slipcase with very minor
wear.
First edition, limited edition (#161 of 265 copies,
signed by author) of DeVoto’s Pulitzer Prize-winning history; best edition (“Although
since reprinted by others, this original Houghton Mifflin edition is by far the
best because of its rich art”—Orlan Sawey, DeVoto’s biographer).
Dobie, pp. 72, 85. Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 54 (“High Spots
of Western Illustrating” #69). Harvard Guide to American History, p.
366. Howes D296. Malone, Wyomingiana, pp. 19-20: “Centering his
account around the hunting trips of Captain William Drummond Stewart and his
painter, Alfred Jacob Miller, DeVoto presents a picture of the fur trade in the
Rocky Mountains, 1832-38, describing it not as chronological history but as a
business and a manner of life.” Plains & Rockies IV:125n. Smith
2430. Tweney, Washington 89 #9.
DeVoto includes material on Richard Henry Dana and the California
hide and tallow trade. In a section on Joseph Reddeford Walker, DeVoto masterfully
depicts California rancho life: “If not for the mission Indians (whose
lot may be too easily pitied), it was for white men one of the most delightful
ways of life the world has ever known. These Californians were a feckless, indolent
people: their habitat permitted them to be. None except the Indian peons worked
hard, they contrived not to exhaust themselves, and few others had to work at
all. They lived outdoors and on horseback.... Almost uncountable herds of horses
and cattle increased geometrically with only the most casual supervision. One
of the first lessons Walker’s men learned was that persons who had taken
their horses—always punishable with death on the American frontier—had
not stolen them. There were horses for everyone: take what you want. They helped
their new friends break horses (in a manner of speaking), butcher cattle for
the hide and tallow trade, ride after and slaughter some absconding Indians.
They joined the continuous fiestas and competed with their hosts, easily besting
them at marksmanship and taking an equally offhand beating at every form of horsemanship.” $350.00
1501. DEWEES, W. B. Letters from an Early Settler of Texas....
Compiled by Cara Cardelle. Louisville: Hull & Brother, Printers,
1854. 312 pp. 8vo, original blindstamped red cloth (spine crudely reinforced
with black cloth and endpapers replaced at an early date). Front pastedown
damaged where a label was removed, back free endpaper and blanks absent,
interior fine. Early ownership inscriptions on front free endpaper.
Second edition (the rare first edition, published at Louisville
in 1852, was limited to 250 copies). Bradford 1311n. Clark, Old South III:298n: “The
preface states that the compiler, Cara Cardelle, pseudonym for Emmaretta C. Kimball,
chanced to find among a friend’s papers a large stack of Texas letters
with much information on the events of Texas history from 1819-1852. The letters
were written by William B. DeWees to a friend in Kentucky...over a period of
about 33 years.... Unembellished pictures of the journey to Texas, personal incidents,
and facts and events in Texas development.” Eberstadt, Texas 162:251.
Field 422: “The adventures of a ranger in the border wars of Texas, against
the Comanches and other tribes of the plains, are here narrated with spirit and
apparent truthfulness.” Graff 1073n: “DeWees traveled from Nashville
to Arkansas in 1819 and describes buffalo hunting.” Herd 671 (citing
only the first edition). Howes D299. Rader 1131n. Raines, p. 67n. Tate, Indians
of Texas 2039.
Dewees (1799-1878), one of Austin’s Old Three Hundred,
first visited Texas in 1819 during a keelboat excursion up the Red River and
served as a public official in Colorado County during the Republic era and early
statehood. Included are primary letters and documents relating to the Revolution
and Republic (Travis’s letter from the Alamo, Declaration of Independence,
etc.).
Dewees describes hunting wild cattle and the suitability of
Texas for stock raising: “The most profitable business which a person can
follow in this country is stock-raising; especially if he has but a small force.
A poor man can probably make a living here more easily than in any other country;
but still if he would turn his attention to stock-raising he would find it far
more profitable.” $250.00
1502. D’HAMEL, E. B. The Adventures of a Tenderfoot,
History of 2nd Regt. Mounted Rifles and Co. G, 33 Regt. and Capt
Coopwood’s Spy Co. and 2nd Texas in Texas and New Mexico. Waco:
W. M. Morrison, [1965]. [4] 24 pp., photographic portrait of author in uniform.
8vo, original goldenrod printed wrappers. Fine.
Limited edition (175 copies), facsimile of the rare
1914 edition. In 1858, at the age of twenty-three, the author left Cuba for New
Orleans and ended up a flat-broke miner in the Pikes Peak gold rush. He next
hired on as a Spanish interpreter for New York Herald correspondent W.
A. Buffom, but was fired for shooting quail with Buffom’s gun. D’Hamel
began a lonely tramp to El Paso with only the clothing he wore and a Bowie knife,
when Kit Carson happened along and gave him a ride to his ranch at Taos (“beautifully
situated with rich lands and cattle”).
Traveling onward, he describes “Dead Man’s Desert” and
the hospitality shown him at New Mexico ranches: “The activity of the Indians
made travelling dangerous. The country from Albuquerque was lined with frontier
ranches, plenty of cattle, sheep and goats; all the ranchmen had their own adobe
houses well white-washed and beautiful. Every night I was invited to enjoy their
hospitality, a good supper, generally consisting of pig or kid roasted, tortillas,
frijoles, asaderas, and a good woolen mattress to sleep on.”
In El Paso, D’Hamel worked at Simon Hart’s flour
mills until the Civil War broke out. He enlisted as a Volunteer with the San
Elisario Spies and Guides (“all of the members of the company were Texas
backwoodsmen, ranchers and cowboys who knew the country”). He also saw
service with the Texas Mounted Rifles under Rip Ford and John Baylor (wonderful
Civil War content). After the war, D’Hamel served as Provost Marshall in
San Antonio, but the Vigilance Committee forced him to flee and take refuge at
the ranches of Antonio Navarro (his wife’s uncle), Sam Stewart, and Santos
Benavides. $75.00
1503. DICK, Everett. The Sod-House Frontier, 1854-1890: A
Social History of the Northern Plains from the Creation of Kansas and Nebraska to
the Admission of the Dakotas. New York & London: D.
Appleton-Century Company, 1937. xviii [2] 550 pp., photographic plates (documentary
photos and vintage prints), illustrations, endpaper maps. 8vo, original gray
pictorial linen stamped in terracotta. Mild staining along gutter between
front flyleaf and half-title, otherwise fine in near fine d.j. (slightly
chipped and price-clipped).
First edition, first printing, with figure “(I)” at
end of index. Campbell, p. 105: “This book deals with the states of the
Great Plains.... Detailed treatment of a most interesting phase of culture on
the Plains—a wonderful place to study cultures, as they pass rapidly over
the open country like cloud shadows, leaving little trace.” Dobie, pp.
50-51. Guns 589: “Contains a chapter...on the homesteader-cattleman
war of the early frontier.” Herd 685. Howes D315.
This standard includes excellent social history with much
on women (“one of the first frontier historians to place a special emphasis
on the social life of western settlers”—Lamar, Reader’s
Encyclopedia of the American West, p. 302). Many of the excellent documentary
photographs are by Solomon Butcher (see item 745 in Part I of this catalogue).
Chapter 7 is devoted to one of the few scholarly studies of road ranches, whose
proprietors often were the first permanent settlers in the West. Although universally
called ranches, these isolated posts were more in the nature of primitive trading
and dining establishments for trail herders, buffalo hunters, emigrants, and
miners rushing to California, Colorado, and the Black Hills. $75.00
Item 1503
Item 1503
1504. DICK, Everett. Vanguards of the Frontier: A Social History
of the Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains from the Earliest
White Contacts to the Coming of the Homemaker. New York & London:
D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941. xvi [2] 574 pp., frontispiece portrait
of Jim Baker (after a painting by Waldo Love), plates (vintage prints and
documentary photographs, some by W. H. Jackson), endpaper maps. 8vo, original
beige pictorial linen stamped in black, gilt lettering on upper cover and
spine. Very fine in very good price-clipped d.j. with a few short tears.
First edition, first printing, with figure “(I)” at
end of index. Dobie, pp. 50-51. Guns 590: “Another extensive
work by this author, touching upon, among many other subjects, vigilantes and
the Johnson County War.” Herd 686. Malone, Wyomingiana, p.
21: “Descriptive of the work and manner of life of the frontiersmen of
the region.... Extensive bibliography. Somewhat disillusioning.” Smith
2442. $75.00
1505. DICK, Everett. Vanguards of the Frontier.... New York & London: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original grey pictorial cloth with lettering in black. Very fine in very good d.j. (lightly soiled, a few short tears, and price-clipped). $50.00
1506. DICK, Everett. Vanguards of the Frontier.... New York & London: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941. Another copy, variant binding. 8vo, original tan pictorial cloth. Very fine in chipped and price-clipped d.j. $50.00
1507. DICKEY, Roland F. New Mexico Village Arts. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 1949. xii, 266 pp., color illustrations from
drawings by Lloyd Lozes Goff, text illustrations, calligraphy by Robert Stanford
Wallace. Large 8vo, original grey cloth decorated in red. Very fine in d.j.
First edition. Campbell, p. 134: “All about Spanish-American
handicrafts, villages, houses, and furnishings, their creation and use. A large,
handsome volume.” Powell, Southwest Century 20. Among the ranching
subjects covered are branding and ranchero equipage: “Every man took pride
in his horsemanship and his accuracy with the lasso. Rancheros invested
small fortunes in elaborate tooled leather saddles and bridles, shining with
silver ornaments. Severe curb bits were preferred by the Spaniards, and as one
American officer remarked, ‘with their large, cruel bits, they harass their
horses.... ’ Apaches and the poorer Spaniards shod their horses and mules
with rawhide shoes instead of metal. The ownership of horses, and all other animals,
was determined by a brand burnt in the hip.... These brands were large curlicues
resembling rubrics. Under Spanish law, the fierro was the brand of the
original owner. When the animal was sold, a second brand, called the venta or
buyer’s brand, obliterated the first. Illegal branding seems to have been
no less common then than it came to be in the heyday of American cattle ranching” (pp.
13-14).
This book also contains details on santos branded onto
leather; sheep and sheep-rustling by Navajo and Apache; weaving and textiles
(including discussion of armas de pelo—or chaps—of the professional
vaquero). $125.00
1508. DICKINSON, Donald C., et al. (eds.). Voices from the
Southwest: A Gathering in Honor of Lawrence Clark Powell. Flagstaff:
Northland Press, 1976. xv [1] 159 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait of Powell,
text illustrations (one by Cisneros), photographic text illustrations (including
some by Ansel Adams). 8vo, original dark grey cloth. Small spot on fore-edge,
otherwise very fine in fine d.j. Laid in is a publisher’s prospectus
addressed to Carl Hertzog. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his bookplate.
First edition. A collection of Southwest studies honoring
Lawrence Clark Powell on his seventieth birthday. Contributors include Ansel
Adams, Paul Horgan, Al Lowman, Ward Ritchie, José Cisneros, William Everson,
Harwood P. Hinton, Frank Waters, and Jake Zeitlin. The appendix includes a bibliography
of Powell keepsakes and published works. In her essay “Voices from the
Southwest,” Sarah Bouquet discusses women in the Southwest, including some
ladies of the cattle country (Alice Marriott, Mary Rak, and Eulalia Bourne).
Bernard L. Fontana in “The Faces and Forces of Pimería
Alta” gives fascinating details on the introduction of cattle to the northernmost
reaches of the Sonoran Desert. The Pima of Remedios told Kino in 1687 they did
not want a priest because he would waste their time making them sow crops and
pasturing cattle would cause their waterholes to go dry. At first the Pima hunted
the cattle just as they would deer or antelope, but over time, hunting territories
became cattle ranges. Fontana comments: “With man as an ally, livestock
are given an unfair advantage over the plants and other animals in an arid environment.
But the advantage may well be short-termed. Over centuries, if not decades, human
beings appear to husband domestic livestock in deserts to eventual forced removal
or utter extinction” (p. 51). $75.00
1509. DICKSON, Albert Jerome (editor). Covered Wagon Days:
A Journey across the Plains in the Sixties, and Pioneer Days in the Northwest;
from the Private Journals of.... Edited by Arthur Jerome Dickson. Cleveland:
The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1929. 287 pp., frontispiece (photograph of the
sun dance of the Shoshones), plates (mostly documentary photographs), folding
map, illustrations. 8vo, original light blue cloth, t.e.g. Very fine.
First edition, first issue (printed and bound in 1929,
in either dark or light blue cloth). Clark & Brunet 62: “Albert
Dickson’s journals include an overland trip from Wisconsin into the northern
Plains and finally to Virginia City, Montana Territory. An accessible and detailed
account of wagon train life, it includes information of the vigilantes of Montana.” Eberstadt, Modern
Narratives of the Plains and the Rockies 135. Flake 2833. Graff 1082. Guns 591.
Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 1941. Mintz, The Trail 126: “One
of the best overland narratives.... Tells, perhaps more poignantly than any other
journal, how much any small dose of entertainment meant to those travelling the
plains month after month; and just how it felt to be there by the night time
fire enjoying the diversion.... Dickson was a young boy when he wrote this.” Smith
2445.
On pages 121-29, Dickson gives an account and journal of an
unusual trail drive by Dr. Kenyon L. Butterfield across the Lander Trail from
Nebraska City to Sacramento in 1861: “The people of California were just
beginning to turn their attention to agriculture and there began a demand for
pure-bred stock to replace the old Spanish stock. Mr. Butterfield was a member
of a party who drove a herd of pure-bred stock (seventy Shorthorn and Devon cattle
and six hundred Merino sheep) to California in 1861, for John D. Patterson, [who]
had been...shipping them by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Steamer freights were
very high and he conceived the idea of driving a large number overland.” Butterfield
reported that only a fourth of the sheep were lost and characterizes the drive
as “one of the most remarkable trains that crossed the country up to 1870,
and perhaps no other just like it ever made the whole distance from Wisconsin
to Sacramento.... It was a daring undertaking and only a peaceable Indian situation
made it possible.”
Also present is material on Crow stock raids, Jack Slade,
the Montana Vigilantes, mountain men along the trail dealing in stock, etc. $200.00
1510. DICKSON, Albert Jerome (editor). Covered Wagon Days.... Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1929. Another copy. 8vo, original navy blue cloth, t.e.g. Very fine. $200.00
1511. DICKSON, Albert Jerome (editor). Covered Wagon Days.... Cleveland:
The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1929 [1938]. 8vo, original maroon cloth, t.e.g.
Very fine, in publisher’s plain d.j.
First edition, second issue, reissued by Clark in 1938.
$150.00
1512. DICKSON, Albert Jerome (editor). Covered Wagon Days.... Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1929 [1938]. Another copy in maroon cloth, without publisher’s plain d.j. Very fine. $125.00
1513. DIEKER, Leo E. A Brief Historical Sketch: Hollenberg
Ranch, Pony Express Station, Hanover, Kansas. [Hanover]:
The Hanover News, n.d. [7] pp., photographic plate of the Hollenberg Ranch.
8vo, original stiff blue printed wrappers, stapled. Very fine. Uncommon.
First edition. Herd 687. A brief history of
the Hollenberg Ranch, which German pioneer G. H. Hollenberg (1823-1874) established
in 1857 as a waypoint on the Pony Express route, as well as a post office, working
cattle ranch, and stage stop for emigrants. Emigrants needed cattle for food,
and horses and oxen were required to replace animals that fell by the wayside
in the grueling westward trek. The house on the Hollenberg Ranch was the first
home constructed in Washington County, Kansas, and today it is the only remaining
original and unaltered Pony Express station still standing in its original location.
In the early days, the Ranch was known as Cottonwood Station. $45.00
1514. DILLON, Richard H. J. Ross Browne, Confidential Agent
in Old California. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
[1965]. xix [1] 218 [2] pp., plates (photographs and vintage prints, some
by Browne). 8vo, original brown cloth. Corners slightly bumped, otherwise
a fine copy in lightly rubbed and price-clipped d.j. Autographed by author.
First edition. Rocq S2499. J. Ross Browne (Thrapp I,
pp. 180-81) led a double life as government employee and humorist-artist-travel
writer (see item 672-675 in Part I of this catalogue). In 1853 the U.S. Treasury
Department appointed him to the post of “confidential government agent
of the Treasury Department and quasi-minister without portfolio of both the General
Land Office and the Office of Indian Affairs.” Armed with this long and
mysterious title, he set out to inspect, observe, and muckrake the various far-flung
branches of the bourgeoning federal bureaucracy. He investigated trail herding
into post-gold rush California, thus shedding light on a scarcely explored area
of the cattle industry. After scrutinizing practices of U.S. Customs, Browne
recommended that Mexican cattle be duty-free (a measure eventually approved by
Congress). $40.00
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