1815. ELLIS, Amanda M. The Strange Uncertain Years: An Informal
Account of Life in Six Colorado Communities. Hamden, Connecticut: The
Shoe String Press, 1959. xv [3] 423 pp., frontispiece, portraits, photographic
text illustrations (including Remington and Russell). 8vo, original blue
cloth. Very fine in price-clipped d.j. Ink ownership signature.
First edition. Mohr, The Range Country 668: “Denver,
Central City, Leadville, Colorado Springs, Cripple Creek, Four Corners.” Wynar
519. Yost & Renner, Russell XVI:143. Lively local history with a crazy-quilt
cast of characters including Coronado, Zebulon Pike, Oscar Wilde, Helen Hunt
Jackson, Soapy Smith, Eugene Field, Baby Doe Tabor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and
many others. Several unusual incidents are told of the 1864 Sioux-Cheyenne-Arapaho
reign of terror against the ranch country along the Platte between Fort Morgan
and Fort Sedgwick, including Cheyenne Old Two Face’s trade in captive Anglo
women captured from ranches. Old Two Face had discriminating taste and chose
only the most beautiful ladies, taking them to Fort Laramie where he would demand
3,000 pounds of flour, large amounts of coffee and sugar, and twenty beef steers
in exchange for such a captive. Includes a chapter on Buffalo Bill Cody. $50.00
1816. ELLIS, Anne. Plain Anne Ellis: More about the Life of
an Ordinary Woman. Boston, New York & Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin & The
Riverside Press, 1931. [6] 264 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait of author in
front of a tent with a group of men and women. 8vo, original blue cloth.
Fine in lightly chipped and browned d.j. with portrait of author (price-clipped).
First edition. Dobie, p. 62: “Disillusioned observations,
wit, and wisdom by a frank woman.” Herd 758: “Story of life
in the cattle country.” Wilcox, p. 42. Wynar 3878. Sequel to Life of
an Ordinary Woman by Ellis. With humor and candor, Ellis (1875-1938) describes
the nitty-gritty of her experiences as a camp cook among Anglo and Mexico cowboys,
sheep shearers, and construction gangs in Colorado. Because so many accounts
of the American West are by and about men, Ellis’s book presents a fresh
view from a voice seldom heard. Ellis went on to become treasurer of Saguache
County. $40.00
1817. ELLIS, Edward S. Across Texas. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates,
[1893]. iv, 349 [1] 14 (ads) pp., frontispiece, plates. 8vo, original brown
pictorial cloth. Shelf-worn, lower hinge broken, text browned. ‘Wild
Wood Series’ on cover and spine. Pencil gift inscription.
Texas fiction for boys of all ages by one of the most prolific
of the dime novelists (see Johannsen, Beadle and Adams II, pp. 93-100).
The potboiler includes young Nick’s sojourn among cattlemen and cowboys
in West Texas. $20.00
1818. ELLIS, Martha Downer. Bell Ranch, Places and People. Clarendon:
Clarendon Press, 1963. xii, 75 [1] pp., plates (photographic plates by Martha
Ellis), text illustrations by H. D. Bugbee. 16mo, original red cloth. Very
fine.
Limited edition (500 copies). Dykes, Fifty Great
Western Illustrators (Bugbee 70). A history of the Bell Ranch in New Mexico
and the Pablo Montoya Grant (1824) from which it was created. About half of the
book is devoted to range verse written by Martha Downer Ellis, whose husband
George F. Ellis managed the Bell Ranch until his retirement in 1970. $50.00
1819. ELLIS, Martha Downer. Bell Ranch Recollections. Clarendon:
Clarendon Press, 1965. xi [3] 95 pp., frontispiece, plates (photographic, by
L. S. Cross, Harvey Caplin, et al.), text illustrations by Robert Lougheed,
map (Pablo Montoya Grant and Baca Location No. 2, Property of the Red River
Valley Co. Bell Ranch New Mex.) laid in. 12mo, original green cloth. Very
fine.
First edition. Accounts by Bell Ranch employees and “alumni,” compiled
by the wife of a Bell Ranch manager George F. Ellis. $75.00
1820. ELLIS, Martha Downer. Bell Ranch Sketches. Clarendon:
Clarendon Press, 1964. xvi, 103 pp., plates (photographs by author and others),
text illustrations by Robert Lougheed, endpaper maps. 12mo, original turquoise
decorated cloth. Very fine.
First edition, limited edition (500 copies). History
and poetic tribute to the New Mexico ranch focusing on the “cow camps which
were so important when the ranch covered three-quarters of a million acres.” $70.00
1821. ELLISON, Glenn R. “Slim.” Cowboys under
the Mogollon Rim. [Tucson]: University of Arizona Press, [1968]. [10]
274 pp., illustrated title and text illustrations by author, brands. 8vo,
original gilt-lettered orange cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. with one small
tear.
First edition. Powell, Arizona Gathering II 532: “Reminiscences
in cowboy vernacular.” The story of an Arizona cowboy, trail driver, and
homestead rancher, born in 1891. Chapters include “Cowboys at Work,” “Cowboys
at Play,” and “Homesteading.” The latter two chapters are good
on women and social history in the cattle country. $50.00
1822. ELLISON, Robert S[purrier]. Fort Bridger, Wyoming:
A Brief History. N.p.: Historical Landmark Association of Wyoming, 1938.
79 [2] pp., illustrations, some by William H. Jackson, maps (1 foldout).
8vo, original beige wrappers with illustration of the Fort from a sketch
by William Henry Jackson. Fine, with author’s signed dedication on
title. Newspaper clipping from 1945 regarding author’s death laid in.
Second printing, revised and enlarged. Introduction by J.
Cecil Alter, preface by Dan W. Greenburg. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 3. This
little volume has some ranching material, such as Judge William A. Carter and
his Elk Horn Ranche (including photos). Carter, stockman, post trader, retail
merchant, lumberman, and contractor, unofficially presided over Fort Bridger
in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Ellison documents the three distinct
periods of the Fort: a privately owned and operated facility established by mountain
man Jim Bridger; a military post; and a partially restored museum. $40.00
1823. ELLSWORTH, H[enry] L. Washington Irving on
the Prairie; or, A Narrative of a Tour of the Southwest in the Year 1832. New
York: American Book Co., 1937. xviii, 152 pp., map, 2 facsimiles. 8vo, original
dark blue cloth gilt. Fine in fine d.j. (price-clipped).
First edition, first printing (with W.P.I. on
copyright page) of a previously unpublished journal. BAL V, p. 96 (an important
firsthand source on Washington Irving, with editors’ notes pointing out
passages of Ellsworth’s narrative that parallel Irving’s A Tour
on the Prairies). Dobie, p. 87. Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of
the Plains and the Rockies 157n: “Washington Irving...accompanied Indian
Commissioner Henry L. Ellsworth and his party on a tour of the southern Great
Plains in the fall of 1832.” Tate, Indians of Texas 2146.
The goal of the mission was to study the situation in the Southwest after the
Indian Removal Act, mark boundaries, and pacify the Native Americans. The party
travelled to Fort Gibson and almost as far as the Canadian River. Ellsworth
tells us a lot more about wild horses and buffalo in this book than Native Americans. He
repeatedly describes Native Americans and the party’s Rangers chasing and
lassoing mustangs (even including Ellsworth’s map of an encounter with
wild horses; original map at Yale). Ellsworth, who was keenly interested
in natural history, describes an unusual form of “rustling.” Some
the party’s “gallant steeds” were lured away during the night
by wild mustangs (p. 112). In his studies of mustangs, J. Frank Dobie refers
to this phenomenon and cites Irving’s account of the expedition. Ellsworth
comments extensively on Native horsemanship, particularly Pawnee. $50.00
1824. ELSENSOHN, Sister M[ary] Alfreda (ed.). Pioneer Days
in Idaho County. Cottonwood & Caldwell:
Idaho Corporation of Benedictine Sisters & Caxton Printers, 1951 & 1965.
xx [2] 535 + xiv [2] 618 pp., plates (photographic, some ranch related),
endpaper maps. 2 vols., 8vo, original tan cloth and original green cloth.
Fine set in near fine dust jackets (minor wear and price-clipped). Signed
by author.
First edition (first printing of vol. 2, second printing
of vol. 1, which first issued in 1947); this two-volume set usually appears in
a mixed edition because of the many years between publication of the first and
second volumes (Vol. 2 is said to be the difficult one to locate). Herd 761n.
Smith S2193. This work contains good detail on cattle-related events through
the years, e.g. introduction of Herefords from Iowa; hard winter of 1892-1893
when so many cattle were lost; virtues of the Camas Prairie as a grazing ground;
spring roundups; sheepherders vs. cattlemen. The author quotes from an
1890s newspaper accounts, including: “The sheep and mule men along
Salmon River have been dancing war quadrilles and ghost schottisches since early
winter which culminated in an outbreak a few days ago. They rolled rocks
down the mountains at each other for two or three days.... A meeting of cattlemen
was held...for the purpose of organizing a cattlemen’s association to devise
ways and means to protect their property from rustlers and cattle thieves and
to prevent encroachment of sheep on the cattle ranges of the Salmon and Snake
Rivers”—I, p. 382). Included is material such as August Kopzczynski’s
meticulous description of the old timber rail roundup corral used in the 1880s
at Cottonwood and this understatement: “The cattle roundup was quite
a little slower as cattle don’t drive quite so fast unless they are on
a stampede and then, look out, for when the cattle stampede, they are hard to
handle” (I, pp. 316-17). Perhaps the most startling animal tale found
within this excellent local history is Harry Mason’s 1903 roundup
of a load of cats sold at $10 apiece in Florence. Good women’s and
social history. $150.00
1825. ELZNER, Jonnie Ross. Lamplights of Lampasas County, Texas. Austin:
Firm Foundation Publishing House, [1951]. [4] ii [1] 6-219 pp., photographic
text illustrations, maps. 8vo, original green gilt-pictorial cloth. Fine. Inscribed
and signed by author.
First edition. CBC 2923. Guns 676. Herd 763.
There is quite a bit of detail given on the history of the cattle industry in
Lampasas County, from the earliest introduction of cattle by vaqueros to biographies
of pioneer cattlemen like Tilford Bean, J. Ringer Kirby, “Snap” Bean,
and others. “The condition of greatest importance in the development of
the cattle kingdom was the growth of a market for cattle after the Civil War.
Fat steers in Lampasas county which were worth only $6.00 and $7.00 before the
Civil War commanded as high as $40 to $50 in northern markets” (p. 28).
Some sections of interest: “Growth of Cattle Industry”; “Sheep
and Wool Industries”; “The Goat Industry”; “Maverick
and His Calves” (origin of the term); “Fence Cutting in Lampasas
County”; “Horrell-Higgins Feud”; “The Early Cowboy” (“The
cowboy of the pioneer days...was a sort of heroic figure who was dressed in boots,
coarse trousers, bright shirt, chaps, spurs, sombrero, or ‘ten gallon hat’),
bandana, and sometimes carrying a gun across the saddle or a revolver in his
pocket. They had good saddles with saddle bags flapping”—p.
67). $55.00
1826. EMMETT, Chris. Fort Union and the
Winning of the Southwest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1965].
xvi, 436 [4] pp., plates (photographic and vintage prints), maps. 8vo, original
blue cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. (illustrated by Charles Schreyvogel). From
the library of Carl Hertzog, with his bookplate.
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western
Illustrators (Schreyvogel 58). Rittenhouse 187: “Best book to date
on this famous SFT fort.” Though primarily concerned with military history,
some material on ranching and cattle is included: area ranches (Hatch,
Maxwell, and others); U.S. military offer of livestock as reward to citizens
for capturing Navajo who had left the Bosque Redondo; U.S. reneging on supplying
beef to Ute and other tribes who then rustled stock; etc. Most important
is Emmett’s discussion of the Comanchero, natives of northern and central
New Mexico who conducted trade with the nomadic plains tribes and headquartered
at Loma Parda near Fort Union. Increased demand for cattle in New Mexico in the
1870s led to Comanchero rustling (sometimes with tribal assistance) and trading
in stolen cattle. Emmett quotes an 1871 New Mexico newspaper report: “This
damnable and outrageous traffic must be stopped, and we cannot sufficiently thank
the military for their laudable efforts in this direction... Horses and mules
from New Mexico are stolen and taken to the Comanche to trade for cattle. The
people on the Pecos have almost entirely neglected their ranches for this more
profitable traffic... In the last three months more than 30,000 head of cattle
have been brought to this country from that source alone!” (p. 358). Emmett
describes the resulting army intervention launched from Fort Union in 1874 and
the eventual demise of the Comancheros. $65.00
1827. EMMETT, Chris. Shanghai Pierce: A Fair Likeness. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, [1953]. xiii [1] 326 [2] pp., photographic plates,
illustrations by Nick Eggenhofer, maps. 8vo, original brown cloth. Slight foxing
along hinges, otherwise very fine in fine d.j. Author’s signed presentation
copy: “For Dudley R. Dobie: Ever my good friend and Texas’ finest
bookman. Chris Emmett.”
First edition. Adams, Burs I:122. Basic Texas
Books 56: “One of the best biographies of a Texas cattleman.... After
serving in the Confederate cavalry, he began to round up wild cattle on the open
range and build a herd of his own.... His company sent untold thousands of cattle
up the northern trails from Texas.... Material as well on cattlemen such as Ab
Blocker and Ike Pryor.” Campbell, p. 82: “Lively and authentic biography
about Abel Head Pierce, ‘the most widely known cattleman with the Río
Grande and the British possessions’ as Andy Adams called him—the
giant with the fog-horn voice who described himself as ‘Webster on cattle,
by God.’” Dobie & Dykes, 44 & 44 #56. Dykes, Collecting
Range Life Literature, p. 15; Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Eggenhofer
70); Western High Spots, p. 103 (“The Texas Ranch Today”). Guns 678. Herd 764.
Reese, Six Score 38: “Pierce was a grand original, the first cattle
king of Texas. A well written biography.”
“How a penniless boy from New England built a Texas
cattle empire. Pierce was the model for the popular conception of the cattle
baron” (Taylor & Maar, The American Cowboy, p. 222). $150.00
Item 1827
1828. EMMITT, Robert. The Last War Trail: The Utes and the
Settlement of Colorado. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, [1954]. ix, 333 [1] pp., text illustrations (drawings by Bettina Steinke),
maps. 8vo, original blue cloth. Very fine in fine d.j. Signed by author.
First edition. The Civilization of the American Indian
Series 40. Wynar 1802. The Ute trouble arose because of the tribe’s discontent
with their reservation and controversy between Utes and ranchers over the desirable
grazing lands adjacent to their reservation. The author relied on original government
documents and manuscripts, along with Ute and Anglo sources. $75.00
1829. EMRICH, Duncan. The Cowboy’s Own Brand Book. New
York: Thomas Y. Crowell, [1954]. xiii [1] 75 [7] pp., text illustrations and
brands by Ava Morgan. Oblong 12mo, original green cloth. Slight foxing to endpapers,
else very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Dykes, Western High Spots, p.
6 (“Collecting Modern Western Americana”): “Informative and
delightful reading for all boys from seven to seventy”; p. 85 (“A
Range Man’s Library”). Herd 765. The author instructs the
three fundamental rules for reading brands (read from left to right, top to bottom,
and from the outside to the inside) and shows how to recognize the variety of
letters, figures, numbers, and pictures in brands. $50.00
Item 1829
1830. EMRICH, Duncan. It’s an Old Wild West Custom. New
York: Vanguard Press, [1949]. xiv, 313 pp., text illustrations (including brands).
8vo, original orange pictorial cloth. Fine in fine d.j. (illustrated with brands).
First edition. The American Customs Series. Guns 679. Herd 766.
Paher, Nevada 563: “Compendium of Western customs, names, places
and people. Among other things, the author tells of Virginia City, gambling and
women dealers, drinking, violence, religion, western jargon, and Virginia City’s
Julia Bulette.” This book also contains extensive information on cowboys,
branding, and the culture of the cattle country. $45.00
1831. ENGELHARDT, Zephyrin. The Franciscans in California. Harbor
Springs, Michigan: Holy Childhood Indian School, 1897. [4] xvi, 516 [1] pp.,
text illustrations (some full-page), map. 8vo, original black cloth. Spine
with two-inch white stain, mild shelf wear, front free endpaper detached, preliminary
and terminal leafs browned, hinges cracked. Bookplates in front and back.
First edition. Blumann & Thomas 4949. Cowan, p.
196. Graff 1250. Howes E153. Streit III:2929. Wallace, Arizona History III:7.
Weber, The California Missions, p. 30: “‘The most complete
work upon the colonization and evangelization of California by the Franciscans,’ this
volume subsequently served as the ground-plan for the author’s more elaborate
work on The Missions and Missionaries of California”(see Zamorano
80 #34). Michael Mathes (Volkmann Zamorano Eighty) points out that “Englehardt
had access to the California Archives destroyed during the disastrous earthquake-fire
in San Francisco in 1906. This simply means that Englehardt´s work contains
information no longer available to researchers, and thus makes it an irreplaceable
source.” Engelhardt includes material on the plight of the missionized
California Native Americans after secularization of the missions. “They
would return to the wilderness and join the wild Indians in stealing cattle and
horses, in order to sell them to the New Mexicans and foreigners” (p. 175).
Statistics show that between 1790 and 1800, mission herds of horses, mules, and
horned cattle increased from 22,000 to 67,000, whereas small stock (sheep and
goats) diminished. Similar statistics are given for other decades. $175.00
1832. ENGLISH, Mary Katharine Jackson. Prairie Sketches; or,
Fugitive Recollections of an Army Girl of 1899. [Denver: Privately printed,
ca. 1899]. 79 pp., photographic text illustrations (some full-page). 8vo,
original green printed wrappers. Very fine. Scarce.
First edition. Graff 1251. Howes (1954) 3323. Huntington
292: “An interesting narrative of life and adventures in the far west,
containing details on the Shoshones, Arapahoes, etc.” The author was a
genuine early western “army brat,” who except for two years in the
East at boarding school, grew up “on an Indian pony” in remote Western
army posts, where her father served as a major in the 7th Cavalry. Mary’s
high-spirited account commences in Rawlins, Wyoming, with her arrival by train
from the East and boarding school with her mother and a female servant. A grizzled
peg-legged stage driver meets the ladies with an army ambulance (photo included)
to drive them overland 150 miles to join Mary’s father at Fort Washakie. It
does not take very long for Mary to flee the confined ambulance and her female
companions and grab the reins from the driver. Their stops along the route are
Sheep’s Ranch (inhabited by a lone coyote); Lost Soldier Ranch (“a
small pile of low adobe buildings, unsightly and gray with dust; not a tree or
green thing in sight”); Sweetwater Ranch (“much of the land being
fenced off with the deadly barbed wire allow no herds of antelope and deer as
found in my girlhood”); and Wind River Ranch (dangerous ascent down steep
Beaver Hill imperiled further by a rattlesnake that spooked the mules). Mary
hilariously tells of their overnight sojourn at the rough headquarters of Lost
Soldier Ranch, whose owner Tom proudly relates how he bought the ranch with savings
from working as a cowpuncher. The ranch had two large rooms, one for sleeping
and the other a bar-kitchen that reeked of beer (“Think of it! Beer for
breakfast, beer for luncheon, beer for dinner”). The sleeping quarters
contained four enormous beds, each large enough to hold six men. Tom had thoughtfully
partitioned off one bed for the ladies, making a privacy screen with five-foot,
paper-thin boards (for security there was a big glittery bowie knife under the
bed, and light consisted of a candle in a broken beer bottle). Mary’s mother
and the servant were so horrified at the immodesty of the sleeping arrangement
that Tom, in a gesture of true ranching hospitality, graciously agreed that he
and his cowboys would sleep in the other room on the floor. This is a wonderful
account with much more to commend it than these ranching passages. This
remarkable book written by a teenager should be reprinted. $350.00
Item 1832
1833. EPPERSON, Harry A. Colorado As I Saw It. [Kaysville,
Utah: Inland Printing Co., 1944]. [6] 137 pp., photographic plates. 8vo, original
black and burgundy textured cloth gilt. Fine.
New edition (first edition Buena Vista, 1943). Herd 768.
Wilcox, p. 43: “Reminiscences of ranch life in South Park.” Wynar
6406. A wealth of solid, firsthand information on ranch life in Colorado by native
Coloradan Epperson (b. 1880). $125.00
1834. ERDMAN, Loula Grace. The Edge of Time. New York:
Dodd, Mead, [1950]. [8] 275 pp. 8vo, original blue cloth. A few light spots
to binding, endpapers mildly browned, otherwise fine in very good d.j. (very
light wear). Author’s signed presentation inscription to J. Frank Dobie;
also signed by author on half-title.
First edition. Campbell, p. 249: “Story of Missourians
who pioneer in the panhandle of Texas where the author makes her home. The background
of the novel is the conflict between the nesters and the cattlemen with all the
hardships of drought, blizzards, wind, poverty, and loneliness.” See Handbook
of Texas Online: Louise Grace Erdman; Tuska & Piekarski, Encyclopedia
of Frontier & Western Fiction ( pp. 85-86); and WLA, Literary History
of the American West, p. 506. $50.00
1835. ERLANSON, Charles B. Battle of the Butte:
General Miles’ Fight with the Indians on Tongue River, January
8, 1877. [Sheridan, Wyoming], 1963. 32 pp., photographic text
illustrations, maps. 8vo, original red pictorial wrappers, stapled (as issued).
Fine. Privately printed, very scarce.
First edition. Smith S2633. For fifty years the author
rode the range on the Flying V Ranch which, with the Circle Three outfit, ran
6,000 head of cattle on the Cheyenne Reservation. This range was where the Battle
of Butte occurred on January 8, 1877 (Rosebud County, Montana). The author
meshes together original printed and manuscript sources with oral histories by
tribal members, including some interviews with survivors of the Battle. Only
a few days before the Battle, raiding parties swooped down on a nearby U.S. military
cantonment and drove off the majority of the beef herd and a good portion of
the horses. (Approximately 2,500 people were in the camps of the Cheyenne and
Crazy Horse Ogallala, and it took a large quantity of meat to keep them supplied
since big game was not plentiful, due to the influx of miners, ranchers, and
settlers.) In a blinding blizzard General Nelson Miles led his forces against
the allied tribesmen. Surrender by the tribes soon followed. The author carries
forward the history of the Cheyenne: “When the Indians came in, they
were required to give up their ponies and arms. Later these ponies were
sold and the proceeds used in purchasing a herd of cattle... Army teams were
used by the Indians for plowing and cultivating the land, [and] when the Cheyenne
finally were given a reservation, they were almost self-supporting.” At
the end is a photograph of a Cheyenne cowboy with author’s caption: “My
old friend John Stands in Timber. In our youth John and I rode together on the
Cheyenne Reservation Roundup. Photo by author, taken a number of years ago at
the Sheridan Wyoming rodeo.” $25.00
1836. ERSKINE, Gladys Shaw. Broncho Charlie: A Saga of the
Saddle. The Life Story of Broncho Charlie Miller, the Last of the Pony Express
Riders. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, [1934]. xiv [2] 316 pp., frontispiece,
photographic plates, portraits, maps by Broncho Charlie (1 folding), endpaper
maps. 8vo, original tan cloth. Fine. Bookplate on front pastedown
First edition. Guns 681: “Scarce.... Contains
information on some Dodge City gunmen.” Herd 769. Howes E171. Smith
2878. Reminiscences of Broncho Charlie, written in dialect. “Ridin’ herd
at night, you know, there’s four punchers...one to each side of the cattle,
so that each man covers his territory back and forth, or sits still on his horse,
watchin’ the critters chew their cud, and careful to keep his eyes and
ears open, so that if any one of ’em gets to movin’ too fast out
of the herd, he can ride up on him and tirn him back in. Then...another thing...the
cattle’ll be lyin’ there, or millin’ peaceful as anything,
and there’ll come thunder or lightnin’...or a gun shot, closeup...and
before you can say ‘Jack Robinson,’ they’ll all be in a stampede” (p.
164). Born in a covered wagon moving toward Mount Shasta, Charlie Miller (1850-1955)
was riding for the Pony Express by age eleven. He had many jobs in his
exciting life, including bronco busting (which won him his nickname of “Broncho
Charlie”), cow herding, stagecoach driving, and performing in Cody’s
Wild West show (including his race with cyclist in London). $75.00
Item 1836
1837. ERSKINE, Michael. The Diary of Michael Erskine Describing
His Cattle Drive from Texas to California, Together with Correspondence from
the Gold Fields 1854-1859. Edited with Notes and Historical Introduction
by J. Evetts Haley. [Midland: Designed by William H. Holman for] Nita
Stewart Haley Memorial Library, [1979]. 173 [1] pp., frontispiece portrait,
text illustrations (mostly full-page, some in color, from vintage prints
such as the Gray and Emory reports). Large 8vo, original white pictorial
linen. Fine copy of a handsomely realized Holman family imprint, from the
library of Texas printer Carl Hertzog, with his bookplate.
First edition, limited edition. Wallace, Arizona History III:63n.
Firsthand account of an epic trail drive, embarked upon in the spring of 1854.
Michael Erskine owned and operated El Capote Ranch in Texas, and from there set
out with a herd of cattle for the California gold fields with the hopes that
his own gold mine was accompanying him on hoof (clearly a case of temporary dementia
in which Erskine confused his cattle with the oft-sighted elephant). From the
first day’s entry: “Left Sandies with the herd on Sunday, the 23
or 24. First night stompeded on the Cibolo, lost some cattle. Stompeded next
night, think we lost but few. Camped next night on the Salado (Seguin crossing).
Cattle quiet.”
In his introduction Haley remarks on the “rather unique
nature of cowboy records and their importance in history.... There is precious
little material relating to the experiences of those sun-burnt sons of defiance
who pushed the herds of Longhorns from Texas across half a hostile continent
to feed them. One of the principal reasons for this scarcity of materials was
inherent in the nature of the trail drivers themselves. In the first place, as
a breed of men rather disciplined in the school of direct action, cowboys and
cowmen were rarely lush with words, especially when they felt they had nothing
much to say. And in the second, they usually shied away from writing anything
down, especially with the idea of poppin’ off in print.... Thus original
materials on that period are scant and widely scattered, and those that have
survived assume added significance and importance.” $75.00
1838. ERWIN, Allen A. The Southwest of John H. Slaughter 1841-1922:
Pioneer Cattleman and Trail-Driver of Texas, the Pecos,
and Arizona and Sheriff of Tombstone. Glendale:
The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1965. 368 pp., frontispiece portrait, photographic
plates, maps, facsimiles. 8vo, original red cloth. Very fine in fine d.j.
First edition. Western Frontiersman Series 10. Clark & Brunet
78. Guns 682: “Contains a foreword on the book by William McLeod
Raine (perhaps the last writing he completed before his death), and a foreword
on the author by Ramon F. Adams. It is the first, and a long-needed, book on
the famous John Slaughter and shows much research.” Powell, Arizona Gathering
II 543.
Slaughter (1841-1922), sheriff, rancher, and Texas Ranger,
descended from the Slaughter dynasty of pioneer ranchers of Texas and the Southwest.
As a boy, he ranched with his father and brothers. He learned Spanish and the
art of cowboying from Mexican vaqueros, and many lessons from Native Americans
who still roamed the frontier of Texas. After the Civil War, he and his brothers
formed the San Antonio Ranch Company in Atascosa County. Slaughter was one of
the first to drive cattle up the Chisholm Trail. When Texas became too crowded
for him in the 1870s, he moved to Arizona, eventually establishing San Bernardino
Ranch near Douglas. In 1886 he was elected sheriff of Cochise County. “He
was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s series of the late 1950s, ‘Texas
John Slaughter.’” (Handbook of Texas Online:
John Horton Slaughter). $150.00
1839. ERWIN, Marie H. Wyoming Historical Blue Book: A Legal
and Political History of Wyoming, 1868-1943. Denver: Bradford-Robinson
Printing, n.d. (ca. 1946). xxiii [1] 1,471 pp., color plates of Wyoming state
flag, bird, and flower, frontispiece portrait of Governor Hunt, text illustrations
(mostly photographic), maps, charts. Thick 8vo, original navy blue cloth
gilt. Fine.
First edition. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 23: “Material
on Wyoming as a territory and as a state.” This mine of information on
Wyoming focuses on legislation and law, past and present. Early appeals for statehood
and related legal history that are reprinted invariably refer to stock raising.
Senate Bill 2445 (1888): “Much has been said on the grazing fields of Wyoming.
There are no finer on the continent. The Stock Association of the Territory estimated
there are 2,000,000 head of live stock, of which about 1,500,000 are neat cattle,
owned and pastured in this Territory.” Inaugural address of Governor Warren,
1889: “We should deal fairly with...the stockman who as the pioneer has
paid largely of the taxes and has made later settlement of the country possible,
and who now divides the lands with the farmer.” Constitution of Wyoming
(1889): “The legislature shall pass all necessary laws to provide for the
protection of live stock against the introduction or spread of pleuro-pneumonia,
glanders, splenetic or Texas fever, and other infectious or contagious diseases.... ”
Other ranching material includes State Livestock Boards, statistics,
and biographies and photographs of stockmen who were signers, legislators and/or
held public office, such as Caleb P. Organ (a charter member of the famous Cheyenne
Club), Alexander L. Sutherland, Jonathan Jones, Hubert E. Teschemacher, Charles
W. Burdick, Robert C. Butler, and many more. We also learn arcane information,
such as the fact that the first state seal struck in 1891 was never used because
it showed a nude woman. The second seal (1893) depicted a woman in modest toga,
a rancher on the left, a miner on the right, and inscriptions of LIVESTOCK, MINES,
OIL, GRAIN, and EQUAL RIGHTS.
Of Texas interest is a map and historical information relating
to the Republic of Texas owning a little piece of Wyoming as part of its gigantic
Panhandle based on the Emory map. Of interest for women’s history is Lester
C. Hunt’s “Legislative History of Woman Suffrage in Wyoming” (Wyoming
was progressive in granting women the right to vote and hold office thirty years
before the feds). $100.00
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