THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS 795
TELLS ABOUT BOB ROBERTSON
W. B. Hardeman of Devine, Texas
R. W. Robertson was a soldier under General Shelby of
Missouri. On receiving his discharge here in Texas, he and a number of others went to Mexico expecting to join General
Maximilian's army. On reaching Mexico they discovered
Maximilian's cause was a hopeless case. They then tendered their services to the Mexican government and were offered only a dollar a day and they bear their own expenses. Being disgusted, he sold his gun and pistol for $43.00, mounted his weary cavalry horse and came back to San Antonio, after having purchased some pretty fair clothing in Mexico. He then went to the Menger
Hotel and asked for a bed, where he understood many
Confederate soldiers had been given free beds. The clerk remarked, "You are dressed very well and we are not giving away free beds any more." General Tarver, a brother-in-law of the late
General Ham P. Bee, having overheard part of the conversation stepped up and said, "What's the trouble?" Bob Robertson stated his case and Tarver said, "Give the man a bed; I'll pay for it." The next morning he went to Sapplington's Livery Stable, mounted his horse and pulled out for San Marcos, where he knew a comrade by the name of Breeding resided. On reaching San
Marcos neither he nor Breeding could find any work for him.
There was to be a picnic the next day and a dance that night which he attended, and the next morning he went down the San
Marcos River and landed at Prairie Lea. Shack Jones coming out of a groggery hailed him saying: "Where are you going?" his reply was "I am hunting work." Shack, being a big-hearted fellow and an ex-Confederate soldier replied, "Well let's go in and get a drink, then you come on home with me to my mother's," which he did. The next morning at the breakfast table
Mrs. Jones said, "Johnnie,"

796 THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS
(speaking to Shack) "I don't want yon to leave, I need you here to help run the farm," so he gave his job of cow punching, down near Gonzales, to Bob Robertson.
Bob Robertson settled in Guadalupe county and married Miss
Mary Lancaster, daughter of a pioneer Methodist preacher. He became deputy sheriff in that county and did efficient service. He afterwards drove cattle to Kansas with Will Jennings and Jake
Ellison as partners. His wife died many years ago. Sid
Robertson, a prominent business man of San Antonio, owning the
White Star Laundry, was his son and died during the war with flu. There were five brothers, Bob Robertson being the oldest, who had not been together in twenty years. They all met in
Pearsall in 1883 and five finer looking specimens of manhood I don't think I ever beheld.
"DOC" BURNETT
[photo omitted — DOC BUBNETT]
Mr. C. Burnett, better known as Doc Burnett, was born in
Harris county, Texas, April 19th, 1835, and died in Gonzales county, January 12th, 1915. He was one of the first to drive herds to Kansas in the late '60's and has the credit of driving the last herd out of Gonzales county to the northern markets. No man was better or more favorably known in Texas, on the trail, and on Northern markets than Doc Burnett. His many good deeds and the part he played in developing Texas was surpassed by very few men.

THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS 797
BEN C. DRAGOO
[photo omitted — UNCLE BEN DRAGOO]
Herewith is presented a likeness of Veteran Ben C. Dragoo, who lives at Eden, Texas. Mr. Dragoo is now nearly ninety years old, but is still active. He was a scout and trailer for Sul Ross'
Rangers, and was at the Battle of Pease River when Cynthia Ann
Parker was taken from the Indians after a captivity of twentyeight years. When a little boy, Ben Dragoo was a playmate of
Cynthia Ann Parker, his father living near Parker’s fort, and by strange chance the young ranger was present and assisted in the identification of the unfortunate girl when she was recaptured.
Mr. Dragoo relates many thrilling incidents of early days, and did his full share in making the frontier safe for the present generation. His son A. J. Dragoo, lives at Whiteland, in
McCulloch county, where he is manager of a large ranch.
AN OLD TRAIL DRIVER
Captain William Carroll McAdams was a native of Tennessee, being born April 3, 1825, a son of Douglas and Sarah McAdams who emigrated to the United States from Scotland on account of religious differences existing in Scotland at that time. They were related to Queen Mary of Scotland by blood. Douglas McAdams, his father, constructed the first macadamized road in the United
States

798 THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS
[photo omitted — CAPTAIN McADAMS]
Captain McAdams, at the age of seventeen, ran away from home and joined General Taylor's command on the Rio Grande.
Before annexation he had become famous along the Rio Grande as "Mustang Bill." He was employed by the president of the
Texas Republic and afterwards by the commander of the United
States troops as a scout. It was a time of bold outlawry. Incidents of thrilling character were frequent on the border. Captain
McAdams was concerned in several raids on robber strongholds, and when war with Mexico began his services were needed, for he knew all about the region General Taylor had mapped out for his campaign. He was in the battle of Palo Alto and Resaca de la
Palma. He crossed the Rio Grande and fought and scouted for the American army. At Buena Vista he saw the brigade of
Mexican lancers repulsed by Col. Jefferson Davis and next witnessed the rout of Santa Anna's army. By order of General
Taylor he reported for duty to General Scott and was sent by the latter commander to rescue three prisoners of war under death sentence. The men, natives of Mexico, joined the American army and were captured by General Santa Anna's cavalry near
Cerro Gordo. A kinsman of one of the doomed men deserted and informed the Americans, offering to assist a rescue party. Time was precious. It was past midnight and the men were to be shot at sunrise. Captain McAdams, with fourteen Texans and the
Mexican deserter, entered the lines of the enemy, captured all the sentinels, killing the soldier who was on guard over the doomed men, and before daybreak he was back within General Scott's lines with

THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS 799 the rescued men, having accomplished the task given him without loss to his own party. For this service he was honored by General
Scott with special mention, and from that time to the close of the war he was the trusted scout of the commander-in-chief of the
American army in Mexico. After an honorable discharge by
General Scott, he returned to North Texas and married Miss Ann
Alexander of Parker county, who was also from Tennessee, and settled in Palo Pinto county and commenced raising cattle.
He immediately joined Jack Hays’ Rangers and served with them until the Independence of Texas was acknowledged, and in a battle with the Comanche Indians he was wounded with an arrow and the scar went with him to the end as a decoration on the breast of the old veteran of three wars.
He was one of the original organizers of the Masonic Lodge of
Palo Pinto, and was a great Mason. Later on in life two of his daughters, Mrs. D. C. Kyle, now of Saco, Montana; formerly
Molly McAdams and Mrs. W. B. Slaughter of San Antonio, formerly Anna McAdams, joined the Eastern Star. Mrs. Kyle being eighteen and Mrs. Slaughter sixteen at the time of joining.
Mrs. Slaughter is now a past worthy matron.
Captain McAdams had a disposition to make everybody his friend. His wife, during his absence, dressed in the garb of a man always went with her six-shooter belted around her and a gun on her shoulder for the purpose of making the Indians think her husband was at home. He reared a family of eight children, two boys and six girls, namely: David McAdams, Molly McAdams,
Anna McAdams, Lizzie McAdams, Louie McAdams, Quinne
McAdams, Webb McAdams and Collie McAdams. Only four of them are now living namely: Mrs. D. C. Kyle, of Saco, Montana;
Mrs. W. B. Slaughter of San Antonio; Mrs. Louie Harrison, of
Hansford, Texas.
In 1863 he drove a herd of cattle to old Mexico and

800 THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS traded for sugar and many other articles the early settlers were compelled to have at that time. His second drive in 1865 was to
Shreveport, Louisiana, and he sold his herd to a Mr. Spencer. In
1867 his third drive was started to Baxter Springs, Kansas, and at
Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory he sold his herd and returned home. After that he only made one short drive in Texas and remained with his ranch and raised cattle. His last severe fight with the Indians was in 1870, on Salt Creek, in Young county,
Texas; at the time Shapely Carter and many others were killed.
Shapely was the oldest son of Colonel Kit Carter, who was the first president of the Cattle Raisers' Association for many years.
Captain McAdams during the Indian wars of Texas was called a "minute man"; he kept his horse especially for long and hard rides and it was said of him by his associates he could ride further with less food and sleep than any man of his day.
Captain McAdams and his good wife were both adherents of the Methodist church and believed in the good old-fashioned camp meetings and Mrs. McAdams would go to any length possible to arrange for some good Methodist pastor to hold annual camp meetings on their ranch near Sand Valley Peak, Palo
Pinto county, and it was nothing uncommon to see thirty or forty women shouting and praising the Almighty for the great things
He was accomplishing.
RICHARD ROBERTSON RUSSELL
One of the active builders of West Texas was Richard R.
Russell, who died in San Antonio in 1922. Mr. Russell was born in Georgia in 1858, and with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. O.
Russell, came to Texas when he was twelve years old, locating in
Menard county, where Dick Russell grew to manhood. For many years he was in the employ of his uncle, Peter Robertson. During the seventies

THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS
[photo omitted — R. R. RUSSELL]
801
Menard county was the scene of numerous Indian raids and young Russell, catching the spirit of the times, enlisted in Captain
D. W. Roberts' Rangers and remained with that company for two years, resigning to embark in the cattle business. In 1886 he was elected sheriff of Menard county, and held that office for ten consecutive years. He refused to be a candidate for re-election at the end of that time, as his personal affairs needed his attention.
He was interested with William Bevans and James Callan in various cattle deals and ranch operations. In 1909 he organized the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Ballinger, Texas. He headed the organization of the Bank of Menard, of which William
Bevans was active manager. He was a stockholder in the
Citizens National Bank of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, a stockholder in the Central Trust Company of San Antonio, and was organizer of the Del Rio Live Stock Loan Company, and identified with Del
Rio banking interests. He was also identified with the Ballinger
Cotton Oil Company, the Winters Oil Company of Runnels county, the Russell-Coleman Oil Company of San Antonio; he was interested in extensive ranch holdings in Runnels and
Menard counties, as well as ranch interests in Oklahoma. His largest individual Texas holding in one tract of land was as a stockholder in the Big Canyon Ranch in Terrell and Pecos counties, which consists of 245,000 acres of land and thousands of cattle and sheep. For the past several years and until his death he has been connected with leading banking firms in San
Antonio.
Mr. Russell came from a pioneer family. His father

802 THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS
J. O. Russell, and two uncles settled and built the first houses on the site of Denver, Colorado. This settlement was made in 1857, and the city was duly platted and named Auroria. W. A.
McFaddin was president of the company, and Dr. L. J. Russell was secretary. Another uncle, Green Russell, mined the first gold in that section of Colorado.
In 1892 Mr. Russell was married to Miss Mattie E. Strickland of Tom Green county. Two daughters were born to them.
FROM THE NUECES TO THE NORTH PLATTE
J. R. Humphries, Yoakum, Texas
In my earliest boyhood days the great ruling ambition was to become a cowboy, and the information that my brother was to take up a bunch of cattle in Live Oak county my ambition was about to be realized, as I was to be a member. In March, 1883, we left Yoakum and went to George W. West's ranch in Live Oak county and took charge of 2,500 old cows and brought them to
Lavaca county, where grass was plentiful. This was my first drive and no happier boy lived in the great state of Texas. These cows were ranged on the prairies now where the little thrifty city of Shiner is located. After this we were sent to the Bennett &
West ranch in Jackson county to get 3,000 yearlings and brought them back with us. A few days after this we started on the trail with the herd, for the North Platte in what was then regarded as the very life itself of the cattle movements. The trip might well be called "The River Route," as we crossed practically every river of any importance in this country. The San Antonio, the
Guadalupe near Gonzales, the San Marcos, the Colorado at
Austin, the Brazos and Lampasas, the Pease at Vernon, the Red
River South Fork at Donner, Okla., the Cimarron, the Wichita and the Arkansas, all rivers of more or less importance and as there

THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS 803 were no bridges in those days, fording was the means of crossing.
On this trip we made good headway and crossed into what was then the beautiful Indian Territory. A few Indians were seen and some very fine ranches and thoroughbred cattle. We were now nearing the junction of the eastern and western trail and the wonderful city of Dodge was our destination. Dodge City enjoyed a reputation of being the fastest cowboy town on this side of the globe and it was our joy and delight to know that ere long we would see that famous place. It is told that a drunken cowboy got aboard a Santa Fe train at Newton one day and when the conductor asked for the fare, the boy handed him a handful of money. The conductor said, "Where do you want to go?" and when the boy replied: "To Hell!" the conductor said, "Well give me $2.50 and get off at Dodge."
Numerous stories of this sort permeated the lower section of the cattle country about Dodge and everybody wanted to see that
"tuff guy."
The first trouble of any consequence that we had with our herd was the night we crossed the Arkansas River. The cattle stampeded and in the excitement my horse fell with me and my first thought was that the joy and pleasure of the continuance of the trip was gone. A fearful storm was raging, and everything seemed to have turned to thunder, lightning and rain, and all was confusion. After the storm abated, the sun shone brightly, and we had rounded up the last yearling, we made an excellent entrance into the town of Dodge. We spent one or two wild and joyful days there and on the 17th of July we left for Ogallala, Nebraska.
The trip had taken us nearly three months, and now one can go to the same place by train in two days.
On our way to Ogallala we were met by Mr. West, the owner of the cattle that we were driving, and he told us that he had sold
1,600 of the yearlings to a ranch owner

804 THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS in Colorado. We turned back and delivered this sale, and we returned to the outfit which was in charge of Arthur Burnes. My brother, Charley Humphreys, was main boss of the herd from
Texas to the North Platte, and to my young imagination no finer cowboy ever rode a saddle.
Burnes had then about 3,500 head of cattle of all sorts and sizes and soon after this he quit and I was given his herd. Bill
North, an old Texan, was there with 2,000 steers also owned by
Mr. West and the two outfits were put together, making a herd of something like 6,000 head and with this immense herd of cattle we started to the Shandley ranch where they were rebranded and then we headed towards Wyoming in the woolly west. We arrived on the North Platte on September 1, and after a few days' of milling around there we were paid off and began making our plans to hike back to South Texas, the land of flowers and warm sunshine.
In March the next year I was again at the George W. West ranch, rearing to start on the trail again. Again under Charley
Humphreys, my brother, we gathered up about 3,000 head of yearlings and on April 1st, 1884, we began the journey which took us to an entirely different section of the world, to the Rio
Grande.
In this outfit there were ten men with the herd, one cook, one with horses and the boss, making thirteen men in the outfit. We passed Pearsall, Uvalde, Devil's River, Del Rio, the Painted
Caves, and up the Devil's River to Beaver Lake, then to Howard
Wells, and Live Oak Creek to the Pecos River. From Del Rio to the Pecos one of those many-year droughts had prevailed and there was no water or grass, and some suffering was done by both men and cattle, but no complaints. We left Del Rio May 1st, and reached Pecos City June 1st, a distance of 300 miles. There our bunch was increased about 4,000 head that had been brought there by Jeff Bailor and Bill Galloway. We now had about 8,000 head and with this we started to Old Fort Sumner on the Pecos
River.

THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS 805
We delivered to the Dorsey ranch at Sumner 4,500 heifer yearlings and 500 to another ranchman in that section. The balance were taken to the Read & Broaden ranch on the other side of the Rio Grande. Our business was then done and another hike was in order for Texas where we landed in October after one of the hardest trips in the way of real hardships that we ever had.
This was owing to dry weather conditions and the lack of grass, and navigating the mountains that abound in that section with a herd of 5,000 yearlings. The next year in March found me again in the saddle and with Steve Bennett, Phil Ryan, John
Humphries, better known as "General Twiggs," Will Griffin,
Mose Morris, Dan McCarty, three negroes and the boss, Chas.
Humphreys. We left for the West ranch again in Live Oak county. On this trip we were to go to Colorado and in the early part of March we got a good get-away with 2,500 yearlings. We selected the old western cattle trail which went through Coleman,
Ft. Griffin, and up the Panhandle country, to Dalhart, where the outfit was delivered to the XIT Ranch.
From this time on I worked in several capacities on various ranches, and in the service of D. R. Fant on his Santa Rosa ranch where I was employed as a cowboy until some weeks afterwards, when I joined Charley Humphreys and his outfit which was ready to hit the trail. We left early in March with 2,500 head of mixed cattle and believe me, we had some hard trip. There was no grass in the Spofford section and when we reached Spofford the cattle and horses both had fallen off so that it was impossible to make the passage through the Nueces Canyon. Mr. Fant was sent for and he decided to take the best and strongest from the two herds that were of about equal number and push on to where there was grass. So we left Spofford some days later with 2,600 tolerably fat and hit the Canyon and made its passage without difficulty.
When we reached old Ft. McKavitt

806 THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS in Menard county we were afoot and both horses and cattle were as poor as Job's turkey. Good grass and plenty of fine water was found after this. We kept at the job and in about a week wonderful changes had taken place and we were able to ride our horses and the cattle were able to take up their journey to
Colorado. This trip carried us through the Panhandle of Texas and the western part of Kansas and we enjoyed it very much. The herd was delivered to the Holly Ranch at Colorado Springs. We rode the horses back and landed in old Lavaca county none the worse for wear and tear to our systems.
Soon after this I went to work at my old job of riding the range for George W. West in Live Oak county. In the following spring
I went to Alice to get a bunch of 3,000 young cows and shipped them by rail to Purcell, Oklahoma, and from that place we drove them to El Reno and turned them over to John Johnson and then went to Quanah and took up 2,000 beef cattle and drove them to the North Canadian and left them with Mack Stewart, who afterwards created quite a lot of excitement in this section by being thrown in a Mexican prison for an alleged shooting that occurred on the other side of the Rio Grande. From El Reno we drove the cattle to Kingfisher where we took on 1,000 beef cattle and with the bunch of about 4,000 beef cattle we went to
Anadarko where we delivered the herd in good shape to the
Indian agent, and then back to Live Oak county where I worked until the fall of 1893. I went to work for Ed Lassiter on the San
Diego ranch and was in his employ until the latter part of the fall, when I went back to Oakville. In May the following year I was married and quit cowpunching and took up railroad work and have been in that line of work for many years with the S. A. & P.
Ry. and reside in Yoakum.
The cowboy life that I have led is one of the pleasant memories of my career, and money could not buy the

THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS 807 delightful recollections of it. No boy can really get a thrill from any other sport than to be member of a bunch of real cowboys on the trail and in charge of thousands of head of cattle. The cowboy was one of the gay and festive characters of the early day history of Texas and he has not been overdrawn. He worked hard and played hard and to him there was no task too difficult or dangerous and the life of one head of stock in his charge was as precious as the entire herd.
A LONG, HARD TRIP
E. R. (Nute) Rachal, Falfurrias, Texas
My first trip over the trail to Kansas was in 1871, when we drove 1,200 steers, from six to sixteen years old, which we gathered and branded at the old Coleman ranch, known as the
Chiltipin ranch. John R. Pulliam bought them from T. M.
Coleman, Sr., for $10 per head. My brother, D. C. Rachal, was in charge of the herd, and I was second boss. Our hands were A. P.
Rachal, William Allen, William Lewis, Ebb Douglas, Dick Bean,
Bill Unit, one Mexican called "Big Dirty," and a German cook.
We started from the Chiltipin about March 20, 1871, and the second night out, near Sand Mounds on the Arkansas Creek, it rained all night, and our herd became scattered. When he reached Fort Worth we laid in supplies, and went on, and the next night had a stampede and our herd got mixed up with a herd
Buck Gravis was driving. From there we just drove the two herds together to a point near Abilene. When we reached Bluff
Creek at the Kansas line the first house of Caldwell was being put up. It was a log house. Here we found an old friend, Milam
Fitzgerald, with a tent full of trail supplies, so we stocked up. We stopped at Cottonwood Creek, about twenty miles from Abilene, and separated our cattle from the Gravis herd, and drove them across to Ellsworth and from there on to the Smoky River, near
Wilson

808 THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS
Station, where Dick Bean, myself and two other Texas boys stayed all summer. All went well until October, when the buffaloes began to come in vast herds, stampeding our horses and causing much annoyance. Captain Pulliam could not find a sale for the cattle, so he had us to move them up near Ellsworth and shipped to Chicago to be slaughtered. He sold his horses to a rancher about 75 miles up on the Saline River, and sent Tom
Pulliam and myself to deliver them. A severe snow
[photo omitted — E. R. (Nute) RACHAL]
[photo omitted — D. C. RACHAL]
[photo omitted — A. P. RACHAL]
[photo omitted — FRANK RACHAL]

THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS 809 storm came up shortly after we started and when we reached
Wilson Station we turned the horses loose and took refuge in a box car which had a stove and some coal in it. We spent two days there, and when the storm was over we found all of the loose horses and took them on for delivery. The ranch owner started us back to the railroad station in a one-horse wagon driven by one of his ranch hands. The distance was twenty-five miles, over a hilly country, and the road was wet and sloppy from melting snow. About three miles from the ranch the old horse gave out, and Tom and I had to walk to the station, reaching there about dark. We went to Ellsworth, settled up, and started for home November 20, traveling by rail and stopping off at Kansas
City, St. Louis and New Orleans. From New Orleans I came home by water. I helped to gather those cattle, was with them eight months, and during that time was away from the herd only two nights. It was a long, hard trip, but on the whole we enjoyed it. We went from the mouth of the Nueces River to Ellsworth,
Kansas, without going through a gate. I am now (1921) seventytwo years old, and still able to ride horseback and work with cattle.
A. P. RACHAL
A. P. Rachal made his first trip up the trail to Kansas in 1871, going as a hand. Thereafter he drove for several years, but in the herds driven after this one he was partner. He was well known to many of the trail drivers, and was highly esteemed by all as by many other friends and acquaintances. In later years he handled cattle extensively in the Indian Territory. One year he, in partnership with J. M. Chittim, grazed thirty thousand cattle in
Creek Nation. Of these twenty thousand head were cows, all of which were shipped into the Creek Nation in the spring, and all of them with all of their

810 THE TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS calf crop shipped out to market during the summer and fall of the same year. That meant "some stirrin' about" for the cowboys.
Mr. Rachal had a reputation of working his cattle fast and furiously. This was to such an extent that among the Territory boys often when cattle were to be rushed or crowded you would hear, "Rachal 'em boys, Rachal 'em."
A. P. Rachal died in Chicago, and was buried at San Antonio, his home town.
D. C. RACHAI.
Darius C. Rachal was born January 23, 1841, at Cloutierville,
Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. His parents were Ciriaque, and
Anais Rachal, both lineal descendants of the Acadians who sought asylum in Louisiana and who have been the subjects of song and story for two centuries. At the outbreak of the Civil
War Mr. Rachal enlisted in the 5th Texas Infantry, a part of
Hood's Brigade. He took part in the “Seven Days’ Battle in the
Wilderness,” was at the “Second Manassas" at "Sharpsburg" in
"Lee's Invasion of Pennsylvania" the immortal three days at
"Gettysburg," was foremost in the defense of Fredericksburg and was with Hood during the terrific hand-to-hand struggle at
"Chickamauga." When the battle flag had been furled and the last musket had been stacked, Mr. Rachal returned to Texas and engaged in the cattle business, living two years in Calhoun county, subsequently he removed to San Patricio county where he resided until his death, August 27, 1918.
From 1875 to 1890 Mr. Rachal was one of the largest cattleraisers in the State and sent large herds up the trail during this time. He was married to Miss Julia Bryan at Liberty, Texas, and lived at White Point, seven miles across the bay from Corpus
Christi the last fifty-two years of his life.