Dan Waggoner and his son W.T. brought a herd of cattle and horses to this Wichita country in 1873 in order to get free range and to get away from the settlements in Wise County. They had about 500 head of stock when they first came out here.

I left home on June 10, 1879, and came out here to work for Dan Waggoner and son. Ed Halsell, a brother-in-law of W.T. Waggoner, and Gus Moore, a cousin of mine, came out here with me. We started working out of headquarters of the ranch, which at this time was located east of where Wichita Falls now stands. This place was about three miles east of what was then a prairie, but later became Wichita Falls. I started to work for $20.00 per month and had to furnish my own saddle, blankets, and bedding. The Waggoner range at that time ran from Red River on the north to Holliday Creek on the south, and from Iowa Park on the west to the place where the Thornberry community now stands for the east boundary. I rode a line most of the time and lived at headquarters. We were paid by check whenever we would call for it, and then we had to go to Henrietta to cash them.

When I came out here the Indians were on friendly terms with the cowboys and they did not give us any trouble. The buffalo were already moving further west and I only saw three after I came here. In 1880 we rode upon these three on Red River about the mouth Pease River. We shot at them but did not kill them, and they ran on north into the Indian Territory. I remember seeing plenty of deer and killed one on Beaver Creek with my pistol. The antelope were plentiful and were still to be seen in Wichita County until the early nineties. The prairie chickens and quail were also plentiful.

In 1881 the Waggoner headquarters were moved to China Creek, which was about seven miles northeast of where Electra now is located. They moved out here to get more range for the fast growing herds. The range was then extended to Eagle Flat which is now the location of Vernon. The Waggoners had about 7,000 or 8,000 cattle, and about 200 horses when I started working for them and the herds were getting larger every year. A short time after we moved the headquarters a settlement was started back to the southwest named Beaver. This was about the time the railroad was built across this country: later the name was changed to Waggoner, and finally it was named Electra, for W.T. Waggoner’s daughter. It was about this time that a settlement was started named Nestorville, that later became Burkburnett.

I lived for some time in a camp on Grey Back Creek, which runs into Beaver Creek southwest of Electra. This camp and creek got its name because a bunch of the cowboys were lousy with greybacks and so the camp and creek came to be known by that name. I camped all up and down Beaver Creek from 1882 to 1884. In the spring of each year the wagons would head out to the south and southwest to round up the cattle that had drifted off of the range during the bad weather.

In the year of 1884 Waggoner leased 400,000 acres of land in the Indian Territory from the Indians. He paid about 10 cents an acre for it per year. This range was north of Red River and the west line was about the mouth of Pease River, the north was the Wichita Mountains, and the east was where China Creek emptied into Red River. Burnett had a range in the Territory that joined this range on the east.

After this pasture was leased in Oklahoma I was moved up there. I was there two winters and one summer. I was camped on Deep Red on the east side of this range. I rode the line from our camp about ten miles north, and kept the cattle west of the line; the man who lived in camp with me rode south about the same distance. One winter my partner was an Indian. He was rather poor company. We did not see many white people during this time. There were lots of Indians around the country but they did not bother us except for beef, which we were forced to give to keep in their good graces. One winter I lived on the North Fork of Red River.

In the summer of 1884 I went up the trail to Dodge City, Kansas. We took about 2000 three year old steers. There were six white men and three Indians in the party. Of course that included a cook and he drove the chuck wagon. We crossed Red River north of Charlie, and crossed Cache Creek in Oklahoma east of Randlett. Then crossed Beaver Creek in Oklahoma, east of Lawton, crossed the Canadian River west of of Oklahoma City. We were about thirty days on the trip. The cattle stampeded nearly every night. The first night out they stampeded and we lost about 400 cattle and it took most of the next day to find them, and such was the case in several instances after that. When we got to Dodge City we shipped all the steers that were fat, and the rest we put in a leased pasture there and left two men to look after them. We came back with a large group, some of whom had gone up ahead of us with other herds. Lee McMurtry who later was Sheriff of Wichita County was in the group.

Beginning in 1885 or 1886 I made three trips to Chicago with whole train loads of cattle going to market. There were only about 400 cattle to the train. The trains at that time could not pull heavy loads as the rails were light and the engines were small. It took several days to make the trip and it was mostly work night and day until you arrived in Chicago.

On February 23, 1888, I married Mary Frances Gose at her home in Wise County. Her family and mine were neighbors in the country out north of Decatur. She was teaching school in the community at the time we were married. There have been seven children in my family, two of whom died in early infancy. I brought my wife out to a little home on Gilbert Creek, twelve miles northwest of Wichita Falls. I was looking after about 17,000 acres of land and the cattle thereon for D. Waggoner and son at that time. Soon after I married I bought a section of this land from the Waggoners. I gave them one hundred cows and calves for this land. I then started farming and running a few cattle. In 1897 I moved to Iowa Park to give my children the advantage of school. There were three children in my family at this time: They were Merle T.; Aileen (Mrs. Lester S. Jones); and Cora Lee (Mrs. P.S. Richardson). While I lived in Iowa Park my other two children were born, T.J., Jr.; and S. Gose. I sold my land in 1900 for $14.00 per acre. I went in with my brother John L. Waggoner in 1901 and bought a ranch on Red River, about seven miles below Burkburnett. There was about three thousand acres in this pasture and we paid $10.00 per acre for it. We kept this pasture until about 1907 and sold it for $25.00 to $30.00 per acre. We then bought a pasture on Beaver Creek southeast of Electra, paying from $2.50 to $5.00 per acre for it. There were about 8,500 acres in this pasture. We still own this pasture. It is all grass land; we ran cattle on it and branded the Lazy Nine. I sold my part of the cattle on this place to my son Merle in 1920 and he and my brother John still run cattle on it today. I moved my family to Wichita Falls in 1905 and first bought the old Judge Harris place at 1408 Travis. It included six lots besides a two story house, for which I paid $1,800. I later sold three of the lots for $1,900., and then when I sold the house and the other three lots in 1911 I got $4,000. for the place. I started building a house at 2100 Tenth Street, and while in the process of building rented a house at 1800 Burnett. This place was later torn down and the Wichita Mill stands there today. There were only about ten houses west of the Denver when I build this house. My lots, house, and all improvements only cost about $7,000. I sold this place in 1918 during the oil boom for $21,000. and later moved to my present home at 1600 Buchanan. I can remember several things of interest concerning this town, the country,and my early days up there, that I have not included in this brief resume of my life, which I will try to relate here.

Speaking of high water and big rains, I can remember when I came out here in 1879 they told me how high the water got in 1876 when Wichita River came down on a big rise. The water was several feet deep where the downtown of Wichita Falls is now located. I saw several big cottonwood logs lying up on the side of the hill just west of the present business district. They would probably correspond to the alley back of Travis Street, on the way up Eighth Street.

One winter I was camped on Beaver Creek with my cousin Gus Moore, Ed Halsell and two other men. I came into camp one evening and found Gus terribly sick with a spell of indigestion. I immediately set out for Seymour to get a doctor. On the way back with the doctor we got lost in the bottoms of Wichita River about the mouth of Indian Creek, which is now covered by the waters of Lake Kemp. We stayed there until daylight and then went on into camp, and found that Gus was dead, and that he had died before I was gone more than one hour the evening before. It was thirty-five miles to Seymour and it was in December, and it had not been a pleasant trip. Ed Halsell had already left camp by the time we arrived to come to Wichita Falls to make arrangements for his burial. We then started with the corpse in the wagon for Wichita Falls, and it took us a day and a half to reach here. We found that Ed Halsell had gone on to Henrietta to get a coffin and he came back on the train withit. We buried Gus in a grave on the banks of Wichita River, and his grave was the third one in Riverside Cemetery. I believe this was in 1894.

I was on a cow hunt in 1884 and we were down on Paint Creek southwest of Seymour and I took sick and was brought into Seymour. I had Typhoid Fever and was in bed for thirty days. I had a man nurse, and stayed in a hotel. A Dr. Wilson waited on me.

The best cowboy I ever saw on the Waggoner Ranch or on anyone’s ranch was a negro named Nelse Etter. The Waggoners brought him up here with them from Wise County. He weighed about 200 pounds and was as strong as an ox and not afraid of anything. He could ride anything that wore hair, and could do more work branding than any other man. He was a dandy with a rope and I think excelled in almost all respects. One time we were in a general round-up in the territory and all the neighboring ranches had wagons and men in this round-up. All told there were perhaps fifty or sixty men in the camp. There came up a little thunder shower one afternoon after we had turned the herds loose for the day. Lightening struck C.T. Herring and knocked him off of his horse. It burned a streak down his back and split one of his boots off. They tried to find some one to go for a doctor and old Nelse was the only man who would volunteer to go, as Red River was on a big rise, as it had been raining for several days. Nelse agreed to go if W.T. Waggoner would let him ride a horse called Chief, and this was agreed to. The closest doctor was at Doan’s Store, about 10 miles away, so Nelse set out for the store. He found the doctor there, but the doctor would not agree to go with him until Nelse promised to lead his horse across and then back home. The doctor brought C.T. around all right after some treatment, and in a few days he was all right. As a reward for risking his life to try to save that of another, old Nelse was given a $5.00 bill, which everyone thought was terrible in view of the fact that C.T. Herring was a wealthy man at that time. Old Nelse was disappointed, and later said: "He won’t make anything by that, ‘cause I’ll eat a many a one of his old fat cattle." In this round-up were wagons from Suggs, Worshams, Witherspoons, Millirons, Halsells and some others which was customary for a large round-up. Old Nelse later got into some trouble over in Oklahoma and the officers shot his left arm off just above the elbow. He had always been left handed, but in spite of that he learned to rope with his right arm and continued to work for the Waggoners until he died about 1920.

W.T. Waggoner was in active charge of the ranch most of the time I worked for them and he was always on the job. He could ride farther and work harder than most any hand he had. I think they had about 25,000 cattle by the time I quit working for them. They would ordinarily brand about 10,000 cattle each year. During the time they had the pasture leased in Oklahoma, W.T. Waggoner would take the cash to pay the Indians. Several times after I was married he used to come by and spend the night with me on his way over with this huge sum in cash, and I would never feel very comfortable with so much money around. Most of the time he would have some of the hands ride ahead to keep a look-out.

The Centennial Hunt was an unusual experience. This occurred in the spring of 1880. The winter before had been a severe one and since there were no fences in the country the cattle had drifted many miles south, and it was impossible to keep them in your range. In the spring every ranch that was located in this part of the country banded together and each sent a wagon with a bunch of men to the south to round up the cattle. We went as far south as the T.P. Railroad, west of Ft. Worth. All told, we must have brought back about 40,000 cattle that belonged to various herds. Some belonged on ranches that were north of the Canadian River. Each year we would have to go on cow hunts and I have ridden to the southwest over country as far west as Stamford and north to Red River. In my early days I knew such men as T.W.Roberts, Harley Portwood, and John McCluskey (who has just recently died in Archer City), whom I sometimes worked with on the various ranches.

One time in 1879 shortly after I came to this country I spent the night with Allen Parmer who lived down Wichita River east of our headquarters. Two men came in late and ate supper and we sat around and talked. The next morning when I ate breakfast with the family I was informed that the two men had left before I got up. I don’t remember what name they were introduced to me by, but anyhow it did not make any impression. Several years later I met Frank James at John Fore’s Livery stable here in Wichita Falls, and he asked me about this night I stayed with Allen Parmer, and he said that he and his brother Jesse were the two men that I had met that night. He and Jesse were brothers of Allen Parmer’s wife, and they would sometimes come down here to lay low after committing some crimes back in Missouri or the Territory.

Although I have been in this community continuously since 1879, I have not had the closest association with Wichita Falls as many who came here at a later date. I do remember that Judge Barwise, Judge Harris, Judge Seely, and Dot Babb came here and started a settlement the same year I started out to work for the Waggoners. I well remember Judge Huff in his early days here, as well as Joe Kemp when he came here and started working in a grocery store. I was in Wichita to watch all the early development, as well as to become acquainted with all the early settlers. I well remember having to come to Wichita Falls in 1889 to get a doctor for my wife. I went to Dr. Burnside’s office and found he was at home, and was told to call him over the telephone. I got the number and when answered I nearly fell down from fright; this was my first experience in using the telephone. I can well remember when the Ft. Worth and Denver Railroad was built in here, and then when it was extended to Harrold, which was the end of the line for some time. It was pretty tough town in those days.

Although I have been in the cattle business all my life, I did farm for a few years after I married, as well as run cattle. In 1891 I raised 2,500 bushels of wheat on a hundred acres, but I never did so well again, so after a few years I quit farming for good.

I have enjoyed my life from the beginning to the present and life has been good to me. The town of Wichita Falls has had some wonderful citizens who have been my friends. I have always had faith in the country and the people who live here, and it is my wish that Wichita Falls will continue to grow and prosper and be as good to those who shall live here as it has been to me.