AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
RALPH JOHN WESLEY HOWARD

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of excellent water about a forth of a mile from where we helped dad build a fine stone house.

I made the trip of Bull Creek and brought dad and Bert back with me to help move the fence. It took us about one month to do this. When the fence was completed, Mr. Mullock rounded up half of his herd and told me to help myself, I let Bert pick the calves and then we drove seventeen head of average good but young breeding stock back to Bull Creek. Now, our infant ranch was known as the "Half Circle D." Bert’s wife parents lived on the Beaver River a few miles away. They had given their daughter, Dollie, two cows when she became Mrs. Bert Howard. Frank still worked for R. H. Howard, who had sold his ranch on the Paladora to Tom Ward, and had moved to Garden City, Kansas, taking Frank and the sheep along. Frank had been taking his pay in cows, part of the time and had five or six good ones to add to the herd. A neighbor that was living next to Bulls Creek, close to dad’s location, quit and moved to another place. Frank filed on this place, giving us control of all the water on Bull Creek, south of his homestead. When he got his boss moved to Garden City and well settled, Frank joined us. The following spring, we took 600 head of two-year-old Mexican heifers to graze for the summer.

I didn’t hold that job of driving a dray wagon in Liberal very long. The first time I delivered freight to the B. E. Blake Store, I made the remark to Mr. Blake, "I haven’t any cash but could produce security on ten head of cattle if you care to sell me your idle drilling machine". Mr. Blake said, "I will talk to my son and see what he thinks."

The next time I saw Mr. Blake, he said, "We will take your security, you can have possession any time you like; and there is a well waiting for you to start on."

There was a team of horses, harness and a wagon with a water tank as an accessory to the drilling machine, which brought the price up to nine hundred dollars. That was more money, than had every passed through my hands in all my life put together. The next morning, the dray stood idle. I wanted to consult with Bert and get his opinion on the proposition. It was thirty miles to the " Half Circle D". The only means of transportation I had with me at the time, was what nature had provided; I considered it ample for the occasion and set out on foot. It was a nice cool day and I could walk four miles an hour without perspiring. When I came to the river, I sat down and removed my footwear, and then waded thirty yards of ice water that barely reached my knees. Where I emerged from, in the water there was old mowing