HomeMy WebLinkAboutRetired Hereford Man Shares Fond Memories of Bygone Days Retired Hereford Man Shares kind of a hard business," Will-
r� iams says. "You would buy a
Fond Memories Of Bygone Days bunch of yearling cattle, put
By Colleen Schreiber The bandits proceeded to take them on grass and keep them
SAN ANGELO -- One of the guns from the men, but till they were three years old,
the original or organizers of the when they and so for three years or so you
g y got to Williams they didn't have any income. The
Concho Hereford Association recognized him as a world mercantile usually had to cant'
and a well -known Hereford champion steer roper, an event the ranchers a year before they
breeder from Concho County, he had won just days earlier, would get any payment. So
Jack Williams will be 86 in a so the bandits returned the when the cattle people went
couple of months. . guns to all the men and sent broke the merchant people
No longer active in the buss- them on their way. ,
ness, Williams still likes to at- South Texas was good steer went broke, too."
a few of the regular pro- country, Williams says, be- The last bunch from his
Alpine sales. Most recently, cause if they had rain, they father
area.
er owned t came a f from the
he attended theTexas Hereford could raise a fat steer. Back Alp
Centennial celebration in Al- then ranchers sold two year- "He always wanted to own
bany, where he enjoyed recall- old steers, and sometimes they some good classic kind
ing those bygone days in were three and four years old. cattle," Williams hhe says s of his s
which he produced the best Williams says there was one the Highland "so e bought some of
Hereford cattle he could. steer with such a massive set the Highland Hereford d cattle.
Williams was born in 1913 of horns that the horns were the ones those some
t e
the o. that t broke were . him. He
in Carrizo Springs, where his saved and mounted in the Chi- paid $72 a head for them and
father was ranching. Like most cago Mercantile. the crash hit. Took him two
kids of those times, Williams The steers either went to years to get them sold. First he
says he was riding by the time grass in Kansas, or if they were sent them to Chicago as fat
he was big enough to walk. He fat they were shipped direct to steers and couldn't sell them
and his two older brothers rode one of the terminal markets, usu- so he had to pay freight on
horseback the five miles to ally in Kansas City or Chicago. them again to have them sent
school every day. When he was Williams remembers the back home. He kept them an-
in the first grade, he remem- large pastures, some 10,000 other year and I think he finally
bers having a small pony that acres in size. It was a time -con- sold them for $40 a head."
would pitch and throw him off suming process in which por- It wasn't long after the
every morning just as they tions of a pasture were worked crash that "baby beef' became
were leaving for school. and animals were held in a trap popular, Williams says. More
"I would cry and Dad would while the other parts of the and more caught on to the idea
put me right back on," Will- pasture were cleaned. Once all of finishing cattle on corn. ,
Tams says. "That pony would the cattle were gathered they After high school, Williams
pitch just the one time, but just were worked and it was the took a job with the Indio Ranch,
about every morning." youngsters' responsibility to 60,000 acres right on the river
Williams says he cut his hold the cuts, Williams says. below Eagle Pass. He cowboyed
teeth in the steer business. The steers were shipped for the outfit for two years.
Back then and up until the from the pens in Crystal City. Williams attributes an old
crash of 1929, South Texas It took about 21 cars, which World War I dentist with help -
was mainly steer country, and held about 500 head, Williams ing him make the decision to
it was this business that his fa- recalls. leave the cowboying profes-
ther made his livelihood from. "Dad was kind of smart. At sion behind to pursue a college
At the time, South Texas the time the railroad had a 40- education.
country was leasing for 25 to foot car and a 42 -foot car. He "I had some teeth thatwere
30 cents an acre and his father would always order 40- foacars bothering me, so I finally de-
ran some 4000 head of steers because they were cheaper, but cided to come in to the den-
a year.. Most were:Mexicans. lots of times- they 4a4 t bawe tist, "�Vtili srecatlls., xsh�
His father had ranched in . enough, so they would send emitted my .teeth and told,: me_-
Mexico close to.Muzqu>'iz, just 42 -foot cars, and he never had that I needed nine ; teeth filled,,
south of Piedras Niegras, be- to pay the difference." . He told me could ate
fore Williams was born and he If the train could not get to appointment to have i e;:>
had lots of contacts through- its destination within 24 hours, but I told huu that:: it had to
out the area cattle had to be unloaded for a have it done that day because
He recalls a tale from r. .
1�� � �� � � = 3 5 '- I was going hackie tile dyer
his father about an incident During the Depression; the next day. Salle drilled nine
where his father and a group Williams says, nearly every holes. He didn't have anything
of men were accosted by mem- steer man went broke. His dad to deaden them, so I felt every
bets of Po ncho Villa's gang. was no exception. one When he got, through I
asked how much .I owed him
and he told me it was $2 a
MELTON ARTER H 0R8ES tooth. As I started' down the
stairs, I got to thinking about
- FOR SALE - how I had worked 18 hard days
gathering: cattle at a dollar a
Three -In -One: Two Eyed Jack/Mr. Gunsmoke bred mare with day, and here this dentist got
Strait Silver filly at side, sells in foal to Woods Colonel (NCHA that in three hours time. So 1
money earning son of Colonel Freckles out of Hollywood Gold wenthonie and told father that
bred mare). $5900firm. I decided I'd go off to school."
1998 FANCY son of Woods Colonel out of Elite His older brother, Ernest,
Feature/Blondy's Dude mare. Cow horse/reining prospect had finished at A &M College
deluxe. $3500. in 1932, so Williams followed
1999 daughter of Hes Smooth and Blue (NCHA money earning his brother's example. He en-
tered in 1933 and finished with
stud from the Best Remuda award winning R. A. Brown Ranch) a degree in animal husbandry
out of Elite Feature /Blondy's Dude mare. Big, beautiful, kitten in 1937.
gentle. $2000.
He went to work for Ray -
Jared or Crystal Melton • 806/746 - 5539 mond Bell, who owned a ranch
in Durango, Mexico. It was
the registered business. He had Williams conducted his
a i C R F .N lost the string of McKnight first production sale in Novem-
• ax fi ` ,� k Herefords, but when presented' ber 1965. He offered 60 head
✓s ) : �� -k t � ` Sx rs..„ E3Q' G C .. year-old
A ?:: with the opportunity to tap • into' of two ear -old bulls. Over the •
^..` ' some genetics from a well years he sold bulls all across
f " i° breeder in the area he known bree
� "' < �y s" � � . �°,.• k � the U.S. as well as some into
i .4.,, F K� �' grabbed it. South Africa, South America
'."11,111% 3 • - J.A. Waide had been in the i and Mexico. Generally he tried
P.:';1'.t1:.1:. w " r ` registered bus, es since 1913 to market 80 to 90 bulls a year
,, ss y m and Williams liked his cattle.' Any drouth poses hard
k Waide never bought any out- times for stockmen, but
' g s side females as long as he was drouths, Williams says, can be
; � s _ : in business, and Williams took. particularly troublesome for
a t1 s
t , a similar road. , registered operators. Most
x 3 The dwarfism hit the West Texas ranchers of Will-
, t � x , 4 Hereford industry about 19401 iams' era have a story related
d y N. i :. 9 -. n . X 45
and it nearly ruined the breed i to the 1950s drouth. It was this
� Y > 1 You had to be careful about?. drouth that ruined many and
s, x , . ' 3 dirty pedigrees," Williams ex nearly got Williams, too.
a plains. "I kept selling down and
" ° .. Williams himself ran into buying more feed and selling
LONG RETIRED NOW, Concho County cattleman Jack trouble when he bou a bull" down some more," he recalls.
Williams still surrounds himself with pictures andi which happened to carry the; "It was very hard to sell down.
mementos of his years as a registered Hereford breeder. j gene. That's one drawback about
The memories that go with them are not exclusively; I bought that bull for having registered cattle. You
pleasant and include some notable wrecks, but Williams; $5000, and after I found outL can't just sell out and get back
Survived them all. he carried the trait, I sold him in quick. A lot of people don't
- -- -- -- for S300," Williams says. Af-
understand that raising cattle
claimed to be the most ideal ride around with the short . ter that I pretty well stuck with is a lifetime business. You
ranch in the world. ones. aline breeding program." don't really know if you have
"It was a beautiful ranch Williams next ended up in Another reason, he says, a good bull until you see his
with ideal weather, good rain '.Concho County, working on that he never had trouble with ' offspring," he explains.
fall, etc. Mr. Bell was there for': the federal government's Ag- 1 dwarfism was because he al- The drouth, seven years of
24 years and he never had a ricultural Adjustment pro ways tried to stay with more it, was one of the tougher times
drouth. The only setback was gram. Williams says he never of a range type cow. of his career. He recalls a time
that it never froze there, so he, thought he'd be fooling with i "I was raised with commer- when his wife, now of 60
had a lot of trouble with screw -'; sheep, so when he was at A &M I cial cattle and I never lost sight years, did her best to pick up
worms. 1 when he could he substituted!' of an animal that would do 7. her husband's spirits.
The headquarter ranch con-! cattle courses for any of his i well, gainab' =ity, a thrifty ani- "I was really down in the
prised over 100,000 acres di- sheep and hog classes. The 1 mal.That wc.; the main thing I I dumps;' Williams recalls. "We
vided, and another adjoining; irony, he says, was that he' selected for,' Williams says. i had had a little sprinkle over
ranch encompassed an_ addi- I ended up spending the major - He began performance test- the country. I kept a gauge at
tional 60,000 acres. There! ity of his life right in the heart! ing his bulls at the Balmorhea the gate going into the ranch
were 16 pastures of 10,0001 of sheep country. station in 1947. Some 16 out at the house. When I stopped
acres and 48 creromoter wind -1 He didn't much like work- of the 20 years in which he I to check it, I found that we had
mills with concrete storage tanks. j ing for the government, so he tested bulls there Williams I two inches and I couldn't be-
Cattle were raised in Mexico; went back to what he knew took home the award for the I lieve it. My wife was real tick -
and sold in the U.S. Williams j best. A rancher at Granbury ` high performing bull. His most I led and she had a nice meal
was primarily responsible for wanted to restock his ranch,; famous herd sire was Sala , prepared and all. The next
receiving the cattle on the -U.S.1 and he hired Williams for the 1 amino which he used a 'a.. morning I realized and knew
side of the border job, He went to out to Alpine herd sire before selling the bt f at it couldn't have rained that
,
During his stint with Bell', and bought a bunch of cows much. My wife told me that
Williams was charged with g Texas A &M to use
from some of the old estab- ' 1 g their college .l she knew I was so down it
1 delivering 500 heifers from; .° d s that she filled the rain
ells, S m ranchers like the th Brothers and Luk Mitch- Another top performing tsutrt un p
Mexico to leased country on i ells, Smith y 1 was Sam Donald, a name most
the Bell Ranch at Tucumcari,
Brite. ; , Hertford still recog-
New Me d
xico. He remembers, Sometime in the early • ! niz+eto b He says he still gets
1 1 the incident because of the i. 1940s, after a stint in the army, c ils..t+4Ay. for semen from
weather. . Williams returned to Concho samDonald,
"It was spring in Mexic C ounty. He started out leasing 'illia# eontinied W' - test
and it never got very cold thete, r. • a ranch, gradually accumu- 17i,
his bulls there until the station
so I didn't bring any winter; fated more land and eventually ` closed in 1964. After that he
clothes with me. I rode the 1. purchased a ranch. ' bulls at home And
train with the cattle, and by the l Williams had always been
time we stopped in El Paso it:. partial to the Hereford breed; I he put to use what he learned
wa$ .ad,19k xntTlicu - and when he came ibook t o at these.tests, Be once touted
can. First thing I did was un- Concho 'County it was seife,, to an, article in the s Angelo
load the cattle so could get to nl Tines that "a good
�Y g ford cattle dtaf he .ttu,
acclimated to the change i:n' His experience with tltel3t b reeder can't aff not to
temperature, and then I went began early in his life I i mo w hi ca le, . lzave some
down to the mercantile and b oug h t ' common sense tie this
bought me an overcoat. • 19 . � M with- rte: • A breeder, wh.
"By the time I got to Tltcunt- l m who was X413' f rom . isolates his ideas about cattle
cari it I had to ad ew�te M to z l o. nora I Ut vxho.had._►noved.his ! will it d himself lost. he condi-
I herd down to the e,atrnaovacea. l
the condition of the cows and "I always liked the likitic 1 Ironed his bulls with only lim-
the condition of the pastures fords. They were st 1 ited feeding.
so I unloaded and then got on b cattle, good na ttur d" Will - j "I raised them so that a
an old gray horse and rode the jams says. "They're ideal for rancher could take them home,
20,000 -acre pasture where the our country. it's always been put them to work. They didn't
cattle were going to be. The toohot here for the .long-haired have any excess fat on them.
stirrups were too short but my Durhams and Shorthorns." They were conditioned for the
fingers were so cold that 1 Williams started right off in pasture?'
couldn't fix them, so I had to