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Chuckwagon: Cowboy Corn Muffin

COWBOY CORN MUFFIN FOR BREAKFAST

Farmer’s Almanac 1885

COWBOY CORN MUFFIN

Pour one quart of boiling milk over one pint of fine cornmeal.  While the mixture is still hot, add one tablespoonful of butter and a little salt, stirring the batter thoroughly.  Let is stand until cool, then add a small cup of wheat flour and two well-beaten eggs.  When mixed sufficiently, but the batter into well-greased shallow tins (or, better yet, into gem pans) and bake in a brisk over for one-half hour, or until richly browned.  Serve hot.

*Courtesy of Chronicle of the Old West newspaper, for more click HERE.

Grand Duke Alexis

Grand Duke AlexisIn January of 1872, the Russian Grand Duke Alexis went on what was called a “millionaire hunt.”
 
Because of his political influence, General Sheridan was instructed to make sure the 21-year-old Grand Duke had a good time. So General Sheridan selected George Armstrong Custer as the grand marshal, and Buffalo Bill Cody as the hunting guide.  
 
Buffalo Bill enlisted Sioux Chief Spotted Tail and 100 of his braves as entertainment. According to Buffalo Bill “the Duke Alexis paid considerable attention to a handsome Indian maiden.”
 
Protocol dictated that the Grand Duke should kill the first buffalo.   
 
The Grand Duke wanted to take his buffalo with a handgun. But after he emptied two pistols with no hits, Buffalo Bill gave the Grand Duke his buffalo rifle, “Lucretia”. The Grand Duke got his buffalo. Afterward, everyone drank champagne. Buffalo Bill, in his autobiography commented that he “was in hopes the Grand Duke Alexis would kill five or six more, if champagne was to be opened every time he dropped one.” 
 
One can only imagine the battle for the Grand Duke’s attention that took place between Buffalo Bill Cody and General Custer. However, it seems that the Grand Duke actually liked General Custer quite a bit. General Custer got a big hug from the Grand Duke. The two took pictures together following the hunt. And when General Custer was killed, the Grand Duke sent money to General Custer’s wife Libby. Buffalo Bill did get three buffalo’s head broaches. And then, don’t forget the free champagne.

Cattle Industry Decimated

Cattle Industry DecimatedBy the mid 1880’s the cattle industry was going wild. Speculators were overstocking the grazing ranges of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. And with several mild winters they were also saving money by not putting up feed for wintertime. The summer of 1886 was a dry one. By autumn the range was almost barren of grass… And then winter came early with record-breaking snow falls. January 9, 1887 was the worst day of the worst winter, with an inch of snow falling each hour for 16 hours. The temperature went as low as 63 degrees below zero. It ended up with the cattle industry decimated.
 
With no stored winter feed the cattle wandered into towns. Great Falls, Montana had as many as 5,000 cattle eating trees and anything else eatable. Most ended up dying in the streets of the town.
 
In the spring the ranchers went out to check the damage. Where once cattle grazed the ranges, now there were only carcasses. Rotting cattle filled the rivers and streams so it was impossible to find water fit to drink.   
 
The Continental Land and Cattle Company lost almost all of their 30,000 head. The Swan Land and Cattle Company found only 10% of their 5,500 three-year-olds. Hundreds of ranches went into bankruptcy… including Theodore Roosevelt, who returned East. 
 
As a result of the devastating winter, those ranchers who survived decreased the size of their herds. They realized they needed more control of the cattle and stretched barbed wire across their land. They also started doing more farming to provide plenty of winter-feed. This, in turn, changed the cowboy into a farm hand.

Heard Around The Bunkhouse #7 – Pioneer Terms and Sayings

Pioneer Terms

In our feature Heard Around the Bunkhouse we bring you pioneer terms and sayings that they used back in the Old West. Hope you enjoy them, and send us your favorite terms from those past times.

PACK –  In the old west nothing was carried.  Whether it was transported on a person or animal, the item was packed.

PACKER- The man in charge of pack animals.

PACK IRON – To carry a pistol.

SURFACE COAL – Buffalo or cow dung fuel.

SWITCHES – Thorny thickets in which cattle can hide.

PULL LEATHER – To hold on to the saddle while riding a pitching horse.

*Courtesy of Chronicle of the Old West newspaper, for more click HERE.

Old West Book Review: Wrecked Lives and Lost Souls

Wrecked Lives and Lost SoulsWrecked Lives and Lost Souls; Joe Lynch Davis and the Last of the Oklahoma Outlaws, Jerry Thompson, University of Oklahoma Press, $24.95, Paper. Nonfiction, U.S. History, Illustrations. Maps, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Born in 1891, Joe Lynch Davis was the second of five children born to Jack Davis and Bessie Satterwhite.  The first part of this biography explains how the early Davis family migrated from northern Georgia to Oklahoma before the Civil War, accumulating land and becoming successful ranchers.

Jack Davis and his kin were tough people, allowing nothing to stand in their way of gaining vast amounts of cattle, horses, and other business interests through hard work.  However, friends and neighbors were of the same cloth, and some of their endeavors were mixed with cattle rustling, horse theft, bank heists, train robberies and murder.  In the midst of all this, Joe Lynch Davis, the main subject of this nook, grew into a tough young hellion good with guns and horses.  By the time he was in his late teens he had already been involved in much of the mayhem.  He seemed never to quell his enthusiasm whether in a roping contest at the local rodeo, or riding hard one step ahead of a sharp-shooting posse.

Joe’s family was mixed up in a Porum, Oklahoma feud that left more than 20 men dead.  The Davis clan along with friends and enemies shot it out resulting in night-riding, arson, ambushes, missing persons, maimed bodies, and bloody folks getting even with each other by a variety of aggravated misunderstandings that end like all feuds do – with nobody knowing for sure what started it all.

During and after all this, young Joe was involved in one scrape after another quite  fearlessly planning and carrying out cattle rustling, bank holdups and train robberies. Sometimes he and his gang pulled off more than one heist in one day. When occasionally Joe got caught and had to stand trial, he was let go by juries too scared of his family to find him guilty.  Behind the scenes was Joe’s rich daddy who always found top-notch, high-priced lawyers to defend his son.

The book goes into detail about all the train and bank robberies, how much was stolen, and the aftermath.  Somewhere along the way Joe met an attractive young lady named Lula Cobb, and together they had a little girl.

In 1917 Joe got caught after another train robbery that included the shooting death of a railroad employee.  Railroad and Postal detectives this time got their man. Joe and his buddies did not get away with it.  Joe did 17 years at Leavenworth Penitentiary, including several years in solitary confinement living on bread and water.  The Davis family spent all their money hiring lawyers to free their son.  Eventually President Herbert Hoover gave him a conditional commutation.  Joe quietly returned to a desolate Oklahoma, ravaged by the Dust Bowl era’s Great Depression.  His family was now poor, and Lula had been murdered years before by a violent and abusive husband who committed suicide.

Old and broken, in poor health, rebuffed by his family for having caused so much pain, Joe minded his own business, got a job, and never gave an interview.  Joe died at age 86 in 1979.  The author of this book is the son of Joe’s orphaned daughter.  His interest in his grandfather was piqued when he found some old letters in a dresser drawer after his mother’s death.  This led to years of painful research, thus readers feel the strength of his writing and depth of emotion, as he finds out about a grandfather whose outlaw life had been kept secret by the Davis family.  Jerry Thompson is to be commended for his story, neither condemning nor defending a grandfather who was never part of his life.

Publisher’s Notes: The reviewer, Phyllis Morreale-de la Garza is the author of numerous books about the Old West, including Death For Dinner, the Benders of (Old) Kansas, Silk Label Books, P.O. Box 399, Unionville, New York, 10988.  Ph. (845) 726-3434. www.silklabelbooks.com

*Courtesy of Chronicle of the Old West newspaper, for more click HERE.