1390. DALE, Kittie. Echoes and Etchings of Early Ellis. [Denver]:
Big Mountain Press, [1964]. 224 pp., text illustrations (mostly photographic).
8vo, original yellow cloth. Very fine in lightly worn, price-clipped d.j.
First edition. Pioneer history of a small Kansas town,
including mention of cowboys, early ranching activities of the area, and Ellis’s
short stint as a cowtown. From 1875 to 1880, Ellis served as a shipping point
for cattle herds driven up from the south. “Because of exceptional railroad
facilities, Ellis had a large part in the Texas longhorn cattle trade...and took
its turn as a wild rough cowtown, with the open doors of saloons and gambling
houses never closing for the trail riders, the buffalo hunters, mule skinners,
cowboys, gamblers, and adventurers of all kinds who drifted within its borders” (p.
195).
The author includes material on apprehension of a rustler,
the inevitable conflict between trail bosses and the homesteaders whose fields
the herds ruined, and the interesting snippet that “when herds of Texan
longhorns came to Ellis to be shipped, the bawl of the cattle could be heard
for days ahead of their arrival” (p. 203). $50.00
1391. DALE LAND & CATTLE COMPANY. Incorporated under the
Laws of the State of Texas. No. 131. ___ Shares. The Dale Land & Cattle
Co. Places of Business Bonham & Henrietta, Texas.
Headquarter Ranches in Clay County, Texas.
Capital Stock, $300,000. 3,000 Shares of $100 Each...Certificate of Stock. [St.
Louis, Geo. D. Bernard & Company, ca. 1900]. Lower left: Geo. D. Barnard & Co. St.
Louis. Engraved stock certificate measuring 23.2 x 29.5 cm. Very
fine, unused.
A handsome stock certificate with illustration of a two men
on horseback with a small herd of cattle, cactus in the foreground, and fenced
homestead in the background. This stock certificate documents ranching roots
in the Texas Panhandle near the Oklahoma border. Henrietta was one of the last
areas of Texas to be settled by Anglos. George D. Barnard created prints for
other promotional materials for Texas in the late nineteenth century and assisted
with creation of the great series of Texas county maps put out by the General
Land Office in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. $125.00
Item 1391
1392. DALTON, Emmett & Jack Jungmeyer. When The Daltons Rode. Garden
City: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1931. viii, 313 pp., frontispiece portrait,
photographic plates (including opening of Cherokee Strip), pictorial endpapers.
8vo, original brown pebble cloth with illustration of a smoking six-shooter.
Light ownership ink stamps of Geo. T. Bradley on title and half-title, otherwise
fine (text very clean and fresh), in the rare d.j. with illustration by Ross
Santee (price-clipped, torn, and lightly soiled).
First edition. Dykes, Fifty Great Western Illustrators (Santee
350); Rare Western Outlaw Books, pp. 38-39 (title illustrated): “Of
the books about the Oklahoma outlaws, I like Emmett Dalton’s When the
Dalton’s Rode and Col. Bailey C. Hanes’s Bill Doolin.” Guns 549: “Scarce.” Howes
D39.
This book purports to present the true story of the Dalton
gang told by the only survivor of the Coffeyville bank robbery, which effectively
put an end to the gang’s forays. “In 1882, the [Dalton family] moved
into the Cherokee Nation in what is now Oklahoma. The boys still at home were
soon working as cowboys and consorting with a rough crowd that included several
men who would later become members of their gang.... In [1889] Oklahoma opened
up to settlement, and the Daltons moved into a profitable horse-stealing operation,
in spite of the badges they still wore. For a time after the Osage caught on
to their activities, they carried on their clandestine operations as officers
for the Cherokee. By 1890, however, they were discredited as lawmen and had turned
to horse stealing as a full-time enterprise” (Lamar, p. 185).
Emmett Dalton declares at the end: “Vanished was the
virgin wild along the Cimarron, the Canadian, and the Red Rivers where we rough-shod
young riders had galloped and marauded. Some of the cowboys, shamefaced, were
beginning to guide plows. A few of them actually fell so low as to milk a cow!” Handbook
of Texas Online: Dalton Gang. $250.00
1393. DALTON, John Edward. Forged in Strong Fires: The Early
Life and Experiences as Told by John Edward Dalton, Looking Back over the
Years, and Taken Down and Edited by M. P. Wentworth. Caldwell: Caxton
Printers, 1948. 373 pp., color frontispiece, illustrations and pictorial
endpapers by Cecil Smith. 8vo, original textured terracotta cloth. Fine,
in two dust wrappers, as issued (a plain brown d.j. in fine condition and
a moderately worn, chipped, and price-clipped pictorial d.j.).
First edition, limited edition (#556 of 1000, signed
by Wentworth). Herd 2471. Here is the fantastic life story of John E.
Dalton, who grew up in the Red River area of North Texas in the late 1800s. “He
was the prototype of the gay and fearless American cowboy” (from d.j. blurb).
Dalton states that his grandfather was from Kilkenny, two of his great-uncles
were killed at the Alamo, and in the late 1860s his father dealt in hides and
cattle in Texas and sent trail herds to Kansas. Dalton did it all: pioneer Texas
ranch kid; rodeo trick rider and roper; hunting wild elephants in India; incarceration
in Czarist Russia; hobnobbing with royalty; prize-fighting and rodeoing in Ireland,
New Zealand, and elsewhere; joining a circus in France; gambling in Algiers;
riding horseback across the Sahara Desert; visiting a ranch (“bullock station”)
and participating in a rodeo and kangaroo and dingo hunts in Adelaide, Australia,
where he was called a “cow laddie” rather than a cowboy, and more.
$75.00
Item 1393
1394. DALTON, John Edward. Forged in Strong Fires.... Caldwell:
Caxton Printers, 1948. Another copy. Light shelf wear, otherwise very fine
in the brown d.j.
First edition, limited edition (#112 of 1,000 copies,
signed by Wentworth). $50.00
1395. DALTON, John Edward. Forged in Strong Fires.... Caldwell:
Caxton Printers, 1948. 373 pp., color frontispiece, illustrations by Cecil
Smith. 8vo, original terracotta cloth. Light shelf wear, fore-edges foxed,
otherwise fine in chipped and lightly foxed pictorial d.j.
First trade edition. Herd 2471. $40.00
1396. DALTON, Kit. Under the Black Flag by Captain Kit Dalton,
a Confederate Soldier: A Guerilla Captain under the Fearless Leader Quantrell [sic] and
a Border Outlaw for Seventeen Years Following the Surrender of the
Confederacy. Associated with the Most Noted Band of Free Booters the World
Has Ever Known. [Memphis: Lockard Publishing Co., 1914]. 252 pp., frontispiece
(photograph of author and Frank James), text illustrations (mostly photographic).
12mo, original wrappers (illustrated with portrait of author), sewn. Wraps
lightly browned and with a bit of minor chipping, interior fine. Difficult
to find in decent condition.
First edition. Graff 993. Guns 550 (calling
for stiff wrappers, whereas the present copy has thin paper wrappers): “Scarce.
One cannot understand why a writer like this one, supposedly writing about his
own life, could possibly make the statements he does, unless in his dotage his
memory has turned to fantastic hallucinations [see Burs Under the Saddle for
more of Adams’ grumbling].” Rader 1048.
The focus is primarily Quantrill, the Civil War, and outlawry,
but the author includes a chapter on his stint as a cowpuncher right after the
Civil War. Dalton was on the run and decided that being a cowpuncher was a good
way to hide his true identity. Dalton was hired for $45 to accompany a drive
of four thousand head of cattle from Little Rock to Fort Scott, Kansas (“I
passed off as a western cattleman, and as I could talk pretty intelligently about
this section of the country [and] they had no occasion to doubt my statements”).
After the stress of the Civil War and outlaw life, Dalton
comments on the trail drive as if it was a Zen experience: “In the long,
long march across the plains I had heard nothing more thrilling than the crack
of whips and the bleating of cattle. Not a gun had been fired for any reason
whatsoever. How soothing the sensation, how peaceful appeared the broad extended
prairie! It was like paradise to me, and I wished it could endure always.”
Dalton includes a warm chapter on Belle Starr, noted female
outlaw and alleged rustler (complete with a portrait of Belle wearing a jaunty
feather head-dress and looking more like a gorgeous Cherokee maiden than her
usual hatchet-faced incarnation): “As a cattle rustler, she has never had
an equal among the stronger sex, and as a horse thief, she has no superiors.
To sum up her character in one trite paragraph, I will simply state that Belle
was a maroon Diana in the chase, a Venus in beauty, a Minerva in wisdom, a thief,
a robber, a murderer, and a generous friend. A more fearless human being never
went forth to deeds of bloody mischief nor washed bloodier hands to dance nimbly
over the ivory keys of a piano.” $300.00
1397. [DANA, C. W.]. The Garden of the World; or, The Great
West: Its History, Its Wealth, Its Natural Advantages.... A Complete Guide
to Emigrants, with a Full Description of the Different Routes Westward. By
an Old Settler.... Boston: Wentworth and Company, 1856. [8] [13]-396
pp., text engravings (full-page illustrations of state seals). 12mo, original
purple blindstamped cloth. Cloth faded, moderate outer wear, rear free endpaper
not present, interior fine except for occasional light foxing and spotting.
Contemporary ink ownership inscription and library ink stamp on front free
endpaper.
First edition. Buck 564. Cowan, p. 155. Flake 2655.
Graff 995. Howes (1954) 2571. Plains & Rockies IV:279a:1: “The
author describes a number of routes to the West. He also offers instructions
for prospective immigrants.” Rader 1051. Smith 2244.
Chapters are devoted to Texas, California, New Mexico, Utah,
Oregon, Washington Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Each state is dealt with in gazetteer-like
fashion, and the section entitled “agriculture” gives livestock statistics.
The chapter on Texas includes a long letter by Sam Houston extolling the advantages
that Texas offers as a field for immigration. The chapter on Kansas includes
a section on the “Vegetarian Settlement Company.” $150.00
1398. DANA, C. W. The Great West; or the Garden of the World:
Its History, Its Wealth, Its Natural Advantages.... Boston: Wentworth
and Co., 1858. [8] [13]-396 [4, ads] pp., engraved text illustrations. 12mo,
original brown blindstamped cloth. Worn and faded, occasional mild to moderate
foxing to text, light marginal water staining to about the last twenty leaves.
Nineteenth-century lending library rules of Union Library of Providence affixed
to front free endpaper, remains of library slip and pocket on rear pastedown.
Third edition. Plains & Rockies IV:279a:3. Smith
2246. $75.00
1399. DANA, Julian. Sutter of California, a
Biography. New York: Halcyon House, [1938]. xi [3] 423 pp., frontispiece
portrait, plates (photographic and from old prints) maps, illustrations,
endpaper maps. 8vo, original red cloth gilt. Very fine in lightly worn, price-clipped
d.j. (on d.j.: 1839—Sutter Centennial Edition—1939). Bookseller’s
label on lower pastedown.
Halcyon House Centennial edition (first published in 1934).
Rocq 6681. A biography of German-Swiss California pioneer John Sutter, on whose
early California forted rancho gold was first discovered, triggering the California
Gold Rush. In 1839 Governor Alvarado granted Sutter eleven square leagues (nearly
50,000 acres) in the Sacramento Valley and authorized him to represent the establishment
of New Helvetia. “New Helvetia prospered far beyond most California ranchos
because Sutter diversified his operations to include trapping and agriculture
as well as cattle-raising.... The Gold Rush was Sutter’s ruin. His workers
abandoned him for the gold fields and squatters and miners...overran his lands,
dispersed and slaughtered his herds, and destroyed fields” (Lamar, p. 1152).
$30.00
“Best account of the early hide trade of California” (Reese, Six Score)
1400. DANA, Richard Henry, Jr. Two Years before the Mast:
A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea. New York: Harper & Brothers,
1840. 483 pp. 16mo, original black cloth, spine gilt-lettered. Wear to extremities,
hinges starting, text lightly foxed. Overall a very good copy of a book difficult
to find in collector’s condition.
First edition of author’s first book, first issue (copyright
notice—letter “i” in “in” dotted, unbroken running
head on p. 9), in BAL binding A. BAL 4434. Bennett, American Book Collecting, pp.
86-87. Cowan, p. 156n: “One of the most widely read books relating to California.
The author spent much of the years 1835 and 1836 in various parts of that territory,
and his pictures of its life and times are the most brilliant that we possess.” Dobie,
p. 101: “The classic of the hide and tallow trade of California.” Dykes, Collecting
Range Life Literature, p. 14; Western High Spots, p. 14n (“Western
Movement—Its Literature”); p. 20 (cites the first edition as #1 in “My
Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West”). Graff 998.
Grolier American Hundred 46: “Our only trustworthy
account [of California] before the 1849 gold rush.” Herd 642: “The
first state is very difficult to come by.” Hill, pp. 78-79: “[Dana’s]
book has become a classic account of the life and adventures of an ordinary seaman
in the American merchant service. It concerns his experiences in California in
1835-36, Juan Fernandez Island, Cape Horn, etc., and is invaluable for its descriptions
of California ranching and social life in Mexican times, including San Diego,
Santa Barbara, and Monterey.” Howell 50, California 53. Howes D49: “This
account of California in 1835 and 1836 surpassed in popularity all other books
relating to that state.” Johnson, High Spots of American Literature,
pp. 26-27. LC, California Centennial 173. Libros Californianos (Hanna
list), p. 65. Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 8: “While
this book deals primarily with life at sea, it probably contains more detailed
information on the hide and tallow trade than all other books on the subject
combined.... Its importance cannot be overemphasized.” Powell, California Classics, pp.
151-62. Reese, Six Score 28: “This classic of American literature
contains the best account of the early hide trade of California.” Zamorano
80 #26. $6,000.00
1401. [DANA, Richard Henry, Jr.]. Two Years before the Mast.... New York: Harper & Brothers, 1840. Another copy, binding variant (BAL Binding B, no priority). 16mo, original tan muslin printed in black. Joints neatly mended, a bit of scattered foxing, but a near fine copy in a notoriously fragile binding, much better than most. The muslin binding is more difficult to find than the black cloth binding (see preceding). $6,000.00
1402. DANA, Richard H. Two Years before the Mast.... New
York: Heritage Press, [1941]. x, 347 [1] pp., text illustrations (some in color)
by Dale Nichols, endpaper maps. 8vo, original blue gilt-pictorial cloth. Spine
faded, otherwise fine in publisher’s slipcase. Related copy of the Heritage
Club Sandglass (no. 6E) laid in. Carl Hertzog’s copy, with his
bookplate.
Modern illustrated edition of Dana’s classic work. $30.00
1403. DANIELL, L. E. (comp.). Personnel of the Texas State
Government with Sketches of Distinguished Texans, Embracing the Executive
and Staff, Heads of the Departments, United States Senators and Representatives,
Members of the Twentieth Legislature. Austin: Published by L. E. Daniell
(at the Press of the City Printing Company), 1887. 317 pp., frontispiece
of the State capitol, engraved plates (mostly portraits). 8vo, original brown
cloth. Binding worn and faded, front hinge cracked. Old paper spine labels
and contemporary ink ownership inscription partially removed.
First edition. Rader 1056. Raines, p. 61. Biographies
(many with portraits) of Texans, including many of interest for ranching history,
for example, Robert J. Kleberg, C. C. Slaughter, Charles Goodnight, et al. Daniell
prepared biographical compilations of legislators and other Texans in 1887, 1889,
1890, and 1892. Each compilation represents the men in service at the time of
publication, and although some biographies are repeated in the series, each compilation
is a new work in itself. Taken together, Daniell’s compilations are a rich
source of history and biography, sometimes providing details not found elsewhere
on men, local history, the cattle industry, and the Civil War. $250.00
1404. DANIELL, L. E. (comp.). Personnel of the Texas State Government,
with Sketches of Distinguished Texans.... Austin: Published by L. E.
Daniell (at Smith, Hicks & Jones, State Printers), 1889. 436 pp., frontispiece
engraving of the State capitol, text illustrations and plates (engraved and
photographic portraits). 8vo, original maroon cloth gilt. Moderate outer
wear, lower portion of spine missing, covers almost detached, interior fine.
Contemporary ink ownership signature of noted collector J. C. Ingram, with
his pencil notes on the pages of his ancestor, James M. Ingram.
First edition. Raines, p. 61. Another of Daniell’s
compilations (see preceding), including Curran Michael Rogers of South Texas
(stock raiser and legislator who served on the special legislative committee
on lawlessness in Texas arising from fence cutting); William Frederick Miller
of San Antonio (cowboy, farmer, and stock raiser); Blucher H. Erskine (representative
for Guadalupe, Uvalde, Kinney, and surrounding counties “engaged in milling
and stockraising” in Guadalupe County); Norton Moses of Burnet County (chairman
of the Committee on Agriculture and Stock Raising); stock raiser Sam Whitted
of San Saba County; Edward LeGrand Dunlap of Refugio (ranched in Refugio and
Victoria counties); and many more. $125.00
1405. DANIELL, L. E. (comp.). Personnel of the Texas State Government,
with Sketches of Representative Men of Texas. San Antonio:
Maverick Printing House, 1892. xvi, 682 pp., frontispiece of Huddle’s
painting of the surrender of Santa Anna to Sam Houston at San Jacinto, numerous
plates (photographic and engraved portraits—many after Huddle’s
paintings). Thick 8vo, original maroon calf stamped in gilt and blind, bevelled
edges. Binding worn and spine almost detached, hinges cracked, intermittent
browning to text. J. C. Ingram’s signature on front endpaper and pastedown
and his card tipped onto front pastedown.
First edition. Raines, p. 62. This compilation includes
Richard King (“known wherever the English language is spoken as the greatest
individual ranchman and cattle owner in the world”); Charles Schreiner;
Santiago Sanchez (“one of the leading citizens of Laredo and principal
land and cattle owner in Tamaulipas”); Thomas O’Connor (“a
real-live Texas cattle king”); Dennis O’Connor and his wife, Mary
Virginia Drake O’Connor; William Kuykendall; and many more. In our opinion,
this is the best of the Daniell compilations, much larger, with interesting additions,
more women, and higher quality illustrations. $300.00
1406. DANIELS, Helen Sloan (comp.). The Ute Indians of Southwestern
Colorado. Durango: Durango Public Library Museum Project, National
Youth Administration, 1941. [14] 136 [14, bibliography and index] pp. (mimeographed),
illustrations (mostly artifacts, some in color), maps. 4to, original stiff
beige pictorial wrappers. Fine.
First edition. Wilcox, p. 36. Wynar 1753. This publication
was created as part of the National Youth Administration program. The compiled
articles by Anglo and Ute authors include D. H. Wattson (Superintendent of the
Consolidated Ute Agency in Colorado), Ford C. Frick (on Ute legends), Buckskin
Charley (head chief at the Ute Reservation at Ignacio, Colorado), and others.
Adair Wilson, et al., in “The Southern Ute Indians of
Colorado” document that the Meeker massacre was due to Ute dissatisfaction
with the long, narrow reservation (15 by 110 miles) allotted them in 1874 by
the U.S. government. Quoted is an 1878 report by Ute agent F. H. Weaver: “Experience
has shown that the shape into which this reservation has been thrown has been
very unfortunate. A strip of ground fifteen miles wide with herds of cattle from
both sides pouring in upon it, eating up all the grass is no place to keep Indians.” When
asked what the Utes expected in a reservation when removal from Colorado to Utah
was proposed, Buckskin Charley replied: “We want to go west and get grass
land and raise stock.” He testified in 1886 that his people wished to become
self-supporting, but could not because of the shape of their reservation, constant
encroachments, and Ute stock roaming beyond reservation confines.
Indian Commissioner Atkins testified in 1886 that at the time
the pastoral Utes numbered about 983 souls with a herd of over 8,000 head of
cattle, horses, mules, and sheep. Included is a map of the reservation. Among
the folklore documented is Buckskin Charley’s account of “The Branded
Buffalo,” relating a disturbing boyhood buffalo hunt near Spanish Peaks,
in which the warriors discovered that each of the buffalo they killed bore a
brand on its shoulder. $250.00
1407. DANIELSON, Clarence L. & Ralph W. Danielson. Basalt: Colorado Midland Town. Boulder:
Pruett Press, [1965]. xiii [1] 371 pp., frontispiece map, text illustrations
(some full-page and/or in color—mostly photographs, including several
aerial views and many vintage portraits), brands, maps in back pocket. Large
8vo, original brown buckram. Fine in d.j. with one small spot and neat tape
repair on back. Scarce, privately printed local history.
First edition, limited edition (#357 of 1,500 copies
signed by the authors). Wynar 902. This local history of Basalt includes a list
of early cattlemen in the Roaring Fork and Frying Pan Valleys, along with an
illustrated list of early brands. The author describes his boyhood adventures
on the Smith Ranch. $75.00
1408. DARLEY, George M. Pioneering in the San Juan:
Personal Reminiscences of Work Done in Southwestern Colorado during
the “Great San Juan Excitement.” Chicago, New
York & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1899. 225 [1] pp., frontispiece
(photographic portrait of author), photographic plates. 12mo, original grey
and blue embossed pictorial cloth. Moderate shelf wear and a few light stains
to cloth, a good to very good copy, with author’s signed and dated
presentation copy to S. B. Hardy.
First edition. Guns 556: “Scarce.” Wilcox,
p. 36. Wynar 9115. In chapter 26 (“Picking Bullets from the Pulpit the
Sabbath Following Mob Violence”), Presbyterian minister Darley relates
the lynching of the cattle rustlers known as the Lee Roy Brothers: “At
Del Norte...we had some men who were not considered good citizens, and the county
contained a few more of like character. One in particular was not loved by the
ranchmen, because he was accused of counting more cattle for his own than belonged
to him.”
A lynch mob gathered on a Saturday but politely waited until
Monday to invade the Del Norte courthouse and jail where Darley conducted religious
services on Sunday. The head rustler escaped but his accomplice was killed by
the mob. Darley sagely observes that “hanging is the only thing that will
make some men quit their cussedness” (p. 187). Darley recalls twenty years
of ministry among the towns of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, with descriptions
of miners and mining, establishing first the churches on the Western Slope, gambling,
sporting men and fast women, fatalities from snow slides, Ute horse racing, animosity
of Utes toward Anglos (“all they know is they have been robbed and their
only desire is for revenge”), etc.
The documentary photographs are wonderful, including “Ouray,
Colo., Looking East in 1898,” “Dealing Faro in a San Juan Gambling
Hall,” “Wheel of Fortune—Miners at Home in 1877,” “Prospector
on His Way to a New Gold Field,” “Four Ute Chief, Agent, and Interpreter,” “Elder
James K. Herring and Rev. Geo. M. Darley, D.D. [on skis] Ready for a Swift Run,” etc.
$300.00
1409. DARLEY, George M. Pioneering in the San Juan.... Chicago, New York & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1899. Another copy. Binding rubbed and spotted, lower edge stained. Author’s signed and dated presentation copy to W. W. Rowan, M.D. $225.00
1410. DARLEY, George M. Pioneering in the San Juan.... Chicago, New York & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1899. Another copy. Slight shelf wear, front upper corner lightly bumped, one spot on upper cover, otherwise fine, tight, and fresh inside. $300.00
Limited Edition of Dary’s Buffalo Book
1411. DARY, David A. The Buffalo Book. Chicago:
Sage Books, The Swallow Press, [1974]. [12] 374 pp., plates and text illustrations
(photographic and illustrations by Remington, Russell, and others), tables.
8vo, full buffalo hide with embossed swallow on lower cover. Mint in publisher’s
slipcase.
First edition, second printing, limited edition (#22
of 50 numbered and signed copies, in the special buffalo hide binding, with note
that no animals were killed in order to provide hides for this special edition).
Dykes, Western High Spots, p. 68 (“High Spots of Western Illustrating” #224): “Best
of all the buffalo books to date.”
In the chapter titled “In Captivity” there is
extensive discussion of riding, roping, and harnessing buffalo, with many photographs
of cowboys riding bucking buffalo and perpetuating other rodeo customs upon the
hapless and truculent beasts. “Bridles were slipped over their heads and
a harness was thrown from a safe distance onto their backs. The tongue of a heavy
freight wagon was slowly shoved between the bulls and fixed into a neck-yoke.
The traces were fastened to the singletrees with a long hooked iron rod. Then
a lariat was fastened around the horns of each bull and held by a mounted cowboy,
one on each side of the buffalo, to prevent a general smash-up should the buffalo
stampede when turned loose. Seven cowboys climbed aboard the large freight wagon
and the buffalo were released. Like the angry animals they were, they broke for
open country. The cowboys in the wagon fired their pistols onto the air and the
wagon shot across the open country like a dog with tin cans tied to his tail.
It was indeed a strange sight” (p. 250).
The book includes material on Charles Goodnight’s attempts
to preserve the buffalo, “Buffalo” Jones, cattalo, buffalo in rodeo
events, “The American Buffalo as a Symbol,” etc. The appendix contains
an article “So You Want to Raise Buffalo!” $400.00
Item 1411
1412. DAUGHTERS OF UTAH PIONEERS. Beneath Ben Lomond’s
Peak: A History of Weber County, 1824-1900....
Compiled by Milton R. Hunter. Salt Lake City: Publishers Press,
1966. xxiv, 606 pp., frontispiece, numerous illustrations (some full-page,
many photographic), maps. 8vo, original black cloth. Fine.
Third printing of 1944 edition. Discusses pioneer cattle operations,
including mention of Miles Goodyear, “the first cattleman in Weber County” (p.
295). $45.00
1413. DAVID, Robert B. Malcolm Campbell, Sheriff: The Reminiscences
of the Greatest Frontier Sheriff in the History of the Platte Valley,
and the Famous Johnson County Invasion of 1892. Casper:
Wyomingana, Inc., [1932]. [2] 361 [5] pp., frontispiece portrait of Campbell,
photographic plates, maps, facsimiles, plans. 8vo, original turquoise cloth.
An exceptionally fine, bright copy of a book that is usually found in faded
covers or with a dull spine. Signed by Sheriff Malcolm Campbell on frontispiece
portrait.
First edition, limited edition (350 copies). Dobie,
pp. 102: “Much of the ‘Johnson County War’ between cowmen and
thieving nesters.” Graff 1012. Guns 557: “Scarce.” Herd 647.
Howes D85. Malone, Wyomingiana, p. 3.
These are the personal reminiscences of the sheriff at the
center of the Johnson County War that erupted after two unusually harsh winters
reduced herd numbers drastically, making cattle a prized commodity. The epochal
confrontation played out in Wyoming in 1892 between two groups, the small local
cattlemen and settlers vs. the “cattle kings” (many of whom were
nonresident investor-owned companies) organized as the Wyoming Stock Growers
Association. The latter hired Texas gunmen to invade Johnson County, kill suspected
rustlers, and exile and intimidate the remaining small ranchers.
Campbell comments (pp. 149-50): “In the spring of 1892,
in defiance of the Live Stock Commission and the laws which authorized that body
to designate and divide the state into roundup districts, there was held a meeting
of small cattlemen and rustlers at Buffalo, the county seat of Johnson County,
where they formed a body which they called the Northern Wyoming Farmers and Stock
Growers Association. There they proceeded to arrange roundups to be held on May
1st, a month previous to the date of the legal roundups, which would
enable them to collect the mavericks before the wagons and men of the large cattle
companies could get on the ground. It was recognized throughout the state that
this was the last straw. To allow this aggressive action to proceed unchecked
was impossible, and the range expectantly waited for the first move of retaliation
from the cattlemen.” $350.00
1414. DAVID, Robert B. Malcolm Campbell, Sheriff.... Casper: Wyomingana, Inc., [1932]. Another copy, signed by Malcolm Campbell on frontispiece portrait. A few scratches on covers, which are slightly stained. Contemporary ink notes of L. R. A. Condit of Barnum, Wyoming, and February 1932 ink presentation from T. J. Gatchell. $250.00
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