Prairie Gothic: The Story of a West Texas Family

Chapter Ten: Max Coleman Remembers

80 Chapter Ten: Max Coleman Remembers In 1890 the Sherman family, which now included two children, Mable and Forrest, pulled up stakes and moved thirty miles west of Estacado to a ranch in Lubbock County. Mike Harter notes that “the Sherman ranch was located on Yellow House Draw where the town of Shallowater is currently situated. Grandmother Curry could remember that water flowed in Yellow House Draw. Today it is a sandy bed that has been plowed in many places.” (Harter letter, July 13, 2004) W. C. Holden says that until the 1920s there was a lake in Yellow House Canyon that covered about ten acres and was fed by springs on the west side. “The overflow from the lake was sufficient to cause Yellow House Canyon to run a stream of clear, cold water a dozen feet wide and a foot deep all the way down its course.” (W. C. Holden, in Lawrence L. Graves 1962: 18) The Shermans moved a house they had built in Estacado to the Lubbock County ranch, hauling it on the back of wagons. It was a simple frame house without insulation, and Grandmother Curry, a child at that time, remembered it as very cold in the winter. When Joe had to be gone on roundups and cattle drives, Lina stayed alone with the children. She had to stake out the milk cow and horse during the day, then bring them back in the evening and milk the cow. There were no close neighbors, so Lina had been provided with a gun “and knew how to use it.” (Bennett Kerr interview, 2004) 81 Max Coleman Remembers In 1892 Max Coleman was on a horseback trip that took him toward the canyon country north of what is now Lubbock, Texas, and decided to stop at the Sherman ranch for a visit. He found Joe burning the MCross brand on a bunch of cattle he had just purchased. “A typical frontiersman, [Sherman] gave us a cordial welcome, immediately killing a fat beef, and we spent almost the entire nightindiscussion,aswasthecustomatthattime....Throughthe years, I was closely associated with Joe Sherman and developed a great friendship and admiration for him. Thousands of miles we rode together, several times going up the trail to Hereford and Bovina [small towns in the Texas Panhandle], shipping cattle to Kansas City. On those trips I always skillfully arranged to stand night guard with Joe Sherman. I never tired listening Joe Sherman with sons Forrest (left) and Roger circa 1895. Photo courtesy Martha Marmaduke and Barbara Whitton. 82 Chapter Ten to his describing his early life. . . . I remember that in fencing his pasture, Mr. Sherman had trapped a beautiful bay mustang pony, which he broke for a saddle horse, riding him many years thereafter . . . . I have often wondered what ranch in Southern Texas lost this horse to some warrior of Quanah Parker. On this horse Mr. Sherman would cover the ground at six miles an hour for the entire day. “He always carried what was called a California rope. That was a sixty-foot coil of hard manila rope on the right side of his saddle. He could also skillfully throw it, being one of the best men with a rope I ever saw. The usual rope carried in the [1890s] was only thirty-five feet. [Sherman’s] long coil of rope was a style of rope which came from California. However, I never saw a longer coil of rope carried than that of Joe Sherman, when I worked on the Miller and Lux Ranch in Lower California, where the Mexican vaqueros prided themselves on their long coils of rope.” (Coleman 1952: 138-40) Coleman describes the Sherman family as “estimable, successful and well-thought-of citizens, being worthy descendants of that hardy, intrepid pioneer, Joe Sherman, who helped settle Lubbock County in the [1890s].” He also says that in February of 1891, he and Joe Sherman were among a small group of people who gathered to celebrate the founding of Lubbock County, on the spot that would later become the town square of Lubbock. The crowd included several of Joe’s cowboy chums from Crosby County (George Wolfforth, Will Sanders, Van Sanders, and Rollie Burns), as well as Joe’s brother-in-law, George Singer. (Coleman 1952: 83, 140) Joe Sherman, who craved solitude, wouldn’t be proud to know that Lubbock has bloomed into a cosmopolitan...