-
Chapter Fourteen: Gaines County
- University of North Texas Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
104 Chapter Fourteen: Gaines County Joe Sherman stayed on the Lubbock County ranch for fifteen years. By the mid-1890s the Texas legislature, which had allowed big ranchers like Colonel C.C. Slaughter and his sons, and smaller operators like Joe Sherman, to graze cattle on vast expanses of state-owned land, had begun passing laws that were friendly to farmers. In 1895 the legislature passed the Four-Section Act “which struck a devastating blow at Slaughter and other big Texas ranchers.” That same year, the IOA ranch in Lubbock County began selling land to farmers and by 1898 “farmers were steadily advancing by the hundreds onto the eastern South Plains.” (Murrah 1981: 84, 87, 103) Joe Sherman was ready to move on. The antipathy between farmers and stockmen ran hot and deep on the Texas frontier, and Joe Sherman never had any use for a man who would kill good native grass with a plow. Max Coleman also says that Sherman had been losing cattle to rustlers. (Coleman 1952: 139) A letter from Joe’s Aunt Sarrah Clinesmith, who lived near Sayre, Oklahoma, suggests that Joe was feeling restless as early as 1902, and had been looking at land near Woodward, Oklahoma. It also hints that he might have even considered moving his ranching operations to Mexico. (Clinesmith, letter 1902) In 1905 he made a prospecting trip down to the sand-and-shinnery prairies of Gaines County, a hundred miles to the south, found fourteen 105 Gaines County sections of land that suited him, and bought the W.H. Brennand headquarters place, east of present-day Seminole. Uncle Roy Sherman wrote this account for the Gaines county history book: “We moved from Lubbock County to the ranch that fall. We left about the first of October and were some eight or nine days on the road as we moved a herd of five or six hundred cows and calves. There were my father, Joe Sherman, my older sister, Mable, my brothers Forrest, Roger, Burt and myself that helped drive the herd. My mother and two younger sisters, Olive and Mary, drove a surrey or buggy and we had a man that drove the wagon and four mules and cooked. This was the first time for Burt or I to be out with a herd or to stand guard around a herd of cattle at night. We had a two or three-day rainy spell on us. We had a large tent that we put up to sleep under at night. We made it through with no loss of cattle.” (Gaines County Historical Survey Committee 1974: 464) Writing about that cattle drive, an anonymous contributor in the Gaines County history book said: “Mable helped with the trail drive of some six hundred head of cattle. As one of the older children, she assumed duties which includedridingherddayandnightwithherbrothersinwhatever weather prevailed. For those of us in this area who know Mrs. Curry, to see the decorous and immaculate lady—the epitome of gentility—riding night guard on a trail drive is hard to imagine.” (Gaines County Historical Committee 1974: 286) If anything, the land in Gaines County was even starker and more forbidding than the flat expanses in Lubbock County. For good reason, it had been one of the last regions of Texas to attract settlers and town [54.159.186.146] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 15:54 GMT) 106 Chapter Fourteen boosters. When I grew old enough to notice such things, I asked my mother why Joe Sherman had chosen to make Gaines County the last stop on his long odyssey. She said it was good cow country with strong grasses and a healthy climate; and, she added with a smile, it didn’t have many people. Terrain and climate that repelled others attracted this solitary man who wanted to be left alone with his cattle and memories. Aunt Bennett Kerr remembered the old Sherman ranch headquarters : “From the front of the house the land sloped down gently to the southeast. Once an orchard had been planted there. The house itself was L shaped with a porch all the way around. The main part of the house contained a large room functioning as a living room, a dining room, and guest room. To the east of this was Grandmother Sherman’s bedroom. Beyond the house, they had Mable and Forrest Sherman at the ranch, 1911. Photo courtesy Martha Marmaduke and Barbara Whitton. 107 Gaines County a shotgun-type bunkhouse with three...