Cattle Kings Research Articles

No Hope for Heaven, No Fear of Hell: The Stafford-Townsend Feud of Colorado County, 1871–1911. The Texas Local Series. By James C. Kearney, Bill Stein, and James Smallwood

This book’s main title is taken from the headstone of a former Columbus, Texas, city marshal—obviously an atheist—who checked on his stone, got a shave, put on a new suit, and chloroformed himself. But what this zany epitaph has to do with the feud described in the book is mysterious, the featured mode of violent death being homicide, not suicide. The feud in question dates to 1871 when a Townsend was killed by a posse seeking his arrest. The family had the shooter brought to court, but the testimony of Robert Stafford got him exonerated. Over the next two decades resentments between the two clans simmered. Robert Stafford became a wealthy cattle king, “one of the largest, if not the largest, stockman in Texas” (p. 46). For their part, the Townsends gained political control of Colorado County by capturing the locally powerful sheriff’s office. By 1890 Robert Stafford sought to break the Townsend hold on the sheriff’s office apparently to protect his son, a violent ne’er-do-well, from prosecution. But in July 1890 two members of the extended Townsend clan gunned down both Robert and his brother John. The Staffords, their leader gone, retired from the fray, but the feud continued as a quarrel among Townsend factions, particularly, but not exclusively, between the Hope and Reece families. By then youthful intermarriages had so mixed bloodlines that, as one frantic mother discovered, her two sons were fighting on opposite sides in a lethal skirmish in downtown Columbus.

Sir Sidney Kidman: Australia's cattle king as a pioneer of adaptation to climatic uncertainty

There is little direct evidence about the business model used by the legendary cattle king, Sir Sidney Kidman. Kidman’s properties were invariably stocked at less than full capacity, and were generally contiguous, forming chains that straddled stock routes and watercourses in the most arid zone of central Australia. Railheads at the ends of the chains provided access to the main capital city markets, and Kidman’s drovers supplied a wealth of information on competing cattle movements. This combination of features effectively afforded strategic transport flexibility in the form of so-called ‘real options’, especially during severe region-wide droughts. Alternative perspectives, such as the vertical integration of Kidman’s operations, or spatial diversification of land holdings, offer only partial insights. Faced with a highly variable and unpredictable climate, combined with the onset of erosion and the spread of rabbits, Kidman exemplifies human ability to adapt creatively to exogenous environmental shocks such as climate change.

Seldom Heard: Ranchers, Ranchos and Rumors of the South Texas Brush Country (review)

Reviewed by: Seldom Heard: Ranchers, Ranchos and Rumors of the South Texas Brush Country Thomas A. Britten Seldom Heard: Ranchers, Ranchos and Rumors of the South Texas Brush Country. By Dian L. Malouf. (Hillsboro, Ore.: Beyond Words Publishing, 2005. Pp. 176. Preface, foreword, illustrations, acknowledgments, bibliography. ISBN 9781582701301. $39.95, cloth.) Nationally recognized jewelry designer, photographer, and Hebbronville native Dian L. Malouf provides a second installment of her ongoing romance with the ranchers of the Texas brush country in Seldom Heard. Reminiscent of her first tome, Cattle Kings of Texas (Beyond Words Publishing, 1991), Seldom Heard is a "coffee table book" that provides what might be called a "romantic eulogy" to the industrious, entrepreneurial, and at times, eccentric behavior of twenty-five ranching families living in the rough mesquite and cactus riddled country south of San Antonio. Malouf views these ranchers in much the same way as late-nineteenth-century photographers perceived Native Americans—as a "vanishing race" whose history and culture needed to be recorded and memorialized so that future generations of Americans will not forget them. In the process of dressing up and posing their subjects, however, some of the well-meaning photographers ended up providing rather stereotypical and inaccurate images that didn't always square with reality. According to the book's dust jacket, the author spent fifteen years and traveled more than forty thousand miles conducting the interviews for this project, and she is to be commended for her persistence in corralling the various members of ranching families, many of whom live a rather secluded life in remote areas of the Texas brush country. Lady Bird Johnson, no stranger to ranch life in South Texas, provides a brief preface to the book. Malouf adds two or three black-and-white photographs to each of her short vignettes, usually depicting family members and images of significant and/or unusual ranch structures. Virtually all the ranchers interviewed are fourth- or fifth- generation Texans, having inherited their properties from a particularly hardworking, enterprising, or lucky ancestor who began accumulating land and cattle during the first half of the nineteenth century. While reading through Malouf's musings about the noble character attributes of the ranchers, one gets the feeling that it is this founding generation of ranchers that she is really seeking to commemorate. Each short chapter ranges in scope and quality. Some provide historically significant information or anecdotes that general readers will find interesting and perhaps even inspirational, while others fail to provide much of a voice to people [End Page 415] that are "seldom heard." At times the author seems disappointed when the particular rancher she is interviewing doesn't quite resemble the romantic "cowboy" that she is seeking to memorialize. To be a successful ranch operator in the twenty-first century, she learns, ranchers must be more than cowboys—they must also be astute businessmen who are willing to diversify their operations and employ the latest agricultural technologies. Possessing oil and natural gas wells on their property certainly doesn't hurt. Readers interested in Texas history, ranching history, and in the evolution of the ranching industry in south Texas will enjoy this book, the photographs of ranchers, and the interesting—albeit romanticized—stories, anecdotes, and rumors about the ranchers being considered. Malouf is a gifted storyteller, and her descriptions of the rugged Texas brush country are at times poetic. Scholars seeking a more balanced and academic treatment of the topic, however, will need to look elsewhere. Thomas A. Britten University of Texas at Brownsville Copyright © 2007 The Texas State Historical Association

Telenovela reception in rural Brazil: gendered readings and sexual mores

In The Cattle King, a Brazilian telenovela, melodramatic elements of class ascension, love and betrayal, adultery, and pre‐marital sex played a central role in the lives of the main characters. This ethnographic study of viewers in Macambira, a small rural community in the backlands of northeast Brazil, discusses how these rural viewers appropriated telenovelas in their daily lives and how the meanings assigned to the texts were interpreted according to their own values and beliefs about gender roles, relationships, and sexuality. I argue that the geographical isolation and the local patriarchal culture mediated the process of reception, interpretation, and appropriation of telenovelas. The isolation in which Macambira is located in relation to the urban representations in the telenovela narratives intensified the perceived gap between the local patriarchal culture and the urban reality constructed in the television text.

Land!: Irish pioneers in Mexican and revolutionary Texas

The Province of Texas in Newly Independent Mexico The Context of Emigration - Prefamine Ireland Irish Recruitment and the Settlements of San Patricio and Refugio The Irish and the Texas Revolution, 1835-36 The Life of Pioneer Settlers in Texas Ranching Culture and the Texas Cattle King - Thomas O'Connor of Refugio County.

Product Placement in Brazilian Prime Time Television: The Case of the Reception of a Telenovela

Brazilian telenovelas-popular prime-time serial melodramas-have traditionally used product placement to help finance production costs. In the last decade, this strategy has become a central force influencing narrative choices. This paper discusses product placement in Brazilian telenovelas through an in-depth analysis of a recent show, The Cattle King. Ethnographic data on its reception focuses on the role of gender, geographic location, and cultural capital in viewers' interpretations of textual insertions.

The Trial of the Century: "Lux v. Haggin" and the Conflict Over Water Rights in Late Nineteenth-Century California

the late 1870s a titanic legal struggle developed in the southernmost region of California's agricultural heartland, the San Joaquin Valley. Two mutually exclusive doctrines of water law, one allowing for irrigation, appropriationism, and the other denying this right, riparianism, clashed in the courtrooms, the legislatures, and the farmlands of California. Most Californians at the time believed that the court case that pitted these two doctrines against each other, Lux v. Haggin, would decide the fate of California's future economic development. This article examines the causes and consequences of Lux <u. Haggin, summarizes the legal contest itself, and evaluates die role of the major participants: the land baron and "cattle king" of California, Henry Miller, and his opponent, James Haggin, an equally wealthy lawyer, investor, and land speculator.

Review: John Hittson: Cattle King on the Texas and Colorado Frontier, by Vernon R. Maddux

Review: <i>John Hittson: Cattle King on the Texas and Colorado Frontier</i>, by Vernon R. Maddux

John Hittson: Cattle King on the Texas and Colorado Frontier

John Hittson: Cattle King on the Texas and Colorado Frontier

Sam Chance by Benjamin Capps, and The Brothers of Uterica by Benjamin Capps, and The White Man’s Road by Benjamin Capps

262 Western American Literature Sam Chance. By Benjamin Capps. (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1987. 269 pages, $22.50/$10.95.) The Brothers of Uterica. By Benjamin Capps. (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1988. 315 pages, $22.50/$10.95.) The White Man’s Road. By Benjamin Capps. (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1988. 317 pages, $22.50/$10.95.) Personal past cannot be detached from the historical past of family and region. Novelist Benjamin Capps seems never to have considered his past in any way except as a chapter in the history of northwestern Texas and western Oklahoma. Blessed at birth with a gnawing curiosity and an intellect which earned Phi Beta Kappa status at the University of Texas, Capps has expanded his experience in his native region through reading and research. New editions of three of Capps’s novels, published in the Southwest Life and Letters series recently initiated by Southern Methodist University Press, illuminate the his­ tory of Capps’s homeland by bringing to life those who created that past. In these novels, published first in the 1960s, Capps explores nineteenthcentury life from the perspectives of the cowman, the visionary, and the Native American as their destinies are shaped in the conflict of personality with place and change. Seeing in certain historical events what historian C. L. Sonnichsen calls “crucibles of character,” Capps creates memorable human beings but no heroes. In the afterword to Sam Chance, Elmer Kelton observes that “One of Capps’ strengths is that he does not portray his principal characters in the mythic tradition of the perfect hero.” In Sam Chance, a Confederate sergeant sees in his future at the end of the Civil War “an emptiness different from any he had imagined.” Moreover, his native Tennessee seems only to be a part of that bleak outlook. Sam heads for Texas. Ambitious and not afraid of hard work, Sam sees Texas as a land of “big possibilities,” but he has no vision of what those possibilities might be. As a competent cow hunter, Sam takes advantage of every opportunity. Soon, he has the start of his own longhorn herd branded with his newly created mark, the long C. The shrewd hired man on horsebadk is destined to become a cowman of substance. Sam persists through depression, drought, and other natural disasters to build a ranch and a name already legendary before his death in 1922. Late in his life, after tangling with Austin bureaucrats who see Sam as a land-hogging cattle king, Sam isreturning home feeling misunderstood but far from defeated when a small booted boy, swaggering down the train aisle, pulls his toy pistol on Sam and brags that he is Sam Chance, “a big, big giant” who lived “once upon a time.” Sam dies a legend, though not a hero, for the irascible old cattleman, as the author explains in the introduction, is a product of times when “good and bad were hard to discern.” If Sam Chance leaves its readers not quite satisfied, it is because Capps introduces many intriguing characters into Sam’s life without telling us much about them. One aspect of Ben Capps’sworks which sets him apart from most Essay Reviews 263 southwestern male writers is demonstrated in his characterization of Martha Paine Chance. He reveals an unusual masculine empathy for the women who appear in each of his novels. Martha comes from Tennessee to live a desolate life while Sam builds his fortune. Although he loves her intensely, Sam never realizes how desperate her situation is as she raises two children virtually without companionship. Sam brings her presents, but he never shares his life with her. Before her early death—of premature old age, the doctor intimates —Sam, who isoften introspective, puzzles over their relationship. He concludes that “every life is a long secret known by only one.” Isolation and desolation conquer Martha in Sam Chance. Feminist Harriet Edwards, sometimes referred to as “that bitch,” is conquered only when all are defeated in Capps’s account of an unsuccessful socialist experi­ ment in communal living in North Texas. Harriet is one of the visionaries in The Brothers of Uterica, a narrative based on the histories...

Review: The Forgotten Cattle King, by Benton R. White

Book Review| August 01 1988 Review: The Forgotten Cattle King, by Benton R. White The Forgotten Cattle KingBenton R. White Harwood P. Hinton Harwood P. Hinton Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Pacific Historical Review (1988) 57 (3): 369–370. https://doi.org/10.2307/3640729 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Harwood P. Hinton; Review: The Forgotten Cattle King, by Benton R. White. Pacific Historical Review 1 August 1988; 57 (3): 369–370. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3640729 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentPacific Historical Review Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1988 The Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The Forgotten Cattle King by Benton R. White

The Forgotten Cattle King by Benton R. White

Review: The Cattle Kings, by Lewis Atherton

Book Review| June 01 1963 Review: The Cattle Kings, by Lewis Atherton The Cattle KingsLewis Atherton Theodore Grivas Theodore Grivas Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar California Historical Society Quarterly (1963) 42 (2): 164–165. https://doi.org/10.2307/25155553 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Theodore Grivas; Review: The Cattle Kings, by Lewis Atherton. California Historical Society Quarterly 1 June 1963; 42 (2): 164–165. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/25155553 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentCalifornia History Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1963 The California Historical Society Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The Cattle Kings

The Cattle Kings

The Cattle Kings

The Cattle Kings

Review: The Cattle Kings, by Lewis Atherton

Review: <i>The Cattle Kings</i>, by Lewis Atherton

The Cattle Kings

The Cattle Kings

The Cattle Kings

The Cattle Kings

Funk of Funk's Grove: Farmer, Legislator, and Cattle King of the Old Northwest, 1797-1865

Journal Article Funk of Funk's Grove: Farmer, Legislator, and Cattle King of the Old Northwest, 1797–1865. By Helen M. Cavanagh. (Bloomington, Ill.: Pantagraph Printing Co., 1952. v + 208 pp. Illustrations, map, appendix, bibliography, and index. $3.50.) Get access Robert M. Sutton Robert M. Sutton University of Illinois Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 39, Issue 3, December 1952, Pages 556–557, https://doi.org/10.2307/1895025 Published: 01 December 1952

Cowboys and Cattle Kings: Life on the Range Today

Cowboys and Cattle Kings: Life on the Range Today