THE GRAY GHOST RIDES INTO HOME FIRES!!

The American Civil War has always been one of my favorite subjects of study; so much so, it was my emphasis during undergrad school and during the first half of grad school until I switched focuses.  I’ll admit that while I agree with the political agenda of the North, it was the dashing officers and men of the South who kept me turning pages during those long nights of study. And one held my interest longer and managed to spirit his way into one of my romance manuscripts…The Gray Ghost…John Singleton Mosby. 

In April 1862, the Confederate Congress authorized the official formation of partisan ranger companies. These companies would be enrolled as units of the Confederate Army. Mosby’s rangers would become the most famous of these companies.  Mosby’s exploits became legendary and he received high praise from J.E.B. Stuart and Robert E. Lee. 

But it wasn’t always obvious John Singleton Mosby would earn the title legend. Born in Powhatan County, Virginia he was a sickly child often picked on by other children. This bullying continued through Mosby’s years at the University of Virginia. However, young Mosby never cow-towed to these bullies, but learned to fight back at a young age.  During one confrontation, Mosby pulled a pistol and shot his adversary in the neck. He was arrested, served one year in jail, and was expelled from the university. 

Mosby was released early, due to poor health. While incarcerated, Mosby befriended the prosecuting attorney, William Robertson. After his release, Robertson allowed him to use his law library and he continued to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1854.

John S. Mosby before the War (courtesy of the National Archives)

Mosby settled into life as a Virginia lawyer, a husband, and father, but as for most the clouds of war were gathering over his home.  Mosby spoke out against secession, but a Virginian to his core, when war broke out he joined the Confederate army as a private in the “Virginia Volunteers.”  It didn’t take long before J.E.B. Stuart singled Mosby out for his exceptional skill at gathering intelligence, and Mosby was promoted to First Lieutenant and assigned to Stuart’s cavalry scouts. 

After being captured and being imprisoned for a year in Old Capitol Prison, Mosby was paroled and Stuart placed Mosby in command of the 43^rd Virginia Cavalry. The 43^rd would operate as a partisan unit, and Mosby was promoted to the rank of Major. 

Mosby and his Rangers wasted no time conducting a campaign of lightening raids on Union supply lines and harassment of Union couriers. The fame of the unit grew with each success, and Major Mosby’s legend as “The Gray Ghost” was cemented with his ability to appear and disappear at will.

Mosby’s most famous raid occurred in March of 1863 inside Union lines at Fairfax County Courthouse with the capture of Brigadier General Edwin H. Stoughton. Mosby found Stoughton asleep in bed. Awakening the General with a slap to the backside, Mosby asked “Do you know Mosby, General?”  The General replied “Yes! Have you got the rascal?”  “No,” said Mosby. “He’s got you!”

Mosby during the Civil War (courtesy of Library of Congress)

Mosby’s men usually wore Confederate uniforms, though they frequently concealed them under captured Union overcoats that enabled them to get through Yankee lines at will. 

By 1864, the Union was questioning how these guerrillas should be treated if captured. When Philip Sheridan took command of Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley in August of that year, General Grant told him. “Where any of Mosby’s men are caught hang them without trial.” One of Sheridan’s cavalry commanders, George A. Custer, executed six of Mosby’s rangers. In retaliation, Mosby had six captured troops from Custer’s brigade draw lots and go before a firing squad. These eye- for- an- eye executions continued for months until Mosby wrote Sheridan requesting a mutual end to the brutality and Sheridan agreed. 

It is estimated no more than 10,000 men functioned as guerrillas in the Confederacy. It can be argued that they did more damage to the Union war effort than an equal number of front-line soldiers. They tied down several times their number of regular soldiers in guard duty and search and destroy missions.

Mosby was so celebrated it was recorded about Robert E. Lee that “while he was not in the habit of paying compliments, yet these papers will show that you [Mosby] received from him more compliments and commendations than any other officer in the Confederate army.” 

Mosby’s Rangers continued their operations for weeks after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox.  Mosby (now a colonel) refused to formally surrender. After several weeks, Mosby disbanded his men and they all went their separate ways. Mosby, due to the large price on his head, was forced to hide in Lynchburg.  Pauline Mosby secured an official parole for her husband, from General Ulysses S. Grant personally in February of 1866.

Peace found John Mosby continuing to live the life of rebel and danger.  He shocked his fellow Virginians by not only becoming a Republican, but campaigning for his great friend Sam Grant.  He faced ridicule and death threats. When in May 1876 his beloved Pauline died in childbirth, at the same time someone attempted to assassinate him, John Mosby left Virginia.

President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Mosby as American Consul to Hong Kong (a strong suggestion from former President Grant). Mosby served in this position from 1878-1885. He then worked as the attorney for the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco, California. Here he would meet and befriend a young George S. Patton. Some speculate Patton got some of his ideas of using tanks as iron cavalry from The Gray Ghost.

Mosby in 1880 (courtesy of Dickenson University)

Mosby then returned to public service as the head of the Department of the Interior’s General Land Office under McKinley, and the Lands Office in Montgomery, Alabama under Theodore Roosevelt.  His last public office was as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice. He retired from Federal service at the age of seventy-six, but he didn’t retire from being a soldier. In 1914, taking a dim view of President Wilson’s neutrality stance, Mosby offered his services to King George V of Great Britain.

In 1915, the very university that expelled Mosby honored the Gray Ghost with a medal and written tribute. John Singleton Mosby died at the age of eighty-two on Memorial Day in his daughter’s home in Washington, D.C.  He served both of his countries faithfully and before his death penned two memoirs about his service. Mosby only attended one reunion of Mosby’s Rangers, the first reunion in 1895. 

Mosby never regretted fighting for the Confederacy, despite his personal views against slavery.  In a letter he wrote, “I am not ashamed of having fought on the side of slavery—a soldier fights for his country—right or wrong—he is not responsible for the political merits of the course he fights in…The South was my country.”

The Gray Ghost continues his haunt in my upcoming release HOME FIRES. Cord Matthews served as one of Mosby’s most celebrated and feared rangers (depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon a person was on).   Just like his commanding officer, Cord leaves Virginia to escape memories of the woman he loves, but little does Cord realize he hasn’t left the woman or his former commander behind. 

HOME FIRES releases this week, August 28^th! Hope you’ll come along on this wild ride that makes one of Mosby’s raids seem like running through a field of daisies.  :)

Sources:

McPherson, James M.  Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. McGraw-Hill, Inc: New York, 1992.

http://www.mosbymuseum.org/main_l.cfm?pagesID=11

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/john-singleton-mosby.html

http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/mosby/mosby.html

Kirsten Lynn writes stories based on the people and history of the West, more specifically those who live and love in Wyoming and Montana. Using her MA in Naval History, Kirsten, weaves her love of the West and the military together in many of her stories, merging these two halves of her heart. When she's not roping, riding and rabble-rousing with the cowboys and cowgirls who reside in her endless imagination, Kirsten works as a professional historian.

Fire Star Press: New Release: A HEART FOR A HEART by Cheryl Pierson...

Today is new release day over at Fire Star Press, so come on over and join us there.



Fire Star Press: New Release: A HEART FOR A HEART by Cheryl Pierson...: Today Cheryl will be giving away a e-copy of her story A Heart for a Heart to one person who leaves a comment on that blog. Be sure and include contact information in your comment for a chance to win!

America's First Woman Governor!

by Tanya Hanson

I've always been intrigued that Wyoming allowed women to vote far sooner than anyplace else--1869. So maybe it’s not a surprise that Wyoming elected the nation’s first woman governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977). However, she never set out to be a politician. She truly believed a woman’s calling was home and family. Then her husband’s unexpected death thrust her into the political arena.

Her husband William Bradford Ross, a Democratic governor in a Republican state, died from complications of an appendectomy in October 1924. (Ouch!)

Wyoming law required that his successor be chosen in the general election scheduled a month later. When Dem party leaders offered Nellie the nomination to fill the remainder of her husband’s term, she did not reply. Her silence was taken as agreement. She was nominated on October 14 despite having no political experience and having played no real support for women’s suffrage. Later, she claimed she accepted the nomination because she believed she understood her husband’s goals and aspirations better than anybody else.

Missouri-born Nellie Davis Tayloe had prominent Southern connections, and her mother claimed distant kinship with George Washington. After the family moved to Omaha, Nebraska, she obtained a teaching certificate and taught kindergarten before her marriage. On a visit to Tennessee relatives, she met and fell in love with William.

The young lawyer moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming before marrying Nellie in 1902. While devoted to her husband and three sons (one died at ten months of age), Nellie was active in intellectual self-enrichment programs for the Cheyenne’s Women’s Club.

Upon her nomination, Nellie did not campaign for office, other than two open letters. Many voted for her as a tribute to her late husband. However, other citizens wanted Wyoming to have the first woman governor, not only as respect for its longstanding voting rights for women, but as a last chance to have the distinction:  Miriam Ferguson, the wife of Texas’s impeached governor, was running in his stead in the 1924 election.

Although Nellie handily won as Wyoming’s 14th governor, 1924 was a catastrophic election year for Democrats. She graciously accepted that the Republican-controlled legislature was unlikely to work with her. Still wearing her mourning garb, Nellie Tayloe Ross was inaugurated on January 5, 1925. (Miriam Ferguson was not inaugurated until January 25.) Ross’s brief speech promised a continuation of her husband’s role, rather than a new start.

Among her heartfelt causes, Nellie fought unsuccessfully for Wyoming to ratify the federal amendment prohibiting child labor, and sought state assistance for the faltering agricultural industry. She urged banking reform and bemoaned the difficulties of enforcing Prohibition. She stood her ground to the federal government on water rights. As an administrator, she received mixed reviews and did not win re-election in 1926.

Although she did not seek public office again, Nellie was not done. A prominent and popular lecturer, she forayed onto the national stage as a Wyoming committeewoman to the Democratic National Convention. In 1929, she seconded the presidential nomination for the governor of New York, Alfred E. Smith and traveled the country speaking on his behalf.

In 1933, Franklin D Roosevelt wanted to be the first president to appoint women to his cabinet, and considered Nellie Tayloe Ross for either Secretary of the Interior of Secretary of Labor. However, she was chosen Director of the Mint, the first woman so appointed. Upon discovering that gold and silver coins were still being struck by hand, she established automation. Her efficiency pared 3,000 employees from the roster of 4,000.

Until Dwight Eisenhower became president in 1952, Ross remained Director of the Mint. She lived in Washington D.C. when she died December 19, 1977. Another strong woman of the West!

I hope you enjoyed meeting her as much as I did!

Caught between a noose and a cave-in, Tulsa Sanderson must do anything possible to prove his brother’s innocence...even if it means marrying a gold miner’s daughter he just met. He needs every nugget and flake he can pull from her worn-out claim, but he sure doesn’t need a wife. Save his brother and he’ll be back on the Texas cattle trails. God, and trusting Him, are things of the past.

  

Charlotte Amalie lost her heart, her virtue, and her money to the last mysterious outsider in the valley. Faith? That’s wavered, too, after too many family tragedies. But she has no choice but to wed the handsome Tull. He bears terrible family secrets that need to be kept behind closed doors. Although she’s eager to leave the valley to find a new life for herself and medical treatments for her wounded brother, her unwanted marriage douses her plans, yet stirs up hope and love for Tull...and begins to fortify her weakened faith.

Can the two of them find a future--and faith--together even with their haunted pasts? 

Amazon Buy link:

http://tinyurl.com/n4mxbgo

www.tanyahanson.com

BONE PICKERS by Linda Broday

A few years ago it used to be big business for folks to go out and pick up cans alongside the highways and sell them. But that seems to have fallen along the wayside, whether due to loss of interest or the price they were getting paid.

In the Old West lots of people turned to the bone business to survive. Men loaded up their wives and children in their wagons and set out across the Plains, picking up animal bones, especially those of dead buffalo. Those people who made a living doing that were called “bone pickers.”

From 1870 to roughly 1883, herd upon herd of buffalo were decimated by buffalo hunters. They’d shoot the animals and leave them to rot in the sun. Then along came the bone pickers to pick up the bones and haul them to the nearest rail head for shipment back East. Firms that specialized in the making of fertilizer and bone china paid dearly for the gruesome shipments.

Bone Pickers earned around eight dollars a ton for the bones, which was pretty good money for that time. It kept a lot of people from starving I imagine.

And they sometimes they formed a caravan with as many as 100 bone wagons traveling together. All those bone wagons must’ve been quite a sight. Here in Texas, San Antonio shipped 3,333 tons back East between July 1877 and November 1878. It was big business.

Hundreds of bone roads crisscrossed Texas. Wichita Falls, the place where I used to live until 2009, sat on a major one. Strange isn’t it that you never know all about a place and find out new things only after you move away?

To avoid “bone wars,” the pickers lived by an unwritten code. The first one upon an area had the right to those bones and no one else could come in take over. That way, the bone picker didn’t have to guard his territory day and night or rush to get through.

Bone piles stacked alongside railroad tracks sometimes reached ten feet high, twenty feet wide, and a quarter of a mile long. That’s a whole lot of bones.

Once the buffalo bones were gone, bone pickers turned to collecting cattle bones here in Texas. Ranchers would pay to have pastures kept clean of bones. This practice continued well into the twentieth century.

So, are there any bone pickers out there? What is most desperate thing you’ve ever done to make ends meet? Would you have resorted to collecting bones?

EXPANDING YOUR NETWORK......THAT IS, BUILDING YOUR CREDITS AND OPPORTUNITIES....by Gail L. Jenner

When I first started writing, I began as an article and story writer. I was fortunate enough to sell the very first article I submitted to what was then FARM WIFE NEWS, but later became COUNTRY WOMAN MAGAZINE.  


It was a reflective piece on life as a farmer/rancher's wife. Called "Making Hay While the Sun Shines," it was more than a thrill to see it published. One thing I did well with that first submission is that I studied the market....and from that experience I learned that to build your career you have to look for opportunities, and from those opportunities (even if small), you can build your credits and marketability.

Expanding your network and author recognition requires even more work these days as authors look to the variety of media, including social networks and internet exposure. We, at Prairie Rose Publishing, are SO fortunate to have a number of savvy individuals working on our behalf! I know that Cheryl and Livia and Kathleen, in addition to the authors themselves, have made a HUGE "dent" in the marketing world, and we all benefit. Thank you, Ladies! I'm so thrilled to be a part of Prairie Rose.

To add to what PRP has done for us, I thought I'd prepare a list of three strategies that have helped me break into a variety of different marketplaces. Simple but effective, I know many of PRP's authors have probably done one or all of these things, but for writers looking to expand their exposure and network, I offer these as successful tips. Out of these strategies have grown connections to people and opportunities I could not have cultivated otherwise...

1. STUDY THE MARKET: As noted in the first paragraph, I learned early one that TARGETING your writing to your AUDIENCE is critical. Study the publications, if you're submitting to magazines or ezines or anthologies. I successfully marketed a number of children's story devotions to a Christian publication, Keys for Kids. Those stories were then 'resold' three times --- to family and children's devotional anthologies published by Tyndale. Though I didn't make a lot of money on any of them, I have the credits and those early credits did open doors to more marketing later. I have since written for several national/regional/educational/and Christian publications.  

Bottom line: I studied the publications and even highlighted other authors' stories to isolate the relevant patterns *if there were any* for submissions. I also took notes on every magazine's author guidelines. NEVER ignore those -- although a number of authors seem to. I also looked for content that had not yet been covered by other submissions; in the case of the Keys for Kids' devotionals, themes and/or scripture topics that seemed to have been overlooked. I looked for the niche or open place where my stories might just jump up and be different. It seemed to have worked :-)

2. LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVE MARKETS: In looking for new publications to query, I went way beyond what I normally would have picked up in the newsstands myself. That is, in looking at, for example, magazines on family life or kids, I went to the Writers' Market Guide that offers listings for family, children, teens, Christian (or Inspirational) and TRADE magazines, like TOY magazines and even REGIONAL magazines. Instead of just browsing, I literally walked, page by page, through the various categories, looking for tips that the individual agents/publishers/or publications were searching for.

RE: the Writer's Market Guide, I may not purchase a new copy every year, but I do pick one up at least every other year....it has articles and tips, and listings for everything including agents, book editors, trade magazines, etc.

If you've never studied or picked up a copy of the latest Writer's Market guide, check it out (I find it an invaluable tool and an essential for every writer and author!).

 Bottom line: Do not overlook random and unique places to sell your stories or articles.

ANOTHER market I cultivated included creating and writing a COLUMN for families in our local newspaper. It was a column I designed and then "pitched" to our local editor/publisher. As a teacher and parent and writer, I put together brief articles on ideas from school/discipline/activities/historic and educational opportunities and locations, etc....I put together a list of 52 ideas and then sold that to the editor. It was a hit with readers and it lasted for a couple years.  

Bottom line: I used what I knew I could offer and put together the pitch to sell it. Again, I looked for a niche and specialized marketplace where I could "sell myself." Of course, nowadays, with the number of blog ideas, a writer can develop her own niche online....and I've done some of that, too.

A THIRD unique market I cultivated, and continue to write for, is our local NPR radio station, JEFFERSON PUBLIC RADIO's "As it Was" historical series.  I have mentioned this before, but this credit has benefited me in many ways. It's a daily broadcast (heard twice a day) and it is heard over hundreds of miles. It's a popular series and each month contributing authors write essays (I routinely write 3, sometimes 4 essays) on unique, little-known historical tidbits from the region, known here as the State of Jefferson. Because I have co-authored FOUR books on the "mythical, magical" State of Jefferson (three with Arcadia, one with Old American Publishing), this series has put my writing and my name in front of many people. I also write monthly for JEFFERSON BACKROADS, a regional publication that is free to travelers and locals and is found all over the area. 

In exchange for my monthly historical column, eg: one on Gold Mining, I get free advertising and promotion for my books.

It's an easy and great way to build up my credits and credibility as well as increase sales and name recognition. I have also blogged about the State of Jefferson and those blogs have been connected to other blogs; however, this is one area where I have not been as consistent or persistent -- obviously an opportunity I still need to work on!

One recent result of all of this interconnectedness is that I've been interviewed for an PBS special coming up this Fall on the State of Jefferson, and I was called and interviewed on History Channel's "How the States Got their Shapes" in 2011. Both producers told me that they listened to my essays, as well as researched my books. And I was also contacted recently by a production company on doing an interview on Black Bart.

My credibility rating obviously jumped as a result of those links!

Moreover, these links have led to other engagements: I have now appeared at a regional conference as a guest speaker on the State of Jefferson and the history of the area and I've appeared at a local conference on Joaquin Miller, sponsored by a nearby museum as well (see program).

Those engagements got me a nice write up and inclusion in a number of publications/blogs/reviews. In addition, I have been asked to speak at a least a dozen community and/or group meetings on the various subjects kindled by both my JPR writings and my State of Jefferson books.

Bottom line: Don't underestimate the power of connecting "forces" or interlocking and related opportunities. Many of the engagements that have flowed from these connections were not ones I pitched or pursued, but they grew out of the combination of writing and writing-related "jobs" I've taken on. Again, some (most) have not been paying "gigs" but they have LED to paying gigs!

3. DON'T OVERLOOK OPPORTUNITIES BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT "PAYING" GIGS: As stated above, two of my writing "jobs" are not paying jobs, but they have led to so many other paying jobs and offer incredible name recognition and promotional opportunities -- as well as to speaking and television opportunities -- that I do not view these as "Gimme" writing jobs. I see them as workable and awesome trades. I get what I'd otherwise have to pay for and I get it in a far bigger way than I might have been able to afford -- at least on the regional scene. For me, however, this regional scene spans portions of two states and about 20 counties in those states.....and the stretch actually goes beyond that.

Bottom line: Don't be so arrogant as to assume that everything you write must garner cash... sometimes garnering credits or promotion is worth far more than a paycheck.

For more about my books, visit: www.gailjenner.com or http://prairierosepublications.yolasite.com/gail-l-jenner.php

The Cow Chip Lady by Linda Hubalek

I love looking at old photos collected on historical internet sites like KansasMemory.org, and Pinterest. One of the most famous photos, that of a woman gathering cow chips, depicts the typical life of a pioneer woman in many people’s minds.

Here’s this woman, stuck out on the Western Kansas plains, with nothing but the flat prairie behind her—and she’s gathering dried buffalo manure to use as fuel to cook her family’s meals.

That was life for the women homesteading on the plains with no trees for fuel. Unless you lived on a river that had trees on its banks, you were pretty much out of luck. Prairie fires kept trees from foresting the Plains before towns and farms changed the landscape. So you gathered whatever you could find to burn, and people soon found out that dried manure gave a nice slow burning heat.

However, one of the interesting internet links with this photo on the Kansas Memory.org site is the story behind the staging of this picture. Yes, a young woman that wanted to be a photographer set it up. In 1893 Ada McColl posed for her camera, and her mother Polly actually took the picture featuring Ada, and her little brother Burt, (mistaken for a girl because of his clothing). You can read the whole story of the Pioneer Photographer: The Story of the Cow Chip Lady in this link (then scroll down to page 10).

I always wonder about the people and sceneries in old photos, so it was neat to find the story behind this particular one. Even though Ada staged the shot, it was a common chore for many a woman on the Kansas prairie between the 1850's to 1870's. Ada would have used her family’s cow herd’s dried manure to fill her wheelbarrow because the buffalo herds were gone from the state twenty years before this picture was taken.

But Ada gave us more than a glimpse of how the first pioneers  scrounged for buffalo chips after a herd passed through the area. She showed the view of the endless prairie in the horizon, the taste and smell of the dirt blowing on her face from the constant wind, the dry gritty feel of the dried manure on her hands, and the weight of the wheel barrow.

That’s what I always aim to portray in my pioneer books… not only visual sights for the reader, but for all their senses as well. I have to admit, this picture says a lot without words…

Goodnight: Calf Wagons and Chuck Wagons

I’ve heard it said that you learn something new every day ... and today was certainly one of them.  To my surprise, when I was reviewing my research for today’s blog, I discovered something new ... the chuckwagon wasn’t named for its inventor, Colonel Charles Goodnight!

Colonel Goodnight was the first permanent rancher in the Texas Panhandle. Although he wasn’t a native Texan, he got here as quick as he could. At the age of nine, Charlie traveled with his family 800 miles from his home in Illinois to Waco, Texas, riding bareback on a mare called Blaze. As a youth he was a fairly good horse jockey, bull whacker, rail splitter and herded cattle.  He served during the Civil War and was a Scout and Guide with the infamous Texas Rangers. After the war, he devoted his career almost exclusively to cattle.

 

At the age of thirty, he blazed his first famous cattle trail ... the Goodnight-Loving Trail. He was one of the first cattlemen who recognized that the same head worth $4.00 in the Texas Panhandle was worth ten times that in the markets farther north.  Goodnight also was the first to recognize that calves born on the trail were money at the end of the drive...but only if they survived and gained weight. The early practice was to kill calves because they could not keep up with the herd on their own.  Cattleman Goodnight resolved that issue by contracting to have special wagons made that held 30 to 40 calves.  Any calves born on the trail were picked up by the drovers and put on the “calf wagon” for the day’s drive.  When nightfall came, the calves were turned out with their mothers to nurse.

Goodnight soon discovered he had another problem on his hands. A cow knows her own calf by its smell and The Colonel found that when he put different calves together in the “calf wagon” during the day, their scents mixed. Thus, they were rejected by their mamas and would eventually starve to death. He then ordered his drovers to place each calf in its own separate sack, leaving the calf’s head out and tying the sack around its neck. The sacks were numbered so that the same calf went into the same sack each morning after being with its mother at night. The calves rode safely in the calf wagon during the day and spend the night with their mamas. The calves arrived at market healthy and in good shape. That meant increased profits at the end of the drive. I can only imagine what his cattle drives looked like. 

Cattle typically follow a lead steer and for many of his drives, Goodnight’s lead steer was “Old Blue”. According to legend, this famous steer helped lead a thousand head 250 miles up to Dodge City. That accomplished, Old Blue then turned around and trotted back home with the cowboys.

Known as the “Pulse of the Panhandle,” Goodnight helped organize the Panhandle Stock Association of Texas to fight rustling. In the 1870’s when it became apparent that the hide hunters would eventually exterminate the buffalo, with the encouragement of his wife, he started his own herd of domestic buffalo.  When buffalo products became exceedingly scarce such things as hides, robes, mounted heads and horns became a hot commodity. Buffalo meat was a high-priced luxury.

As time went on, friends began to comment that Goodnight with his mop of shaggy hair over bright dark eyes topped a massive, strong body, which with age, showed a hump rounding his shoulders ... became increasing likened to his beloved buffalo. He attracted international attention with his breed of “cattalo”, a crossbreed with a buffalo bull and Angus heifer. They could handle the high altitude and sever winters of a buffalo and resulted in a meatier animal.  For me personally, a hundred and fifty years later, I’d say they had a buffalo body with the face and horns of a longhorn.

Up to this point, I could have written most of this with very little research. I was born and raised in the Texas Panhandle, so I’ve spent all of my life knowing about Goodnight and his innovative ways of ranching. I’ve visited the town named after him. My novella in the anthology “Give Me a Texas Outlaw” is set in his dugout in Palo Duro Canyon, and I’ve visited his grave many times.  But, the one thing he created that I presumed was named from him ... the chuckwagon, wasn’t!

Prior to the chuckwagon, Cowboys often relied on eating what they carried in their saddle bags such as dried beef, corn fitters or biscuits. It didn’t take Goodnight long to discover that a well-fed cowboy is a happy one. 

Traveling the trail everyday carrying minimal baggage in hot, uncomfortable weather was tough on a cowboy. In 1866, Charles saw his opportunity and began on his new invention – the chuckwagon.  He basically redesigned a Studebaker wagon to fit a cowboy’s needs.  The Studebaker was a tough Army surplus wagon that could last months of hard driving on the trails.  Goodnight designed his very own chuck box, containing a number of shelves and drawers.  He fitted this to the back of the wagon and it served to keep the cook’s things in order.  The box had a hinged lid, and when the cook (nicknamed “cookie”) shut it, he would have a perfect surface to fix meals on.  A water barrel holding a two days’ water supply was also attached to the wagon alongside a row of hooks, boxes, brackets, and a coffee grinder.  Goodnight also hung hammock-style canvas under the wagon to carry wood and kindling, which was scarce on the prairies.  An additional wagon box was used to carry the cowboys’ bedrolls, personal items, and food supplies.  Goodnight’s genius invention is used in cattle drives to this day. By 1880, Studebaker had created a model called the “Round – Up” wagon.

The chuckwagon was equipped with all kinds of supplies needed along the trail.  We typically think of a chuckwagon being used for food and cooking gear, but the supplies would also include ferrier and blacksmith tools for horseshoeing or making repairs to the wagon and horse tack. Sewing needles for mending clothing or saddles, first aid and alcohol tonics used for medicinal purposes. Bedrolls and rain slickers for the drovers. One side was equipped with a large wooden barrel to carry a two day supply of water. The other side often had a tool box, as well a smaller attached wooden box in front called the jockey box. Additionally, the wagon would have a canvas cover called a bonnet that had been treated in linseed oil to repel rain keeping items in the wagon dry. To allow headroom in the wagon, bows where added raising the canvas and providing securing points.

Now you know why I figured the chuckwagon was named for Chuck Goodnight, although I have to admit I’ve heard him called “The Colonel”, Charles, and Charlie, but never Chuck.

To my surprise, the name chuckwagon wasn’t derived from Goodnight’s given name, but came from 17^th Century England as meat merchants who referred to their lower priced goods as “Chuck”. By the 18th Century, the term "chuck" was communicated towards good hearty food. It is of no wonder to take the name chuck for Goodnight’s simple creativity that revolutionized the cattle industry. I’m presuming here but figure that’s where a Chuck Roast and Ground Chuck got its name.

I'd love to hear about any custom or tradition that ended up not being exactly what you'd presumed to be true or told as the truth all of your life.