Cowboy Days in the Old West: Two Personal Accounts of Cattle Ranching in Texas

Tales of cattle ranching in Texas after the Civil War

There are several first-person accounts of cattle ranching in the south-western states of America that deserve re-publication. This special Leonaur edition includes two of them. The first is particularly noteworthy, because it does not feature experiences of a Texan but of an Englishman, a former soldier of the British Army who in the early 1880's decided to discover, 'what Dame Fortune had in store him in the Western Hemisphere'. His travels eventually brought him the Northern Texas where he began his ranching career as the most complete 'greenhorn'. Pollock's inexperience only serves to enhance the fullness of detail in his narrative since everything was new for him. How invaluable this perspective is now these days are forever lost in the past! Pollock describes the colour of life on the prairie, the harsh weather that brought hurricanes and blizzards, cattle drives and stampedes and many other aspects of western life. Rufe O'Keefe's account of the post-Civil War West by contrast tells of a young man of 17 years from Alabama who arrived in Texas in 1874 to become a ranch hand. O'Keefe's is an intimate account of hard work, round-ups, branding and herd driving as he progressed to become a ranch manager and eventually the owner of his own cattle business.