Cow People

by J. Frank Dobie

Cow People records the fading memories of a bygone Texas, the reminiscences of the cow people themselves. These are the Texans of the don't-fence-me-in era, their faces pinched by years of squinting into the desert glare, tanned by the sun and coarsened by the dust of the Chisholm Trail. Their stories are often raucous but just as often quiet as hot plains under a pale Texan sky. A native Texan, J. Frank Dobie had an inborn knowledge of the men and customs of the trail camps. Cattlemen were as various as the country was big. Ab Blocker was a tall, quiet man who belonged totally to the cattle and the silent plains. But big men often had big lungs. "Shanghai Pierce was the loudest man in the country. He would sit at one end of a day coach and in normal voice hold conversation with some man at the other end of the coach, who of course had to yell, while the train was clanking along. He knew everybody, yelled at everybody he saw." Texas bred tall men and taller stories. There was Findlay Simpson, who played havoc with fact but whiled away the drivers' long, lonely evenings with his tales. Old Findlay told of a country so wet that it bogged down the shadow of a buzzard, and of cattle that went into hibernation during rugged winters; he once spun yarns for three days straight, outlasting his listeners in a marathon of endurance. All real cow people—from the cattle drivers to the cattle owners—lived by a simple code based on the individual's integrity. Bothering anyone else's poke or business uninvited was strictly forbidden, and enforcement of this unwritten law was as easy as pulling a trigger. Honesty was taken for granted, and a cowman's name on a check made it negotiable currency. Yet Texas had its "bad guys"—the crooks, the thieves, even the tightwads. "A world big enough to hold a rattlesnake and a purty woman is big enough for all kinds of people," wrote Dobie. This is the world whose vast and various population the reader will find in Cow People.

Genres: History, Westerns, American History, Folklore, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Called the "Storyteller of the Southwest," James Frank Dobie was born in 1888 on his family's cattle ranch in Live Oak County. During his long life, J. Frank Dobie would live astride two worlds: a rugged life on a Texas cattle ranch and the state's modern centers of scholarly learning.

Dobie came to Austin in 1914 to teach at the University of Texas. In time he pioneered an influential course on the literature of the Southwest. By the late 1920s, Dobie discovered his mission: to record and publicize the disappearing folklore of Texas and the greater Southwest. Dobie became secretary of the Texas Folklore Society, a position he held for 21 years.

J. Frank Dobie Dobie was a new kind of folklorist—a progressive activist. He called for UT to admit African-American students in the 1940s—long before the administration favored integration. Dobie's vocal politics led to his leaving the University in 1947, but he continued writing until his death in 1964, publishing over twenty books and countless articles.

The inscription on Dobie's headstone in the Texas State Cemetery reads: "I have come to value liberated minds as the supreme good of life on earth." J. Frank Dobie was not content to simply preserve Southwestern heritage within libraries and museums. He gave life to that heritage and informed generations of Texans about their rich history.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

J. Frank Dobie saved the best for last, but that might be debatable. The book was filled with so many stories of good, bad, ugly, unusual, and hard-to-describe people associated with the cattle business.

Charles Goodnight was the subject of the last chapter. He was co-founder of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, and wisely and judiciously chose to use his gifts, decision-making, and broad experiences to better those around him. Charlie Goodnight is still quite revered in several places, not just in Texas, but pretty much wherever he went. He was only bad to the bad guys.

Dobie kept the reader entertained and reading until it was time to sleep, or some other priority got in the way. He tried to quote some of the stories just as he heard them, but seldom used quotation marks. Some of the content was quite gritty, and not meant for those that can't understand how exclusive much of our world was during the 19th Century, mostly after the Civil War. It takes a while longer for some people to get civilized and live peacefully with others.

Cow People was sociological, historical, violent in places, and very colorful with plenty of character development. But just enough. It is a pretty good book. I got a lot out of reading this one I think my mother had been saving for me. I caught myself getting very nostalgic for those times back in the 1980s when I ranged about the sports fields and arenas in and from Alice, Texas. I could hear the quiet down there. Something, a therapeutic thing, that I could only find in a few places around the world. Unless someone honked a horn miles away, I was in some on the best stress relief known to mankind. Yes, anyone might miss that, and it was a strong trait of J. Frank Dobie's South Texas Brush Country.

I'm sure it helped him become the writer he was. He entered Alice High School in 1904, and I was sports department at the Echo-News 80 years later.

Thanks again mom, and to J. Frank for educating me about the Cow People world, and that instant when I could distinctly remember the quiet.

You really feel like you've been somewhere after reading Cow People. 5/5 stars...

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid folklore—I ate it up. Not sure *why* tall tales and ‘characters’ are so enjoyable to Texans, but my maternal kin spring from this same well.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

J. Frank Dobie is one of the best sources for people who are interested in the brief time of the large cattle drives. Men like Goodnight and Loving were careful custodians of the cows entrusted to them. The stereotypical cattle drives depicted by Hollywood were fantasies. Good trail drivers avoided trouble, made peace with Native Americans, ran quiet and peaceful outfits. Drunken, gun-toting cowboys were not welcome and would be fired, because the goal of the cattle drive was to arrive with happy, fat cattle who had proceeded north slowly and eaten all the grass they could hold. The cowboys did sing to the cows at night to keep them calm. Portraits of different characters who lived during this time are as varied as you would expect; a few were not very nice people, but for the most part, a man's handshake was his bond.

[Rickeclectic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frank Dobie is a famous (in Texas anyway) writer about people and things and folklore and history of Texas. His books are topical. This one is about Cowboys, ranchers and etc. Dobie is always careful in his historical writings and sometimes very entertaining. This book is a bit more dry than some of his other ones.

[Mark Greathouse]

Great book by the famed Texas folklorist.

[Drew Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for a Texan; recommended by Joe Foran, CEO of Matador Petroleum over campfire at quail hunt

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dobie spends yarns about ranchers and cowboys in Texas. He also talks about some of his youthful experiences.