Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: May 25, 1937
Name: John Driggers
Post Office: Chickasha, Oklahoma
Residence Address: 719 South 11th Street
Date of Birth: August 20, 1869
Place of Birth: Tennessee
Father: : J. C. Driggers
Place of Birth: Tennessee
Information on father: buried in Oklahoma
Mother: Anne Carrol
Place of birth: Louisiana
Information on mother: buried in Oklahoma
Field Worker: Thad Smith Jr.
My father, mother, brother and I moved to the Chickasaw Nation, near Ardmore, in 1890.
My father farmed there one year, and moved to Winter's Creek southeast of Chickasha. I helped him drive about three hundred cows from Ardmore.
That year he freighted his supplies from Gainesville, Texas.
The next year my father and J. R. SHARP became partners in the cattlebusiness; they leased sixty-seven thousand acres of land in the Kiowa Country, south of Gotebo. This grass carried about fifteen thousand cattle mostly steers. The cows were what we called Choctaw cattle. They were little, fine-boned, leggy, cold-blooded cattle, but we bred them to Hereford and Durham bulls. This cross-breeding produced good calves. Our cattle were branded cross eleven figure two and letter D (+ 11 2 D).
My father usually sold his three year old steers to Mr. FORBIN, who was a big corn raiser and lived between Bradley and Lindsay, on the north side of the river.
Before the Rock Island built their road to Chickasha, corn fed cattle were driven to Caddo, in the Choctaw County, and shipped to market. Grass cattle were driven to Caldwell, Kansas; they would start in the early spring just as the grass turned green and it would take the cowboys all summer to get to Caldwell, as the cattle were driven slowly all the way in order to have them fat by the time they reached Caldwell, or the railroad where they were shipped to the Eastern Market.
Usually the cowmen sent about ten cowboys, besides the cook and trail boss.
It was the trail boss' job to ride ahead of the herd and find places to cross all the streams; to find water for the cattle and to pick out camping places where there was least danger of stampedes. Ordinarily about two thousand cattle were in each trail herd, as this was about as many as could be handled in one herd.
The cowboys had from eight to ten horses each to ride. The horses were mostly old undesirable horses that would be sold in Kansas, with the herd. Sometimes the horses would be driven back, but not often.
I have had a good many horses broken; horsebreakers usually charged a dollar for each year of the horse's life. The charge for breaking a five year old horse would be $5.00; the charge for breaking a seven year old horse would be $7.00.
Not very many horses were broken under four or five years. Some horsebreakers never tried to "gentle" the horses any before riding them and others did. The men I got to break my horses always staked the horse to a log or to something that the horse could move but could not run off with. Then the horsebreaker would tie a three quarter inch grass rope around the horse's neck and run the rope around one of the horse's hind feet and draw it up just so the horse could put his foot to the ground but could not kick with either foot and could not buck. The horsebreaker would then saddle the horse and get on and get off on either side until the horse got used to the man and his saddle which took from four to seven days and if the horses were handled like this, nine time out of ten they would never buck, and you never had to break the horse's spirit to get him to quit bucking.
A fellow named GILMORE started the Citizens Bank, later my father bought most of the stock.
My father and I both registered at El Reno for the drawing of claims in the Caddo, Kiowa and Commanche Country, but failed to draw claims.
Submitted to OKGenWeb by
Donald L. Sullivan
<donald.l.sullivan@lmco.com>
04-2000.