Rancher struck with Texas fever pushed to travel west

Born in a log cabin in Shelbyville, Tenn., on Aug. 20, 1872, Robert Vincent Taylor was the sixth of 11 children born to William Carroll and Martha Jane White Taylor. In 1891, Robert and several of his cousins followed the path of many other young Tennesseans, including David Crockett, who became struck with Texas fever and pledged their future goals on going west to the Lone Star State. "In 1891 most of the Texas-bound boys from Tennessee could not afford the cost of traveling to Texas, so they agreed with ranchers and farmers to work for some period of time to repay the cost of transportation," said grandson Carol O. Taylor. "The first stop was at Italy, Texas, south of Dallas." Carol said his grandfather kept all his correspondence in a trunk. "It was filled with letters and receipts dating from February 1891 until 1944." Robert soon returned to Texas and took a job grubbing cactus on a ranch near Wichita Falls. He later went to work for the Fort Worth Stockyards selling cattle insurance. When Robert decided to further his education, he went to Kansas City and attended a dental college. After graduation as a dentist at 36, he graduated from the McKillip Veterinary College in Chicago. "His reasoning for a double degree was because at that time a horse with a bad tooth was usually just shot as nobody had thought of working on teeth in animals," Carol said. "I found an interesting receipt in Granddad's letters stored in the old trunk," Carol said. "For castrating a horse, then pulling the owner's tooth, he charged a total of $7.50."...more