Texas Trails: Bose Ikard

One reason the relatively brief cattle drive era, which lasted from the end of the Civil War to the early 1880s, had such an impact on history was because the cattle drives allowed men to rise above the circumstances of their upbringing and education to make a little money and earn a measure of respect. Bose Ikard is a good example of that. He was born into slavery and became rancher Charley Goodnight's most trusted and respected cowhand. For Ikard, more than most, the road to the history books was a long and winding one. Born into slavery in Mississippi in the 1840s, his father was most likely his slave master, Dr. Milton Ikard, and his mother was a slave named King. Along with Ikard's recognized son, William Susan Ikard, Bose arrived in Texas with the Ikards in 1852 as a slave. They set up shop in Parker County near Weatherford and began living the life that was being lived on the frontier, which included breaking horses and battling Comanches. He served with the Confederacy during the Civil War and returned to Weatherford to continued the cowboy life he had known as a slave, but this time as a free man. While it's easy to say that Ikard's life changed for the better by his meeting Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight, namesakes of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, it's just as easy to say that Loving and Goodnight were the larger benefactors of the meeting. "Bose surpassed any man I had in endurance and stamina," Goodnight said. "There was a dignity, a cleanliness and reliability about him that was wonderful. His behavior was very good in a fight and he was probably the most devoted man to me that I ever knew. I have trusted him farther than any man. He was my banker, my detective, and everything else in Colorado, New Mexico and the other wild country. The nearest and only bank was in Denver, and when we carried money, I gave it to Bose, for a thief would never think of robbing him."...more