Charlie Goodnight, Oliver Loving

When cowboy traits are discussed -- loyalty, resourcefulness, bravery, and independent nature -- the real-life person those traits describe are those of one, Charles Goodnight, who provided the inspiration for the movies and western literature, to the present day. Goodnight was a rancher/cowman, "the father of the Texas Panhandle cattle industry." Historian. Frank Dobie said, "Goodnight approached greatness more than any cowman in history." Charlie Goodnight was born in Illinois, just east of Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1836, but at the age of 10 he accompanied his parents to the new "nation" of Texas, which was also just 10 years old. At the age of 20, in 1856 he joined the Texas Militia, and a year later became a Texas Ranger, protecting Texas citizens against raids by the Comanche Indians. With the start of the Civil War, in 1861, Goodnight offered his services to the Confederate States, and spent the war with a Frontier Regiment in Texas, guarding settlers from attacks by the Indians. When peace was declared in 1865, Goodnight joined in the popular movement of rounding up unbranded cattle and driving them to railroads, where they could be shipped to northern markets. Early on most of these cattle drives had been in the eastern part of Texas, going either south to New Orleans, or north to St. Louis, and hence to Chicago. In 1866 Goodnight acted upon a tip that there might be a more lucrative market for his cattle in the west, in New Mexico, and to Colorado and Wyoming, in the west. Goodnight was in the process of assembling his herd when he visited the Oliver Loving Ranch. Loving was 24 years Goodnight's senior, a well-respected cattleman in the area. The two men decided pool their herds, making the cattle drive together, over a new trail to the west and north...more