Across the fence

Charlie and Oliver were partners in the cattle business. Oliver had been at it for some time and knew the ‘ropes’ when it came to gathering wild Spanish cattle, building a herd and trailing them to market.

Oliver was truly a man of vision and was a trail driver long before the heyday of the cowboy. As early as the late 1850’s, when Texas was still an unsteady fledgling, he was trailing herds east to Shreveport and New Orleans. It was Oliver who in 1858 was the first cowman to ever drive a herd of longhorns to the northern markets and ushered in the golden age of the Texas cattle drives. It was also Oliver who recognized the need for beef in the Colorado gold fields and put together a herd of 1,000 longhorn steers bound for the Pikes Peak region in 1860.

Charlie was a young man who had lived his life on the edge of adventure. He was a plainsman, an Indian fighter and a former Texas Ranger and in 1865 decided to put together a herd himself and drive it north. The adventure ended in disaster with the entire herd being stampeded and stolen by Indians. Not one to accept defeat, Charlie began putting together another herd in 1866. This time he proposed to take a different route, below the Comanche Territory, that had cost him his first herd, across the Pecos River to New Mexico then north to Denver.

It was while Charlie was putting his plan in action that he met the veteran trail boss Oliver. Hearing Charlie’s plans, Oliver volunteered to go along if the young man wouldn’t mind. Oliver was a seasoned trail driver at 54 years old and Charlie an inexperienced ‘kid’ some 20 years younger. Charlie recognized the value of having Oliver along and with only a handshake; the two men formed a trusting partnership. Together, they would make history.

On June 6th, 1866 Charlie and Oliver left Texas with 2,000 head of mixed cattle and 18, well armed, men. The new route crossed a desert region known as ‘El Llano Estacado’ (The Staked Plains) named by early Spaniards who, because of the vast unmarked desert, drove stakes in the ground to mark their route. (Estacado means wooden stakes.) El Llano Estacado is nearly eighty miles of flat, dry desert and the herd would be four days without water before they reached the Pecos River. So, before heading across, they rested the herd on good grass and water for a full day. At the end of the fourth day, the herd stampeded at the smell of water ahead and in their frenzied rush to quench their maddening thirst, more than 100 head were trampled into the boggy riverbank and perished.

After crossing the Pecos, Charlie and Oliver pressed the herd onward to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Here they found 8,500 starving Navajo who were being held by the U.S Army. Desperately in need of meat, the Army bought all of the steers from the herd and Charlie went back to Texas to put together another drive while Oliver continued on to Colorado with the remainder of the cattle.

Another drive was made in 1867 but Indian unrest in the area forced the partnership to send Oliver ahead, with another man known as ‘One-armed Bill Wilson’, as forward scouts, while Charlie followed with the herd to Fort Sumner. Oliver and One-armed Bill traveled at night and made camp during the day. After three days out and there being no sign of hostile Indians, Oliver and Bill decided to switch their tactics and travel by day. As they approached the banks of the Pecos, the pair was attacked by a large war party of Comanche. It was a four-mile race across the plains to a cut bank on the river where Oliver and Bill quickly dismounted and dug in for the fight. Protected by a large overhang above and a bank of sand between them and the river, Oliver and Bill took cover while over 100 Comanche captured their horses and surrounded them.

The Comanche blindly lobbed arrows into their position but the barrage was ineffective. After some time, it appeared that the Comanche were calling for a parlay and so Oliver went forward while Bill covered him from behind. No sooner had Oliver come into view than he was greeted by a hail of gunfire and arrows. A bullet struck Oliver in the wrist and passed through the flesh of his side before they could regain the safety of their river-sand fortress.

The siege lasted several days during which time Oliver and Bill held off the Comanche. But Oliver’s wound became infected and fever set in. Finally, it was decided that One-armed Bill should go back for help. Bill left five loaded pistols and a rifle with Oliver, took one rifle for himself and under cover of darkness, stripped down to his long johns, slipped into the river and floated downstream. With only one arm, it was impossible for Bill to hold a rifle, his bundle of clothes and his boots while trying to swim to the riverbank. All was lost and so Bill struck off across the Llano, unarmed, barefoot, and half naked, to find Charlie.

It was days before Bill found the herd but as soon as he had, he rustled up a set of clothes, a pair of boots and a horse. Charlie saddled a fresh horse and the two rode off in search of Oliver. When they arrived at the makeshift fortress on the Pecos, Oliver was gone. Charlie assumed that the Comanche had overtaken him or that Oliver had seen the hopelessness of his situation, taken his own life to avoid the infamous torture of the Comanche and had quietly floated downstream.

In fact, Oliver was alive. He had spent two more days at the riverbank before he slid into the river and swam upstream to safety. Pulling himself out of the river he made it to the shelter of a lone tree where he lay for another two days. He was near death from lack of food and water, gangrene had set in the wound on his wrist and his fever rendered him delirious. It was there that he was found and taken to Fort Sumner.

Charlie got word that Oliver was alive and went immediately to his partner’s aid. The post doctor had advised Oliver that his arm needed to be amputated but Oliver refused to do so unless Charlie was there. Once Charlie did arrive, the post doctor seemed reluctant to perform the operation until Charlie threatened him with bodily harm. The actual surgery was a success with Oliver’s arm being amputated above the elbow, however, an artery later burst and another surgery was required. Oliver never fully recovered and twenty-two days later, on Sept. 25th, 1867, Oliver died.

Before he died, Oliver asked his friend and partner to not let him be buried in New Mexico, but rather, take him back to Texas. Charlie promised.

After the cattle were delivered, Charlie returned to Fort Sumner, exhumed Oliver from his temporary grave, laid him in a tin covered coffin, packed him in charcoal and took him back to Weatherford, Texas where he was buried a second and final time. It was nearly 450 miles from Fort Sumner, New Mexico to Weatherford, Texas. The journey would have taken at least a month and more likely a half-dozen weeks.

It would have been a grueling and arduous journey and Charlie himself probably questioned his own judgment at times. No doubt many ridiculed Charlie for his foolish quest. Besides, Oliver was dead, how would he know whether he was buried in Texas or New Mexico?

I can only imagine Charlie, a man of action and not of words, just quietly shaking his head and saying,

“A promise is a promise.”

(This is the true story of Oliver Loving who, together with Charlie Goodnight, blazed a trail across Texas, New Mexico and Colorado known as The Goodnight-Loving Trail.)

Volume 1 of “101 Yesterdays”, containing 50 selected columns from the past six years is now available. To order contact Tim at HYPERLINK “mailto:[email protected]” [email protected] or send $17.00 plus $3.00 postage and handling to M. Timothy Nolting P.O. Box 68 Bushnell, NE 69128