THE Chisholm trail is one of the most important but least known trails in American history. Its story has never been completely told, which accounts, to a large degree, for the many misconceptions which are held concerning it.
At the annual meeting of the Old-Time Trail Drivers' Association in San Antonio there ensues a perennial dispute both as to the origin of the Chisholm trail and its location. At present they seem to be no nearer the solution than at the beginning. In their monumental work entitled, The Trail Drivers of Texas (1925 edition), written by the trail drivers themselves, we find on page 289 one explanation, while on page 950 we find an emphatic denial of this, with quite another explanation set forth in no uncertain terms.
Modern scholarship has as yet neglected to deal with the subject in a thorough manner. Thus most that is known concerning the Chisholm trail is from the stories of the trail drivers, whose memories are no doubt dimmed by time, and from various accounts dealing with the cattle industry which treat it only in an indirect manner.
The object of this monograph is to make a critical analysis of available source material concerning the origin and location of the Chisholm trail. It will emphasize material brought out by maps of the period located in the Library of Congress, and bring to light the hitherto unpublished accounts of James R. Mead, an associate of Jesse Chisholm in the early-day trading business. Brief comment concerning the volume of trade that passed over the trail and its end will be in the conclusion.
When the Civil War drew to a close the plains of Texas were swarming with cattle for which there was no ready market. Herds of cattle were offered for sale upon the range at one to two dollars per head without finding a buyer. So critical did the situation become that Joseph G. McCoy, prominent cattleman of the time, was led to remark, "--there dawned a time in Texas that a man's poverty was estimated by the number of cattle he possessed." [1]
But the situation in the North was quite different. A good animal which would bring only a few dollars in Texas would sell for as much as ten times that amount in the North. [2] Prior to the Civil War there had been attempts to drive Texas cattle to market, but never on a very large scale.
After the Civil War, towns in southwestern Missouri and southeastern Kansas were the destinations of these early drives. It was not, however, until the railroads began to move westward that the movement was to reach its height. The North was demanding the meat which already existed in Texas. The big problem was to find a connecting link, and in this fact we see the beginnings of the Chisholm trail.
Joseph G. McCoy, a cattle buyer of Illinois, heard of the conditions in Texas and determined to see what he could do to remedy them. He came to Abilene in 1867, which was, as he describes it, ". . . a small dead place, consisting of about a dozen log huts, low, small rude affairs, four fifths of which were covered with dirt for roofing," and determined to establish a cattle terminal there.
The Kansas Pacific Railway had already extended its lines to this place, and McCoy decided that if the proper shipping facilities were set up it would be a comparatively easy matter for the Texas ranchers to drive their cattle overland to market. [3]
He bought 480 acres of land at five dollars an acre, and soon began the construction of shipping-yards, corrals capable of holding 3,000 wild Texas steers, along with chutes, scales, barns, and other equipment. [4] In the short space of two months, from July 1, 1867, to September 1 of the same year, he and his helpers had everything in readiness. [5] But as yet there was no connecting link between Texas and Kansas.
We shall leave the cattle business for the moment and consider the details of the origin and location of the Chisholm trail.
In considering such a problem it is necessary to make use of the many maps which made their appearance before the Civil War. Jefferson Davis, who was appointed Secretary of War in March, 1853, became interested in the extension of railroads to the West, and he had numerous surveys made of the territory in the Mississippi valley and westward. The results of these surveys are carefully preserved by maps in the possession of the Library of Congress. One of the earliest surveys of this territory was made by a Capt. R. B. Marcy, between the years 1849-1852. [6] The results were published soon after. He shows in detail the many trails in the West, but the ones we are particularly interested in are those located in the Indian territory, later Oklahoma. He clearly indicates trails originating south of the Wichita mountains, and extending north on both sides. After passing the mountains, they join, swing out into the central part of the Indian territory and extend about half-way. If the trail had extended in the same general direction, it would have entered the Kansas territory at about where Caldwell is now located.
Two very significant facts are noted in this map. First, that the trail indicated by Captain Marcy followed very closely the natural topography of the land, indicating that Indians had early learned the easiest way to traverse the territory, and second, that the trail followed substantially the same path as the later Chisholm trail. Captain Marcy is very careful to note the natural topography. Mountains, rivers and crossings are traced in great detail. The trail, he indicates, simply followed the easiest course through the territory.
From this map we conclude that there were probably many trails traversing the Southwest, originated by the Indians at an early date. Being familiar with the land, they would naturally pick the easiest way through. Later when the white man appeared, he simply made use of the existing trails.
Joseph Stroud, who made many trips over the Chisholm trail, suggests further that many of these trails followed the old routes of the buffalo migrations, from the spring grazing grounds in the North to the winter grounds in the South. [7]
In 1858 another map was made at the instigation of Jefferson Davis. [8] This shows several military trails which assume great importance in the solution of our problem. One is especially significant. Prior to 1858 a Major Merril had left Fort Belknap, Tex., and moved northward, east of the Wichita mountains. At the mountains he swerved eastward into the central part of the Indian territory and headed towards central Kansas. A comparison of this map with the previous one mentioned clearly indicates that this military trail followed closely the course of the earlier Indian trail noted by Captain Marcy.
In 1861 federal troops located in the Indian territory were ordered to Fort Leavenworth for mobilization. The federal garrison at Fort Smith, Ark., left its post, and joining with the troops of Fort Washita, the combined garrisons under the command of Col. William H. Emory marched up the valley of the Washita river. Continuing farther, the troops from Fort Arbuckle and later Fort Cobb joined with them, and they all set out for Fort Leavenworth. [9] In doing so they traversed much of the same territory of the Indian trails as indicated by Captain Marcy, and the military trail of Captain Merril. The principal difference is that they went farther north, through the territory near present Wichita, and thence to Fort Leavenworth.
From these facts we arrive at the following conclusions: First, that at an early date Indians had marked out the easiest paths over the territory, following the natural topography of the land; second, that military leaders under their guidance had followed substantially the same paths; and third, that these were later used by Jesse Chisholm in laying out his trail.
In the spring of 1864 the affiliated bands comprising the Wichita Indians, about 1,500 in number, began their trek northward. Their ultimate destination was the mouth of the Little Arkansas river, the site of present Wichita, where they made their village. With them was Jesse Chisholm, a half-breed Cherokee Indian, who established a trading post there in the same year. [10] He was quite familiar with this territory as he had guided a party from Arkansas in search of buried treasure to the mouth of the Little Arkansas in 1836, and had made many subsequent trips. [11]
After Jesse Chisholm had established his trading post at the mouth of the Little Arkansas he immediately began to make plans to trade with the Indian territory. In the spring of 1865, when it was apparent that the war was drawing to a close, Chisholm invited James R. Mead to join him in a trading venture. Mead accepted the invitation. Together they loaded their wagons, crossed the Arkansas, and slowly drove to the crossing of the North Canadian. There a short side trip was made to Chisholm's trading post at Council Grove, just west of the site of present Oklahoma City, which had been abandoned at the outbreak of the Civil War. [12]
In the summer of 1865 Chisholm collected a herd of 3,000 head of cattle which grazed over the site of present West Wichita, and in the fall drove them to the Sac and Fox agency, and thence to fill government contracts in New Mexico. In December, 1865, Chisholm, purchasing goods from James R. Mead, loaded a number of teams, and in January, 1866, started across the Indian territory to his former trading post on the North Fork of the Canadian river and points south. In April, 1866, he returned over the same route, bringing with him teams loaded with furs and robes and 250 head of cattle. [13]
This trail over which Chisholm traveled included present Wichita, Clearwater, Caldwell, Pond Creek, Jefferson, Skeleton ranch (near Enid) , Bison (formerly Buffalo Springs) , Kingfisher, mouth of Turkey creek, Cheyenne agency (Darlington) , Wichita agency (Anadarko), and Fort Sill. [14]
The historical student today, taking a map and drawing a line along these towns, will note that the trail laid out by Chisholm followed very closely the Indian trails as noted by Captain Marcy, 1853, and the military trails of Captain Merril and Captain Emory as they made their way through the Indian territory. We conclude that Jesse Chisholm simply followed the best paths over the territory, paths that had been used many years earlier by the Indians and by military authorities. This does not in any way detract from the honor due Chisholm. He knew the land well, and guided the traders over the best possible routes to the North.
The trail immediately became known as "Chisholm's trail" (1865) but not "The Chisholm Trail." It did not receive the latter appellation until after it was extensively used by the cattlemen. [15] The reader should note that Chisholm did not layout a trail for the cattle trade. He laid out a trail for his own private business which was later used by the cattlemen. However, it was the cattle trade which made it famous.
In 1867 William Mathewson, the original "Buffalo Bill," went down over this trail taking two boys he had rescued from the Comanches to the commandant at Fort Arbuckle. There he met Colonel Dougherty of Texas on his way north over the new trail, and guided him as far as the North Canadian. This is the first herd of Texas cattle known to have passed over the Chisholm trail. [16]
On December 5, 1867, William Griflinstein crossed the Arkansas river with a wagon train and went on down the trail. He was followed a little later by Mead, with teams loaded with goods for Jesse Chisholm, who was trading with the Indians at his post on the North Fork of the Canadian river. [17] According to James R. Mead, "Mr. Chisholm's teams and my own were the first which ever passed over that route and marked out what afterward became known as the Chisholm trail." [18]
Before returning to the cattle business at the close of the Civil War, it is interesting to note the present route of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway. It passes through Wichita, Caldwell, Pond Creek, Enid, Kingfisher, El Reno, Chickasha, Waurika, and Fort Worth. The Chisholm trail went through Wichita, Caldwell, Pond Creek, Enid, Kingfisher, El Reno, and then branched off to Anadarko and Fort Sill. The railroad engineers recognized that the Chisholm trail was the best possible route through the territory because it followed the natural topography of the land. Thus the similarity of the routes.
As noted before, Joseph G. McCoy had completed his yards at Abilene September 1, 1867. Before he finished his structures he started a man toward southern Kansas and the Indian territory to round up every drover possible and bring him to Abilene. This agent started at Junction City, then went in a southwesterly direction toward the mouth of the Little Arkansas, now Wichita, and then into the Indian territory. [19]
The first herd of cattle to arrive in Abilene was driven from Texas by a Mr. Thompson. He sold them to some dealers in the Indian territory, by the names of Smith, McCord, and Candler, who in turn drove them to Abilene. Another herd owned by Wheeler, Wilson, and Hicks, all from California, and en route to the Pacific coast, was located about thirty miles from Abilene. The owners of the cattle were finally persuaded to dispose of them at Abilene, and this little town was on the road to big business. [20]
A total of 35,000 head of Texas cattle were rounded up and disposed of at Abilene in 1867. The first shipment was made September 5, and consisted of a twenty-car train, en route to Chicago. [21]
The cattle shipped from Abilene this first year were rounded up from various places. But it is significant to note that some of the drovers began to use the newly laid-out Chisholm trading trail.
McCoy was just getting started. During the winter of 1867 and 1868 circulars were sent to every Texas cow man whose address could be secured. These circulars told of the advantages of Abilene as a shipping terminal, and invited all the Texas drovers to bring their cattle to this city. Then, in the further interests of his trade, McCoy sent two men to Texas to advertise Abilene and to make personal contact with as many ranchers as possible. At the same time he was running full-page advertisements in many of the Northern newspapers, urging buyers to come to Abilene to buy their stock. Over five thousand dollars was spent in advertising in these newspapers. [22]
But the climax to McCoy's advertising schemes came when he hired some Spanish cowboys to rope wild buffalo, load them in a reinforced boxcar, and ship them to Chicago. On the sides of the cars were huge circulars advertising Abilene and urging cattlemen to come there to buy their cattle. [23]
Since the Chisholm trading trail reached only to Wichita, McCoy hired a civil engineer by the name of T. F. Hersey, with a group of flagmen and workers, to extend the trail to Abilene. They took along spades and threw up mounds of dirt, thus completing the trail to its northern terminal. This task accomplished, McCoy placed a workman, W. W. Suggs, at the mouth of the Little Arkansas to direct the herds over the new trail, so that they would be sure to come to Abilene and not to some other point. [24]
Thus we see the Chisholm trading trail being extended in length, and being used more continuously by the cattlemen.
Evidence of McCoy's success is shown by the fact that in 1868 75,000 cattle arrived in Abilene for shipment, [25] and that in 1869 150,000 were driven there. [26] These figures correspond quite closely with those given in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Animal Husbandry for the total number driven to market during these years, and they establish the importance of Abilene as a cattle terminal. [27] According to McCoy there was no place in the west five times as large as Abilene that was doing one half the business. Her cattle business amounted to more than three million dollars annually, aside from an immense trade in camp supplies. [28]
It should be clearly understood that McCoy had very little to do with the origin of the Chisholm trail. His great contribution was to establish a terminal at Abilene, and then by successful advertising to cause the Texas rancher and Northern buyer to meet there. The connecting link was the trail laid out by Chisholm earlier for his own trading ventures.
Now let us consider the completion of the trail to the south. At this time, 1867, there were a multitude of cattle trails in Texas. A map issued by the Kansas Pacific Railway in 1874, and now in possession of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, shows a large network of trails, embracing the entire state of Texas, resembling somewhat a huge fan. However, nearly all crossed the Red river at a place known as Red River station, near the present town of Terral. From there the trail followed a course almost due north, crossing the Washita river near the present town of Alex, the South Canadian near Tuttle, and the North Canadian just west of Yukon. From the North Canadian it inclined slightly westward and joined the Chisholm trading trail at the crossing of the Cimarron between Kingfisher and Dover. Inasmuch as the cattle trail from Texas and the Chisholm trail were thus joined together in the Indian territory, the name Chisholm trail soon came to be applied popularly, if not accurately, to the trail throughout its entire length from its beginning in Texas to Abilene. [29]
Now let us consider the disputes concerning both the origin of the trail and its location. Reviewing briefly the material which we have already covered there can be little doubt that the Chisholm trail received its name from Jesse Chisholm, the half-breed Indian trader, who laid out a trail between his trading post at the mouth of the Little Arkansas, now Wichita, to the Indian territory. We have already seen how the cattlemen later made use of this trail and extended it northward to Abilene, and southward to Texas.
But some of the pioneer cattlemen insist that the Chisholm trail received its name from John Chisum (sometimes incorrectly spelled Chisholm), a large cattle owner of New Mexico. [30] This Chisum was a frontier stockman who was said to have been one of the first to drive cattle over the trail. He formerly lived at Paris, Tex., and had many thousand head of cattle on the ranges in the southern part of the state. [31] He was the owner of the famous Jingle Bob outfit, and in 1867 he drove his herds into New Mexico from Texas, up the Pecos river, and located ranches near the present town of Roswell, N. Mex. It is said he did not know himself how many cattle he possessed, but a conservative estimate puts the total at over 75,000. Chisum trailed many cattle to Arizona and to various points in New Mexico to fill army and Indian agency beef contracts.
Charles Goodnight, who was the partner of John Chisum for several years says, "In conversation with me, he (John Chisum) said that one Chisholm, in no way related to him, did pilot 600 steers from the Texas frontier to old Fort Cobb, and he presumed that this was the origin of the name of the Chisholm trail." [32] And Goodnight adds, "I positively know that no trail north was laid out by John Chisum." [33]
This should clarify the issue as to whether the Chisholm trail received its name from Jesse Chisholm or John Chisum. [34]
Turning our attention to the location of the Chisholm trail, we have what on the surface appears to be a complicated situation, but actually it is relatively simple.
The existence of any point as a cow town must of necessity have been brief. As the settlers came in, they found their interests in direct conflict with those of the cattlemen. And it was the cattlemen who had to give way. Thus we see the cattle trails of the prairies shifting westward before the vanguard of civilization. The northern end of the Chisholm trail was located first at Abilene. Then it shifted to Newton, Wichita, and Caldwell in rapid succession. But finally population became so dense in the central part of Kansas that a branch trail was laid out, leaving the Chisholm trail near Elm Spring, Indian territory, going northwest into western Kansas and ending in Dodge City. [35]
This explains the conflict as to the location of the Chisholm trail. As W. P. Anderson, railroad agent at Abilene during its heyday as a cow town, comments, "Nominally every man that came up the trail felt as though he had traversed the old Chisholm trail. Each westward movement of the cattle industry necessitated a new trail, yet so strong was the force of habit, each in succession continued to be known as the Chisholm trail." [36]
Separating myth and fantasy from historical fact, the issue is clear. In 1865, Jesse Chisholm, the half-breed Indian trader, established a trail from Wichita to Indian territory. At the close of the Civil War it became necessary to find a market for the Texas cattle. The Kansas Pacific Railway had extended its lines westward to Abilene. Joseph G. McCoy, recognizing the possibility of driving cattle to market, established shipping facilities there, and by a series of advertising activities, succeeded in persuading the cattlemen to drive their cattle there. His contribution to the Chisholm trail was its extension north from Wichita to Abilene. Texas cattlemen extended the trail from Indian territory to Texas.
As population increased it became necessary to find a new shipping terminal. This caused the laying out of a branch trail, leaving the Chisholm trail at Elm Spring, Indian territory, and ending at Dodge City. But this was not the Chisholm trail. Desire for historical importance, or any other reason, cannot alter the fact that the Chisholm trail extended from Indian territory to Wichita, and thence north to Abilene. Although the trail drivers may have believed and are now willing to argue that they were traveling over the Chisholm trail, when traversing the western route, this cannot change historical fact.
Dodge City became the last and probably the most famous of all the pioneer cattle towns. Abilene had held the center of the trade from 1867 to 1870; Newton, 1871; Wichita, 1872; Ellsworth and Caldwell, 1873; and then Dodge City to the close of the long drive.
Robert M. Wright, pioneer cattle dealer of Dodge City, insists that ". . . there were more cattle driven to Dodge any and every year that Dodge held it, than to any other town, and for about ten years, Dodge City was the greatest cattle market in the world." [37]
But even Dodge City was beginning to be affected by the advance of civilization. Harry Norman of the New York World, passing through Dodge City in 1925, says, "Gone are the buffalo, the longhorn steers, the badmen, from this once rip-roaring town, the center of a vast region of which it was once said, that 'all they raised was cattle and hell.' " [38]
With the passing of the range cattle industry necessarily came the passing of the Chisholm trail. This trail was followed continuously for more than twenty years, and since it has been estimated that between five and six million head of cattle were driven north from Texas, we can see the volume of business that passed over it. [39]
Probably no greater or more vivid description has ever been given of the Chisholm trail than that of Charles Moreau Harger, writing in 1892:
From two hundred to four hundred yards wide, beaten into the bare earth, it reached over hill and through valley for over six hundred miles, a chocolate band amid the green prairies, uniting the North and the South. As the marching hoofs wore it down and the wind blew and the waters washed the earth away it became lower than the surrounding territory, and was flanked by little banks of sand, drifted there by the wind. Bleaching skulls and skeletons of weary brutes who had perished on the journey gleamed along its borders, and here and there was a low mound showing where some cowboy had literally "died with his boots on." Occasionally a dilapidated wagon frame told of a break down, and spotting the emerald reaches on either side were the barren circle-like "bedding-grounds," each a record that a great herd had there spent a night. The wealth of an empire passed over the trail, leaving its mark for decades to come. The traveler of today sees the wide trough-like course, with ridges being washed down by the rains, and with fences and farms of the settlers and the more civilized redmen intercepting its track and forgets the wild and arduous life of which it was the exponent. [40]In the New York Times for December 7, 1930, we find the future of this historic old highway:
The famous cattle trail from Texas to Kansas, celebrated in the galloping measures of the songs crooned by all cowboys a generation ago and now broadcast to the far corners of the land--has recently acquired belated but official recognition from the Lone Star state. For the state highway commission has authorized the Chisholm Trail Association to name two highways and mark them at historical spots with long-horned steer heads. By this action the most important of the south to north trails, linking parts of the Far West before the coming of the railroads, takes its place with the Santa Fé and Oregon in the nation's history. [41]Progress has been made in marking out the trail, and Oklahoma and Kansas have joined in. Thus we see the gradual wearing away of the Chisholm trail, ". . . that legendary highway acclaimed in song and story as most celebrated of the Old West's premier cowland."
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