Charles Goodnight: In His Own Words
Charles Goodnight was one of America’s most significant frontiersmen. Explore his life through these primary sources.
A few people leave such an impression on their world they unintentionally become symbolic of their time. These historical figures are born at a time and place where their actions create significant changes for many people. George Washington, for example, was born into colonial America and would come of age at the peak of unrest. Trace Washington’s life, and you can more or less understand the larger story of what was happening in the colonies at that time. Crazy Horse was another man whose life embodies the changing world around him. Charles Goodnight is such a man for the rise of the cattlemen in the West.
Charles Goodnight was born March 5, 1836, in Illinois into a family of frontiersmen. The Goodnights moved to Pennsylvania from Germany in the 1750s. It wasn’t long before they felt the call of wildlands of Kentucky. During the heyday of men like Boone, Kenton, and Wetzel, the Goodnights hunted, fought, and lived the adventurous lives of frontiersmen. Cut from the same cloth, young Charles grew up quickly, and he was just 9 years old when the family loaded two covered wagons and moved the fresh lands of Texas. For more than 600 miles he rode bareback toward his future home. Filled with Comanche, outlaws, and rattlesnakes, the rough Texas frontier molded young Goodnight into the capable frontiersman he would later become.
Much has already been written about the life of Charles Goodnight. Do a simple Google search of his name and you’ll turn up more than 5 million results. Many of those posts add to what we know about the life of this famous frontiersman. This post is a little different, however. It will give you the thoughts and experiences of Charles Goodnight in his own words. Noted author J. Evetts Haley interviewed the cowman for his remarkable book Charles Goodnight; Cowman and Plainsman first published in 1936. In the book, Evetts directly quotes Goodnight on many occasions about life on the frontier. By examining those quotes, a reader can go direct to the source to learn about Goodnight’s life rather than filter it through another party.
If you are interested in the history of the American frontier, you’ll surely appreciate these primary sources from Charles Goodnight.
Teachers might find this FREE PDF useful to help their students analyze the primary sources.
Frontier Skills and Life as a Texas Ranger
As a youth, Goodnight developed skills that would allow him to flourish in the harsh and dangerous region of arid West Texas. Perhaps the most difficult geographic hurdles were the lack of water and the endless expanses void of landmarks by which to navigate. In this section, read through passages where Goodnight explains the skills necessary for survival as a nomadic Texas Ranger.
“Thus, above all things, the scout and plainsman had to have a sense- an instinct - for direction. He had to have the faculty of never needing a compass. With the point of destination fixed in his mind, a thorough plainsman could go to it as directly in darkness as in daylight, on a calm, cloudy day as well as in bright sunshine with the wind blowing steadily from one quarter. Few men have this instinct…I never had a compass in my life. I was never lost.”
“I think that I learned pretty thoroughly the requirements of scout and plainsman. The first requirement is that by merely looking at the country the scout should be able to judge accurately in what direction water lies and the approximate distance to it. He should be familiar with every grass and shrub that indicates water. He should be able to tell by watching the animals, if animals there be, whether they are going to or coming from water.”
“I was always mighty glad to see a mesquite bush. In a dry climate…its seed seems to spring up only from the droppings of an animal. The only animal on the Plains that ate mesquite beans was the mustang…therefore when I saw a mesquite bush I used to know that water was within three miles. All I had to do after seeing the bush was to locate the direction of the water.“
“West of the Cross Timbers water became very scarce, and near the Plains extremely bad. Most of it was undrinkable, and the water we could drink had a bad effect on us. At times we suffered exceedingly from thirst, which suffering is the worst torture of all…In case of dire thirst, placing a small pebble in the mouth will help, a bullet is better, a piece of copper, if obtainable, is still better, and prickly pear is the best of all…”
“The country in which we served was mostly a barren wilderness, and outside of buffaloes had virtually no game…Consequently, when we were outside the buffalo range there was nothing for us but the prairie dogs…Meat was our main fare. We rarely had bread, but when we did we baked it over the coals on sticks; a forked stick was our skilled, We always tried to keep a little flour on hand to thicken soup…Prairie dogs were fat and made good soup…We always had plenty of bacon in camp as the settlers were well supplied with hogs.”
Mavericks
Roping wild cattle became common after the Civil War. Read more to learn what Charles Goodnight had to say on the practice.
Most folks know that in the period after the Civil War wild cattle in the southern part of Texas were called mavericks. With an abundance of unbranded cattle, and no men to watch them, the gathering of these wild cattle, or mavericking, became common practice. Goodnight describes how mavericking unfolded during the early years after the war.
“…when the war got in good swing, taking all the available men from the ranges to the army…virtually no one was left to take care of the cattle….with the result that the ranges were soon covered with unmarked cattle…At first this condition did not seem to have a decidedly bad effect, but certain scattered men over the country could not withstand the temptation and went to branding these cattle for themselves….for the first year or so this was not tolerated by the masses…”
“…in a year or two’s time, this stealing or so-called mavericking became public. You could count the honest ones on your fingers and still have one hand left…”
“It was the custom for neighbors to go in together and brand up the war widows’ cattle, even cleaner than they did their own. When the stealing got into full swing, this noble custom was dropped, and the thieves took everything these poor women had.”
Blazing the Goodnight-Loving Trail
Cattle were cheap on the Texas frontier and Goodnight’s ambition to become a cattleman was a lofty goal. Drovers had been pushing cattle to northern markets since the 1840s, but Goodnight thought he could do better. While rangering, Goodnight had a herd of his own on the open range. During this time, he estimated the herd would have naturally increased to about 5,000 head. After his ranger days were through, Goodnight set out to find some new range for those cattle. Having trouble locating good grass, he decided “it would be better to hunt a market for (my) cattle than a home for them.” This was the situation that gave rise to the epic Goodnight-Loving cattle drive of 1866.
Rather than follow the old trails north to the railroads, he decided to push west as “…the mining region would have more or less money, and second, in that region, there was a good cattle country, so If I could not sell I could hold.”
Goodnight persuaded the older Oliver Loving to throw in his herd with Goodnights’. Also, at Goodnight’s insistence Loving took control of the drive when they joined their herds together. Pushing west from Fort Belknap, it wasn’t long before the herd faced hardship. Perhaps the worst part of the drive was the 80 mile stretch without water. Driving the tired, thirsty, and wild-eyed cattle across the barren wasteland turned into a test of survival. Goodnight recounts the story:
“…the third day the cattle had not had water and they became crazed and almost unmanageable. I took four of the best men, the horses, and all the strong cattle - about two-thirds of the herd - and let them go as fast as possible to the water. There was an alkali pond near the river which would have meant death to them, but by pulling a few hairs from my horse’s neck and letting them float to the ground I detected the exact course of the breeze and took advantage of it.
“As soon as they smelled the cool air, they became wild for water, and when they reached the river those behind pushed the ones in the lead right on across before they had time to stop and drink…They crossed in such volume and force that they impeded the current.”
After tallying the cattle that had died en route, the cattle that drown, and the ones hopelessly bogged down in quicksand, the total casualty was more than 300 Texas longhorns when they left the Pecos River. When asked about the Pecos Goodnight replied:
“The Pecos - the graveyard of the cattleman’s hopes. I hated it! It was a treacherous as the Indians themselves.”
Yet the drive was considered a success by the end and the drovers found a ready buyer in the US government at Fort Sumer. In fact, the drive was such a success that Charles Goodnight would make several more treacherous crossing on the newly blazed trail.
Life on the Trail
For nearly 10 years Goodnight would push cattle by the thousands through the modern states of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. In a business where no diplomas are issued, Goodnight went down in history as a master of the trail drive. Here is how he described life on the trail.
“Our outfits consisted of sixteen to eighteen men, a mess-wagon drawn by four mules, driven by the cook, and a horse wrangler who had charge of the horse herd…These men were thoroughly drilled regarding their places and duties. I always selected two of the most skillful to be my pointers, to handle the front of the herd, and keep it on the course given out by the foreman. They were never changed from their positions at the head of the herd. I always selected three steady men for the rear…If the pointers found the (width of the herd) getting too long, they simply checked up until the herd was the correct length - one half-mile.”
“Trail hands were well-disciplined and were governed entirely by signals.”
“We always tried to reach water before sundown. This gave us ample time to have the cattle filled and everything arranged for a pleasant night… At first, when the cattle were fresh, I used a double guard; that is half the men guarded the first part of the night, the other half the latter part. In storms or stampedes, we were all on duty. After the herd had been out for fifteen days, it was ‘trail broke,’ and four men were sufficient to guard three thousand head of cattle…”
“It was a rough, hard, adventurous life, but was not without its sunny side, and when everything moved smoothly the trip was an agreeable diversion from the monotony of the range. But things did not always move smoothly. The stampede was especially guarded against during the first ten days or so of the drive…”
“In the excitement of a stampede a man was not himself, and his horse was not the horse of yesterday. Man and horse were one, and the combination accomplished feats that would be utterly impossible under ordinary circumstances.”
“I had a system on my drives. My friends often laughed about it, but the most successful drives were always systematically ordered. We ate breakfast just as day broke. The pointers and two other men…ate at once. If there were no signs of Indians, the herd was started from the bed ground and put to grazing as soon as possible… The cattle were always headed toward the course we were taking. The men ate, saddled, and fell into place promptly. It is remarkable that during my years on the trail I rarely had a man who would shirk his duty...It is certain that no deadheads ever stayed in a cow-camp any length of time.”
“Before starting on a trail drive, I made it a rule to draw up an article of agreement, setting forth what each man was to do. The main clause stipulated that if one shot another he was to be tried by the outfit and hanged on the spot if found guilty. I never had a man shot on the trail”
“…passing over the desert between the Concho and the Pecos, I used to see (15) graves, all the result of pistol shots but one. I shall never forget the impression made upon me by those lonely graves, where rested cowboys killed in battle with one another after having fallen out while crossing the long stretch without water. I thought then, as I think now, that all foremen and owners should have been responsible for the lives of their men, not only against Indians so far as possible, but against each other in all cases.”
After his time on the trail drives, Charles Goodnight went on to establish the famous JA Ranch in the Texas panhandle. Although he oversaw the building of fences, homes, and barns on the JA that set the roots for a more civilized world, Goodnight seems to have guarded a special affection for life on the open range.
On Cattle
An old cowboy joke told that Texas cattle in the 1880s had more weight in their horns than meat on their bones.
Of course, a man who dedicated his life to the cattle industry ought to have a few insights on what makes good stock. Here are Goodnight’s thoughts on the subject.
“As trail cattle (longhorns) equal has never been known and never will be. Their hoofs are superior to those of any other cattle. They can go farther without water and endure more suffering than others. They can be handled on the trail for less expense…I have never handled any cattle on the trail which space themselves on march as well as they do….from my observation they have at least double the endurance, and their period of life and usefulness is also about double that of any other. They never shed their teeth from age, and most other breeds do, and all ranchmen would do well to retain their blood in the improved herds as far as practicable.”
“The calf of a longhorn cow, with its hair still wet from the womb, will bristle up at the presence of a dog, whereas a finely bred Durham calf will smell of the dog and maybe try to suck it. In the Texas calf, the instinct of self-protection is already in him, as though he were defending himself against a wolf.”
Although Charles Goodnight held a soft spot in his heart for his beloved longhorn, he did get involved with Herefords and Durham cattle while managing the JA.
On Life
Throughout the great J. Evetts Haley book, the author records a number of “one-liners” worth mentioning. If nothing else, they help reveal the mindset of the iconic plainsman.
“Better to lose your fortune than your honor.”
“If all the good luck and all the bad luck I’ve had were put together, I reckon it’d make the biggest damned pile of luck in the world.”
“It has been my aim through life to try to have the world a little better because I lived in it.”
After winning a court case that cost him $20,000, “It cost me lots of money, but we upheld the honor of the Panhandle.”
In his ranger days, Goodnight often found himself trailing, or being trailed by Native Americans. Many times he shot it out in a skirmish doing what men do when their lives on the line. One might think that due to these experiences Goodnight would have developed a deep dislike of Native people. This does not appear to be the case. In fact, one story goes that 50 years after one battle Goodnight was approached by some Kiowa he had once fought. Goodnight tells the story like this:
“You shot at me and ran me into the brush one time,’ an old warrior said describing the fight. To which (I) replied, ‘I wished I had killed you at the time, but I’m damned glad I didn’t now.”
Charles Goodnight went on to invite the old brave in for a feast at his ranch house.
The life of Charles Goodnight can teach us an awful lot about life on the American frontier. It can teach us about the grit and determination people had to have. It can teach us about how many hardships there were and how quickly life could change. Hopefully, by hearing the experiences from the man himself, you’ll have a better appreciation for the wild and rugged life of this famous historical figure.
