History of Woods County's Fair Valley Community
Vol. 1, No. 20 - 2 February 1998
by - Elbert Piper's Article printed in Alva-Review
Courier 1957
Some people have commented that Mr. Piper's history article
is the most blatant piece of "noble white man trying to civilize savage
indian." What do you think?
Cattle Ranching Started
With the Indian being pushed from his buffalo hunting range,
cattle ranching started in the area. The cattle came into the Cherokee
Strip in the early 70s and was well stocked by 1880. In 1883 there
were no fences. Six million acres were under lease for $100,000 to
the Cherokee Strip Livestock association. This was less than two cents
per acre. Large ranchers cut this six million acres into ranches of
50,000, 100,000, 150,000 acres each. This was really a paradise for
the cattlemen where they could run a cow on grass the year-round for
less than 50 cents. The big cost of operating were the heavy losses
during the bad weather. Cow hands wages were $25 per month. They butchered
their own meat or killed it from the buffaloes, antelopes, deer, turkeys,
plover prairie chickens, or quail, Beaver and otter were along the
streams.
Ranch Boundaries Defined
 In
1885 there were still no fences. The ranch boundary was defined
by cowboys working in pairs riding a distance of about 30 miles
where two more would take up and ride for another 30 miles or so;
and so on until the cowhands had circled the entire ranch.
The next day they rode back to their starting point, driving all
cattle with their brands back from the outer lines of the pasture.
Some cattle would filter through which were returned at their big
roundups. Texas and the southwest were full of cattle which grew
up from cattle left at all river crossings by the Spanish expeditions
a few hundred years before.
Take just on cow producing a calf every year together with her
increase and see what you have. Horses were propagated by the Spanish
of the Southwest the same as cattle by leaving some at each river
crossing. There were a few wild horses in 1893 --- hence such creek
names as red horse, white horse.
The Indians got their first horses from these wild horses. It was
a great step in their advancement to change from the dog as a beast
of burden to the horse. Food was much easier to obtain in the hunt.
This two cents per acre or $100,000 was supposed at first, according
to the original plan to be invested in cattle and put on the range
for the Cherokees. Cherokees were good horsemen. The cowboy was
afraid of loosing his job to them as cow hands. The cowmen were
jealous and greedy. After much bickering the hundred thousand of
dollars was paid in money.
What a celebration for the Indians and what a time for the white
renegades trying to round up this money for themselves. If the cattle
had been purchased and placed upon the range for the Cherokees as
originally planned, there would probably never have been a Fairvalley
as we knew it in homestead days.
The cowman of the southwestern plains went without a market for
their cattle during the Civil War. All river markets being closed
and settled so thickly that herds could not pass through. After
the wars a scout by the name of Jesse Chisholm, half Cherokee and
half white, marked out his famous trail from Wichita, Kansas to
Anadarko. Other feeder trails went over all Texas and Oklahoma at
a later time.
Fairvalley was surrounded by these feeder trails. One went from
near Enid to Kiowa, another from near El Reno to Ft. Supply where
it joined with a north and south trail leading to Dodge City. Still
another from Canton went to near Pond Creek. Another one later was
laid out from Wichita, to Ft. Supply. This Wichita trail probably
went through the heart of the Fairvalley community. Some think this
one crossed the Cimarron river near where the Virgil Russell place
is now. It is almost in direct line and we are positive this crossing
was used a great deal.
Thus we see that there was ample outlet to a feeder trail before
homesteads were filed for out at the little Fairvalley community.
These feeder lines for the larger trails to market at Wichita, Abeline,
Caldwell and Dodge City were to the cattle industry what railroads
were at a later time. Hundreds of thousands followed these trails
often for several hundred miles to be marketed at the nearest railroads.
Coyotes & Wolves Follow Buffaloes
The Indians were not the only ones to gain a livelihood from the
buffalo. Many coyotes and large wolves followed them from north
to south. These large wolves, it was said, could work a herd of
buffalo or cattle better than the cowboys' cutting out their victims
with some working the head and throat while others would cut the
ham string from the rear. Then the animal was helpless.
When the buffalo were killed from the plains, then they did the
second best and killed cattle for food. This forced the cowman to
make war on them. A bounty of $25.00 was paid for their scalp. If
a cowboy killed one wolf it would pay him as much as a month's salary.
By the time the Fairvalley settler's came, the wolves were nearly
gone.
Thus another scene from our prairie had closed its curtains never
again to be staged again. Soon the curtain went down on the scene
picturing the large ranches with 100,000 acres or more. This scene
closed in 1893 when the run was made.
Wire Fences Change Picture
During the cowman's stay, wire fences were invented which almost
completely changed the entire picture for the old time cow hand.
His wild ways were domesticated and most of them took a homestead
and a homesteaders daughter, traded his saddle for a plow and his
saddle horse for a work horse and lived happy ever after.
Many ranch hands only went to town two or three times per year
and after getting a few drinks as if they had discovered America
and it was all theirs. At 12 o'clock noon, 16 September 1893, the
run was made. Choice land was settled first and within 10 years
practically every 160 acres was a homestead. Sod houses and dugouts
dotted for miles about the Fairvalley Spring.
These houses were to our pioneers what the log cabin was to pioneers
in Lincoln's boyhood days. These settlers were not Spanish goldseekers,
or French traders nor English aristocrats but true blueblooded Americans;
all on the same level trying as desperately as the Pilgrim Fathers
to find a permanent home and raise their family, filled with truth
honor, and honesty.
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