Trails of Yesterday
"An overlooked rangeland classic . . . well written and good reading." -Don Russell, Westerners Brand Books.
"Bratt's story is a minor classic because of the raw but credible frontier adventures of a young English emigrant."---Merrill J. Mattes.


John Bratt's 1921 book "Trails of Yesterday," is among the greatest first-hand accounts of cattle ranching on the northern Great Plains during the wild time of the 1870s and 1880s. His book is the memoirs of a rancher on the Nebraska frontier plains, and gives a window into life on the Western cattle country as well as his youthful adventures in traversing the Great Platte River Road while avoiding attack from Indians.

Bratt (1842-1918) was born in England and came to the U.S. at age 22, joining in 1866 a wagon train going from Nebraska City, Nebraska, to Fort Phil Kearny, working as a bullwhacker supplying Ft. Kearny and other Army posts. Bratt gives an authentic look at the country along the Great Platte River Road, noting the condition of the trail, and run-ins with buffalo and Indians such as Dull Knife.

In describing one encounter with Dull Knife's band, Bratt writes:

"We had all but eight of the wagons across when a small party of Indians (maybe twenty), mounted and carrying spears in addition to the customary bows and arrows, came charging at breakneck speed out of the adjacent hills and with a war whoop rode close up to the eight teams and commenced to shoot arrows at the teamsters and the cattle, sending some of their arrows into the flanks and sides of the cattle...."

Another tense encounter took place with an Indian named "Big Mouth":

"The next moment I was brought to my sense of danger by hearing the war-whoop yell. I imagine I can hear that yell as I sit penning these lines. It was given in earnest and with vigor. Had I been a black-haired man I think my hair would have turned white as they came galloping toward me. Fortunately I had tightened the cinch on my saddle. I heard one voice, that I recognized as Big Mouth's, yell in Sioux: 'Stop, Yellow Hair. We have you now!' I had sent my spurs into my horse's flanks . . ."

Interestingly Bratt gives accounts of the frontier forts used for protecting the long trail, including Forts McPherson, Kearny, Mitchell, and Sedgwick-as well as the cattle ranches of John Burke and the famous Jack Morrow, among others.

Bratt was a cattle rancher for more than 20 years, starting his cattle ranching venture in 1870. The majority of his narrative is devoted to the development of the ranching industry on the Great Plains.

Bratt's book is a well-regarded historical source, and is cited by the following modern works:

• Trails South: The Wagon-road Economy in the Dodge City-Panhandle Region, C. Robert Haywood - 2006
• The Great Plains Guide to Buffalo Bill: Forts, Fights & Other Sites, Jeff Barnes - 2014
• Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume 2, Philip A. Greasley - 2016
• The Cattlemen: From the Rio Grande Across the Far Marias, Mari Sandoz – 1978
• The Great Platte River Road: The Covered Wagon Mainline Via Fort, Merrill J. Mattes – 1987
• Wyoming's Pioneer Ranches, Robert Homer Burns 1955
• North from Texas: Incidents in the Early Life of a Range Cowman, James Clay Shaw – 1996
• Nebraska history: an annotated bibliography, Michael L. Tate – 1995
1101483484
Trails of Yesterday
"An overlooked rangeland classic . . . well written and good reading." -Don Russell, Westerners Brand Books.
"Bratt's story is a minor classic because of the raw but credible frontier adventures of a young English emigrant."---Merrill J. Mattes.


John Bratt's 1921 book "Trails of Yesterday," is among the greatest first-hand accounts of cattle ranching on the northern Great Plains during the wild time of the 1870s and 1880s. His book is the memoirs of a rancher on the Nebraska frontier plains, and gives a window into life on the Western cattle country as well as his youthful adventures in traversing the Great Platte River Road while avoiding attack from Indians.

Bratt (1842-1918) was born in England and came to the U.S. at age 22, joining in 1866 a wagon train going from Nebraska City, Nebraska, to Fort Phil Kearny, working as a bullwhacker supplying Ft. Kearny and other Army posts. Bratt gives an authentic look at the country along the Great Platte River Road, noting the condition of the trail, and run-ins with buffalo and Indians such as Dull Knife.

In describing one encounter with Dull Knife's band, Bratt writes:

"We had all but eight of the wagons across when a small party of Indians (maybe twenty), mounted and carrying spears in addition to the customary bows and arrows, came charging at breakneck speed out of the adjacent hills and with a war whoop rode close up to the eight teams and commenced to shoot arrows at the teamsters and the cattle, sending some of their arrows into the flanks and sides of the cattle...."

Another tense encounter took place with an Indian named "Big Mouth":

"The next moment I was brought to my sense of danger by hearing the war-whoop yell. I imagine I can hear that yell as I sit penning these lines. It was given in earnest and with vigor. Had I been a black-haired man I think my hair would have turned white as they came galloping toward me. Fortunately I had tightened the cinch on my saddle. I heard one voice, that I recognized as Big Mouth's, yell in Sioux: 'Stop, Yellow Hair. We have you now!' I had sent my spurs into my horse's flanks . . ."

Interestingly Bratt gives accounts of the frontier forts used for protecting the long trail, including Forts McPherson, Kearny, Mitchell, and Sedgwick-as well as the cattle ranches of John Burke and the famous Jack Morrow, among others.

Bratt was a cattle rancher for more than 20 years, starting his cattle ranching venture in 1870. The majority of his narrative is devoted to the development of the ranching industry on the Great Plains.

Bratt's book is a well-regarded historical source, and is cited by the following modern works:

• Trails South: The Wagon-road Economy in the Dodge City-Panhandle Region, C. Robert Haywood - 2006
• The Great Plains Guide to Buffalo Bill: Forts, Fights & Other Sites, Jeff Barnes - 2014
• Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume 2, Philip A. Greasley - 2016
• The Cattlemen: From the Rio Grande Across the Far Marias, Mari Sandoz – 1978
• The Great Platte River Road: The Covered Wagon Mainline Via Fort, Merrill J. Mattes – 1987
• Wyoming's Pioneer Ranches, Robert Homer Burns 1955
• North from Texas: Incidents in the Early Life of a Range Cowman, James Clay Shaw – 1996
• Nebraska history: an annotated bibliography, Michael L. Tate – 1995
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Trails of Yesterday

Trails of Yesterday

by John Bratt
Trails of Yesterday

Trails of Yesterday

by John Bratt

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Overview

"An overlooked rangeland classic . . . well written and good reading." -Don Russell, Westerners Brand Books.
"Bratt's story is a minor classic because of the raw but credible frontier adventures of a young English emigrant."---Merrill J. Mattes.


John Bratt's 1921 book "Trails of Yesterday," is among the greatest first-hand accounts of cattle ranching on the northern Great Plains during the wild time of the 1870s and 1880s. His book is the memoirs of a rancher on the Nebraska frontier plains, and gives a window into life on the Western cattle country as well as his youthful adventures in traversing the Great Platte River Road while avoiding attack from Indians.

Bratt (1842-1918) was born in England and came to the U.S. at age 22, joining in 1866 a wagon train going from Nebraska City, Nebraska, to Fort Phil Kearny, working as a bullwhacker supplying Ft. Kearny and other Army posts. Bratt gives an authentic look at the country along the Great Platte River Road, noting the condition of the trail, and run-ins with buffalo and Indians such as Dull Knife.

In describing one encounter with Dull Knife's band, Bratt writes:

"We had all but eight of the wagons across when a small party of Indians (maybe twenty), mounted and carrying spears in addition to the customary bows and arrows, came charging at breakneck speed out of the adjacent hills and with a war whoop rode close up to the eight teams and commenced to shoot arrows at the teamsters and the cattle, sending some of their arrows into the flanks and sides of the cattle...."

Another tense encounter took place with an Indian named "Big Mouth":

"The next moment I was brought to my sense of danger by hearing the war-whoop yell. I imagine I can hear that yell as I sit penning these lines. It was given in earnest and with vigor. Had I been a black-haired man I think my hair would have turned white as they came galloping toward me. Fortunately I had tightened the cinch on my saddle. I heard one voice, that I recognized as Big Mouth's, yell in Sioux: 'Stop, Yellow Hair. We have you now!' I had sent my spurs into my horse's flanks . . ."

Interestingly Bratt gives accounts of the frontier forts used for protecting the long trail, including Forts McPherson, Kearny, Mitchell, and Sedgwick-as well as the cattle ranches of John Burke and the famous Jack Morrow, among others.

Bratt was a cattle rancher for more than 20 years, starting his cattle ranching venture in 1870. The majority of his narrative is devoted to the development of the ranching industry on the Great Plains.

Bratt's book is a well-regarded historical source, and is cited by the following modern works:

• Trails South: The Wagon-road Economy in the Dodge City-Panhandle Region, C. Robert Haywood - 2006
• The Great Plains Guide to Buffalo Bill: Forts, Fights & Other Sites, Jeff Barnes - 2014
• Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume 2, Philip A. Greasley - 2016
• The Cattlemen: From the Rio Grande Across the Far Marias, Mari Sandoz – 1978
• The Great Platte River Road: The Covered Wagon Mainline Via Fort, Merrill J. Mattes – 1987
• Wyoming's Pioneer Ranches, Robert Homer Burns 1955
• North from Texas: Incidents in the Early Life of a Range Cowman, James Clay Shaw – 1996
• Nebraska history: an annotated bibliography, Michael L. Tate – 1995

Product Details

BN ID: 2940186754336
Publisher: Far West Travel Adventure
Publication date: 08/27/2022
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

John Bratt, 1842-1918 of North Platte, Lincoln County, Nebraska, was a rancher, livestock dealer, mayor, real estate agent. Bratt was born on August 9, 1842, in Leek, Staffordshire, England. The son of a minister, he was apprenticed to a merchant in his twelfth year. At age eighteen, Bratt opened his own general store in Manchester. When he reached the age of twenty-one, John Bratt decided to immigrate to America. He left for New York in June 1864 and moved on to Chicago in August, going into business on South Water Street. That same year, Bratt lost everything but his life in a shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1865, Bratt traveled to Nebraska City where he accepted employment as a bull whacker with a firm that operated an ox-team freighting service. Four years later, he was hired as a bookkeeper by the Coe and Carter Cattle Company which at that time ran immense herds in the Lincoln County area. Bratt’s headquarters were at Ft. McPherson. He later became general foreman of the outfit. In 1870, he formed John Bratt and Company with Isaac Coe and Levi Carter as his partners. John Bratt and Company ranged between ten and fifteen thousand head of cattle between the Platte River, Medicine and Red Willow Creeks, west of Ft. McPherson and east of O’Fallon’s Bluffs. The home ranch was located four miles southeast of North Platte.

As homesteaders moved into the area and took up open range land, Bratt decided to retire from ranching and acquired stock yards in North Platte where he bought and sold cattle and operated a meat market. In the early 1900’s he entered the real estate and insurance business with a son-in-law, E. R. Goodman. Bratt served two terms as mayor of North Platte and had been a commissioner of newly-formed Frontier County (1872). He died in North Platte on June 15, 1918.
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