Great Plains Cattle Empire: Thatcher Brothers and Associates, 1875-1945

by Paul E. Patterson, Joy Poole, Elmer Kelton (Foreword by)

Overview

“A veritable Who’s Who of pioneer cattlemen.” —Elmer Kelton, from the ForewordJohn and Mahlon Thatcher were two of the many pioneers looking to begin a new life in the great open spaces of the West. In the 1860s, the brothers began a small mercantile in the town of Pueblo, Colorado. From a safe in the corner of their new store, the brothers founded what was to become the First National Bank of Pueblo, Colorado—and the beginnings of a financial empire that would encompass cattle companies from New Mexico to Canada.Together with such legendary figures as Frank Bloom, Henry Cresswell, O. H. Perry Baxter, William Anderson, Burton Mossman, and Mahlon T. Everhart, they created a cattle empire, financing and directing the Bloom Land and Cattle Company, the Diamond A Cattle Company, and the Hatchet Cattle Company. Their herds of cattle, horses, and sheep ranged on some eleven million acres of land. Great Plains Cattle Empire tells their stories, spanning the years from just after the Civil War through World War II.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780896725638
Publisher:	Texas Tech University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2005
Pages:	229
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Paul E. Patterson managed the Diamond A Cattle Company for twenty-six years. His work has appeared in Field and Stream, New Mexico Magazine, Western Horseman, and other publications.Joy Poole is former director of the Fort Collins Museum in Colorado.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	ix
	Preface	xi
	Acknowledgments	xvii
1	Go West Young Man	1
2	Don Colora'o	7
3	Gold Nuggets and Golden Spikes	15
4	Trail Drive	19
5	Free Grass	25
6	The Dawning of a New Day	31
7	The Associates	35
8	Black Friday	41
9	Trailing to Texas	45
10	Beef Bonanza	51
11	Looking South	57
12	West of the Pecos	63
13	The Bloom Cattle Company	69
14	Changing Times	77
15	White Christmas on the Plains	87
16	The Turkey Track	99
17	Roundup	103
18	The Capitalists	113
19	Ranch on the Rio Hondo	121
20	Expanding Horizons	125
21	Cresswell Cattle Company	137
22	Burton "Cap" Mossman	141
23	Ranch on the Cheyenne River Reservation	147
24	The Hatchet Cattle Company	157
25	Few Equals and No Superiors	165
26	Circle Diamond and Tee Down Bar	169
	Epilogue	179
	Notes	187
	Bibliography	195
	Index	199