Oliver Loving

Oliver Loving. [source]

Farmer to Rancher
Oliver Loving was born in Kentucky in 1912. He grew up there, married Susan Morgan, and worked his farm. In 1943, he picked the family up to move to the Republic of Texas. There he was granted three parcels of land totaling a little over 600 acres, which he began to farm. Loving and his wife eventually had nine children and Loving began hauling freight and running a store to help make ends meets. By 1857, Loving owned more than 1,000 acres of land, which he used to run cattle. With so many cattle ranches in Texas, it was more profitable to drive the cattle out of state and Loving sent his son, William, up the Shawnee trail in 1857, with Loving himself driving the cattle in subsequent years.

The Cattle Trails of the West. The Goodnight-Loving trail is highlighted in red.

New Trails
In 1860, Loving drove his cattle to Denver, Colorado, where an influx of miners had increased the need for beef. Loving stayed in Colorado for the winter, but the Civil War broke out and Union authorities prevented him from leaving for Confederate territory. However, Kit Carson spoke on his behalf and Loving was allowed to return to Texas. There, the Confederate army contracted with him to provide beef cattle for the troops and Loving spent the war years driving cattle across the Confederacy. After the war ended, cattle prices in Texas plummeted. On top of that, the Confederacy owed Loving over $100,000, which he couldn’t recoup. In an effort to make money from his diminished herd, Loving hit on the idea of taking his cattle to the Native Reservations in New Mexico. Loving joined his herd with that of Charles Goodnight and the two men and their ranch hands began the long drive in June of 1866. The trail followed the former path of the Butterfield Overland Mail coaches before turning north at the Pecos River. Others had followed this path, but it was Loving and Goodnight who made it famous and gave it its name: the Goodnight-Loving Trail. The two men were able to sell much of their cattle to the US Army at the Bosque Redondo Reservation, but Loving continued with the remainder of the herd to Colorado while Goodnight returned to Texas with the $12,000 dollars they’d earned to buy more cattle. The drive was so successful, Loving and Goodnight decided to take the same trail the next year. It would be Loving’s last drive.

A Legendary Death
In the summer of 1867, Loving and Goodnight set out for New Mexico once more. The weather on the route was terrible and Loving pushed ahead with Bill Wilson, a scout, to start the deal with the army. Despite knowing the dangers, Loving traveled during the day through the Comanchería. As they reached the Pecos River, the Comanche attacked and Loving was wounded. Loving sent Wilson back to Goodnight and the herd while he continued on. With the help of some Mexican traders, he managed to arrive at Fort Sumner, but quickly fell ill with gangrene. Goodnight arrived at the Fort before Loving died and promised him that he would bury Loving in Texas soil. Goodnight had to finish driving the cattle to Colorado, so Loving was temporarily buried at Fort Sumner. Goodnight retrieved his body on the way back and Loving was reinterred in Weatherford, Texas on March 4, 1868. Larry McMurtry would later borrow Loving’s death for his novel Lonesome Dove.

Cynthia Ann Parker

Cynthia Ann Parker and her daughter Topʉsana (Prairie Flower), 1860 [source]

Captured
Cynthia Ann Parker was about 10 when the Comanche attacked Fort Parker in May of 1836. Several of her family members were killed but five were captured: Cynthia Ann Parker and her brother John, Rachel Plummer and her one year old son, James Plummer, and their cousin Elizabeth Kellogg. Elizabeth was quickly ransomed. Rachel was ransomed two years later and wrote one of the first captivity narratives. John and James were ransomed in 1842. Cynthia Ann Parker, however, would remain with the Comanche for almost 25 years.

Life with the Comanche
Cynthia Ann was adopted into a Comanche family and given the name Naduah, or Someone Found. She eventually married Peta Nocona, a Comanche chieftain and they had three children, two sons, Quanah and Pecos, and a daughter, Topʉsana. Some claim that Nocona so adored Cynthia Ann that he refused to take other wives, though it was a common practice among the Comanche. Though many traders offered to return her to her relatives, she refused to leave her husband and children.

Cynthia Ann Parker, c.1861, after her return to white society. [source]

Recaptured
In 1860, Peta Nocona’s band was destroyed at the Battle of Pease River and Cynthia Ann and their daughter were captured by Texas Rangers. It is generally believed that Peta Nocona died during the Battle, though there is some doubt. Cynthia Ann refused to re-acclimate to white society and was placed under the care of various relatives until her death. She was celebrated throughout the country, but was never comfortable with the notoriety. The state of Texas granted her a league of land and a pension in 1861. Her daughter died of pneumonia in 1864 and Cynthia Ann quickly went into a decline. She died sometime between 1864 and 1871. Her story has been greatly romanticized, including at least one actual romance novel.

Cynthia Ann Parker’s son, Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief,  [source]

Her son, Quanah Parker, would follow in his father’s footsteps as a Comanche war leader and become the last chief of the Comanche people after they were moved to the reservation.

The Battle of Palo Alto

Print of the Battle of Palo Alto, by Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot, Carlos Nebel [source]

Spoiling for a Fight
At the end of 1845, Texas joined the United States and Mexico, who had never agreed that Texas was independent, was understandable enraged. To add to the insult, the United States admitted Texas with the Republic of Texas’s preferred boundary: the Rio Grande, rather than Mexico’s, the Nueces River. President Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to the strip and Taylor ordered a fort, called Fort Texas, to be built just north of the Rio Grande. It is more than likely that Polk deliberately meant to provoke a war. Mexico obliged and declared a “defensive war” on April 23rd. A skirmish broke out in the space between the rivers on April 25th, 1846, where the Mexican army overwhelmed a much smaller American force. In late April of 1846, General Mariano Arista of Mexico crossed the Rio Grande, moving to besiege Fort Texas. US General Taylor took men south to relieve the fort, but Arista moved north to intercept him in what would become the first major battle of the war

Cannons on the Mexican battle line at Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park, By Pi3.124 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, [source].

Battle Engaged
Early on May 8th, Arista led about 3,200 Mexican soldiers and encamped them on a flat prairie called Palo Alto, or Tall Timber, for the wooded rises that surrounded it. Around midday, General Taylor moved from the woods to intercept the Mexican army. The Mexican cannons fired and General Taylor returned fire with 18-pound siege cannons meant for the defense of Fort Texas. Supported by the lighter artillery, these cannons continuously checked the Mexican charges and the light artillery, using tactics called “Flying Artillery,” even advanced across the field. Eventually, night fell and both sides fell back to camp. The Mexican army had suffered heavy casualties and, after spending much of the night burying their dead, the Mexicans retreated. A second battle took place the next day and gave the Americans a decided victory.

Aftermath
The United States declared war on Mexico on May 13th, 1846. The resulting conflict would be relatively short. The United States invaded first the Mexican possessions in the north, Nuevo Mexico and Alta California, before invading Mexico and eventually marching into Mexico City. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo forced Mexico to relinquish its claim to Texas, as well as Nuevo Mexico and Alta California, together about one-third of Mexico’s territory.

The Annexation of Texas

A Long Road
Though Texas had sought annexation by the United States right after the Texas Revolution, it would take nearly 10 years before it was completed. US President Jackson had supported Texas Independence and was personal friends with Texas President Houston. However, due in part to the threat of war with Mexico, he declined to annex Texas when it won independence in 1836. Texas President Lamar was uninterested in annexation, but Houston revived it during his second term. US President Tyler attempted to get a very pro-slavery treaty passed in 1844, but it would fail. He tried again in 1845, toning down the pro-slavery overtones and was successful, but Tyler had already lost the election to James K. Polk. The resolution passed March 1st, 1845 and Polk was inaugurated March 4th. Polk had run on a platform of pro-Texas annexation and allowed the resolution to proceed.

From the Newark Daily Advertiser, February 11, 1845 source Caption:
Annexation as Proposed by the House
The following map which we have caused to be reduced and engraved from the official map of Texas published by order of Congress gives a striking view of the relative size of the slave and free districts provided for in the Resolution of the House, now before the Senate. No more verbal description could give the reader so clear a conception of this shameless mockery on the part of the Texas scrip and slave-dealing speculators. The whole scheme is here exposed to the eye, at a glance:

A Final Vote
Texas convened a popularly elected Convention in July to vote on the proposed terms of annexation, and, if agreed, to create a state constitution. The vote was 55 to 1 in favor of annexation. The lone dissenter was Richard Bache who, according to Texas legend, voted against annexation because his wife lived in the United States and he had come to Texas to get away from her.

Texas’s new State Constitution was approved by the US Congress on December 29^t, 1845. As part of the agreement, Texas retained control of all of its public land and its public debt (about $10 million). It could divide into up to five states, with land north of 36 degree 30 minutes (the line of the Missouri Compromise) free soil and any states formed south of the line able to vote slave or free. Texas would not choose this option, instead giving up land north of the line, among other land, in return for the US taking on its debt.

Ferdinand von Roemer

German Scientist of Texas Geology and Paleontology

Roemer, Ferdinand, 1818-1891. Topographisch-geognostische Karte von Texas : mit Zugrundelegung der geographischen Karte v. Wilson nach eigenen Beobachtungen bearbeitet., map, [1849]; Bonn. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth288615/m1/1/: accessed January 1, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas at Arlington Library.

Ferdinand von Roemer was born in Hanover, Germany. After studying law for a few years, Roemer switched to paleontology and received his Ph.D. in Paleontology in 1842. He came to Texas in November of 1845 and spent about a year and a half traveling through the new state. He was particularly interested in the geology, plants, and animals of the state, but also spent time talking with the many German immigrants. Once back in Germany, he wrote a guidebook for German immigrants, Texas, published in 1849. The book has since been translated into English and is available in many Texas libraries. He published a monograph on Texas geology in 1852, the first of its kind, and also created a Texas geological map. The USGS redescribed many of his specimens in 1936. Roemer was a member of the scientific societies of London and Munich and would go on to publish more than 350 works. He died in December of 1891.