A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



cific point, until the Santa Fe began to take them 

 at Dodge City, Kans. Herds along the line were be- 

 ginning to form, but from 1867 to well along in the 

 '70's Kansas and Nebraska were the great objectives. 

 During that period it was not so much a question of 

 making money as finding a market for surplus stock 

 at some price. Very little money was available for 

 financing, so that buying on credit in Texas, the sums 

 to be paid upon the return of the drivers, who gave 

 no other security than their word and a list of brands, 

 with the amount due, was the rule. There are many 

 stories of the sharpers who operated at Abilene. 

 Bogus checks were used, and cattle were bought to be 

 paid for in Chicago. Every conceivable scheme 

 known to the trickster was worked on credulous stock- 

 men, whose word at home was better than a bond. 



According to W. P. Anderson the Old Chisholm 

 Trail was named after a half-breed called Jesse Chis- 

 holm, who ranched in the Indian Territory. In the 

 early '6o's he had driven a herd of cattle to the Gov- 

 ernment forts on the Arkansas River. The name 

 has often been abbreviated and used as "Chism." 

 SIringo in A Lone Star Cowboy gives the following 

 as the origin of the Chisholm trail. It was furnished 

 him by David M. Sutherland, Alamogordo, N. M. 



In about 1867 the United States Government decided to 

 move some 3,000 Indians (Wichitas, Caddos, Wakos, Ana- 

 darkos) to a new reservation in Indian Territory. Their 

 camp was located on the Arkansas River, where Chisholm 



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