Memory of the Good Old Days: Free Range Cattle

2009 - 59th Fair


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Submitted by Harriet Outlaw Fairhope, Alabama Imagine riding through forests of long leaf pine so thick that the canopy overhead shaded the ground over which your pony was running at full speed, not hesitating for anything, and when stumbling, getting right back and forging forward. You can see the scars of the annual burning to inhibit insects and encourage the growth of the timber. You see traces of wild hogs, but very few deer. Visibility was a mile or more because the undergrowth had been kept down by cattle roaming freely in the woods. You come upon your herd of woods cattle grazing – and at a glance you can tell that most of them are yours by the marks in their ears, or maybe a branding.  You and your pony herd them, and begin to drive them back to your homeplace to corral them, mark their ears and separate the ones for sale and the ones who will be turned loose once again to roam freely in the woods. This was the life of a cattle farmer in Baldwin County in the first half of the twentieth century. Back in the early days of Baldwin County, all cattle were “free-range” – the fences were to keep the cattle out of yards or gardens. Even crop fields were fenced to keep cows from grazing on your cucumbers, turnips, corn, and any other truck farm crops. A house always had a woven wire or a picket fence around the immediate yard, which was kept hoed and swept clean of all sprigs of grass with a gallberry brush broom – homemade of course! The story of cattle farming before the Livestock Laws were passed is told by Jack Morris, who lived it! The Morris family has lived in Eastern Baldwin County since Jack’s grandfather came to Baldwin County near Clear Springs in 1881. He came to Pensacola on a merchant ship from France and left the sea forever. He caught a logging train north to Smith Siding Saw Mill on Styx River, approximately 5 miles north of Hwy. 90 at the Florida line, where he got a job, met his future wife, and homesteaded 160 acres. He soon got into the cattle business, and the family has maintained one of the most successful operations in Baldwin County.  Today Jack tells a saga of family values of hard work and dedication. Jack’s grandfather, Peter Morris, raised 10 children in a log house, living from the bounty of the forests – hunting deer and turkeys. Purchases of staples were made from the “Rolling Store”: sugar, flour, salt, and Jack remembers his mother trading eggs and homemade butter for staples, and buying the children a tri-colored coconut candy bar with any leftover change.  But the family business was raising cattle - “Piney Woods Cattle” of all colors – brown, red, white, pieded, sometimes called the firecracker breed. Their horns were let grow, as dehorning may lead to infestation of the screw worm, a deadly disease carried by flies. The cows were fairly territorial, and at market time, the farmer always retained some of the older ones who knew the land. If you corralled one that belonged to someone else, it was either returned to the woods, or the money from the sale was given to the rightful owner. There was very little theft in Baldwin County, as people honored their neighbors. Cows were rounded up in April or May and the bulls were castrated or sold. The Morris family never sold a female woods cow. “If you saw a female cow for sale with their brand, it had been stolen,” according to Sonny Hankins. Men who drove the cattle were called crackers which came from the crack of whips use to help herd the cattle. Cattle were sold to an agent who came by the farm place, and then they were driven to the Bay Minette train yard. The drive was fine until the cows arrived at courthouse square, and all the confusion of the “city” life made them crazy. It took skilled drovers to keep them in the herd. Jack remembers the first time that the Federal Government required cattle to be dipped for diseases, primarily Texas Fever carried by ticks. Dipping vats were located throughout the county and all cows had to be run through the vat of creosote. Once a cow had gone through, it was extremely difficult to drive it through again, so the government agents would actually help pen and drive the cattle. A county site on Highway 55 in Robertsdale is the location of one of the preserved vats, and the story of the dipping process is described there. Local farmers who felt this was an act of government interference, sometimes used dynamite to destroy the local dipping vat. Another family who had free range cattle was the Hubert Pittman family in the Wilcox community. He and Jack Waters had large herds of cattle which had been begun by their grandfather well before the turn of the century. Herbert has been in the cattle business since he was six years old, when his dad gave him a heifer as his own. Jack grew to take over the family business, running most of his cattle in the Hollinger Creek area. He recollects the times that men in the woods on horseback would stop for lunch at a creek, make coffee in a syrup can from water in the creek, and rest awhile before returning to rounding up cattle.  Sometimes cattle were sold to Hinote Packing Co. in Rosinton for slaughter, but most were sold to buyers and shipped by train, later trucks, to northern slaughterhouses. When the livestock Laws were enacted for Baldwin County in the 1940s, many farmers were not in a hurry to put up fences, as there were very few neighbors or roads to be bothered by the roaming woods cattle. The necessity for the end of open range herding was evident as with the growth of roadways cattle on the roads could be dangerous. The increase in crop farming due to mechanized equipment also meant that much of the woods land was being converted to farmland. So the days of fencing in the crops gave way to days of fencing in the livestock. The Morris family does not recall any difficulties during the transformation years. He says, “Well, we had to pay for a turnip patch or two, but that was about all.” The range war stories of the west are not to be told here, except that Andy Bertolla remembers that a stack of fence posts to be used for cattle fencing were burned. Open range cattle raising ended for the Morris family in the early 1960s. At that time, the business moved over to English breed cattle, which had to be fed because they were so much larger, making that industry more profitable. A bred cow may weigh 800 pounds whereas two woods cattle, about 400 pounds each, could be hauled in a pickup truck. Cattle sales were centered around the auction house in Robertsdale beginning about 1949, where auctions are still held every Monday. A walk through the forests of Baldwin County today are different from 100 years ago, as the trees are mostly fast growing pine, the undergrowth must be controlled by man, and the woods are full of deer. You can still imagine, though, a clear view through the woods for a mile, and hear the cattle lowing.
Free Range Cattle