Cattle Kings Of Texas

This book comprises a fascinating and authentic look into the lives of some of the richest and most private ranches in Texas. This is a book that will greatly appeal to anyone with an interest in the historical singularity that is Texas, offering its readers a unique insight in to the ''real world'' of Texas ranch life and the ever-fading tradition of true ranching that made it what it is today. Many antique books such as this are increasingly rare and costly, and it is with this in mind that we are proud to be republishing this text here complete with a new introduction on the subject.

Examines the role of the ranchers in shaping the American West and probes their contributions to the nation's cultural development

Richard King rose from stowaway to steamboat captain on the Rio Grande River; and entered cattle ranching in the early 1800s. Founder of the large-scale cattle ranching industry in Texas, Richard King built his empire from 15,000 acres in 1853 to what is today known as the 800,000 acre King Ranch.

Praise for KINGS OF TEXAS "Kings of Texas is a fresh and very welcome history of the great King Ranch. It's concise but thorough, crisply written, meticulous, and very readable. It should find a wide audience." -Larry McMurtry, author of Sin Killer and the Pulitzer Prize--winning Lonesome Dove "This book is about the King Ranch, but it is about much more than that. A compelling chronicle of war, peace, love, betrayal, birth, and death in the region where the Texas-Mexico border blurs in the haze of the Wild Horse Desert, it is also an intriguing detective story with links to the present-and a first-rate read." -H.W. Brands, author of The Age of Gold and the bestselling Pulitzer Prize finalist The First American

Fountain Goodlet Oxsheer--like Slaughter or Goodnight--was an unusual and appealing name for one of Texas' most dynamic cattle ranchers. Once the baron of an intricate network of ranches that stretched from Oklahoma and the Texas Staked Plains down to northern Mexico, Oxsheer prospered, endured, and sought to run his empire and live by his own code of ethics. But the great ranching era ended, and twentieth-century phenomena such as world war and materialistic lifestyles joined the Dust Bowl tempest to obscure his renown and obliterate his fortune. The forgotten cattle king is brought to life in this vivid narrative, made possible by the discovery of voluminous family memorabilia carefully preserved by one of Oxsheer's descendants and now held by the Oxsheer family of Fort Worth. This very American epic of the forgotten cattle king is an eloquent example of how an independent spirit, sacrifice, and labor made a harsh wilderness into a cherished home for generations of Texans.

“The new image of the cattle country that emerges from Atherton’s pages is no less romantic than the prior stereotype; he writes vividly.” —Chicago Tribune Cowboys, gunslingers, and superpowered marshals dominate fictionalized accounts of the American West, but they were minor figures in the true history of the region. In The Cattle Kings, Lewis Atherton restores the leading role to the cattlemen—the genuine adventurers who opened the plains, built empires, and brought prosperity, law, and order to the West. This classic history of the West tells the true stories of rugged cattlemen like Charles Goodnight, Shanghai Pierce, the Lang family, the Marquis de Mores, and Richard King, who were attracted by the challenge of the frontier and the astounding economic opportunities it offered. Self-reliant and progressive, these young individualists revolutionized ranching. The new industry transformed the West, bringing law and order to infamous sin towns like Abilene and Dodge City and leaving an indelible mark on America’s national history and character. Atherton dramatically recreates the realities and economics of everyday life on the ranches, including the role of women, attitudes toward education and religion, and the philosophy of the cattle region. Now with an updated foreword by Western historian Timothy Lehman, this new edition of a beloved classic reveals the true heroes of the legendary cattle kingdoms that created the West. “Containing little glamour and much neglected history, this excellent book will appeal to students of the West, Old and New, and to addicts of history who prefer fact to fireworks; it belongs in all comprehensive collections of Western Americana.” —Kirkus Reviews