Cowboy Culture: Trail Rides and Rodeos Fuse with Art, Music, and Poetry

Aug 27, 2023

Most Texans know when someone says “cowboy up” it’s time to get tough and work through a difficult situation. Just putting on a cowboy hat and kicker boots can make a human of any age, race, or gender feel a little taller, a little stronger, and ready to persist.

The original cowboys of America were cattle handlers who rode horses and worked on ranches with lassos to help control the cattle, and spurs to help control the horses. Somewhere along the way big ole belt buckles got added to the ensemble.

Cattle drives became popular in the 1800s as cowboys herded livestock from Texas into other parts of the country. Many East Texans owned or worked on ranches and joined the drive efforts along trails mostly on the west side of the state where the terrain was less forested.

During cattle drives, the cowboys stopped to camp along the way. Covered wagons carried cooking utensils and food and after eating, the men would sit around a campfire telling stories, singing songs, and reciting poetry and prose as entertainment.

Poet laureate Lysius Gough, born July 29, 1862, in Lamar County, was just 14 when he ran away from home and got his first job as a cowboy for B.L. Murphy, who ran cattle in Hopkins and Hunt counties. Then he punched cattle on several drives and earned the nickname “Parson” at the T Anchor Ranch because he never swore. Gough got off the trails eventually and wrote books about cowboy life. His first book of cowboy verse is Western Travels and Other Rhymes. He published Spur Jingles and Saddle Songs in 1935. The last poem by Gough was still scrolled in the typewriter when he was found dead in his home in 1940. It was entitled “Gone.”

Pioneer cattle baron John Simpson Chisum, also from Lamar County and later Hopkins and Fannin counties, started working as a cowboy on a large ranch and by the early 1860s had accumulated more than 100,000 head of cattle of his own. He began moving his herds into New Mexico where he built a cattle ranching empire. Chisum’s story involves the famous Lincoln County War between cattle barons, the notorious Billy the Kid, sheriff Pat Garrett, and a number of other interesting characters. He is buried in the Chisum Family Cemetery in Paris. His story is portrayed in film with John Wayne playing him in 1970’s Chisum.

There was quite a bit about Chisum’s real life story that didn’t make it into the movie or even into his obituary. Like the fact that he was common law married to Jensie, a former slave. They had two daughters and lived in Bonham. One wonders if those things were discussed around the campfire. A semi-biographical story, Miss Chisum: A Colorful 19th Century Texan Romance, was written by Russ Brown in 2019 with much of the story told by Chisum and Jensie’s granddaughter.

Another colorful character who told stories around campfires and in books was Ben King Green of Cumby, Texas. Book reviewers describe him as having “crawled out of the cradle and into a saddle” as horses became his whole world during early childhood. He worked in wagon yards, mule barns, and livery stables. He learned the art of trading and doctoring horses and by the time he was 16 years old he could make a living at it.

From his book The Village Horse Doctor, West of the Pecos, Green tells tales of his struggles with mean stockmen, yellow weed fever, banditos, poison hay, and “drouth,” and covers similar themes in his other books in between horse tales.

Those include Horse Tradin’ followed by Some More Horse Tradin’, and Wild Cow Tales, Horse Tales, The Last Trail Drive, A Thousand Miles of Mustangin’, The Color of Horses, and Horse Conformation. Green is buried in the Cumby Cemetery in a 100 square foot plot that gives him his own wide open resting place.

Frank Reaugh is another East Texan that comes to mind when thinking of stories and other art forms that captured the spirit of the cattle drive era. He moved with his family to Terrell, Texas, in 1876, and traveled the West as an adult, capturing scenes of longhorn herds and the cowboy life for his paintings. His work is in museums across Texas in art collections displaying the most realistic images of that time. A book of his works, Windows on the West: The Art of Frank Reaugh, was published in 2015.

Reaugh is heralded as the “Dean of Texas Artists,” and donated the first painting to establish the Dallas Art Association that became the Dallas Museum of Art. A mural in Terrell features a reproduction of his “The Approaching Herd,” completed by artist Charlie Bullock of Athens, Texas, with the addition of a likeness of Reaugh as he might have appeared while painting the landscape. Reaugh died in 1945 and is buried with his family at Oakland Memorial Cemetery in Terrell.

While cattle drives are no longer part of Texas life, cowboy culture is evident throughout the Upper East Side of Texas today with horse and cattle ranches dotting the rural countryside along with other agriculture environments. Rodeos, trail rides, and dude ranches provide authentic experiences and just about every small town has at least one shop ready to get a guest into a pair of boots, a hat, and other Western attire.

One town in the region stands out for celebrating cowboy culture for several weeks each year fused with the arts. Winnsboro is one of the first seven Cultural Arts Districts to receive the official designation from the State of Texas in 2009. The town celebrates each fall with weeks of activities embracing cowboy culture, including the importance of storytelling, music, poetry, and visual art.

At the center of the Cultural Arts District is The Bowery Pedestrian Park. The Bowery gets its name from its late 1800s history with saloons, gambling halls, and bath houses that catered to cowboys and rowdy timber loggers looking for entertainment across from the railroad depot. Today, it is anchored by the refined Winnsboro Center for the Arts and lined with upscale boutiques, galleries, and eateries. Gone are the derelict establishments but the cowboy spirit lives on.

Kicking off activities this year in Winnsboro is Cowboy Tales, an art exhibition running from September 27 through November 25 at Winnsboro Center for the Arts. Featuring the works of select talented artists with their interpretations and depictions of cowboy culture, the show includes paintings, drawings, ceramics, metal art, and more.

On Saturday, September 30, the Winnsboro Cowboy Music & Poetry Gathering fills downtown with the sounds and stories reminiscent of those heard around campfires during cattle drives of the 1800s.

A chuckwagon sets the scene with cowboys telling stories while serving up beans, cornbread, and cobbler. Musicians and poets share cowboy, country, and western tunes and lyrics. Local restaurants keep the cowboy vibe going with specials like Lasso Lattes and Saddle Up Tacos. Photo opportunities with costumed cowboy characters and musicians and art are found in several locations.

At 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. are ticketed concerts at Winnsboro Center for the Arts featuring international award-winning performers telling stories, reciting poetry, singing, and playing instruments, all of which embody cowboy culture.

Following that event, Winnsboro’s 65th Autumn Trails takes place every weekend in October. Activities include trail rides, rodeos, parades, a beard and mustache contest, chili cook off, and much more.

For more information about the Cowboy Tales art exhibition and Winnsboro Cowboy Music & Poetry Gathering, go to www.winnsborocenterforthearts.com or call (903) 342-0686. For a detailed schedule of events taking place for Autumn Trails, go to www.winnsboroautumntrails.com or call (903) 342-1958.

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