Well, let's talk about Mules. For most of you in West Texas Mules are a part of your heritage; if you didn't have a working knowledge about Mules, you and your great-granddad would not have a lot to talk about ... they were that important in his day.

Most of you are generally aware that a Mule is a hybrid, the result of a cross between a donkey (a jackass) and a horse. But this is where it becomes a bit more complicated.

First, those donkeys you see in pastures beside the road and maybe at petting zoos are not the parent of anything except other donkeys. Forget them, they do not produce Mules, except maybe miniatures from Shetland mares as an oddity.

Mules that powered farm implements in West Texas, worked in the East Texas oilfields, and packed military hardware in wartime (including WWII) were produced by Mammoth Jackstock ... a name for Spanish Jacks that have lineage going back to "Royal Gift" ... a very important animal in the development of the western US.

Never heard of him? In Spain centuries ago a line of very large donkeys was developed. The gene pool of this line was considered so valuable that exporting these animals was prohibited by the Spanish government until 1813. But in 1785 the King of Spain made a special gift to George Washington of a Spanish Jack ... "Royal Gift". This jack was the foundation animal of working Mules in the United States. Mammoth Jacks (or more commonly called Spanish Jacks in West Texas) stood more than 5 feet at the withers, a foot taller than the burros you see today.

Typical Mammoth or Spanish Jack That
Sired West Texas Mules - "Royal Gift"
(56" or taller at the withers)




Terminology: A Mule is the offspring of a cross between a Spanish Jack and a horse mare. It works the other way too, a Hinny is the offspring between a horse stallion and a female donkey (usually of Spanish blood and called a Jenet or Jennie.) Hinnys for the most part are indistinguishable from a Mule except that Hinnys tend to be smaller because of the smaller size of the mothers.

A male Mule is called a Horse Mule (or to some a John.) A female Mule is called a Mare Mule (or to some a Molly.) Substitute Hinny for Mule for the horse/Jenet cross.

Mules and Hinnys up to 3 years old were called Mule or Hinny Colts for males and Mule or Hinny Fillys for females.

Mule and Hinnys are sterile and cannot reproduce even though both have all the correct parts. Males were always castrated to insure they were more manageable. On rare occasions a Mule Mare would have an offspring ... A&M was the proud owner of one back in the 30s, Old Kit, whose mounted head for years hung in the east stairwell going into the amphitheater of the old Animal Industries building.

From this point on we will talk only about Mules. The size and power of the working Mule was determined by the breed of the mare. For heavy Draft Mules, the females were normally Belgians, Percherons or Clydesdales. Belgians were favored in the midwest for the consistant sorrel color ... the typical "Missouri Mule." Percherons seemed to be more prevalent in Texas for the big black draft Mules you would sometime see. But for normal farm work in West Texas regular size horse mares were favored (hybrid vigor gave the Mule offspring more size than the mother.) The reason for the popularity of smaller Mules in West Texas is that they had the strength and endurance for the work to be done ... but equally important, Fuel Economy. A draft Mule would eat twice as much as a regular Mule. (A Mack truck versus an F-250.)I would imagine draft Mules were favored in the blackland and gumbo parts of Texas.

Now much has been said over the years about "stubborn as a Mule." Now each Mule had a personality, disposition and quirks ... but common in all Mules was that they would not put themselves in danger. While working, if one got too hot, too thirsty, a rock in a hoof, or a bad rub from harness it would stop ... and a good Mule handler knew to solve the problem before proceeding on. A horse, in contrast, would keep going until it dropped dead if you kept urging him on.

And Mules had pride and this was a sometime irritating trait. A Mule could sense when someone who did not know a lot about Mules was trying to get him to do something ... and in those times it became the most uncooperative, incorrigible, dumbest acting animal in the universe.

We had Mules around, and some plow horses, until I was a teenager and I never had a lot of trouble out of most of them, except for getting the harness on and adjusted. But after WWII we were able to buy H Farmall tractors to replace the Mules and life became far less complicated.



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/5/2006 9:00p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/5/2006 9:04p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 8/7/2008 2:16p).]

My uncle had a team of mules that pulled a wagon there in Sweetwater that they regularly used in parades. After the parade they'd take the wagon, mules and all, through the drive-thru liquor store on the way home. It was always good for a laugh.

I don't know about the liquor store owner but I can assure you the mule team was a hit with the older folks in the parade crowds. For those who have ever sat behind a team of mules, that plodding gait down a city street or down a half mile cotton row becomes over time like a built-in metronome, never varying in the beat. Mules and man sort of shared a hypnotic trance as the day and the plowing (or parading) progressed.

But don't let that slow plodding gait suggest to you that a mule is not an athlete when it is in his/her interest to prove so. A mule is a natural born high jumper (a horse is no comparison in this sport.) An old mule could jump from flat-footed start over a 50 inch barbed wire fence if the mood suggested it and never touch a barb ... but if not in the mood it would just walk right over and through it popping fence posts for a hundred yards on either side. Mules in an ornery mood could sure frazzle a farmer's usual calm disposition.

fossil
Regarding mules-you should try to give them injections! After the 1st time, they NEVER forget who you are, will spin, kick, run over you, bite, and a few other things, if you let them. I had an old gentleman who worked at the clinic when I came here, and for several years afterward, who used to say, there are 2 animals you don't own, a mule & a cat. They will tolerate you, but you don't own them.

FishrCoAg I know what you are saying about the memory and temperment of mules. With a horse one can pretty much read the attitude and intentions by the tilt of the ears and the look in the eyes ... but not a mule, that deadpan expression can hide even the most evil plans running through its mind.

You missed a perfect study of mule meanness by never meeting Old Jack. Old Jack ambled down the road to our place in about 1947 and took up residence at our feedstack (bundled Red Top Cane.) Toward evening my dad turned him into our pen with other stock expecting the owner to show up just any time to claim him ... but no owner ever came looking.

We later understood why. But by this time he had on his own taken up permanent residence and we had named him Old Jack for ready reference. Jack, by best estimate was at least 20 years old, the tallest mule we had ever been around, absolutely independent, and he had a game right hind leg. There was some swelling in the stifle and we were sure that was what ended his working days ... and we were sure also that Old Jack wanted no one and no thing in the area of that lame limb. Chickens, dogs, people, it made no difference to Jack ... you just had to respect a six foot danger zone in the right rear quarter of that mule. Us kids wanted to open the gate and let him mosey on down the road to visit the neighbors but dad said it would be wrong to wish our problems on someone else. So Jack stayed and ate Red Top Cane, walked through the corral fence even when the gate was wide open, and added two or three hours of repair work to the barn and fences every workweek.

He almost met his end one day when he was being particularly quarrelsome as we were trying to get some cows into the milking pen. Dad was totally exasperated with him and threw a 2X4 at him to move out of the way. Now Jack was facing the other direction, head down, and unconcerned when he sensed that board whirling in his direction and that mule kicked that board with the game leg at precisely the right time and sent it back at my dad cracking him across both shins. At that moment my dad would have killed that mule with any weapon he could dream up ... but his shins hurt so bad he just hobbled to the house. No kid dared laugh but all of us near ruptured from holding it in.

Old Jack finally ambled off one night leaving a hundred yards or so of barbed wire fence flat in his wake. A couple of weeks later we heard that a car had hit and killed an old black mule on the highway 2 or 3 miles from our house, but since all our stock was present and accounted for we did not go see if it happened to be our recent unwanted guest. Us kids figured that if it had been Old Jack and the car had been coming toward his right rear quarter Old Jack would have stopped that car dead in its tracks with that game leg.

....anyone ever hear the phrase....

"Don't worry about the mules, son, just load the wagon"

it has come in handy a few times in the business world

they used to do mule jumping contest at the Buffalo Gap old settlers reunion. A very cool thing. they'd throw a coat or a blanket across the fence. the rider would already be on the other side with the reins in his hands. He'd get the mule right up to the fence, not a running start, and then he'd go HUPP or something like that and mule flat footed with his nose already hanging over the fence would rear, lung and hop over landing on the other side without disturbing the fence.

Sheik ... That jumping skill was a neat trick at a show but it sure was aggravating if a person wanted the Mule to stay inside that fence. Mule corrals had to be almost six feet tall ... or you had no corral at all ... unless he was bribed with good feed to stay there. And normal cross fences on a farm? No barrier at all if the Mule was overwhelmed by the urge to sample young tender feed crops or small grain fields. And those bucket size hoofs would trample more plants than the Mule consumed.

I am sure most of you have seen Mules or pictures of Mules at work or in parades and maybe had questions about the harness parts that converted the Mule from a household pet to a power plant for moving a piece of machinery.

A Team of Mules Dressed Up For a Parade



The bridle is similar to the bridle for a horse and is the mechanism for making an animal turn left or right or stop or back up.
The persuasive part of the bridle is the Bit. The Bit is a bar that goes through the Mule's (or horse's)mouth. Many types of Bits are available, varying mainly in the degree of pain the driver or rider wishes (or needs) to inflict on the animal to gain cooperation. The least painful type is the Snaffle Bit, a simple bar with a link in the middle for flex, that is usually first grade in training a Mule. My granddad never used anything but a Snaffle ... saying that Mules resent pain and will become more contentious if one applies it. (Re: FishrCoAg's post)

Another part on a Mule's bridle is a leather flap attached to the head piece that sticks out alongside the eyes. This is called the Blinders. Its purpose is to keep the Mule's eyes focussed on what is ahead instead of on the cute Molly walking beside him. (The GPA of fellows at A&M would probably go up a couple of points if a set of Blinders were adapted to young males in a lecture room.)

Now for the parts of the harness that actually pull the load. These are the Collar, the Hame, the Trace, and the Single Tree (some folks call it the Whiffletree.)

The Collar is a heavy leather covered, padded device that fits around the Mules neck and rests against the shoulders and chest. Invention of the horse collar was the major advance that put oxen back in the pasture and horses and Mules in the draft business. A properly fit collar distributes the load evenly on the strength of the Mule and allows that heavy pulling to be done. Now the collar being leather wouldn't by itself endure much pull ... and that is where the Hame comes in. The Hame fits in a groove in the collar and has the strength to pull. The originals used up until recent times were made of steam-bent hickory with a steel plate attached that had some rings on it. (These are the sort of S-shaped thingys you see hanging of the walls of bar-b-cue joints.) The Hames were in two parts and attached in the collar groove and are connected at the top and bottom of the collar with straps. The main rings on the Hames were where the mule applied its power.

Now attached to the rings on the Hames were the Traces ... one on either side of the Mule. For field work Traces were leather, usually two thicknesses, 4 or 5 inches wide, extending a couple of feet behind the Mule. (Some applications used chains instead of leather but we never did.) The Traces were hooked to a Single Tree. The Single Tree was a oak or hickory piece about 3 feet long, connecting both Traces, and in the middle of the Single Tree was an attaching ring which was the pulling point for that Mule.

And that was it for outfitting a Mule, except for a couple of padded straps that went over the back to hold the Traces up and out of the Mule's feet when stopped.

Now for directional guidance. Horses have reins, Mules had Lines. The Lines (or reins if you like) were leather, one inch wide, and long enough reach the driver who could be from 6 to 20 feet behind the Mules (depending on the hookup.) A line ran from the ring on the Snaffle Bit, through a ring on the Hame and back to the driver. Whether the driver was managing a 2-Mule team, or a 4-Mule span, or more ... right-hand lines and left hand lines were separated and held in the left or right hand of the driver (for obvious reasons.)

In a team of two Mules both were outfitted the same back through their respective Single Trees. Then the Single Trees were connected at their pulling points by another Single Tree which was connected to the implement or wagon, etc. If two teams were joined in a 4-Mule span then the team Single Tree was attached to a Double Tree that attached to the implement.

Wagons and some single row plows had a tongue that came up between the Mules. The tongue was for direction only and not for pulling. It was connected by a chain or sometime a wooded piece to the bottom of the collars of each Mule.

Now they are harnessed and ready to do some work. Just a word about putting the team(s) in gear. Go gear was usually yelling Haaah and popping the lines on the rumps. To turn left you pulled the left lines (gently) and to turn right you pulled the right lines. To stop you pull both left and right. Normally one would expect to keep pulling on the lines to back up. Stop. In most cases you would NEVER NEVER try to back up. To do so allows the Traces to go slack, the Mules to back over the Single Trees, the Mules to step out of the Traces, the Mules to get increasingly upset about the whole situation ... and for lack of any other way to get back at the goofball for a driver, might just head for parts unknown scattering implement parts all over the field.

Now for working a team or span in a field. Older Mules knew as much about plowing and where to step and go as the driver. As a rule they knew not to step on plants and walked on a furrow or in a valley as the situation was. and theydid not need a lot of instruction from the driver at the end of the row. Just a nudge on the Lines and the Mule in the direction of the turn knew to mark time as he turned while the Mules on the outside knew to quicken their pace to come around ... and they would end up on the right row and when all abreast would step out smartly together. (Mules were easier to train in this maneuver that most Aggie Fish.)

Well, that is all I am going to say about Mules. Have fun passing along this newfound knowledge next time you take the family to a parade.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/5/2006 9:13p).]

In most West Texas towns one can find a few old large homes built as early as 1890 and up until the 20s ... in times before lumber yards moved into the area. Large two story homes with wraparound verandas and fancy cornices, where did they come from?

The answer for the most part is straight from a Sears Roebuck catalog. I have a reprint of a 1902 edition of the catalog in storage and could quote a description and prices if it were handy. (ranged up to about $4,000) Many of the local bed and breakfasts lodgings and restored homes in this area are examples of the old Sears products.

Sears sold them in do it yourself kits. The lumber, the trim, the bric-brac, nails and hinges ... and detailed assembly plans ... were bundled and shipped by rail to the nearest railroad crossing then transferred to wagon and Mule teams that brought it on to the construction site. A person in the area with general carpentry skills would act as a sort of general contractor to supervise the construction including bringing in qualified brick or stone masons and other specialists.

Outbuildings and barns could be ordered as well. Local craftsmen were called in to dig cisterns and build privys I am sure.

We lived in one of those houses built in about 1900 for about 15 years. The architecture of that old house was about standard for the period. It was a six room box, two rooms wide and three rooms deep.(Probably cost $2,000) It had two front doors leading off the big front porch, and interior doors that connected every other room. Thus, the interior rooms had three doors from which to expect folks to be passing through from. As you may have deduced there was no hallway and privacy was not high on the designer's priorities. All rooms were the same dimensions and any room could be whatever kind of room you wanted to call it, i.e., living room, kitchen or bedroom. Getting into a home of modern design was quite a cultural change.

The ceilings in the house were nine feet high. The windows were double hung with panes of glass three feet square (you can imagine the noise when a baseball hit one of those.) The walls, exterior and interior were double 1X12 planks and the joints between the boards were not sealed. Wall paper was available for interior decoration but to get it to stick you had to first tack cheese cloth to the walls with about a billion tacks then use flour/water paste to hang the wall paper.

A near miss by a tornado one night blew through the cracks between the inner and outer planks and caused the cheese cloth/wallpaper to bulge in about three feet into the room we were sitting in. The noise and the sight just about caused a family stampede.

But the bulging wallpaper was nothing compared to the rumble and shaking when the two 8 foot tall fireplace chimneys blew over at the same time and rolled down the steep roof. We thought the roof had just departed.

You ask, why were you not in a storm cellar? Normally we would have been but the storm hit so quickly we didn't have time to get there before the hail started. It was just as well because the next morning we discovered the roof of the hand-dug cellar had caved in. We survived quite a storm that night in that sturdy old home ... but the barns, chicken houses and outdoor privy ended up in a neighbors field.

I should have written a letter to Mr Sears and Mr Roebuck thanking them for designing a storm-proof house suitable for West Texas.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 4/26/2006 12:57a).]

I've got the receipt for $700 from the lumber yard for a house my great grand father built about 1915 or so. Everything they needed supposedly to build a house for a family of 4 in Clarendon. Oldest son was off to wwI never to return and youngest son (my grandfather was 12 or 13 at the time. They built it themselves.

The product that brought West Texas out of the Dark Ages was Kerosene. And Kerosene not only lit lamps at night in early day West Texas, it had many more practical uses that the inventive minds of West Texans, driven by necessity, discovered. Kerosene improved life in those early days more dramatically than any other commercial product.

Now Kerosene, as we know it today, is distilled from crude oil, one of the many hydrocarbon products that can be refined from Black Gold by a specific degree of heat in the refining process. Carbon/hydrogen molecules, in chains, are distinguished by the number of carbon atoms present and each increasing number distinguishes a product of unique properties ... starting with Methane which has the smallest number to heavy heating oils which is highest before getting into asphalt and the heavier greases. The Kerosene carbon chain is in the scale between gasoline and diesel.

But in the 1850s Kerosene was first found by heating coal. And it was given the common name of Coal Oil. Even later when early refiners of crude oil found how to distill the same Kerosene, the name Coal Oil remained stuck in the vocabulary and is still used today by many folks like my 94 year old mother.(I will not admit publicly to occasionally reverting to the old name.)

But as Coal Oil was slowly replacing Whale Oil in lamps in New England, its usage slowly worked its was west as supplies, and transportation/distribution problems permitted. As towns sprouted in West Texas beginning in about 1890 I am sure Coal Oil was virtually unobtainable.

Before Coal Oil (or Kerosene) came along, candle were about the only means of lighting cabins after dark and I doubt candles were that available in remote rural areas. So folks went to bed when the chickens went to roost.

Home heating/cooking was a bigger problem. Wood burning fireplaces and cast-iron stoves were the only means ... and firewood was not immediately available on the West Texas plains. Wood gathering even into the 20s and 30s meant harnessing a team of mules, hooking on to a wagon and with a double bit axe foraging for trees to cut. Chopping wood was a daily chore to feed those wood guzzlers. (In the 1890s my granddad said they bundled grass to burn in the small iron stove in their half-soddy.) And at night, there still was no light. And on cold days, houses were warm only in the vicinity of the stove or fireplace. And the back room of those old houses was coooold.

Now do not assume the people living in towns had life better. The first natural gas well was brought in at Petrolia in 1907 and the first pipeline to heat a city went from there to Ft Worth/Dallas in 1913, so you get an idea how long it took to get to Abilene. (Lone Star Gas was founded in 1909.)

So Kerosene eventually arrived in West Texas ... I imagine along the Texas & Pacific Railroad line primarily with the other smaller lines making distribution to rural areas.

Light at night became available in West Texas, in homes and in businesses that had a calling to stay open later in the evening. Folks could now stay up later after evening chores and read or study, and mothers could now take care of sick kids in the middle of the night. Those old Kerosene lamps did not put out a lot of light but compared to no light it was a historic breakthrough.

And Kerosene heaters and cookstoves slowly found their way into homes. Larger heaters took the place of the fireplace and cast-iron stoves in the main rooms and portable Kerosene heaters began to show up in other rooms on cold nights. Kerosene cookstoves with four burners and a small sheet metal portable "oven" were a great improvement over what the housewife had before. In accuracy, those cookstoves were larger but no different than the Coleman camp stoves available at Academy today. These stoves were powered by a glass one gallon jug of Kerosene turned upside down in a holder ... and a jug would last several meals before refill.

Something that was common in towns was a little one gallon galvanized Kerosene (Coal Oil) can. In the late afternoon you could see kids all over town with the cans going to the local Sinclair gas station to make a 10 cent purchase of Kerosene so mama could fix supper.

But light, heating and cooking were just a few of the wondrous properties of Kerosene. A spoon full of sugar with a few drops of Kerosene was an effective cough syrup for kids. Every cut and scrape on the farm was cleaned out with Kerosene and wrapped in a clean cloth to prevent infection. A cup full of Kerosene poured into the cistern of drinking water would kill out Wiggletails (mosquito larva) that occasionally found their way there. Kerosene was effective against head lice on kids, hog lice and mange on dogs. Kerosene was the household solvent for greasy hands after working on old cars and tractors. Before auto polishes were invented a cup of Kerosene in a gallon of water produced a marvelous shine on a car ... and still does.

All of this began to change in rural West Texas shortly after WWII as butane and later propane became available for heating and cooking, and electricity became available on farms for lighting and appliances.

That Kerosene or Coal Oil or whatever you want to call it made wondrous changes to life in rural West Texas, and probably hastened the early day development more than any other factor. And I bet that to this day in half the homes you will find a one gallon galvanized can of "Coal Oil" and a lamp, just for emergencies.

I also heard kerosene was a good antidote for snakebites. Any truth to this?

Burd ... I am sure Kerosene would have been the first item reached for in case of snakebite. I do not know if it had any affect on the patient other than calming him down knowing the most effective cure-all available had been applied. I do know it was effective in relieving the pain of bee and wasp stings and sunburn also if one did not mind the lingering smell. It was also used on athlete's foot, jock itch, and poison ivy rash. Let's face it, a family (and doctors) had few medicines to choose from up though the 40s. Horse and mule linaments were used for aches and pains. Baking soda in water was the cure-all for all gastric problems. Warm salt water was the cure of choice for infected gums and sore throat. And the ultimate cure for a toothache that would not go away was to cut a chip out of the frog in a horse's hoof and placed on the offending tooth. Fortunately by the age of two we had been exposed to every bacteria and virus in existance in West Texas so we were not susceptable to many things that kill folks these days.

Edit: I will probably be remembering for days other ways Kerosene was used in farm homes, but one I forgot earlier was probably its most visible: as a propellant in fly spray. Early in the century Pyrethrin insecticide was added to Kerosene mainly for flies but was effective as a contact killer of virtually all insect pests. Most have probably seen the old sprayers ... the supply can mounted crossways to a manual pump. They were used many times a day inside houses and just as frequently in barns, stables, chicken houses and any other places flies were known to roam. Kids going out to play at night were misted good to ward off mosquitos. I would not be surprised to know today that WD40 is nothing more than Kerosene in an aerosol can.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 4/27/2006 4:03p).]

My great-grandmother and her contemporaries in Connecticut in the early 1900's used Kerosene for such spring cleaning chores as cleaning wood floors of bedbugs (see lice above) and scouring sick rooms floors, walls and surfaces.

Kerosene and its many uses pops up quite frequently in old family fables passed down through the years, or at least it did in older times when such tales were repeated in describing how it got some family member out of a unique situation.

My favorite concerned four of my great uncles, four bachelor half-brothers of my grandfather. By trade they were farmers in early day Ft Bend county, but being free of matrimonial obligations, they partnered in land ventures when they happened across a good investment. One time between 1915 and 1920 their travels in a Model T Ford took them to Glasscock, Midland and Howard counties where prospects for land were good. Those counties had been organized a few years but were still sparsely settled.

In their travels across the roadless plains the Model T high-centered on a rock and knocked a hole in the the engine oil pan. Even a Model T could not run for long with no motor oil so they were stuck in that barren spot far from civilization.

Early day travelers had to be resourceful.

The first order of business was to repair the hole in the oil pan (take things one at a time, worry about a lubricant later.) That required manufacture of a "stob." Now a stob is an obsolete term that applied in that time when auto parts houses, welding shops, and machine shops were virtually non-existant ... particularly in places like the back side of early Glasscock County. A stob was fabricated by selecting a hunk of wood or a tree limb that could be whittled to slightly larger diameter than the offending hole (now that hole might be in an oil pan, or a radiator, or a water tank, or a gas tank ... anything that was designed to hold a liquid but did not because of a rust-out, bullet hole, or what have you.) So the stob was fashioned with a pocket knife to be a smaller size on the front end and larger than the hole on the other, then wrapped in a piece of cloth, and driven into the errant hole with a hammer. This would seal the hole for a few years ... or until one had to fashion a larger stob.

For the brothers, the only sign of life was a windmill far in the distance. So one brother took a bucket and hiked to the windmill where he scooped out the grease that was in the gear box. Now that grease was axle grease in a consistency just lighter than tar. But it was carried back to camp where it was diluted with Kerosene from one of their lanterns. After stirring this concoction to a pourable state it was poured into that Model T engine and they eventually motored back to Fisher County.

I doubt those old fellows even blinked an eye at the predicament they were in because using ingenuity to work around tough spots was common in those days. (But such was not always the case. In the 40s and 50s while hunting on ranchland in western Fisher County it was not uncommon to run across a rusted Model T body long ago abandoned in rough country when the owner couldn't figure a way to get it home ... he may not have known how to whittle a stob.)

I was doing some work at a mans property just a few months back. I notice he is working on an old car in his garage, so I ask him about it. It's a 33 Buick...a really beautiful car that is in pretty decent shape, no show car by any stretch of the imagination...but a neat car with really nice lines, running boards, etc

anyway, I'm talking to the guy and he says, "hang on, I gotta run get some fresh ground pepper." Pretty soon he comes back from the house and dumps about 1 cup of pepper into the radiator of the old car.

He tells me that it will plug up the leak. I never heard of that before, but I watched him do it, and he swore by it.

powerbiscuit ... I had heard of the black pepper in the radiator for leaks before and only knew one person who did it ... and this was only about 10 years ago. The fellow said it worked for a while. But for my dad, the better solution was the "stob." I guarantee you will see them in radiators of old tractor relics lying around farms and salvage yards.

Ethanol (Ethyl alcohol/grain alcohol) that you hear so much about as a fuel today was used as an anti-freeze for cars up until the 40s. The problem was it had such a low boiling point quite frequently it would boil out. Most common practice was to drain all radiators and blocks on cars and tractors on cold winter nights and refill with water before using again ... including such as going to a basketball game at night. Moisture in gas lines on parked cars would also freeze and this was remedied by burning a rolled up newspaper along the line from the tank to the fuel pump. Technologies developed in WWII solved a lot of problems for us.

powerbiscuit ... You expressed a bit of interest in that '33 Buick so I can fill you in with some information regarding autos of that vintage, and before, that you may not be aware of.

Once again, necessity is the mother of invention. And because of lack of spare parts, and in many cases lack of competent auto mechanics, circumstances sometime required that the car owner be quite inventive in keeping his old car mobile.

You may be aware that rod and main bearings in cars built before the 40s were babbitt. Babbitt was a soft but durable tin and copper alloy that was heated and poured to make the bearing. I suppose molds were available to make bearings for some engines but in most cases the crankshaft was held in a jig over bearing caps and the molten babbitt was poured over this to make a bearing half, then the halves were trimmed, drilled for an oil hole and oil grooves ... then the bearings got their breaking in and final sizing by running the engine. (As you can imagine, the engine was too tight to start by normal means and would have to be pulled by a tractor or team of mules to get it to fire up.) This was not an easy task and the 700 degrees F to heat the babbitt was difficult to come by, so replacing bearings was a major chore, even for a well-equipped shop.

Now this does not mean that babbitt bearings were not a quality product because they were long wearing and durable ... just a major problem if the bearings did wear out. Babbitt bearings are in great use today in turbines, electric motors and all sorts of applications ... but the replacement process is about the same ... just better tools available to do the job.

But then comes along the old farmer whose Model T or Model A Fords (or '33 Buick) has worn out and the bearings must be replaced and he does not have the wherewithal to replace with babbitt. It was not unheard of that those babbitt bearings would be replaced by bacon rind or shoe leather, trimmed to fit.

Bacon rind was a choice that I heard mentioned most often. Now as mentioned earlier about processing pork on the farm, the skin was normally trimmed from bacon slabs ... but sometime farmers left the skin or "rind" on bacon to serve as an early day cutting board for the bacon. Thus bacon rind eventually became available for many uses on the farm. Pig skin is tough and quite durable under load, and the fat on the inside of the skin is a natural lubricant for the "break-in" which set the pig skin. So it was a reasonable solution to cut the bacon rind to fit the shaft, torque it down and go on down the road.

I am not passing judgement on the quality of workmanship of the farmer who made his own babbitt bearings or the ones who used bacon rind. But I love to tell the stories that illustrate the resourcefulness of those old timers who made do with materials at hand to make a life liveable on the West Texas prairie.

Life was fragile in early day West Texas, beginning in the 1890s and continuing so for the next 50 or 60 years, until a semblance of modern medicine was introduced to the region.

Particularly those first 50 years, folks lived lives precariously close to death's door. Antibiotics did not arrive until after WWII so infections and infectious diseases were free to do their deeds because there were no home remedies and there were no formulations in the country Doctor's black bag to combat them. Isolation by quarantine, attention to sanitation and various mixtures to ease pain and give rest were about all that could be done. Severe injuries not uncommon on a farm were left to nature to heal by means of bed rest. Uncommon things like crushing injuries and snake bite normally meant amputation because no other treatment was available.

Childhood ailments, childbirth, pneumonia, "blood poisoning", lockjaw(tetanus), strokes and "heart attacks" were common causes of early death. The first prescription drug I ever saw was in 1948 and it was Sulfanilamide (a horse pill if there ever was one) and it was prescribed for strep throat (before that we only had warm salt water.)

The nearest we had to "pharmaceuticals" before about 1950 were patent medicines sold by Watkin's salesmen, Dr. Tichnor's various human and horse products, Cloverene salve for burns, Crazy Water Crystals from Mineral Wells (for "faulty elimination" and the host of home remedies. You got well or you died, simple as that. I never heard of Cancer (except in the eyes of white face cattle) before 1950. Respiratory ailments were labeled Tuberculosis and treated at Sanatoriums located all over the state. All joint problems were diagnosed as Rheumatism. Surgeons were generally unavailable for appendicitis and other internal maladies.

So death came calling often in early West Texas and it was as common with the young as with the aged. And although we accepted death as a part of life, the grief of families in those days was profound ... partly in most cases because it just added another burden on to an already harsh life. Death in a family often had catastrophic consequences to the family if it happened to a father or mother.

These were the years where life insurance was very uncommon, social security was unknown, and other safety nets, except friends and family, were not available.

On the farm, death of the father or mother of a family was devastating. If the mother with very young children died, often the youngsters had to be parceled out to family or put up for adoption ... unless there were teenage or older girls in the family who would be forced to lay aside her life plans to take care of the younger members. If the father of a farm family died, devastation to the household was more profound. First, crops in the field and other chores around the farm had to be tended to. And if that hurdle were cleared, at the end of the crop year the family would have to relocate if they were sharecroppers. Landholders would not rent to a fatherless family. So the usual practice would be for the widow to sell out, move the family into town and try to find a job (an unlikely prospect in small towns.) Death could be brutal in the way it demolished hopes and dreams of the family involved.

So funerals in those days were heartbreaking affairs. Neighbors understood this and came early with food and comfort to relieve the burden on the survivors. Incoming relatives were accommodated with food and beds. (An oddity of the times was that since funeral homes with visitation facilities did not exist at the time, most frequently the casketed body would be brought home a day or so before the funeral for visitation/wake/whatever term you choose.) All of this added to the emotion of the funeral and burial. The sadness of the situation was overwhelming for the entire community.

But these were times when neighbors, community, family and friends revealed the true nature of generosity and caring toward one another in West Texas rural areas. When a member was "taken to bed" or taken in death, one or two close neighbors would take stock of needs of the farm. As work needed to be done in the fields, neighbors arrived with teams and implements to do it. When a community effort was involved it was called a "Working" and on the appointed day mule teams with every kind of implement needed (and in later years tractors) would line the road enroute to the farm and in one day catch the farm up on all field work. And neighbors would continue to do the work as long as necessary. If the survivor was the widow, then work would continue until all crops were harvested.

To most of you this describes life and death in a third world country ... and in terms of health care it was. Folks in those days lived lives teetering on the edge. A death in the family, or a failed crop, or some other problem produced a crisis. The thing that kept all going was faith in family and friends who were always their "first responders."





[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 4/29/2006 8:08p).]

fossil
Great telling of the "neighboring" tradition of this area. I am glad to say the tradition of helping families that have lost loved ones continues, whether it be by food, making sure the crops get tended, or just being available to those families when they need anything. People out here still are very cognizant of the needs of their friends and neighbors. Thanks for the reminder of the origin of these traditions.

Fossil ag,

your post on death brings to mind a question I have had for a long time

When my grandfather was in his late teens in the early 1900's, his father and two brothers took a wagon to the mountains in New Mexico to pick up a load of apples. I was told that they were going to make apple cider with them. On their return trip, they were struck by lightning and killed. While it is only about a 4-5 hour trip these days (from the panhandle), it must have been a week long trip in those days in a wagon.

My question is, why would someone travel a week to buy apples to make apple cider? What do you do with the stuff?

Thanks.

powerbiscuit ... You have an interesting story that would take quite a bit of investigation to sort out. But the basic premise that someone would take a wagon from central Texas to New Mexico to get a load of apples (or any other trade good is reasonable.) Earliest West Texas was pretty much a barter economy and products not usually found there were in high demand.

As for travel times. A good stout mule team pulling a wagon (and leading a couple of spare mules) would make about 15-20 miles a day over good terrain. You can do the math but your estimate of a week to get to NM sounds low to me. I am assuming the destination was Santa Fe.(Note: the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and SF, NM had been in trading business since 1820s. Although FtWorth and Dallas were the closest trade centers to West Texas, I am sure the lure of the "super mall" at Santa Fe attracted many early day traders.) But just speculating on my part, I bet the their destination was Ft Sumner because it was closer and had been a trading post with plains Indians.

Now, let's consider apples. Apples are pretty perishable and too long in heat they rot. The most common means of preserving them was by slicing them up and drying in the sun. Dried apples were in high demand I am sure by early settlers.

As for the apple cider. That may have been the plan for part of the load (a wagon load probably 1-2 thousand pounds) but not all. To make cider requires a press, handling vessels and bottles, all probably in short supply in West Texas. Plus, apple cider not pasteurized has a short life span unless kept cold. If a product was planned, more likely it was Apple Jack. Apple Jack was made from crushed apples, allowed to ferment with yeast and assorted other ingredient and was a popular alcoholic beverage, probably like a home brew beer. The alcohol content would allow the Jack to be kept longer without spoiling ... before turning into apple vinegar. I doubt much stayed around long enough to turn to vinegar. (The apple jack fixings could be distilled to collect the alcohol, or allowed to freeze on a cold winter day (the water would freeze to the edges of the brew/container and the alcoholic part in the middle would be unfrozen and could be siphoned out ... white lightning!)

Yours is a tragic story but interesting and probably not uncommon for the times. That wagonload of apples very likely could have been a windfall profit to get a budding trading business off the ground ... or in this case, a family disaster. Such were the risks of those times.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/1/2006 9:35a).]

Thanks for the insight....I'll have to ask my mom about it again. I don't remember anymore to the story than they were found dead on the road. Mules were also dead.

I may not have mentioned in describing the Hames on Mule harness that the top of the Hame was usually capped with a tennis ball size decorative brass ornament. This connected to metal on the Hame, and Trace chains, and well grounded Mule hoofs was a natural conduit for lightning. Ask any golfer about the danger of just swinging a golf club when thundrstorms are in the area.

fossil_ag,
Hi there, I am a cousin of Harley Sadler's and would like to talk to you about him. Could you email me at sbe2003@charter.net? Thanks.

momsha, are you from Stamford?

Probably the handiest new piece of equipment to reach West Texas in the 1890s was the Fresno Scraper.

It was invented by a fellow in Fresno, CA in 1883 for use on farms for leveling land, moving dirt, digging ponds, etc. But it was so versatile and effective it slipped right on into engineering applications such as building roads, building earthen dams and was even used in building the Panama Canal. The design of that first one was so effective that it became the prototype idea that was instrumental in the design of today's earthmovers, bulldozers and related equipment.

My grandfather got his first one before 1920 and this one was passed on to my father in the 30s. It disappeared from my brother's farm in the 80s. (You will recognize this one if you ever run across it in West Texas ... The 2X4 crossbrace is branded "Shackleford County" ... I never got the story behind that brand.) The only value of that Fresno today is that it helped get our family through the Depression ... My dad, a team of mules, and that Fresno Scraper were paid twenty five cents an hour to repair roads in Fisher County in the 30s.



The Fresno was pulled by a team of mules. A double-tree connecting the two mule single-trees hooked to the bar in the center. Not too visible in the rear of the scoop is a tailpiece about seven feet long that the operator used to make the scraper do its thing ... hands off and it slid along the ground, lift up on the tailpiece a foot or so and it dug into the earth filling the scoop, and raise the tailpiece about shoulder high and it would dump over. A rope attached to the end of the tail piece was used by the operator to pull the scoop back down to sliding position. One man could operate the Fresno and drive the mules ... but it was easier and faster if one man was working the Fresno and one working the team of mules.

The Fresno scoop would handle just about a half yard of dirt in a pass (1000-1500 pounds)... about equivalent to a regular size front-end loader today.

Fresnos were used to level land for houses, barns, etc.; to build lanes and roads on the farm; to dig ditches; to terrace fields; to smooth out washout and rutted roads; and build farm stock ponds. And they worked as well in later years, only faster, behind a Ford 9N tractor or an H Farmall.

I spent many teenage hours as tailperson on a Fresno. Compared to other activities on the farm I rather enjoyed my time there ... whether behind mules or behind a tractor. A person could get into problems if unlucky ... hitting a stump while digging would jerk you around like a rag doll ... or be in the process of muscling the tailpiece to dump and the mules decide to stop ... or those times digging would be so easy you couldn't resist loading the scoop with more dirt than you could lift up on the tailpiece.

I have owned small tractors with the box blade and straight blades before and I can assure you the Fresno moves more dirt than either of those. You just need a teenager with too much energy to man that tailpiece.

There was no other piece of equipment in the farmer's inventory in those pre-1930 days that was as versatile and downright productive. I suppose someone someday would have invented something as a reasonable substitute ... but for a first of its kind implement the Fresno never needed any modifications to work well. And it was invented seven years before West Texas farmers first needed it in 1890.



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/5/2006 12:35a).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/5/2006 1:12a).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/5/2006 10:46a).]

quote:

---

Up close, one firing of the Ajax sounded like a cannon going off ... but 30 miles away the sound was like the bass thumping of a teenager's car near you at a red light.

---

Sorry to be so late finding this thread.

ON the above sounds. I grew up in West texas for much of my childhood. Monahans in diapers and then later in Borden County. But as a baby I called those oil field noises oompaas. To this day my entire family uses that term for the oil pumps that used to dot the landcape--looking like metal animals munching on some hidden grass--heads moving up and down and saying ooom paaa.

welcome 3G ag....it's about time some quality company showed up to interact with fossil ag...I'm afraid most of us are nowhere near his level with regard to our ability to tell stories

anyway, following the lines of your post....I was driving home one summer with a girl I had been seeing, once we hit the caprock, the temp dropped about 10 - 15 degrees like it does up there at night, so we cut the a/c and rolled down the windows....we're driving for a while, and she almost jumps out of her skin..."What's that" she says....I never heard a thing

I forgot about it for a bit, but all the sudden she jumps up again..."what's that" she says ....followed again by "what's what"

anyway, it goes on for a while until I finally figure out the irrigation wells are running full blast and that was what was scaring her....she had never seen or heard one, but I grew up with one about 50 yards from my bedroom window so it was as normal as sunshine to me

[This message has been edited by powerbiscuit (edited 5/5/2006 10:55p).]

The West Texas town of Del Rio has a rather unique historical connection with the Gospel, goats, the KGB and a Wolfman ... and all in one tale.

The story begins in about 1920 when a Dr. John Romulous Brinkley moved into Melford, Kansas and set up a clinic. Now this was not just any ordinary clinic but one specializing in what we refer to today as ED. Dr. Brinkley, who claimed to possess "two medical degrees" was adept at mixing his own potency elixers which he sold throughout the mid-west for curing farmer's ailments in his specialty, and was also a surgeon specializing in unique tissue transplants that were the top end of his medical practice. The surgery involved supercharging the testicles of men willing and able to pay for this service ($750 Depression dollars) with slivers of tissue removed from similar glands in male goats. This was advertised on his own radio station in Melford, KFKB, which became popular throughout the mid-west. Mixed with Dr. Brinkley's smooth con artist sales pitches of his magic "medicines" the broadcasts had a non-stop stream of fundamentalist preachers fighting Satan on air, and very popular country music. There was not much else cluttering the airwaves in those years so Dr. Brinkley had a captive audience.



Dr. Brinkley became rich ... but not all powerful. Already the Kansas City Star had done powerful expose's of his activities and the AMA and forerunners of the FCC, ICC, and IRS were in hot pursuit.

So that is where Del Rio, Texas comes in.

In 1930 Dr. Brinkley sold his station in Kansas and moved his broadcasting to Villa Acuna, Mexico ... across the border from Del Rio. His first station was XER which boasted 75,000 Watts of power. (50,000 Watts was the max limit in the US for a Clear Channel station.) The power of XER was enough to send Dr. Brinkley's message back through the mid-west and beyond without a hitch. But this was only for starters.

In short order Dr. Brinkley brought in a team of RCA engineers and they fashioned a broadcast system that was authorized by Mexico at 250,000 Watts (but all agreed it was more likely somewhere between 500,000 Watts and 1 Megawatt.) This station was known as XERA.

And XERA was so powerful at night it blasted through Kansas, through Canada, over the North Pole and into Russia. Supposedly, Russian KGB listened to the broadcasts to sharpen their English language skills. Some people complained that they could pick up XERA in the fillings of their teeth and in their bedsprings. Every person in North and South America and all the ships at sea knew they could just send a small donation to a P.O. Box in Del Rio, Texas and receive a personally autographed picture of Jesus Christ ... or buy a case of high-potency wonder drug.

But under pressure from virtually every authority in the US, the Mexican government finally revoked the license of XERA in 1939 and the good doctor was finally silenced. the various lawsuits also took their toll and by 1940 Dr. Brinkley was broke, and dead of heart failure.

But XERA was not totally dead. New owners made a deal with the Mexican government and brought it back as XERF with 100,000 Watts in 1947. Del Rio was back in business again. XERF continued with the Gospel preachers, patent medicine pitches, and various other infomercial type programs until another change in ownership in 1959. That is when a new breed of DJs came in, convinced the new ownership to change format to rock and roll and "black" music (what the white kids wanted to listen to), and to increase power again to 250,000 Watts. Once again Del Rio/Villa Acuna was blasting out the airwaves. One of the new DJs was an unknown named Bob Smith who soon became known worldwide as "Wolfman Jack", hooooowwlll! Wolfman Jack and XERF and Del Rio, Texas are now are considered to have inaugurated the 60s Generation.

But all was not rosy for XERF and Wolfman as continued disputes over money led to shootouts in the station in 1962 and 1964. So Wolfman Jack decided XERF was too tough for him and he moved to another border blaster at Tijuana ... to XERB, no less. And that is where I lost all interest in anything that started with the letters XER.

Those were fun but outlandish times to own a radio. Occasionally the stations played good music, but the rest of the time one could listen in amazement to the most outrageous claims in commercials you can only imagine.








[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/6/2006 6:44p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/6/2006 8:41p).]

I believe that is where the "X" originates from the ZZ Top song "I Heard it on the X"

Heard it on the X
------ZZ Top

Do you remember
back in nineteen sixty-six?
Country Jesus, hillbilly blues,
that's where I learned my licks.
Oh, from coast to coast and line to line
in every county there,
I'm talkin' 'bout that outlaw X
that was cuttin' through the air.

Anywhere, y'all,
everywhere, y'all,
I heard it, I heard it,
I heard it on the X.

We can all thank Doctor B
who stepped across the line.
With lots of watts he took control,
the first one of its kind.
So listen to your radio
most each and every night
'cause if you don't I'm sure you won't
get to feeling right.

Anywhere, y'all,
everywhere, y'all,
I heard it, I heard it,
I heard it on the X.

- Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill & Frank Beard

Grew up knowing those stations were going to take over after dark.

My favorite growing up though was a station out of Oklahoma City. Koma

Television was Lubbock or Lubbock. Two channels. One out of Midland with tons of snow, and no cable or dishes--rather huge poles with giant wire webs trying to catch the edges of the signals.

I thought all television had snow.

[This message has been edited by 3rd Generation Ag (edited 5/6/2006 10:09p).]

The XER-family border blasters in the 30s thru present operated in the AM frequency band. At night those superpowered radio waves got tremendous distance by bouncing the signals (skywaves) off the ionosphere ... and could blast through the signal of any other station that dared to operate near their frequency.

The thing that saved the world from the Mexican border blasters was not competition but technology. FM with a static-free broadcast mode came along after WWII and by 1950 was growing in customer demand. The 1970s was the golden age of FM, and no one ventured back into the AM band unless searching for a particular program. So the XER-type stations slowly strangled in their own garbage.

But all AM was not garbage ... and this is a point of history that needs to be made. In the 30s and 40s certain AM radio stations in the US were granted Clear Channel status and allowed to transmit at 50,000 Watts on an assigned, nation wide, clear frequency. Examples of these stations were LWL in Cincinnati, WWL in New Orleans, WOAI in San Antonio, KVOO in Tulsa, WBAP in Dallas, etc. These stations at night were loud, interference-free and virtually static-free. These stations had good music and good programming and did well almost up to present (but they were still AM, not as clear as modern FM ... and finally lost favor in recent years.)

That Clear Channel designation for select AM stations is not related in any way with the thing known today as Clear Channel Communications (which is FM.) CCC, Inc., just hijacked the name of an older radio system that had favorable name recognition in the US ... over the objections of those old time honorable stations.



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/6/2006 11:46p).]