Crawford Goldsby
Crawford Goldsby was known by the alias “Cherokee Bill”. He was every bit as ruthless as Jesse James or Billy “The Kid”. The son of a Cherokee mother and an African-American “Buffalo Soldier” from the 10th Cavalry. Crawford’s life as an outlaw began when he was eighteen. At a dance in Fort Gibson, he and Jake Lewis had a fight over Lewis beating up one of his brothers. A couple days later, Crawford took a six-shooter and shot Lewis.
Thinking Lewis was dead, Crawford went on the run, leaving Fort Gibson and heading for the Creek and Seminole Nations where he met up with outlaws Jim and Bill Cook, who were mixed blood Cherokees. Thus the forming of the notorious Cook Gang. The gang’s most daring crime came when they held up the depot of the Missouri Pacific railroad, then rode hard for two hours and robbed the railway agent in the next town over.
Just 10 days later, they callously wrecked the Kansas City and Pacific Express before robbing it. In Nowata, they murdered the railway agent and then lay in wait for the train, shooting another railway employee when he opened the door. Crawford was still wanted for shooting Jake Lewis, and Jim Cook was wanted on larceny charges. The men did not want to be seen by the authorities so they stopped at a hotel and restaurant that was run by Effie Crittenden, and they made her go to Tahlequah to get their money.
On her way back, she was followed by Sheriff Ellis Rattling Gourd who hoped to capture Goldsby and the Cooks. Gourd and his posse got into a gunfight with Crawford and the Cook brothers. One of Gourd’s men, Sequoyah Houston was killed, and Jim Cook was injured. The authorities fled, but later on, when Effie Crittenden was questioned, she was asked if Crawford Bill had been involved. She stated that it was not Crawford Goldsby, but it was Cherokee Bill. After her statement, Crawford Goldsby got the nickname “Cherokee Bill” and became known as one of the most dangerous men of the Indian Territory.
Shortly afterward, Goldsby was finally caught and taken before Judge Isaac Parker, who sentenced him to death for murdering a bystander while robbing a general store. However, the Cherokee Kid had one last trick up his sleeve. A friend smuggled him a pistol and he tried to stage a breakout. A gun battle with the guards soon turned into a standoff, which lasted until the guards persuaded another prisoner named Henry Starr to negotiate Goldsby’s surrender. Starr got his freedom and Cherokee Bill was promptly hanged, with his last words an understated “This is about as good a day to die as any.”
Addison Jones
Addison “Old Add” Jones was likely born sometime in 1845, either in Texas or Mississippi. There are no documents or reliable accounts to verify details about his young life. ” His cowboy skills led to his recognition in western Texas and eastern New Mexico as “the most noted Negro cowboy that ever ‘topped off’ a horse.” That involved clinging on for dear life while the bronco bucked and tried to throw the rider off.
Addison, who was known as “Negro Add” or “Old Add”, often was mentioned in memoirs and accounts of prominent cattlemen and cowboys who worked with him on the Littlefield Ranch (LFD). That involved clinging on for dear life while the bronco bucked and tried to throw the rider off. The Littlefield family began ranching in west Texas before the Civil War. Jones worked under George Littlefield, a war veteran who retired from active service in 1863 after getting wounded during the Battle of Mossy Creek.
The business was entrusted into his hands after his predicament. The Littlefields had invested heavily in the ranching business and were expecting substantial returns. Littlefield’s fortune depended on having the best cattle and the best men to handle them, and Addison Jones was part of this crew. When he showed up at a roundup, everyone was relieved because he could top off horses that other cowboys feared. As such, most cowboys retired from the job in their thirties. Addison kept at it until he was 70.
A short but powerfully built man, Jones is said to have been able to combine his strength and agility with a kind of skilled husbandry when dealing with horses. Among the skills that he became widely admired for was the deciphering of the various brands and marks on cattle that distinguished ownership. When cowboys from other ranches were working at LFD, they were expected to treat Jones with the same deference and camaraderie they would extend to any White cowboy. However, when he traveled on behalf of the ranch, there were occasional tensions.
One story tells of a white cowboy striking Jones from behind when he drank water from the same trough Whites were using. When he woke up, he just rose and returned to the Littlefield ranch. In 1899 Addison Jones met Rosa Haskins, a cook at a rooming house in Roswell, New Mexico. When Addison got married, all the local cattle ranches wanted to show their respects with a gift. Unfortunately, they all had the same gift idea and the newlyweds found themselves saddled with 19 cooking stoves. song was composed about Jones’ legendary feat by N. Howard Thorp. The song was titled “Whose Old Cow?” Thorp was reported to have indicated that he did a song about Jones because he was one of the best when it came to taming cows and horses.
Bose Ikard
One of the early-day Black cowboy was Bose Ikard. He was born a slave in Mississippi in 1847 and grew up in Texas. After the Civil War, he worked with Charles Goodnight on several cattle drives that Goodnight and Oliver Loving carved from Texas through New Mexico and Colorado to Wyoming and Montana.
He was one of Goodnight's most valuable employees for years, often being entrusted to carry the large sums of money the cattle baron collected at the end of the trail. He lived with his master's family prior to the Civil War. Ikard became a ranch hand and cowboy as he grew up in Texas after the Ikards moved from Mississippi to Parker County, Texas.
On the postwar cattle drives, Ikard served as a tracker and cowboy, and as Charles Goodnight's de facto banker, often carrying thousands of dollars in cash until the money could be deposited. After his last cattle drive in 1869, Ikard settled in Parker County, became a farmer, and raised a family with his wife Angeline.
In his later years he attended several cowboy reunions. Goodnight visited him in Weatherford whenever the opportunity arose and gave him presents of money. Charles Goodnight, immortalized Bose with the following words on an engraved monument: “Bose Ikard served with me four years on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, never shirked a duty or disobeyed an order, rode with me in many stampedes, participated in three engagements with Comanches, splendid behavior.”
Bill Pickett
Bill Pickett was a cowboy, rodeo, Wild West show performer and actor, who introduced bulldogging, a modern rodeo event that involves wrestling a running steer to the ground. Pickett was descended from American Indians and Black slaves in the Southwest. He grew up in West Texas, learning to ride and rope as a boy, and became a ranch hand.
He performed simple trick rides in town on weekends. For bulldogging, or steer wrestling, he perfected a technique of jumping from his horse, grabbing the steer around the neck or horns, sinking his teeth into the animal’s lip, and pulling it to the ground. This biting technique he had learned by observing how herder dogs controlled steers.
Soon he and his four brothers, established their own horse breaking business in Taylor, Texas. Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders advertised "catching and taming wild cattle a specialty." Bill Pickett entered his first rodeo in 1888 at the fair in Taylor. By the early 1900s he was a popular rodeo performer.
Now, known by the nicknames "The Dusky Demon" and "The Bull-Dogger," Pickett gave exhibitions in Texas and throughout the West. His performance in 1904 at the Cheyenne Frontier Days was considered extraordinary and spectacular. He later performed in Canada, Mexico, South America, England. He became the first Black cowboy movie star.
Nat "Deadwood Dick" Love
One of the most famous western Black cowboys -- because he wrote his memoirs -- was Nat Love. Born a slave in Tennessee in 1854, Love headed west at the age of 14 to seek adventure. He found it as a cowboy working for large cattle operations in Texas and Arizona.
Love drove cattle and horses all over the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains and even down into Mexico. His autobiography recalls many trail drives to Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota that took him through such states as New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah.
In addition, he mentions many exciting experiences he lived through on the cattle frontier of the late-nineteenth century. He recounts being captured by Indians, surviving storms and Indian attacks, participating in and witnessing gunfights, and meeting many famous western characters like Buffalo Bill Cody, Jesse James, and Kit Carson.
Love’s narrative indicates that he found a deep satisfaction in western life, celebrating the freedom of the open range and the “brotherhood of men” which bound cowboys to one another. In the 1890s Edward L. Wheeler, a dime novelist, wrote more than thirty books about a hero named “Deadwood Dick.” Love claimed that these novels were about him.
Isom Dart
Not all Black cowboys, however, were productive citizens; some were on the wrong side of the law. One such outlaw was Isom Dart whose original name was Ned Huddleston. Born a slave in Arkansas in 1849, he went west after the Civil War. In 1875, Dart was one of a coterie of five thieves rustling cattle and horses in southeastern Wyoming.
A rancher whose horses had been stolen by the gang gathered some of his cowboys together and pursued the culprits. In the ensuing shootout, only Huddleston survived. He changed his name to "Isom Dart" and relocated to Nevada. In the mid-1880s, however, he was once again rustling in Wyoming.
This time he operated out of Brown's Hole (or Brown's Park) in the southwestern part of the territory, near the Colorado and Utah borders. One author has described this rugged region of mountains, canyons, caves, and arroyos as "one vast maze of hideouts made to order for law-breakers."
Eventually, Dart bought a ranch and tried to settle into a life of legitimate work. Inevitably, however, his past caught up with him. In 1900 he was shot to death by famed bounty hunter Tom Horn who apparently had a contract to murder Dart issued by ranchers whose livestock had been stolen.
Bob Lemmons
Bob Lemmons was known for his extraordinary skill at capturing wild mustangs. He became a legend in his day by perfecting his unique method of catching wild mustang horses. Robert Lemmons was born a slave in Lockport, Caldwell County, Texas in 1848. After growing up a slave, he gained his freedom and moved to an area of West Texas overrun with the wild horses.
He became a cowboy for a local rancher named Duncan Lammons, who gave Bob his surname, which changed spelling slightly over the years. Bob farmed, hauled supplies, and went on cattle drives for Duncan Lammons. Most importantly, he learned about horses from the experienced rancher. At the time, mustangs were highly prized steeds and no one could equal Bob’s skill at capturing them.
No other cowboy equaled Lemmons in capturing mustangs, which were in high demand for roundups during the cattle drive era of the 1870s and 1880s. He rides his horse, Warrior, picks up the trail of mustangs, then runs with them day and night until they accept his presence. Bob and Warrior must then challenge the stallion for leadership of the wild herd.
He then uprooted the herd hierarchy by mounting the lead stallion and then taking control of the herd, which followed him into a pen on a nearby ranch. Whereas a large group of people might have spooked the herd, Bob always worked alone, until he was able to infiltrate the herd without alarming the horses. Once the leader was conquered, the rest of the herd would follow it back to the ranch.