What Cowboys Read on the Trail

 

For a cowboy riding the open range in the  late nineteenth century, reading material was often as scarce as shade beneath a prairie sun. Still, when a man had a few quiet moments beside the chuck wagon or around a campfire, he might reach for a well-worn dime novel, a newspaper, or a small pocket Bible. Dime novels were especially popular, offering tales of gunfighters, scouts, outlaws, Indians, and larger-than-life frontier heroes. Some were wildly exaggerated, but they provided a welcome escape after long days spent in the saddle. Newspapers, when available, brought news from distant towns and cities--politics, cattle prices, railroad developments, crime and stories from the ever-expanding American West.

Not every cowboy was a devoted reader, and literacy varied considerably among working cowboys. those who did read might also carry  popular adventure stories, poetry, almanacs, or religious pamphlets. The Bible was a particularly practical companion, small enough to tuck into a saddlebag and meaningful to a man living a hard and sometimes dangerous life. Cowboys could also encounter Shakespeare, Robert Burns, Edgar Allan Poe, or popular American poets in inexpensive editions or through recitations around the fire. In fact, storytelling and reading often went hand in hand on the trail A cowboy who could remember a good poem, song, or story might entertain an entire crew during a quiet evening.

The picture of the cowboy as a rough, uneducated loner is therefore only part of the story. Many were young men with ordinary interests--curious about the world beyond the ranch, eager for news, and fond of a good adventure. When a book or newspaper made its way into camp, it might be passed from hand to hand until the pages were grimy and worn. For a few minutes beneath the vast Western sky, a tired rider could leave the cattle behind and travel somewhere else entirely--into a dime-novel adventure, a newspaper from back East, or the pages of a well-thumbed Bible. 

 

Sandra

Available at Amazon  

 

 

Miss Unsinkable

  

  When we hear the phrase "Unsinkable Woman" we think of Molly Brown. She survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and had an amazing life.

   Violet Jessop was in every way the Unsinkable Woman. Violet survived the sinking of two of the White Star Line ships and one collision. The Titanic, the Britannic, and the Olympic. And she didn't know how to swim!

   Violet was born in 1887 to an Irish couple living in Argentina. At a young age, she contracted tuberculosis and was given only a few months to live. However, she recovered and lived a long life. She moved to England at the age of 16 after her father's death. Her mother worked as a stewardess. When Violets mother became too ill to work, she followed in her footsteps.

   At the age of 21 Violet took a job with the White Star Line and her first post was aboard the Majestic before switching to the Olympic, the largest civilian luxury ship of its time. During its fifth journey across the Atlantic Ocean 1911, The Olympic collided with the HMS Hawke near the Isle of Wight. Though the ship was badly damaged, the captain steered the Olympic back to port. He would later captain the Titanic and go down with her.

  In 1912 Violet was working as a stewardess on the Titanic on its maiden voyage. Larger than the Olympic, the Titanic was filled with Luxurious amenities. Violet was a stewardess in first class and met many famous and wealthy people. The night of April 14, 1912, Violet retired for the night and the Titanic stuck an iceberg and began to sink.

  Violet went from room to room, helping with lifejackets, and making sure the passengers had warm clothes. She was instructed to get into a lifeboat to prove to the women passengers it was safe and was handed a baby to look after. She was in Lifeboat 16 and watched the Titanic snap in two and go down. The Carpathia rescued the survivors. Once on board, a woman took the baby and Violet never saw her again.

  Despite the tragedy, Violet continued to work as a stewardess.

  During World War 1, Violet worked as a stewardess with nursing duties. she was assigned to the Britannic, the Titanic's sister ship. It had been converted from a luxury line into a hospital ship. It set sail for Mudros, Greece to pick up patients to take to Great Britain. There were about a thousand people on board when the ship hit a German mine two days later. Only 30 died. After the Titanic tragedy, more lifeboats were added to the Britannic.

  Violet escaped the ship in a lifeboat. The lifeboat was being pulled toward the ships spinning propellers. Violet managed to leap into the water and managed to make her way to a nearby lifeboat.

  She watched the Britannic sink.

  Violet continued working as a stewardess until 1950, when she retired at age 63. The Unsinkable Woman passed away in 1971 at the age of 84. In her memoirs she tells of receiving a call from a woman claiming to be the baby she saved on the Titanic. She knew it wasn't a prank call because she had never told the story to anyone.

  Violet was tougher than I could have been. After the Olympic I never would have worked on a ship again. Plus, I get seasick so probably wouldn't be my line of work anyway. I'll stick to solid ground.

History or Myth: The Gunfight at Hide Park ~ D. K. Deters

I recently came across an interesting story about an infamous gunfight in Newton, Kansas, and the historical myths surrounding it. The location immediately drew my attention, as I am from Kansas.

On August 11, 1871, Newton assistant marshal Billy Bailey and former special policeman Mike McCluskie got into an argument over local politics at the Red Front Saloon. When the argument became a fight, McCluskie shot Bailey twice. Bailey died the following day.

McCluskie left Newton but returned on Saturday, August 19, apparently believing he would not be prosecuted because the shooting would be considered self-defense.

In the early morning of Sunday, August 20, at Perry Tuttle’s dance hall in Hide Park’s red-light district, Hugh Anderson, a friend of Bailey’s, confronted McCluskie. After a bitter exchange, Anderson shot McCluskie. McCluskie attempted to shoot, but his pistol misfired.

Hugh Anderson

Born: 1851

Died: 1873 or 1914 

A general gunfight began, and a young man, later identified as Riley, a friend of McCluskie, entered the fray. One local historian described him as about eighteen years old and dying of consumption. According to the later account of Judge R. W. P. Muse, Riley coolly locked the door and opened fire, emptying his revolvers. The accounts differ about what happened next, but after the chaos, Riley walked out of the dance hall and disappeared.

The Harvey County Historical Society emphasizes that the evidence isn’t as solid as the traditional Old West story makes it sound. The historical society concluded eight men were shot and five ultimately died. One of the three survivors, Hugh Anderson, was severely wounded and not expected to live.

Early newspaper accounts did not identify the shooter. Local historians have called him James Riley, but his first name hasn’t been confirmed by contemporary evidence. His identity is a mystery, but he may have changed his name, moved, or died elsewhere. It’s questionable whether Riley actually locked the door, as one of the wounded men made it to the street.

Anderson recovered from his wounds and in 1873 became a bartender in Medicine Lodge, Kansas. McCluskie’s brother, Arthur McCluskie, located Anderson and challenged him to a duel. Both men suffered gunshot and knife wounds. McCluskie died the following day, and it was said that Anderson passed soon after.

But the story of Anderson’s death appears to have been a newspaper fabrication. There were also reports that he survived and returned to live with his family. In fact, census records show Anderson alive and living in Texas. The 1880 Federal Census lists twenty-eight-year-old Hugh Anderson in McCulloch County, Texas, living with his young son and working as a stock raiser. In 1884, he married again and moved to New Mexico Territory. The 1900 U.S. Census listed him as a widower.

The Harvey County Historical Society’s research places Anderson’s death on June 9, 1914, at age sixty-two, in Lincoln County, New Mexico. He was herding cattle and was struck by lightning.

This story gave me pause because it reminds us that even in 1871, newspaper reports and later eyewitness recollections weren’t always reliable. Over time, facts became embellished, memories faded, and legends grew. As with so many stories from the Old West, you’ll have to decide for yourself what is history and what is myth.

Resources:

The Wild West by Bill O'Neal, James A. Crutchfield, and Dale L. Walker

Newton's Wild West Past by Joe Stumpe

Wikipedia

 

 More Than a Cowboy and a Horse 

Hi everyone! Brandi Creek here.

If you've read any of my books, you've probably noticed one thing pretty quickly. I love horses.

I'm also an avid reader of Western romance, and over the years, I found myself wishing for something I wasn't always getting enough of in the books I read: more horses.

Of course, I'm reading romance because I want the romance. Give me the chemistry, the tension, the falling in love, and that happily ever after. But as a lifelong horse lover, I also wanted to see the characters actually interacting with their horses. I wanted the riding, the training, the barn work, and all those everyday moments that come with having horses in your life.

When I started writing my own books, that became really important to me.

I didn't want horses to simply be part of the scenery because the story happened to take place on a ranch. I wanted them to be an integral part of my characters' lives and the worlds I created.

My characters don't just own horses. They work with them, ride them, train them, care for them, and occasionally argue with them. Because anyone who has ever owned a horse knows they have plenty of opinions of their own.

I figured if I was searching for Western romances with more horses in them, there had to be other horse-loving readers looking for the same thing.

There's another side to writing horse-heavy stories, though.

Horse people know horses.

We've all watched a movie or television show where something happens with a horse and immediately thought. That's not how that works.

And once you notice it, it's really hard to ignore.

That's something I never wanted my readers to experience with my books. I spend a lot of time making sure the horse scenes are as realistic as possible. Whether my characters are working cattle, training a horse, competing, dealing with an injury, or simply saddling up for a ride, I want the details to feel authentic.

It takes more research and sometimes a lot more time to write those scenes, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Because for me, writing Western romance isn't only about putting a cowboy in a hat and giving him a horse.

It's about bringing readers into the entire world that surrounds them.

And if you're anything like me, there's always room for a little more romance, and a lot more horses.

Happy reading,

Brandi

Hannibal, Missouri - Clemens, Sharpe, Tobin

Post by Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Image (C) Doris McCraw

About seventy miles from where I grew up is the town of Hannibal, Missouri. Most may remember it as the place that Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, grew up. Born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, Clemens moved with his family to Hannibal when he was four. His time here, along the Mississippi River, informed his life and career.

Samuel Clemens
from Wikipedia

But he wasn't the only person of 'fame' that came from that town.

William Thomas Sharp
from Wikipedia

 In 1838, William Thomas Sharp was born in this town. So, who was Tom Sharp? If you were in southern Colorado, you would know this name. Sharp served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He was in the Pikes Peak Region in 1859, had a trading post in Huerfano County in the 1870s, and later was a horse and cattle breeder.  

Margaret Bown
from Wikipedia

And of course, the last is Margaret Tobin. Born in 1867 in Hannibal, she moved to Leadville, Colorado at age eighteen with her brother Daniel. She met and married James Joseph, J. J., Brown in Leadville in 1886. At the time, there was not much money. However, by 1893 their fortune changed, and in 1894 they moved to Denver. In 1912, she booked passage on the Titanic and survived the sinking of the ill-fated ship.

These are just overviews of three amazing people who came from Hannibal, Missouri. All three have lives well worth looking into. You may be surprised. All I can say is there must have been something in the water. 

Until Next Time:

Stay safe - Doris

Angela Raines - Amazon

Doris A. McCraw - Amazon 

The Cowboy Romance Reader Quiz

 Think you could survive life with one of my cowboys?

You’ve read cowboy romances. You’ve swooned over the ranchers. You’ve dreamed about wide open skies, strong hands, and slow-burn kisses. But that’s just fiction.

Grab a pen, keep a mental tally, or just have fun with it. No pressure. Just pure cowboy chaos.

If you’re curious how I scored, my results are waiting at the bottom.

Niki J. Mitchell

 

1. Your cowboy wakes you up at 5 a.m. because there’s a problem at the barn. You:

A) Grab coffee and head out with him
B) Ask what’s wrong first and then decide
C) Pretend you didn’t hear anything

2. He says, “Don’t worry, I’ve got it.”

A) You trust him completely
B) You watch… just in case
C) You flip through your phone for answers

3. A horse is waiting for you.

A) You’re already halfway into the saddle
B) You approach carefully and try not to look nervous
C) You ask if there’s a smaller horse option

4. His entire family invites you to dinner.

A) You bring dessert and charm everyone
B) You ask your cowboy for a family cheat sheet first
C) You consider faking a scheduling conflict

5. A quiet moment under the stars happens.

A) This is exactly what you came for
B) You enjoy it but keep checking for bugs
C) You ask if stars always have this many bugs nearby

Tally Your Score 

🎯13–15 Points: The Ranch Born Heroine   🐎  🐄

You don’t just survive ranch life—you thrive in it.

You wake up early, trust your cowboy, and probably know how to saddle a horse better than he expects. You’re the kind of heroine who makes a grumpy cowboy forget his own name.

🌅 9–12 Points: The Ranch Curious Romantic ♥️ 

You belong in cowboy romance… just not full-time ranch labor.

You love the idea of ranch life, especially the sunsets, the cowboy, and the emotional tension. You’ll help with chores—but only if there’s coffee involved.

🍷5–8 Points: The Cozy Cowboy Reader  📕

You are here for the romance, not the ranch work.

You want the cowboy, the kisses, and the emotional payoff. The barn? That’s optional. The porch swing? Essential.

You’d rather read about ranch life than shovel it—and honestly, the cowboys don’t mind.

👠👠 0–4 Points: City Slicker Energy 💡

Ranch life? Hard pass.

You’re here for the cowboy romance, not the 5 a.m. wake-up calls, dirt, or livestock negotiations. You’d rather meet the cowboy after he’s already showered

Final Verdict:

No matter your score, one thing is clear: Cowboy romance works because it gives us the best part of ranch life—the love story. Everything else is just scenery. 

I turned out to be: The Cozy Cowboy Reader. Which doesn’t surprise me. I love romance, and horses, but I am a night owl to the core so getting up at sunrise doesn’t appeal to me in the least.

I want to know your result!

Reply to this email and tell me:

nikimitchellauthor@kuriouskatz.com

Or post your score on Facebook if you want to brag a little.

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorNikiMItchell/

Until next time—keep reading cowboy romance and dreaming big.

 

If you are wondering about Cindy’s Secret Cowboy, Chase and Cindy’s story, I just finished the rough draft. Now it’s time to go through some heavy editing and send it off to my editor. Preorder today.

https://www.amazon.com/Cowboys-of-Sunrise-Ridge/dp/B0DZVGNRQP

 

The Belt Buckle ~ Julie Lence

 

my belt buckle

One distinct image comes to mind when I hear the term cowboy; a broad-shouldered, handsome man wearing scuffed boots, denims, chaps, checkered shirt, Stetson, and a wide belt buckle. Often featuring colorful gems or tri-colored metal, the belt buckle is crafted from sterling silver, brass or pewter, is either oval or square in shape, and offers several different center motifs, to include a bucking horse, a bull, a logo, a lasso, or a person’s name. Some are won at rodeo competitions, but mostly, they’re bought at a western store. Back in the day, I had several; my go-to was my Wrangler buckle, which I still have and sometimes wear.       

The buckle itself traces back to the Romans. Made of metal, it was developed for military to hold straps for sword scabbards and horse riding gear, to secure clothing, and to fasten armor. As the metal industry evolved with time, so did the buckle. Now made of silver and brass, the buckle was added to European fashion as a decorative feature and was sometimes engraved to signify wealth. Eventually, the buckle found its way to the United States, with the army using the metal for fastening clothing and gear, as the Romans did, and for belt buckles. The cowboy also used the metal for belt buckles and for their saddles. Today, the buckle is featured in several different manners, including automotive seat belts, ratchet straps, and decorative ornaments on shoes.       

Montana Silversmith

Sunset Trails designers are credited with creating a belt buckle Kevin Costner’s character on Yellowstone. Molly’s Custom Silver is another maker of belt buckles, but it’s Montana Silversmiths who lead the way in manufacturing today’s cowboy belt buckle. Always sparkly and shiny, the belt buckle is more than a necessity in clothing. It’s jewelry and fashion, and in a cowboy's blood.