Early Cattle Trade

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Texas beef, if there's a prouder tradition in this state, I haven't found it, and I've been lookin'. Long before the Civil War, Texas was already famed for its beef going back to the era of the Republic itself.

So when the shooting started in 1861, it was only natural that Texas would feed a great part of the Confederacy: civilians and army alike, all the way through 1865. And feed them they did, though Lord have mercy, it was not a simple errand. The routes those cattle drives ran read like a geography lesson in suffering.

The Shreveport Trail to Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Alexandria Trail to Natchez. The Opelousas Trail to Woodville, Mississippi, and then on clear to Mobile, Alabama.

The Old Government Road stretching up to Little Rock, Arkansas. Oliver Loving's 1859 trail heading north into Indian Territory. Trails fanning out to every army depot they could find, and some even reaching into Mexico.

Now you might picture a cattle drive as dusty and lonesome, and you'd be right, but these outfits weren't just crossing dry plains. Cowboys had to swim cattle across rivers. Across rivers, plural.

And at least one of those rivers was the Mississippi. Let that sit with you a moment. You're pushing a herd across the widest river on the continent, trying to get beef to a nation at war, and the water doesn't much care about your deadline.

After enduring all of that: the rivers, the miles, the heat, the sheer stubborn work of it, one outfit made it through every natural hardship only to be mistakenly arrested by the very Confederates they were trying to supply. That is the kind of irony that doesn't get any funnier with time. And then there's the story that carries no irony at all, only weight.

Lt. Col. J.

F. Scurlock and his son, both from right here in Johnson County, were on a Texas beef drive into southern Louisiana when Federals arrested them. They died in prison, of fever.

Father and son. Gone not in battle, but in a cell, on a mission to feed their own side. The beef trade during these years had other sorrows too.

There were ranchers out here who gave their cattle in good faith and received counterfeit money in return; cheated by the very contractors they were supplying. One of those men was Meredith Hart. Hart had come to Johnson County in 1855, and he was no stranger to sacrifice.

He had fought for the Texas Republic back in 1836. In the 1850s he sold beef to the U.S. Army.

When the Civil War came, he became one of those ranchers victimized by beef contractors passing counterfeit money. But Meredith Hart, born in 1811, gone by 1864, accepted those losses in the faith that the beef he raised was feeding his own sons and other men on Confederate fighting fronts. He never saw the end of the war.

He never collected what he was owed. He just kept sendin' cattle and held on to the belief that it mattered. That's the early cattle trade of Johnson County; not a legend of open ranges and easy glory, but a story of men swimmin' herds across the Mississippi, dying in prison of fever, and taking counterfeit pay on faith.

Texas beef built this place. The cost of it was real.

What the marker says

Famed for its beef since era of the Republic, Texas fed a great part of the Confederacy-- both civilians and army-- in the Civil War years, 1861-1865. Routes for beef supplying were many: Shreveport Trail to Vicksburg, Miss.; Alexandria Trail to Natchez, Miss.; Opelousas Trail to Woodville, Miss., and on to Mobile, Ala.; Old Government Road to Little Rock, Ark.; Oliver Loving's 1859 trail north, to Indian Territory; trails to all army depots and even to Mexico. Cowboys had to swim cattle across rivers-- even the Mississippi. After undergoing such hardships, one outfit was mistakenly arrested by Confederates. Lt. Col. J. F. Scurlock and son, from Johnson County, on a Texas beef drive into southern Louisiana, were arrested by Federals and died in prison, of fever. Meredith Hart (1811-1864), a leading beef supplier, came to Johnson County in 1855, after fighting for the Texas Republic in 1836. In the 1850s, he sold beef to the U.S. Army. During the Civil War, he was one of the ranchers victimized by beef contractors using counterfeit money, but accepted losses in the faith that beef was feeding his sons and others on Confederate fighting fronts.