Fence-Cutting War

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Fence-Cutting War, right here in Coke County. Now, if you think a fight over wire sounds small, you have never stood between a thirsty herd and a fenced waterhole in the middle of a Texas drought. Pull up a little closer to this story, because it gets serious fast.

Back in the 1880s, this area right around here was ground zero — a center of hostilities, as they put it — in a conflict that cut across nearly every county in the state of Texas. On one side, you had cattlemen without land, men who had always depended on free grass and open range to run their herds. That had been the way of things, and for a good while, it worked.

On the other side, ranchers were stringing up barbed wire, fencing in permanent operations, staking their claim to the land once and for all. Now, some of those ranchmen owned or leased the land they fenced, fair and square. But some — and this is where the trouble really brewed — some overambitious ones enclosed public lands, farms, and small ranches that belonged to homesteaders who had only recently arrived in Texas.

And on top of that, certain fencers blocked roads outright, showing, as the marker says, little regard for the convenience of travelers. That kind of arrogance has a way of making enemies. Then the drought hit.

A severe drought, deep in the 1880s, and it pushed landless cowmen to the brink of financial ruin. When a man watches his cattle dying of thirst because the best waterholes have been fenced off, his patience runs out. Widespread resentment had already been building — and when drought turned desperation into fury, violence was inevitable.

They blamed the barbed wire. Every strand of it. At first, the cutting was targeted.

Fences that blocked roads. Fences that shut off waterholes. You could almost understand it, even if you couldn't exactly condone it.

But it didn't stay targeted. Soon, all fences were threatened. Armed men — they were called Nippers — rode out and cut wire in almost every county across Texas.

What had started as grievance became rampage. Right here, three miles west of this spot, on the L.B. Harris Ranch, an anti-fence group burned posts and wire worth six thousand dollars.

Six thousand dollars. That was no small act of vandalism. That was a statement, made in fire.

And yet, the more destruction the Nippers caused, the more the public turned against them. Men who had once been seen as crusaders — standing up for the little guy, the landless man, the homesteader — came to be viewed as outlaws. That's how these things go.

The cause gets lost somewhere in the smoke and the cut wire. It wasn't until laws were passed during Governor John Ireland's administration that the war was finally brought to heel. By then, Texas had suffered, as the marker puts it plainly, much damage to its property and its reputation.

Barbed wire won. But the price of that victory — measured in burned posts, cut fences, ruined men, and a state's good name — was a cost nobody put on the books.

What the marker says

This area was a center of hostilities during 1880's conflict between landless cattlemen trying to keep use of free grass and open range and those erecting barbed wire fences to create permanent ranches. On L.B. Harris Ranch (3 miles west of here) posts and wire worth $6,000 were burned by anti-fence group during crisis. War was brought on by severe drought in 1880's when men without land found best waterholes fenced in. Many ranchmen owned or leased land they fenced, but some overambitious ones enclosed public lands, farms, and small ranches belonging to homesteaders recently arrived in Texas. Widespread resentment prevailed against these fencers, who, by blocking a road, had little regard for convenience of travelers. When drought pushed landless cowmen to brink of financial ruin, violence was inevitable. They blamed barbed wire fences for their predicament. At first, cutting of fences that blocked roads or waterholes occurred, but soon all fences were threatened. Armed "Nippers" cut fences in almost every Texas county. Fence cutters were then viewed as outlaws rather than crusaders. When laws were passed in Gov. John Ireland's administration to stop the war, Texas had suffered much damage to its property and reputation. (1967)