Oliver Loving

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll do my best to honor every word of it. This is the story of Oliver Loving. He came from Kentucky to Texas in 1845, and made his way to Parker County about 1855.

By the time most folks were just trying to figure out which way was west, Loving had already founded three major cattle trails. Three. That's not a man who sat still.

When the Civil War came (1861 to 1865), he was supplying beef to Confederate forces, keeping an army fed across a landscape that didn't make anything easy. After the war, he partnered with Charles Goodnight on a drive to New Mexico. Now here's where the story turns, and it turns hard.

Loving rode ahead of the cattle to scout the trail. Out there, alone and ahead of everything, he was badly wounded by Indians. And then (and you need to let this land) he lay five days without food before anyone reached him.

Five days. Whatever kind of man survives that, Oliver Loving was that kind of man. He was rescued.

But the wound had done its worst work quietly, the way the worst things do. Gangrene set in. On September 25, 1867, Oliver Loving died.

Now, a lesser story ends there in New Mexico dirt. But Loving had a dying wish: that he be buried back in Parker County. Six hundred miles away.

His son Joseph joined Charles Goodnight, and together they loaded that body into a wagon and brought it every one of those six hundred miles home. Six hundred miles, by wagon, to honor a man's last request. The marker's been recorded since 1977, right here in Parker County, which is exactly where Oliver Loving asked to rest.

What the marker says

Founder of three major cattle trails, Oliver Loving came from Kentucky to Texas in 1845 and to Parker County about 1855. During the Civil War (1861-65), he supplied beef to Confederate forces. With Charles Goodnight as partner on a drive to New Mexico, Loving scouted ahead of the cattle, was badly wounded by Indians, lay five days without food before his rescue, and died of gangrene on September 25, 1867. His dying wish was fulfilled when his son Joseph joined Goodnight to bring the body 600 miles by wagon for burial in this county. Recorded, 1977.