| |
Hog
Drives of the Frio Canyon
A TrilogyPart
I: “Git Along Little Piggy”
Late 1890’s ---Early 1900’s By
Linda Kirkpatrick | |
The
Frio Canyon suffered hard times in the late 1800’s. Lipan Apache still made soirees
through the area, money was scarce, and times were just plain tuff. The folks,
who built up the early ranches in the Leakey
area, did what they could to just get by. They were hardy individuals who suffered
many hardships that would seem impossible to bear in these days. They “made do”
with what little they had and when opportunities came along they jumped on the
chance to take advantage of each situation. Like the cattle drives of old but
just not as classy or as romantic or as written about were the hog drives of the
Frio Canyon. And with that thought, imagine an old, night-herding, hog driving
cowboy singing, “Get along little piggy, get along, get along.”
The
blood lines on these hogs proved to be as interesting as the hogs themselves.
Most were a cross between domestic “listed” hogs, better knows as “Hampshire”,
and the imported European’s, commonly called Russian hogs. The settlers ran their
animals on open range and as a result many of the hogs just went feral. Round-up
time was very interesting to say the least! |
 |
Hog
Drives at Rock Pens
Bud Huffmon, Fred Large, Jared Huffmon, Jeff Thompson,
Alex Auld, John Auld |
Alexander
(Alec) Auld, an early rancher in the area known as the Divide, became the entrepreneur
of these hog drives. He furnished the holding pens. The pens were actually large
pastures where the surrounding ranchers would bring their hogs until enough were
gathered for the drive to the rail head in either Kerrville
or Sabinal. The pastures,
known as the East Pasture and the Maverick Camp, supplied an abundance of oaks
that in the fall became laden with acorns. These acorns supplied the main food
source necessary to keep the pigs fat and sassy.
The composition of the
hog drives was much like that of the cattle drives of old. Each rancher would
spend several weeks gathering their hogs. They drove these hogs to Maverick Camp
and East Pasture. Then they gave the drover the number of head that they put in
the pens. The drover recorded the total number of rancher’s hogs and then released
them into the holding pen with the rest to await the drive to Kerrville.
At the end of the drive the rancher collected money for the number of hogs that
he released into the holding pasture. The hogs would feed on the acorns and continue
to fatten until the drovers had enough gathered and were ready to hit the trail
for the rail road some sixty-five miles away. “Enough” would equal several thousand
hogs. Jake Haby, a descendent of one of the drovers, said, “As the story goes…
when they hit the trail with the pigs you could see hogs from one horizon to the
other.” Now that folks, is a lot of little porkers. |
 |
Group
of men standing
L to R: Walter Large, Luke Large, Drew Large, Jeff Thompson,
Callie Bell, Fred Large, Holmes Ferguson and their favorite hog dogs. |
Alec
Auld and about ten to fifteen other men made up the drovers. Some of the names
included: William Putum, Whittum Holmes, Fred Large, Walter Large, Luke Large,
Drew Large, Jeff Thompson, Dave Huffmon, Pete Lowrance, Bud Lowrance, Callie Bell
and Holmes Ferguson. Along with the drovers there would be a chuck wagon and a
couple of corn wagons. And we must not leave out the dogs as they played an important
roll in moving the pigs along.
As the gate opened on an early fall morning,
the number of pigs released could total from one to two thousand head of fat pigs.
Keep in mind these were wild hogs, hogs with a very aggressive attitude. It took
a tuff drover, with a tuff horse and with extra tuff dogs to get the herd over
the sixty five miles of rough terrain. |
| Alex
Auld, Fred Large and favorite dog...Rat |
One
drover owned about ten to fifteen hog dogs. These dogs were probably hound crosses.
The dogs would intimidate the hogs until the hogs would relent. The hog dogs had
to be quick, agile and fearless. I am quite sure that several dogs probably lost
their lives trying to control these aggressive pigs. The hogs, when on the fight,
would attack man, horse or dog. As the ranchers came upon these wild hogs during
the year they would rope, castrate or spay them in order to control the population
and make them easier to fatten and drive later. Most of the ranchers would rope
the hogs but not Alec Auld. He would run into the herd on foot, grab a hog by
the hind leg and take it to the ground. Other ranchers kept telling him that one
day one of the hogs would get him and sure enough one day David Huffman came upon
Alec sewing up his arm with a spaying needle. As Alec grabbed for a hind leg the
hog turned and a well aimed tusk ripped a gash in his arm.
Besides good
dogs, each drover had to have a pair of durable leggins’. The leather had to be
extra heavy duty, strong enough to resist the bite or slash of a nasty boar. The
leggins’, as we call them in this part of the world-you may correctly call them
chaps, needed to have a special alteration. Most leggins’ are buckled in the front
with a belt like piece of leather. The smart cowboy removes the buckle and replaces
it with a heavy string, one that would break should a bucking horse cause the
top of the leggins’ to hang up on the saddle horn. Keep this thought in mind for
a future story. |
 |
Hog
drive to Sabinal. The town in the background was identified to me as Sabinal,
Texas
L to R: Drew Large, Holmes Ferguson, Fred Large, Alex Auld, unidentified
drover, Callie Bell, unidentified drover |
When
enough hogs were gathered, it was then time to hit the trail. A few gentle hogs
mingled with the wild hogs in hopes to keep the herd going in the direction of
the rail head in either Kerrville
or Sabinal. The corn
wagon, loaded with corn, would lead the hogs. Someone would ride in the back of
the wagon and entice the gentle hogs by throwing corn out to them. The gentle
hogs would chase after the corn and the rest of the hogs would, for the most part,
follow. The wilder hogs would soon get the idea and before long they were, as
in the days of cattle drives, trail broke! And for those hogs that just refused
to conform, the drovers had a little trick for them. A drover would rope the obnoxious
beast. The pig was then enticed to bite a cedar stave and when he did the drover
quickly wrapped leather straps around his snout in order to keep the pig from
biting and gnashing the dogs and drovers. For some, it became more severe. Before
their release, their eyelids were sewn shut so that they could not see to attack
or escape. They would follow the rest of the herd by scent alone. The journey
to the rail road could take up to three weeks. Some of the drovers rode horses
while others would walk along behind the herd prodding and yelling to keep them
on the move. The dogs constantly barked and nipped at the heels of the pigs that
lagged behind. This is truly not as romantic as the cattle drives of old.
The ranchers found the hog business to be quite lucrative it was actually
more lucrative than anything else that they did. They could make three to five
cents a pound for the critters. All good things usually come to and end and so
did the hog drives. The weevil that hit the acorn crops proved to be the demise
of this business. This weevil would burrow into the acorns and eat the meat. The
wild hog market soon fell by the wayside. But since these little porkers can produce
three litters a year, they began to replace the acorns with rancher’s sheep, goats.
To this day, they can literally wreck havoc every where they go.
Hunting
hogs soon became a popular sport which continues today. Sport hunters do it for
the thrill of the hunt, ranchers do it out of necessity. The January column will
feature stories of the hog hunters.
Trilogy:
Hog Drives of the Frio Canyon
Part I "Git
Along Little Piggy"
Part
II “This Little Piggy Stayed Home”
Part
III “Here a Pig, There a Pig” | |
|
