Born in 1864, my dad’s grandfather J.O Riley worked as a cowboy on old-west cattle drives like you see in Western movies. You can find lots of information about the Shawnee, Chisolm, Western, and Goodnight-Loving trails on the internet.
He started out as a wrangler, taking care of the cowboy’s extra horses on the cattle drives when he was barely in his teens.
He started out as a wrangler, taking care of the cowboy’s extra horses on the cattle drives when he was barely in his teens.
From 1866 to 1889, cowboys were hired to drive herds of cattle from Texas to Kansas where they were loaded on trains to ship to eastern markets. During the long nights on the trail, cowboys would sing to the cattle at night to calm them and prevent stampedes.
Above is an old recording of my Grandpa Ernest talking about his dad J.O and singing one of the old cowboy songs he learned from his father. It’s not anything like the country music we have today, but very authentic! ;-)
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