| Research
recently turned up interesting facts about the parallel lives of two Panhandle
men, one who became famous and the other who became lost in the annals of history.
Strangely, the reason for the difference in the outcome of their lives was, believe
it or not, about 500 feet in altitude. Now, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest
of the story.
Charles Goodnight, the famous man, and Henry W. Cresswell,
the forgotten man, became acquainted when they both arrived in Pueblo, Colo. Goodnight
established a ranching venture and Cresswell started a dairy and grain farm. As
they prospered, they became good friends.
In time, both owned and raised
a lot of cattle, grazing them on open range east of Pueblo. Both became respected
customers of the Thatcher Brothers Bank in Pueblo, which eventually grew into
the largest financial institution in the area.
As the range settled up
and became over-grazed, both men sought new grass for their herds. Goodnight drove
a large herd to the Canadian
River in Texas with Cresswell going along to
see and investigate the country. When Goodnight stopped in the Canadian breaks,
Cresswell went on in a great circle to see the wide open spaces in the northern
Texas Panhandle. He was convinced it would be good cattle country.
Less
than a year later, Cresswell brought his herd down the same trail as Goodnight
traveled, settling just down the river from Adobe
Walls and his friend, Goodnight.
Later that year, Goodnight moved
on south into Palo Duro
Canyon, eventually grazing over a million acres. Cresswell grazed his herds
from the Canadian
River north to the Oklahoma Strip, which included 1.25 million acres.
They were neighbors
and friends, sold and bought cattle from each other and were prominent respected
citizens. When Goodnight was elected the first president of the Panhandle Stock
Association in 1880, Cresswell served as vice-president.
When the famous drift fence was built across the Texas
Panhandle north of the Canadian
River, Cresswell built east into Oklahoma
and Goodnight and others built west into New
Mexico .
Both changed with the times, accepting new barbed
wire fences as inevitable and needed. Each protected their rights but neither
turned vicious with the nester/settler problems. |
