GRGR(12) - Bobwire

[David Morris]

snippets from a paper at:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/b_arb1.html

Barbed wire also brought about some interesting social changes. The fencing 
of the land enabled the farmers and stockmen to reduce their costs of 
employment, as they were able to reduce the number of herders, line-riders, 
and cowhands in general.(75) This was no small item with the westerner, for 
under the local herd laws of many of the counties the farmers as well as the 
stockmen were compelled to look after their own livestock.(76) Roundups, 
too, were expensive, and the fenced pastures aided the owner in eliminating 
the necessity of sending cowboys to all the adjacent roundups to identify 
his cattle.(77) Moreover, the reduction in the number of cowhands had a 
decided influence on the moral and ethical standards of the community. For 
years lawless cowpunchers had toted six-shooters, frequently causing 
distress and perturbation to those whom they met. At times their lawlessness 
reached such high proportions as to make it necessary to employ troops to 
repress them.(78) A reporter from Kansas City stated that eighty indictments 
were returned against the Texas cowboys who made pilgrimages there in 
droves.(79) In time sentiment was developed against this lawless group. In 
1882, some of the more prominent stockmen went on record as agreeing that 
the "day of the sixshooter cowboy is passed, and that class should not be 
employed on the range."(80) By 1885, practically all of the cattlemen were 
united in a movement to outlaw the practice of carrying a gun by their 
employees, since the need for such a weapon was no longer necessary.(81)
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During the heyday of barbed-wire fencing many parts of the West experienced 
an era of unprecedented violence, crime, and public immorality. The intense 
struggle between the "free grasser" and the "fencer" to gain possession of 
the range and water holes brought on much of this conflict. Commissioner 
Sparks of the General Land Office, in commenting on this situation, stated 
that it "is doubtful if the world has ever witnessed such criminal 
prodigality.... Whole counties have been fenced in by the cattle companies, 
native and foreign, and the frauds that have been carried on by individuals 
on a small scale are simply innumerable.(91) In the race to gain control, 
barbed wire was thrown up everywhere, irrespective of titles, roads, or 
laws. Cowboys, aunts, uncles, and cousins were conscripted to hold down 
homesteads and to squeeze out the small farmer and stockman.(92) The Texas 
Land Office reported that over one hundred thousand square miles of land in 
the State were held by occupants who were "there in violation of law" and 
that "appeal to the local civil authorities" in that unorganized territory 
was useless.(93)

As a result of this tense situation people became violent and destructive. A 
fence-cutting war which started in Texas extended even as far north as 
Montana before it subsided. People were killed, property was destroyed, 
business was crippled, and peaceful people were alienated against one 
another.(94) A special report from Las Vegas, New Mexico, described the 
extent of organization of the fence cutters in that area. Mounted and placed 
in squads of convenient number, they would ride up to the fence, a man would 
drop off at a corner and cut half a mile or more to where the next man had 
begun, then jump into his saddle and rush to the head of the line again, 
after the fashion of school boys playing leap frog.(95) A number of reasons 
have been given for this unusual destruction, but a series of letters in the 
Galveston News throw some interesting light on the social and economic 
theories that actuated many of the cutters. Apparently the motives behind 
much of this disturbance were diverse, for small farmers as well as large 
stockmen experienced the nippers alike.(96) One writer stated that the fence 
cutting was incited by the theories of communism; another said it was 
greenbackism; while another remarked that it was agrarianism.(97) 
"Agrarianism," one correspondent wrote, "is a system of spoliation," while 
"Communism is, in the highest degree, salvatory in its tendencies."(98) In 
this case agrarianism probably meant big pastures with their attendant 
monopolistic control, while communism involved a free and open range. Those 
who favored the big pastures argued that the free and open ranges had been 
"the parent of crime in Texas. It has been the educator of the mavericker, 
the brand blotcher, cattle-thief and the fence-cutter."(99)

These barbed-wire fences affected many groups and, as a consequence, many 
classes were directly or indirectly involved. The building of pastures 
tended to throw cowboys out of work, and small stock owners claimed that the 
large owners fenced them away from water, roads, and business centers. 
Sheepmen as a rule opposed the closing of the free range, and to the rustler 
the barbedwire fence was a natural detective.(100) Thus, the cutting of 
fences was not opposed by many groups of people. A quotation from one of the 
contemporaries of that day shows how universal its acceptance actually was. 
"Fence cutting never would have become so great and destructive if it had 
not met with such popular sentiment. Men of influence gave expression of 
favor. Many good men 'winked' at it until it had gone from the highest to 
the lowest. It found its way to the fireside of every home, and the 
greviences [sic] of the lawless element of the communistic fence-cutters 
were held up in glowing colors."(101)


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