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538
It was the custom for the man following to pick up lost cattle and drive them on until the herd they were lost from was reached. Bill Jackman's herd picked up a steer lost by Ike Pryor and was taking him along for Ike, with good intentions. Red River was crossed and Bill's herd had now gone a few days' drive into the Indian Nation. One afternoon a band of about forty Indian warriors including their squaws, rode up to Bill Jackman's herd and the chief handed him a letter, which read as follows:
" To the trail bosses:
"This man is a good Indian ; I know him personally.
Treat him well, give him a beef and you will have no trouble in driving through
his country."
(Signed) IKE T. PRYOR.
After reading the letter, Bill rode into the herd, and cut out Ike Is steer f or the chief. They killed the steer then and there and had a big f east. Then Bill went on North with his herd, in peace, thanking Ike for his good advice.
My first trip over the trail was in 1868 with my father, Col. J. F. Ellison, with about 100 cattle, which at that time, was considered a large herd. We left the old McGhee Crossing on the San Marcos River in Caldwell county, about seven miles from the town of San Marcos, and went over the old Fort Arbuckle trail to Abilene, Kansas, crossing the Trinity River at Fort Worth, which at that early date was just a small frontier town. Our mess wagon was drawn by two yoke of oxen, and as it