Cowgals, too! Trail Bosses, Farmers, Ranchers

Bet you’ve heard all about the great cattle drives through Texas, where cowboys rode herd on millions of bovines headed up the Chisholm Trail for markets up north, right? Well, it’s true. Vast herds of cattle DID come barreling right through Georgetown—on what’s now Austin Avenue!—and splashed through the San Gabriel River forks.

Molly Goodnight went on cattle drives and ran the ranch near Palo Duro Canyon when her husband was gone. Molly built back buffalo herds that were decimated by settlers and soldiers, giving them her Flying T brand.

Picture those cows swimming across the San Gabriel, and then clambering up the banks in such numbers that the riverbanks were said to get slick as hog snot and onion gravy!

BUT also picture this: The epic Texas tale of cattle drives also features lady trail bosses and herd-handling cowgals as well!

And the cowboys didn’t all look like John Wayne and Kevin Costner. African-American, Hispanic, and Native American cowboys made up at least a third of cowboys on the cattle drives. And women were—and continue to be—an integral part of the Texas and Williamson County ranching, farming, and rodeo culture.

Can you imagine masses of cattle thundering up Austin Avenue? The Chisholm Trail ran right through Georgetown on Austin, says Clara Scarbrough, who authored a comprehensive history of Williamson County called Land of Good Water. Scarbrough describes how the cattle would crest over Rabbit Hill south of Georgetown, lope down Austin Avenue (then called Brushy Street after the Brushy River a little west of us), gallop past the old jail, and then splash across the two San Gabriel River branches.

A fact you may not know about the Chisholm trail: It was named after Jesse Chisholm, a half-Cherokee trader who established a trail for running cattle and other supplies up in north Texas. Although the section he originally created which is (near the Red River in North Texas) was small, Chisholm’s name was eventually adopted for several of the many cattle drive trails running through Texas.

The Chisholm Trail was the conduit to lucrative markets traveled by several women cattle drivers. We don’t know for sure if any of them came down our Austin Avenue, but it’s quite possible.

Trail boss and crack businesslady Lizzie Johnson Williams

It’s especially likely with this local cowgal, Lizzie Johnson Williams. Educated to be a schoolmarm over near Brenham at Chappell Hill Female College, she taught school in Lockhart, Manor, and started a primary school in Austin. She moonlighted from teaching in Austin as a bookkeeper for some prominent cattlemen and investors. That’s where Lizzie learned that the moocow business meant mooolah! So in 1871 she registered the cattle brand ‘CY’ under her own name and purchased some land in Hays County.

This business-minded entrepreneur also was chock-a-block in gentlemen admirers! Check out their letters to her in the fascinating archives of Lizzie and the Johnson family at Southwestern University’s Special Collections. (Find more of SU’s Johnson letter collection at the wonderful Portal to Texas History at the University of North Texas library.) Here’s one particularly imaginative one.

Inventive, dude! "Accept my hand And we will make a [match]."

Lizzie was quite busy and marriage wasn’t a top priority. She sometimes just didn’t respond to gents’ requests to spend time—more than a few followup letters complain of her lack of response. Of course, no texting back then—letters was the way to convey it all. Read this Special Collections look at how correspondence between Lizzie and her female friends and male would-be courters follow customs of the time.

Lizzie did settle on a man—but not until the ripe old age of 39! And when Lizzie married Hezekiah Williams in 1879, she did a prenup that kept her land, cattle, and financial affairs in her own name and under her own control. A good move; hubby Hezekiah had little of her business drive and also had a bit of a drinking problem.

They bought more cattle and rode the Chisolm Trail together, BUT they each drove their own herds. Lizzie was the first woman to drive her own cattle under her own brand. When she died in 1924, she was worth a quarter million dollars. Now that’s Some Moolah!

Lizzie wasn’t alone – at least 16 women are known to have driven some of the millions of steers that came through Texas between 1869 and 1898.

One of them was “Willie” Matthews, who borrowed her brother’s suit and signed up on a drive run by Samuel Dunn Houston, said to be Sam Houston’s nephew. Willie kept working as a man for four months on the trail. Houston came to value her as one of his best “cowboys.” He commented sadly when she came out as a woman and went back home that he wished he had many more “cowboys” like her.

But before we go on to more cattlewomen on the drives, let’s reflect about what life on the cattle trail was like. Days on the trail were long, dusty, hot, and hard. Thousands of cattle would raise continuous dust, and a few spooked steers could start a stampede that created chaos. The “cookie” would do what he could, but meals were usually monotonous beans and meat and bread. Sleeping meant a thin bedroll on the hard ground.

Diary page of Williamson County cowpoke Robert McMordie

Check out the 1868 diary page from Williamson County cowpoke Robert McMordie of his stint on a cattle drive. (This cool item is one of many cool holdings of the Williamson Museum.) The drive was the first of many led by influential Georgetown brothers D.H. (Dudley) and J.W. (John) Snyder, who made a bundle delivering cattle to the Confederate Army.

McMordie writes of endless miles traveled, while hail, rainstorms, and wind buffeted the weary cowpokes. He got gored by a steer, and sometimes the cattle would balk and not move and other times, they’d stampede. No wonder he titled his missive “Diary of Troubles from Home to Col[orado].”

So how’d you like to do that day after day in a drive? How about you’re the trail boss AND you’re riding herd on four kids as well? That’s what Margaret Heffernan Borland did.

Fearless trail boss and mom Margaret Borland

Margaret had a tough life—even before she started cattle driving. She was married and widowed three times, and yellow fever took four of her seven children and a grandchild. Nevertheless, she used the expertise she learned working with her last late husband, cattleman Alexander Borland, to buy and sell cattle. Her herd grew to 10,000. She led a drive to Wichita in 1873 with 2,500 cows. She took a group of trail hands, two sons who were both under fifteen, a seven-year-old daughter, and an even younger granddaughter. Sadly, after reaching Wichita, Margaret became ill and died on July 5, 1873, before she had time to sell her cattle. But her legacy lived on to inspire other cowgals.

And here’s another mom who went on the an epic cattle drive—and her story is the inspiration for a statue up in Round Rock!

Harriett (Hattie) Louise Standefer Cluck was pregnant with her fourth child when she insisted that she and the three kids (the oldest just 6 years old) come with husband George on his cattle drive heading out of Round Rock and up to Abilene. Here’s the trail crew along with Hattie, ready to ride.

Hattie helped defend the herd and the humans when she and George and the 14 other cowpokes were threatened by a robber on their 1871 drive. The family stayed in Abilene until the baby was born. When they got back to Williamson County, they registered another cattle brand under Hattie’s name.

The pair prospered by ranching and farming near what became Cedar Park, and Hattie became postmaster, netting up to about $4 a month (depending on how much mail there was). She also raised six more children.

Hattie, hubby George, and all their kids

Impressed? Head over to Round Rock’s Chisholm Trail Crossing Park to see a statue of “The Pioneer Woman,” dedicated to Hattie’s status of one of the first known white women to travel the Chisholm Trail. “The Pioneer Boy” by her is meant to remember her oldest, Emmett Cluck, who as an adult named Cedar Park.

Farmer, rancher, and chicken guru Alice McFadin

Of course, girls raised on ranches and farms typically grew up doing everything their brothers did. And their mothers worked side-by-side with husbands—or on their own when the husband died, went to war, or went on a cattle drive—doing everything from raising cattle to growing crops that fed Texans. Just one example—Alice McFadin of Circleville, whose farming (she was a renowned poultry expert) and ranching skills paved the way for her to later run an 11,000-acre farm near Lubbock.

And these days, female farmers and ranchers only grow in number. Nationally well over a third of American farmers and ranchers are women. In Texas, there are over 156,000 female farmers and ranchers.

Another of the 156,000 intrepid Texas female farmers

And it’s important to remember that these “cowboys” and ranchers of yesteryear—and today-year—were and are far from all white. About one in three cowhands of the cattle drive years were Black or Latino or Native American. The vaqueros—Spanish for cowhand—who came from Mexico were much sought after as cowboys. The Spanish had driven cattle and horses since the early 1600s. Many women vaqueras were as skilled as the vaqueros.

And as enslaved people who worked on every aspect of farming, Black people honed great skills with animals and were prized on the cattle drives. Indians had been experts on horseback and like the Spanish had also done cattle drives. Let’s meet just a few.

James “Jim” Kelly was a trail driver born in Williamson County to manumitted slaves, “Uncle Amos” and “Aunt Phoebe” Kelly. Kelly’s parents had been enslaved by the powerful cattle-owning Olive family, whose ranches were on Brushy Creek. Kelly was a trail boss for Isom Prentice (Print) Olive, whose brutal behavior kept him in a continuous court docket. Kelly ran cattle drives to Kansas and Nebraska, and ended up in Nebraska in the cattle business.

Emanuel Orgain is our own Georgetown cowboy extraordinaire! In the late 1800s, he gained a reputation for finding stolen and stray cattle, retrieving hundreds during his career, reports the book created by the Black community, Histories of Pride: Thirteen Pioneers Who Shaped Georgetown’s African American Community.

Emanuel (who also went by Manuel) went on many trail drives both inside Texas and up north to Kansas, working with wellknown drivers. Emanuel counted as a top achievement, though, his rescue of a woman and her five children during a devastating flood of the San Gabriel in 1869. Learn more about Emanuel’s life in this Williamson Museum account.

World-famous Bill Pickett—check out the Georgetown hiking trail named for him!

Bill Pickett was a cowboy par excellence born in 1870 in the freed-slave community of Jenks-Branch, near Liberty Hill. The second of 13 children, Pickett invented the rodeo technique of bulldogging steers to the ground. He appeared in Wild West shows with the likes of Buffalo Bill, Tom Mix and Will Rogers and in movies, becoming the first black cowboy movie star. In 1971 he became the first African-American cowboy inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Meet Ana Maria del Carmen Calvillo, who ran a large, successful ranch outside of San Antonio. It’s now part of the Mission Espada, part of the Mission parks in San Antonio. After her husband and father died, she took over Rancho de las Cabras (ranch of the goats), running 2,000 cattle, building an irrigation system and expanding crop production, and building a mill. She died at 91 in 1856.

Visit Mision Espada in San Antonio and conjure Ana Maria in charge.

It’s said that Ana Maria’s ghost is seen still on the ranch—a woman with flowing black hair galloping on a white horse.

Johanna July, born around 1860 into a multiracial community of Black Seminole Indians, loved horses as a girl. Also known as “Chona,” her Seminole name, she was so good at breaking horses that she was allowed to focus on livestock rather than housekeeping.

Her horse-breaking technique, as she described to WPA Federal Writers’ Project history worker Florence Angermiller in a late 1930s interview, was to lead the wild horse into deep water and calm it there. Johanna also used her strength to leave two abusive husbands. Her work as an expert horse tamer kept a cattle-raising, horse-breaking, and hide-selling family business afloat.

Final cowgal fun fact: Kristin Jaworski was and is the first female Trail Boss of the Fort Worth herd that draws oodles of tourist to the historic site of the Fort Worth stockyards. Kristin says she’s faced some BS (not the kind bulls make; the other kind) from underling male cowpokes. But she remains a well-respected trail boss.

Fort Worth Herd Trail Boss Kristin Jaworski, the first female boss

Rodeo for many conjures images of rough, tough rodeo cowboys. But cowgirls have excelled as well at rodeo, going back over a century ago to Lucille Mulhall, one of the first women to compete in musclebound rodeo tricks such as steer roping. Gifted since girlhood at wrangling cattle, Lucille also liked the money, noting that women could make a few dollars a week doing housework or clerking, but she could make $25 a week on the rodeo circuit.

Pioneer female rodeo cowgal Lucille roped in the steers and the cash.

If you were a “Golden Ager” here in Georgetown about 20 years ago, you may have met Hope Varner. Shortly after moving here at age 78, Hope was voted president of Georgetown’s Sharp Seniors, and you’d certainly see her riding her horse at the annual Williamson County Sheriff’s Posse rodeo, where she was an active Posse member.

Hope was also a rodeo celeb, inducted in 1988 to the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. Hope always loved horses and became an expert cowgirl as a girl growing up in Milwaukee. When she met and married Victor “Tex” Varner, the two entertained guests at the Silver Spur Ranch, Hope with her noted singing. Later, the two opened Western Fun Arena in Missouri, which hosted Wild West shows and rodeos.

Hope produced All-Girl Rodeos and encouraged cowgirls of all ages.

Hope was an advocate for cowgirls, producing All-Girl Rodeos, where national top-rated girls and women competed in steer wrestling and bull riding and whatever else the cowboys did. In addition to managing all facets of rodeo production, she raised three children.

Star Varner, right, future SU art prof, was an expert roper, as was sis Gay (left).

One daughter, Dr. Victoria Star Varner, was until her death in 2024 a lauded art professor at Southwestern University. Dr. Varner’s paintings, drawings and prints have been exhibited around the world.

Girls and women excel all the time in rodeos held all around Williamson County, such as the Williamson County Sheriff’s Posse Rodeo, formerly held at San Gabriel Park and now held in June in Jarrell. Here’s just one, Georgetown’s Ava Antolik, who’s a state champion barrel racer. Ava was barrel racing at three and started winning championships while at Georgetown High. She continues barreling on at Texas A & M on their Women’s Rodeo Team.

Cattle have been an important part of Williamson County since Spanish colonizers came to the Rio de San Xavier (San Gabriel River) in the late 1600s and cultivated cattle ranching. Amble along a few spots where the bovines roamed and people were affected by the cattle trade.

☛ Start at the Chisholm Trail signpost on the west side of the County Courthouse downtown. Look to the south—can you just see the herds barrelling north toward you? Close your eyes now, and get in the mooooood.

☛ Walk across the street to the Williamson Museum. They’ve presented plenty of cowperson history over the years, but you’ll always find the chuckwagon dress-up area. Go ahead, you don’t have to be a kid to pretend. Look at the gift shop for books on cattlefolk and other Wilco histories and fun stuff. Got a kid in school? Ask about the Museum’s Traveling Trunks where classes learn about Wilco history and see artifacts. Or send a kid to a history summer camp!

☛ Walk north up Austin Avenue, which used to be called Brushy Street. Imagine the dust the cattle would stir up! It would probably linger in the air for quite some time, and mix with the smell of delightful presents left by the cattle. Back in the day, a water wagon would come around after cattle drives and other dusty spells and sprinkle the dusty streets.

☛ Continue up Austin Avenue, visualizing the possibility that cowGIRL trail bosses came this same way! When you get to 2nd Street, turn left and then right on Rock Street. Head for the Blue Hole on the South San Gabriel River at the end of the street. Look for the River Trail to the right. We’ll be heading east on the trail, but another time, go west on the trail to find the Bill Pickett Trail that commemorates our famous Wilco cowboy!

☛ As you walk east on the South San Gabriel River Trail, gaze at the river and the land on the other side where you’ll see the apartments. Beyond the apartments is the north fork of the San Gabriel, and the land in between the river forks was a favorite spot for the Native American peoples who lived here first. The Tonkawa, Comanche, Jumano, and other Native American peoples prized this area for the trove of game, fish, nuts, and berries to eat.

The Native Americans were forced out of this region by many factors, with the push for land for ranching and cattle-raising and movement to markets a potent one. Learn more about our First Peoples who lived right here. This photo from 1898 shows some Tonkawas, a people generally friendly to the white settlers in this area and elsewhere.

☛ Look for the marker for Winfred H. Bonner on this section of the trail named after Mr. Bonner. He was the first Black Georgetown City Council member and improved our community considerably. Take a breather on the bench near the marker.

☛ Continue on the Bonner Trail until you near the intersection of College Street (to the right of the trail) and Holly Street. You’ll see a trail on your left allowing you to get down to the river—head on down! When you’re down by the pedestrian bridge across the river, look left—just a stone’s throw away, the two forks of the San Gabriel join. And that makes this an important spot for Georgetown-area cattle ranchers of the past!

Cattle getting on trains near San Saba in a setup similar to Georgetown’s

First, a little background. The era of the huge Texas cattle drives was from around the 1860s to the 1880s. The drives subsided as more ranchers used the railroads to ship, and a tick-born “Texas fever” outbreak brought cattle quarantines. Wilco had plenty of cattle ranchers (still has a good bit of them), and they began shipping by rail.

Here are the recollections of Georgetown-area rancher I. M. Hausenfluke, who lived from 1915-1999. He remembers working with his grandmother’s cattle business, and later with his own. His memories are among loads of Wilco history to be found here.

“Where the rivers run together is where we always crossed the creek,” recalled Hausenfluke. From there, the herds pushed down what’s now Holly Street to stockyards near the train station. The depot for the MKT or “Katy” railroad was at what’s now the intersection of 7th Street and Holly. Let’s head there now.

☛ Walk up from the river, and cross the road to get on Holly Street. Continue on Holly until you reach 7th Street. Look at the empty spaces around the railroad tracks and imagine Georgetown’s bustling MKT train station—the one pictured above—surrounded by cattle, cowhands, station and rail workers, and anyone else with business on the rails, which was lots of Georgetownians.

Here’s what Hausenfluke saw: “Those pens would hold 1,000 head of cattle. They had a loading chute and would push that car up to that chute and open the side door. A cattle car was slatted so the heat would get out. The railroad man would seal it and put a bar across it, and then they would pull up another car. We loaded them about 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. because the train would pick them up at 10:00 p.m. We would load about ten or fifteen cars. Cattle cars then held about forty calves or twenty grown cows.”

Cattle weren’t the only ones on the trains—Georgetownians regularly used the train to travel near or far. They routinely took the Katy train to go to Austin for the day or evening, or depart for further destinations.

If your final travel destination today is where you started by the courthouse, head back on 7th Street or any other shady street that catches your eye!

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