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The very last Cattle Drive of Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight

Many individuals have come across the famous cattleman Oliver Loving and also the just as famous Texas Ranger Charles Goodnight. They have even been rumored the movie "Lonesome Dove" was loosely based on these two great men as well as the last cattle drive they ever proceeded.

Oliver Loving came to be in Kentucky in 1812. He would have been a farmer in Muhlenberg County prior to the time he chose to move his family to the Republic of Texas. In Texas he 639.3 acres of land that stretched across the counties of Collin, Dallas, and Parker. By the time 1857 rolled around he'd increased his land holdings to 1000 acres and he was raising cattle on that land.

Because the cattle were required in other parts of the united states Loving begun to bring them away from Texas with his son William. He drove his cattle inside the Shawnee trail to Illinois where he received an income of $36 per head. This encouraged him to repeat the drive yearly also to allow William to drive herds for neighbors also.

In 1866 Loving heard that there was a great dependence on cattle in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. He combined cattle with this of uncle and neighbor Charles Goodnight and they also traveled the trail to provide cattle to Fort Sumner. This approach to Fort Sumner would eventually be known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail.

The following year,Loving and Goodnight got down to Fort Sumner on another drive. This second drive to Fort Sumner would be a bad decision for Loving. Right from the start the trip was cattle guards for sale with foul weather and threats on Indian attacks. The cattleman were on guard and edgy. A couple of days before they reached Fort Sumner Loving and a scout were sent on ahead of the rest. Loving promised Goodnight that he and Wilson (the scout) would travel beneath the cover of darkness, but being impatient Loving reneged for this promise and traveled in daytime.

The daytime travel drew the attention of some Comanche and Loving and Wilson were attacked. At the very start of the attack Loving was caught off guard and injured seriously. Both cattlemen sought refuge under an embankment and fought the Indians removed from this location. Loving knew which they must help whenever they were going to survive so he sent Wilson to have help.

Loving remained within the embankment defending his position during their visit, he hardly any food, and the man lost a great deal of blood. In the event the Indians left him he made his strategies the direction of Fort Sumner, in which a Mexican family found him and took him other way. His wounds developed gangrene, anf the husband died a short time later.