In 1874 Joseph Glidden patented and manufactured the nation’s first barbed wire, and the next year Henry Sanborn came to Texas selling Glidden’s wire to cattlemen. Sales increased each year, and in 1883 Sanborn sold Texas ranchers one million dollars’ worth of barbed wire, but free-range cattle advocates and homesteaders revolted against the barbed wire fences; more than half of Texas’s counties experienced fence cutting. In the eyes of some Texans, barbed-wire fences stopped cattle drives, interfered with homesteading, and wrecked the state’s economy, but the act of fence cutting precipitated extreme levels of violence between the ranchers and the fence cutters. Fence cutting occurred as far north as Montana, but no state suffered the magnitude of fence cutting and violence as in Texas. Fence cutting usually occurred at night and responsibility for stopping it fell on local lawmen, who often failed. The Texas state government lacked statutory authority and financial means to stop it, so Governor John Ireland called the Texas legislature to Austin for a special session to write new laws and appropriate funds to cope with this revolution. After successful passage, Pinkerton and Ferrell’s commercial detectives and the Texas Rangers stepped in to assist. A war of barbs, bullets, and blood followed. Soon detectives fled the state, a Ranger was assassinated, and another Ranger wounded. In a midnight shootout with Rangers, two fence cutters were killed, one of them the neighboring community’s justice of the peace.
Texas’s fence-cutting incidents are found scattered in earlier writings, but Barbs, Bullets, and Blood is the first comprehensive coverage of one of the state’s most violent and costly episodes.
About the Author :
Harold D. Jobes, a sixth-generation Texan, grew up on a ranch in Kimble County and graduated from Southwest Texas State College. After serving in the US Army, he entered Texas state government, from which he retired as a government executive and returned to ranching. He has published in the Wild West History Association’s Journal and the Edwards Plateau Historical Association’s publication, the Edwards PlateauHistorian.
Review :
"[A] definitive narrative. . . . Jobes does a masterful job of presenting the main characters of this conflict that consumed nearly half of mid-Texas counties by 1883. . . . [T]his is an authoritative book by a man who ranches
where much of it happened."--Western Writers of America Roundup Magazine
"This is an in-depth and appealing master class on the invention of barbed wire, its evolution, use and the social and economic changes it created. . . . Once barbed wire reached Texas, more than one half of the states' 171 counties experienced the plight of fence cutting and the subsequent violence which often pitted good men from both sides against each other. . . . Inside each of these chapters are an abundance of courtroom contests, legislative fights, night time raids, lynchings, shoot-outs and assassinations. Many good men died fighting for their rights as they saw them and more than a few ne'er-do-wells too."--Wild West History Association Journal
"The research is comprehensive, and the book's reach is broad. Jobes's story is enhanced by fifty photographs, both period and modern, illustrating the people, places, and items associated with the barbed wire wars."--Ricochet
"I still can hardly believe how brazen the fence cutters were, and how openly the victims resisted them. Jobes has dug deeply indeed, especially among legal documents. And the financial costs of all of those wrecked fences were ruinous to the ranchers of the era. Jobes has brought to life a brutal chapter in Texas range history."--Bill O'Neal, former Texas State Historian and author of The Johnson-Sims Feud and War in East Texas (both UNT Press) "There is no other study in print of the 'Barbed-Wire Wars' or 'Fence-Cutting Wars' in Texas. There were barbed-wire wars in other states as well, and this could become a model for further studies of the topic elsewhere."--Chuck Parsons, author of The Sutton-Taylor Feud and Captain John R. Hughes, Lone Star Ranger (both UNT Press)
"This study of events and characters in the Texas barbed wire wars is more complete than the accounts by historians who came before. Wire cutters, Rangers like Ira Aten, and other law officers fill these pages, and some bite the dust."--Harold J. Weiss Jr., author of Yours to Command: The Life and Legend of Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald and coeditor of Tracking the Texas Ranger Historians (both UNT Press)
"Ranchman, indefatigable researcher, and talented writer Harold D. Jobes has settled the historical account long in arrears, a factual story in the round. Barbs, Bullets, and Blood is as exciting as it is informative, Wild West drama at its best. Readers will not be shortchanged as they explore the controversies, conspiracies, and nighttime six-shooter dustups. Yet this extensive volume also contributes to today's interpretations of technological relevance. Commendable!"--Bob Alexander, author of Rawhide Ranger, Ira Aten and coauthor of Texas Rangers: Lives, Legends, and Legacy (both UNT Press)
