Charles Goodnight – Blazing the Cattle Trails – Legends of America

On March 5, 1836, Charles Goodnight, American cattle rancher was born (d. 1929). He was the partial inspiration for Call in the novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. He invented the chuck wagon, was a Texas ranger, and brought law and order to the Panhandle. From the article:

"Charles Goodnight – Blazing the Cattle Trails

Co-founder of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, Charles Goodnight was born in Macoupin County, Illinois on March 5, 1836. Charles moved with his family to Waco, Texas in 1846 when he was ten years old. By the time he was twenty he was working as a cowboy and served with the local militia in the many fights against Comanche raiders. In 1857, he joined the Texas Rangers, where he continued to fight in the Indian Wars and served as an Indian scout. Later, when the Civil War began, he again served as a scout.

After the war, Goodnight joined up with Oliver Loving to move cattle from Fort Belknap, Texas to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in what became known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail. It was during this time, that Charles would invent the chuck wagon when he rebuilt an army surplus Studebaker wagon for more practical use on a long cattle drive.

Unfortunately, Loving was killed by a Comanche war party in 1867, but this did not stop Goodnight from continuing to organize cattle drives on his own.

Though busy with his numerous cattle drives, Goodnight married Mary Ann (Molly) Dyer, a schoolteacher from Weatherford, Texas on July 26, 1870. A year later, he joined up with John Chisum and extended the trail from New Mexico to Colorado, and eventually to Wyoming.

In 1876, Goodnight founded what was to become the JA Ranch in Palo Duro Canyon. Partnering with John Adair, the ranch would wind up encompassing nearly a million acres, where they maintained a herd of about 100,000 head of cattle, as well as preserving a herd of bison, which continues to survive today.

In the summer of 1878, Goodnight took the first JA trail herd north to Dodge City, Kansas, which at the time was the nearest railhead. Blazing the Palo Duro-Dodge City Trail, the path would quickly become well-used by a number of Panhandle ranchers in the upcoming years. Just a few months later, when destitute Indians from the reservations in Indian Territory arrived to hunt the now-scarce buffalo, Goodnight made his famous treaty with Quanah Parker in which he promised two beeves every other day if Parker and his followers would not disturb the JA herd.

In 1879 Goodnight moved the ranch headquarters to Turkey Creek, farther east, to be closer to the railroad. There he built a new ranch, a log home for himself, and later, a stone house for the Adairs to live in.

By 1880, the area was suffering badly from a number of cattle rustlers, and having warned the Texas Rangers that if they could not handle the problem he would, he established the Panhandle Stockman’s Association. The association, located in Mobeetie, Texas, immediately began to take care of the cattle rustling problem themselves, by applying vigilante justice to the area’s outlaws and cattle thieves.

Foreseeing the end of the open range, Goodnight ended his association with Adair and the JA Ranch in 1889 and bought his own ranch at what would become the village of Goodnight, Texas. Here, he was reportedly the first Panhandle rancher to build fences of barbed wire.

Throughout the following years, Goodnight dabbled in a number of other endeavors, establishing the Goodnight College in Armstrong County, Texas, as well as working as a newspaperman and banker.

However, an investment in Mexican silver mines eventually brought him financial ruin. Forced to sell his ranch, Goodnight conveyed the property to a friend, oilman, W.J. McAlister in 1919, with the provision that he and his wife could stay in the home until they died. She passed before him in 1926, and Charles Goodnight lived there until the end of that year before moving to Clarendon, Texas. He passed away on December 12, 1929.

The JA Ranch continues to operate as an active ranch today, located within Palo Duro Canyon, and owned by Adair descendants. There, the original buildings, erected in 1879, are still standing, including the big stone house built for the Adairs. Though modernized and expanded, it continues to dominate the cluster of buildings at the ranch headquarters. The site of Goodnight’s original dug-out cabin is located within the Palo Duro Canyon State Park and has been rebuilt by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society.

The frame-house where Goodnight lived from 1889 until 1926 is still standing in the town of Goodnight, Texas and was a private residence until 2005, when Mr. and Mrs. Brent Caviness and Mr. and Mrs. Marsh Pitman donated the home and 30 acres of land, along with an initial investment toward preservation, for the Charles Goodnight Historical Center. The Charles and Mary Ann Dyer Goodnight House is considered one of the most important historic structures in the Texas Panhandle, and for that matter, the state of Texas. Restoration of the house was completed in 2012 and operates as a museum and learning center."