Lysius Gough, farmer, businessman, and author, one of ten children of Asher and Elizabeth Gough, was born in Lamar County, Texas, on July 29, 1862. His father, a minister in the First Christian Church, owned a 160-acre farm on which Gough developed an early interest in cattle raising. In 1876, at the age of fourteen, he ran away from home and got his first job as a cowboy for B.L. Murphy, who ran cattle in Hopkins and Hunt counties. During the next five years Gough participated in several overland drives to Kansas. In 1882 Jule Gunter hired him to work for the T Anchor Ranch. Because he never swore, Gough's fellow cowhands gave him the nickname Parson. He remained with the T Anchor until 1884, when he decided to complete his education. He entered Pilot Point Institute, finished high school at the age of twenty-six, obtained a teaching certificate, and was hired to be principal of the institute. While he was there, Gough published his first collection of cowboy verse, Western Travels and Other Rhymes (1886).
He also studied law and qualified for the legal profession. In 1888 he married Ida Russell, a former pupil of his at Pilot Point, and they settled on a farm south of Dimmitt. They had ten children, six of whom lived to adulthood. In 1891 Gough taught the county's first school in Dimmitt. Later that year he assisted in the organization of the county and was elected the first county judge. In October 1898 the Goughs moved to Hereford, where he engaged in the real estate business and was for a time in partnership with C.G. Witherspoon. In 1910 Gough was involved with D.L. McDonald in the drilling of irrigation test wells and was among the first to drill his own irrigation well. In 1911 he entered into a contract with the C.B. Livestock Company of Crosby County and conducted experimental work on 10,000 acres to determine what crops and seed types would be most profitable in the county. His detailed weekly reports are in the archives of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. After 1914 Gough began large-scale farming for himself. He was president of the Texas Wheat Growers Association from 1923 until 1928. In 1929 he published a book entitled Crime, in which he denounced the activities of speculators in the Grain Exchange and their effects on prices paid to farmers. He began lecturing on farm subjects and was known throughout the Great Depression as a champion of farmers' rights.
Gough was also among those who sought to preserve the Panhandle's frontier heritage. In 1922 he initiated the annual T Anchor Reunion and helped organize the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society. He supported the building of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum and secured several collections of historic interest for it. Known as the cowboys' "poet laureate," he published Spur Jingles and Saddle Songs in 1935. This work included many of the poems from his earlier book Western Travels. Gough was found dead at his home in Amarillo on the morning of November 2, 1940. In his typewriter was his last poem, prophetically titled Gone.
~
GOUGH, L.
Helped Lay Foundation
Hereford's (Tex) first mayor to serve a full term, Judge L. Gough, once told a Hereford Brand reporter of the birth of the city. The story was reported in the local paper of August 9, 1907. Friends were visiting him in his home near Dimmitt on Aug. 31, 1898, and they came to the site that was to be Hereford that afternoon.
He recalled that after he and his party arrived, W.T. Bratton and a man by the name of Browning drove up with a load of lumber and materials to erect a house for W.H. Clarey. The lumber had been hauled from Amarillo, since the railroad had not yet reached the townsite. Bill Stuetsell, a German well driller, had just finished the well for the railroad, and the group camped near the well that night.
"The next morning the carpenters laid the foundation of what was for a long time called the Annex. We talked about the event, and some remarked that we could tell our children that we laid the foundation of a city," he said.
Judge Gough set the actual birth of Hereford at 8 a.m. on September 1, 1898.
That same year L. Gough moved his family to Hereford; they moved in wagons from Dimmitt to be near the railroad. He said he thought the first train into Hereford was on Oct. 18, 1898. He bought a four-room house on Twenty-five Mile Avenue.
Judge Gough first came to the Plains in 1877 as a lad of 15. He had been born in Lamar County, Texas, July 29, 1862. He worked his way from there to the T-Anchor Ranch, where he went to work as a cow hand. He made a number of cattle drives overland to Dodge City over the Old Chisholm trail. He was made a foreman of T-Anchor Ranch when he was 21.
During that early period, and perhaps inspired by the nights around the camp fires and under the stars, young Lysius Gough composed many of the poems and rhymes that he later compiled and published in his book, SPUR JINGLES AND SADDLE SONGS. Another book also was published.
Noting the young man's leadership, Gus Lee, the old negro cook on the T-Anchor, encouraged Gough to go back "to the settlements" and secure an education. He took the advice and entered school at 21. A few years later he returned to that same school as a teacher.
Gough married on one of his pupils, Ida Russell, in 1888 and brought his bride back to the plains, settling near Dimmitt in Castro County. He bought a farm an set about helping promote law and order in that county, where he served as Justice of the Peace and County Judge.
After moving his family to Hereford in 1898, Judge Gough continued to operate extensive land holdings in Deaf Smith and Castro Counties. He became associated with C. G Witherspoon and later with J. W. Barnett in the real estate business. They helped to develop the area by bringing in hundreds of home-seekers on immigrant trains.
Judge Gough surely was in the middle of the hotly contested election in which Hereford was first incorporated by a vote of 60 to 51 on February 13, 1903. Officers elected on April 10 were Ross W. Davis, mayor; F. B. Fuller, A. J. Lipscomb, S. Loveless, Ira Aten, and L. W. Ricketts, aldermen; and W.G. Ross, marshal.
Those officers served only until June, however, as the corporation was dissolved by a vote of 84 to 41. C. G. Witherspoon circulated the petition resulting in that election.
Judge L. Gough was elected mayor after the town was incorporated for the second time in 1906. He usually is referred to as the city's first mayor. He was the first to serve a full term and held office until 1908.
Judge Gough's first proclamation was a lean-up order backed by prizes for homes showing the greatest improvement and construction of sidewalks.
A charter member of the First Christian Church in Hereford, Gough was active in all educational and civic affairs. He was a member of the "Hereford School Association," named in 1901 to serve as a board of trustees for the projected college. He also served on the finance committee. He was a member of the board of directors for "The Hereford Board of Trade," organized in January 1903.
Working with the chamber of commerce, he was instrumental in the drilling of irrigation test wells by D.L. McDonald in 1910. He was then one of the first to drill his own well for irrigation purposes.
The plains booster moved to Crosbyton in 1911 or 12 as manager of the C. B. Livestock Company's 10,000 acre farm. He moved back to Deaf Smith County later, however.
Ida Russell Gough died in 1904. Six of their 10 children lived to adulthood.
Two sons, Earl and Roy Gough, are now deceased. Mrs. Earl Gough lives at Austin, and Mrs. Roy Gough lives at Temple, Tex.
Still living are: Leron B. G
ough, Beaumont, Tex.; Irma Gough Gelin (Mrs. H. S.), Beaumont; May Gough Heffner (Mrs. O.D.), Silsbee, Tex.; and Coralee Gough Tarr (Mrs. Carl), Santa Barbara, Calif. (A History of Deaf Smith County, by Bessie Patterson, 1964 Texas Genealogy Trails
~
JUDGE L. GOUGH
I left the T-Anchor headquarters, at the head of Palo Duro Can-yon in Randall County, February 23, 1883 for the Grayson County Ranch, 400 miles away. I had four mules and two wagons, the trail wagon was loaded with cow hides. No questions, positively, answered about the cow hides, however I am inclined to think they were all T-Anchor. The night of the 23rd I camped at the Jack Rush camp; the 24th at the Goodnight headquarters in the Palo Duro Canyon; the 25th I made a dry camp and the 26th I camped in Hall County in the northwest corner, as well as possible to tell. Early the 27th I watered my mules at Deep Lake. There was a stone house, as I remember it, with two rooms. This house was built by Leigh Dyer about 1880, but was abandoned when I saw it in 1883. I lingered at the lake for an hour or more, letting my team rest, then followed the dim trail consisting mostly of two wagon tracks. I know no one had traveled this trail for two weeks as Jule Gunter and Jim Wright went down two weeks ahead of me and their buggy tracks had not been obliterated. This trail passed north of Twin Buttes, turned south and crossed Red River near the Field's dugout. Living in this dugout were Mrs. Fields and some children. These being the first people I had seen since leaving the Goodnight Ranch and wanting to be near company, I camped about 50 yards from the dugout. After supper a boy, I suppose to be about 12 or 14 years of age, came to my camp and visited for a while. The next morning this same boy came to my camp and said: "My mother says she guessed you are tired of eating your own cooking and if you will bring her some flour she will bake you some biscuits." No second invitation was needed. I took my sack of flour and other ingredients over and Mrs. Fields certainly did a good job of baking those biscuits. I left her a generous portion and moved on east. Perhaps no other cowboy passed through Hall County armed as I was. My arms were, a Winchester, a double barrel shot gun and a .45 colts. The Winchester had the lock broken, the shot gun had both hammers off and the .41 colts would not shoot. At the Hall County Old Settlers' Day in 1936 I told this story. Bob Crabb came out of the audience, stood by my side and said: "That was my mother who baked you them biscuits." Yesterday in Hall County, Texas by Inez Baker 1940.
He also studied law and qualified for the legal profession. In 1888 he married Ida Russell, a former pupil of his at Pilot Point, and they settled on a farm south of Dimmitt. They had ten children, six of whom lived to adulthood. In 1891 Gough taught the county's first school in Dimmitt. Later that year he assisted in the organization of the county and was elected the first county judge. In October 1898 the Goughs moved to Hereford, where he engaged in the real estate business and was for a time in partnership with C.G. Witherspoon. In 1910 Gough was involved with D.L. McDonald in the drilling of irrigation test wells and was among the first to drill his own irrigation well. In 1911 he entered into a contract with the C.B. Livestock Company of Crosby County and conducted experimental work on 10,000 acres to determine what crops and seed types would be most profitable in the county. His detailed weekly reports are in the archives of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. After 1914 Gough began large-scale farming for himself. He was president of the Texas Wheat Growers Association from 1923 until 1928. In 1929 he published a book entitled Crime, in which he denounced the activities of speculators in the Grain Exchange and their effects on prices paid to farmers. He began lecturing on farm subjects and was known throughout the Great Depression as a champion of farmers' rights.
Gough was also among those who sought to preserve the Panhandle's frontier heritage. In 1922 he initiated the annual T Anchor Reunion and helped organize the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society. He supported the building of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum and secured several collections of historic interest for it. Known as the cowboys' "poet laureate," he published Spur Jingles and Saddle Songs in 1935. This work included many of the poems from his earlier book Western Travels. Gough was found dead at his home in Amarillo on the morning of November 2, 1940. In his typewriter was his last poem, prophetically titled Gone.
~
GOUGH, L.
Helped Lay Foundation
Hereford's (Tex) first mayor to serve a full term, Judge L. Gough, once told a Hereford Brand reporter of the birth of the city. The story was reported in the local paper of August 9, 1907. Friends were visiting him in his home near Dimmitt on Aug. 31, 1898, and they came to the site that was to be Hereford that afternoon.
He recalled that after he and his party arrived, W.T. Bratton and a man by the name of Browning drove up with a load of lumber and materials to erect a house for W.H. Clarey. The lumber had been hauled from Amarillo, since the railroad had not yet reached the townsite. Bill Stuetsell, a German well driller, had just finished the well for the railroad, and the group camped near the well that night.
"The next morning the carpenters laid the foundation of what was for a long time called the Annex. We talked about the event, and some remarked that we could tell our children that we laid the foundation of a city," he said.
Judge Gough set the actual birth of Hereford at 8 a.m. on September 1, 1898.
That same year L. Gough moved his family to Hereford; they moved in wagons from Dimmitt to be near the railroad. He said he thought the first train into Hereford was on Oct. 18, 1898. He bought a four-room house on Twenty-five Mile Avenue.
Judge Gough first came to the Plains in 1877 as a lad of 15. He had been born in Lamar County, Texas, July 29, 1862. He worked his way from there to the T-Anchor Ranch, where he went to work as a cow hand. He made a number of cattle drives overland to Dodge City over the Old Chisholm trail. He was made a foreman of T-Anchor Ranch when he was 21.
During that early period, and perhaps inspired by the nights around the camp fires and under the stars, young Lysius Gough composed many of the poems and rhymes that he later compiled and published in his book, SPUR JINGLES AND SADDLE SONGS. Another book also was published.
Noting the young man's leadership, Gus Lee, the old negro cook on the T-Anchor, encouraged Gough to go back "to the settlements" and secure an education. He took the advice and entered school at 21. A few years later he returned to that same school as a teacher.
Gough married on one of his pupils, Ida Russell, in 1888 and brought his bride back to the plains, settling near Dimmitt in Castro County. He bought a farm an set about helping promote law and order in that county, where he served as Justice of the Peace and County Judge.
After moving his family to Hereford in 1898, Judge Gough continued to operate extensive land holdings in Deaf Smith and Castro Counties. He became associated with C. G Witherspoon and later with J. W. Barnett in the real estate business. They helped to develop the area by bringing in hundreds of home-seekers on immigrant trains.
Judge Gough surely was in the middle of the hotly contested election in which Hereford was first incorporated by a vote of 60 to 51 on February 13, 1903. Officers elected on April 10 were Ross W. Davis, mayor; F. B. Fuller, A. J. Lipscomb, S. Loveless, Ira Aten, and L. W. Ricketts, aldermen; and W.G. Ross, marshal.
Those officers served only until June, however, as the corporation was dissolved by a vote of 84 to 41. C. G. Witherspoon circulated the petition resulting in that election.
Judge L. Gough was elected mayor after the town was incorporated for the second time in 1906. He usually is referred to as the city's first mayor. He was the first to serve a full term and held office until 1908.
Judge Gough's first proclamation was a lean-up order backed by prizes for homes showing the greatest improvement and construction of sidewalks.
A charter member of the First Christian Church in Hereford, Gough was active in all educational and civic affairs. He was a member of the "Hereford School Association," named in 1901 to serve as a board of trustees for the projected college. He also served on the finance committee. He was a member of the board of directors for "The Hereford Board of Trade," organized in January 1903.
Working with the chamber of commerce, he was instrumental in the drilling of irrigation test wells by D.L. McDonald in 1910. He was then one of the first to drill his own well for irrigation purposes.
The plains booster moved to Crosbyton in 1911 or 12 as manager of the C. B. Livestock Company's 10,000 acre farm. He moved back to Deaf Smith County later, however.
Ida Russell Gough died in 1904. Six of their 10 children lived to adulthood.
Two sons, Earl and Roy Gough, are now deceased. Mrs. Earl Gough lives at Austin, and Mrs. Roy Gough lives at Temple, Tex.
Still living are: Leron B. G
ough, Beaumont, Tex.; Irma Gough Gelin (Mrs. H. S.), Beaumont; May Gough Heffner (Mrs. O.D.), Silsbee, Tex.; and Coralee Gough Tarr (Mrs. Carl), Santa Barbara, Calif. (A History of Deaf Smith County, by Bessie Patterson, 1964 Texas Genealogy Trails
~
JUDGE L. GOUGH
I left the T-Anchor headquarters, at the head of Palo Duro Can-yon in Randall County, February 23, 1883 for the Grayson County Ranch, 400 miles away. I had four mules and two wagons, the trail wagon was loaded with cow hides. No questions, positively, answered about the cow hides, however I am inclined to think they were all T-Anchor. The night of the 23rd I camped at the Jack Rush camp; the 24th at the Goodnight headquarters in the Palo Duro Canyon; the 25th I made a dry camp and the 26th I camped in Hall County in the northwest corner, as well as possible to tell. Early the 27th I watered my mules at Deep Lake. There was a stone house, as I remember it, with two rooms. This house was built by Leigh Dyer about 1880, but was abandoned when I saw it in 1883. I lingered at the lake for an hour or more, letting my team rest, then followed the dim trail consisting mostly of two wagon tracks. I know no one had traveled this trail for two weeks as Jule Gunter and Jim Wright went down two weeks ahead of me and their buggy tracks had not been obliterated. This trail passed north of Twin Buttes, turned south and crossed Red River near the Field's dugout. Living in this dugout were Mrs. Fields and some children. These being the first people I had seen since leaving the Goodnight Ranch and wanting to be near company, I camped about 50 yards from the dugout. After supper a boy, I suppose to be about 12 or 14 years of age, came to my camp and visited for a while. The next morning this same boy came to my camp and said: "My mother says she guessed you are tired of eating your own cooking and if you will bring her some flour she will bake you some biscuits." No second invitation was needed. I took my sack of flour and other ingredients over and Mrs. Fields certainly did a good job of baking those biscuits. I left her a generous portion and moved on east. Perhaps no other cowboy passed through Hall County armed as I was. My arms were, a Winchester, a double barrel shot gun and a .45 colts. The Winchester had the lock broken, the shot gun had both hammers off and the .41 colts would not shoot. At the Hall County Old Settlers' Day in 1936 I told this story. Bob Crabb came out of the audience, stood by my side and said: "That was my mother who baked you them biscuits." Yesterday in Hall County, Texas by Inez Baker 1940.
Lysius Gough, farmer, businessman, and author, one of ten children of Asher and Elizabeth Gough, was born in Lamar County, Texas, on July 29, 1862. His father, a minister in the First Christian Church, owned a 160-acre farm on which Gough developed an early interest in cattle raising. In 1876, at the age of fourteen, he ran away from home and got his first job as a cowboy for B.L. Murphy, who ran cattle in Hopkins and Hunt counties. During the next five years Gough participated in several overland drives to Kansas. In 1882 Jule Gunter hired him to work for the T Anchor Ranch. Because he never swore, Gough's fellow cowhands gave him the nickname Parson. He remained with the T Anchor until 1884, when he decided to complete his education. He entered Pilot Point Institute, finished high school at the age of twenty-six, obtained a teaching certificate, and was hired to be principal of the institute. While he was there, Gough published his first collection of cowboy verse, Western Travels and Other Rhymes (1886).
He also studied law and qualified for the legal profession. In 1888 he married Ida Russell, a former pupil of his at Pilot Point, and they settled on a farm south of Dimmitt. They had ten children, six of whom lived to adulthood. In 1891 Gough taught the county's first school in Dimmitt. Later that year he assisted in the organization of the county and was elected the first county judge. In October 1898 the Goughs moved to Hereford, where he engaged in the real estate business and was for a time in partnership with C.G. Witherspoon. In 1910 Gough was involved with D.L. McDonald in the drilling of irrigation test wells and was among the first to drill his own irrigation well. In 1911 he entered into a contract with the C.B. Livestock Company of Crosby County and conducted experimental work on 10,000 acres to determine what crops and seed types would be most profitable in the county. His detailed weekly reports are in the archives of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. After 1914 Gough began large-scale farming for himself. He was president of the Texas Wheat Growers Association from 1923 until 1928. In 1929 he published a book entitled Crime, in which he denounced the activities of speculators in the Grain Exchange and their effects on prices paid to farmers. He began lecturing on farm subjects and was known throughout the Great Depression as a champion of farmers' rights.
Gough was also among those who sought to preserve the Panhandle's frontier heritage. In 1922 he initiated the annual T Anchor Reunion and helped organize the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society. He supported the building of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum and secured several collections of historic interest for it. Known as the cowboys' "poet laureate," he published Spur Jingles and Saddle Songs in 1935. This work included many of the poems from his earlier book Western Travels. Gough was found dead at his home in Amarillo on the morning of November 2, 1940. In his typewriter was his last poem, prophetically titled Gone.
~
GOUGH, L.
Helped Lay Foundation
Hereford's (Tex) first mayor to serve a full term, Judge L. Gough, once told a Hereford Brand reporter of the birth of the city. The story was reported in the local paper of August 9, 1907. Friends were visiting him in his home near Dimmitt on Aug. 31, 1898, and they came to the site that was to be Hereford that afternoon.
He recalled that after he and his party arrived, W.T. Bratton and a man by the name of Browning drove up with a load of lumber and materials to erect a house for W.H. Clarey. The lumber had been hauled from Amarillo, since the railroad had not yet reached the townsite. Bill Stuetsell, a German well driller, had just finished the well for the railroad, and the group camped near the well that night.
"The next morning the carpenters laid the foundation of what was for a long time called the Annex. We talked about the event, and some remarked that we could tell our children that we laid the foundation of a city," he said.
Judge Gough set the actual birth of Hereford at 8 a.m. on September 1, 1898.
That same year L. Gough moved his family to Hereford; they moved in wagons from Dimmitt to be near the railroad. He said he thought the first train into Hereford was on Oct. 18, 1898. He bought a four-room house on Twenty-five Mile Avenue.
Judge Gough first came to the Plains in 1877 as a lad of 15. He had been born in Lamar County, Texas, July 29, 1862. He worked his way from there to the T-Anchor Ranch, where he went to work as a cow hand. He made a number of cattle drives overland to Dodge City over the Old Chisholm trail. He was made a foreman of T-Anchor Ranch when he was 21.
During that early period, and perhaps inspired by the nights around the camp fires and under the stars, young Lysius Gough composed many of the poems and rhymes that he later compiled and published in his book, SPUR JINGLES AND SADDLE SONGS. Another book also was published.
Noting the young man's leadership, Gus Lee, the old negro cook on the T-Anchor, encouraged Gough to go back "to the settlements" and secure an education. He took the advice and entered school at 21. A few years later he returned to that same school as a teacher.
Gough married on one of his pupils, Ida Russell, in 1888 and brought his bride back to the plains, settling near Dimmitt in Castro County. He bought a farm an set about helping promote law and order in that county, where he served as Justice of the Peace and County Judge.
After moving his family to Hereford in 1898, Judge Gough continued to operate extensive land holdings in Deaf Smith and Castro Counties. He became associated with C. G Witherspoon and later with J. W. Barnett in the real estate business. They helped to develop the area by bringing in hundreds of home-seekers on immigrant trains.
Judge Gough surely was in the middle of the hotly contested election in which Hereford was first incorporated by a vote of 60 to 51 on February 13, 1903. Officers elected on April 10 were Ross W. Davis, mayor; F. B. Fuller, A. J. Lipscomb, S. Loveless, Ira Aten, and L. W. Ricketts, aldermen; and W.G. Ross, marshal.
Those officers served only until June, however, as the corporation was dissolved by a vote of 84 to 41. C. G. Witherspoon circulated the petition resulting in that election.
Judge L. Gough was elected mayor after the town was incorporated for the second time in 1906. He usually is referred to as the city's first mayor. He was the first to serve a full term and held office until 1908.
Judge Gough's first proclamation was a lean-up order backed by prizes for homes showing the greatest improvement and construction of sidewalks.
A charter member of the First Christian Church in Hereford, Gough was active in all educational and civic affairs. He was a member of the "Hereford School Association," named in 1901 to serve as a board of trustees for the projected college. He also served on the finance committee. He was a member of the board of directors for "The Hereford Board of Trade," organized in January 1903.
Working with the chamber of commerce, he was instrumental in the drilling of irrigation test wells by D.L. McDonald in 1910. He was then one of the first to drill his own well for irrigation purposes.
The plains booster moved to Crosbyton in 1911 or 12 as manager of the C. B. Livestock Company's 10,000 acre farm. He moved back to Deaf Smith County later, however.
Ida Russell Gough died in 1904. Six of their 10 children lived to adulthood.
Two sons, Earl and Roy Gough, are now deceased. Mrs. Earl Gough lives at Austin, and Mrs. Roy Gough lives at Temple, Tex.
Still living are: Leron B. G
ough, Beaumont, Tex.; Irma Gough Gelin (Mrs. H. S.), Beaumont; May Gough Heffner (Mrs. O.D.), Silsbee, Tex.; and Coralee Gough Tarr (Mrs. Carl), Santa Barbara, Calif. (A History of Deaf Smith County, by Bessie Patterson, 1964 Texas Genealogy Trails
~
JUDGE L. GOUGH
I left the T-Anchor headquarters, at the head of Palo Duro Can-yon in Randall County, February 23, 1883 for the Grayson County Ranch, 400 miles away. I had four mules and two wagons, the trail wagon was loaded with cow hides. No questions, positively, answered about the cow hides, however I am inclined to think they were all T-Anchor. The night of the 23rd I camped at the Jack Rush camp; the 24th at the Goodnight headquarters in the Palo Duro Canyon; the 25th I made a dry camp and the 26th I camped in Hall County in the northwest corner, as well as possible to tell. Early the 27th I watered my mules at Deep Lake. There was a stone house, as I remember it, with two rooms. This house was built by Leigh Dyer about 1880, but was abandoned when I saw it in 1883. I lingered at the lake for an hour or more, letting my team rest, then followed the dim trail consisting mostly of two wagon tracks. I know no one had traveled this trail for two weeks as Jule Gunter and Jim Wright went down two weeks ahead of me and their buggy tracks had not been obliterated. This trail passed north of Twin Buttes, turned south and crossed Red River near the Field's dugout. Living in this dugout were Mrs. Fields and some children. These being the first people I had seen since leaving the Goodnight Ranch and wanting to be near company, I camped about 50 yards from the dugout. After supper a boy, I suppose to be about 12 or 14 years of age, came to my camp and visited for a while. The next morning this same boy came to my camp and said: "My mother says she guessed you are tired of eating your own cooking and if you will bring her some flour she will bake you some biscuits." No second invitation was needed. I took my sack of flour and other ingredients over and Mrs. Fields certainly did a good job of baking those biscuits. I left her a generous portion and moved on east. Perhaps no other cowboy passed through Hall County armed as I was. My arms were, a Winchester, a double barrel shot gun and a .45 colts. The Winchester had the lock broken, the shot gun had both hammers off and the .41 colts would not shoot. At the Hall County Old Settlers' Day in 1936 I told this story. Bob Crabb came out of the audience, stood by my side and said: "That was my mother who baked you them biscuits." Yesterday in Hall County, Texas by Inez Baker 1940.
He also studied law and qualified for the legal profession. In 1888 he married Ida Russell, a former pupil of his at Pilot Point, and they settled on a farm south of Dimmitt. They had ten children, six of whom lived to adulthood. In 1891 Gough taught the county's first school in Dimmitt. Later that year he assisted in the organization of the county and was elected the first county judge. In October 1898 the Goughs moved to Hereford, where he engaged in the real estate business and was for a time in partnership with C.G. Witherspoon. In 1910 Gough was involved with D.L. McDonald in the drilling of irrigation test wells and was among the first to drill his own irrigation well. In 1911 he entered into a contract with the C.B. Livestock Company of Crosby County and conducted experimental work on 10,000 acres to determine what crops and seed types would be most profitable in the county. His detailed weekly reports are in the archives of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. After 1914 Gough began large-scale farming for himself. He was president of the Texas Wheat Growers Association from 1923 until 1928. In 1929 he published a book entitled Crime, in which he denounced the activities of speculators in the Grain Exchange and their effects on prices paid to farmers. He began lecturing on farm subjects and was known throughout the Great Depression as a champion of farmers' rights.
Gough was also among those who sought to preserve the Panhandle's frontier heritage. In 1922 he initiated the annual T Anchor Reunion and helped organize the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society. He supported the building of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum and secured several collections of historic interest for it. Known as the cowboys' "poet laureate," he published Spur Jingles and Saddle Songs in 1935. This work included many of the poems from his earlier book Western Travels. Gough was found dead at his home in Amarillo on the morning of November 2, 1940. In his typewriter was his last poem, prophetically titled Gone.
~
GOUGH, L.
Helped Lay Foundation
Hereford's (Tex) first mayor to serve a full term, Judge L. Gough, once told a Hereford Brand reporter of the birth of the city. The story was reported in the local paper of August 9, 1907. Friends were visiting him in his home near Dimmitt on Aug. 31, 1898, and they came to the site that was to be Hereford that afternoon.
He recalled that after he and his party arrived, W.T. Bratton and a man by the name of Browning drove up with a load of lumber and materials to erect a house for W.H. Clarey. The lumber had been hauled from Amarillo, since the railroad had not yet reached the townsite. Bill Stuetsell, a German well driller, had just finished the well for the railroad, and the group camped near the well that night.
"The next morning the carpenters laid the foundation of what was for a long time called the Annex. We talked about the event, and some remarked that we could tell our children that we laid the foundation of a city," he said.
Judge Gough set the actual birth of Hereford at 8 a.m. on September 1, 1898.
That same year L. Gough moved his family to Hereford; they moved in wagons from Dimmitt to be near the railroad. He said he thought the first train into Hereford was on Oct. 18, 1898. He bought a four-room house on Twenty-five Mile Avenue.
Judge Gough first came to the Plains in 1877 as a lad of 15. He had been born in Lamar County, Texas, July 29, 1862. He worked his way from there to the T-Anchor Ranch, where he went to work as a cow hand. He made a number of cattle drives overland to Dodge City over the Old Chisholm trail. He was made a foreman of T-Anchor Ranch when he was 21.
During that early period, and perhaps inspired by the nights around the camp fires and under the stars, young Lysius Gough composed many of the poems and rhymes that he later compiled and published in his book, SPUR JINGLES AND SADDLE SONGS. Another book also was published.
Noting the young man's leadership, Gus Lee, the old negro cook on the T-Anchor, encouraged Gough to go back "to the settlements" and secure an education. He took the advice and entered school at 21. A few years later he returned to that same school as a teacher.
Gough married on one of his pupils, Ida Russell, in 1888 and brought his bride back to the plains, settling near Dimmitt in Castro County. He bought a farm an set about helping promote law and order in that county, where he served as Justice of the Peace and County Judge.
After moving his family to Hereford in 1898, Judge Gough continued to operate extensive land holdings in Deaf Smith and Castro Counties. He became associated with C. G Witherspoon and later with J. W. Barnett in the real estate business. They helped to develop the area by bringing in hundreds of home-seekers on immigrant trains.
Judge Gough surely was in the middle of the hotly contested election in which Hereford was first incorporated by a vote of 60 to 51 on February 13, 1903. Officers elected on April 10 were Ross W. Davis, mayor; F. B. Fuller, A. J. Lipscomb, S. Loveless, Ira Aten, and L. W. Ricketts, aldermen; and W.G. Ross, marshal.
Those officers served only until June, however, as the corporation was dissolved by a vote of 84 to 41. C. G. Witherspoon circulated the petition resulting in that election.
Judge L. Gough was elected mayor after the town was incorporated for the second time in 1906. He usually is referred to as the city's first mayor. He was the first to serve a full term and held office until 1908.
Judge Gough's first proclamation was a lean-up order backed by prizes for homes showing the greatest improvement and construction of sidewalks.
A charter member of the First Christian Church in Hereford, Gough was active in all educational and civic affairs. He was a member of the "Hereford School Association," named in 1901 to serve as a board of trustees for the projected college. He also served on the finance committee. He was a member of the board of directors for "The Hereford Board of Trade," organized in January 1903.
Working with the chamber of commerce, he was instrumental in the drilling of irrigation test wells by D.L. McDonald in 1910. He was then one of the first to drill his own well for irrigation purposes.
The plains booster moved to Crosbyton in 1911 or 12 as manager of the C. B. Livestock Company's 10,000 acre farm. He moved back to Deaf Smith County later, however.
Ida Russell Gough died in 1904. Six of their 10 children lived to adulthood.
Two sons, Earl and Roy Gough, are now deceased. Mrs. Earl Gough lives at Austin, and Mrs. Roy Gough lives at Temple, Tex.
Still living are: Leron B. G
ough, Beaumont, Tex.; Irma Gough Gelin (Mrs. H. S.), Beaumont; May Gough Heffner (Mrs. O.D.), Silsbee, Tex.; and Coralee Gough Tarr (Mrs. Carl), Santa Barbara, Calif. (A History of Deaf Smith County, by Bessie Patterson, 1964 Texas Genealogy Trails
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JUDGE L. GOUGH
I left the T-Anchor headquarters, at the head of Palo Duro Can-yon in Randall County, February 23, 1883 for the Grayson County Ranch, 400 miles away. I had four mules and two wagons, the trail wagon was loaded with cow hides. No questions, positively, answered about the cow hides, however I am inclined to think they were all T-Anchor. The night of the 23rd I camped at the Jack Rush camp; the 24th at the Goodnight headquarters in the Palo Duro Canyon; the 25th I made a dry camp and the 26th I camped in Hall County in the northwest corner, as well as possible to tell. Early the 27th I watered my mules at Deep Lake. There was a stone house, as I remember it, with two rooms. This house was built by Leigh Dyer about 1880, but was abandoned when I saw it in 1883. I lingered at the lake for an hour or more, letting my team rest, then followed the dim trail consisting mostly of two wagon tracks. I know no one had traveled this trail for two weeks as Jule Gunter and Jim Wright went down two weeks ahead of me and their buggy tracks had not been obliterated. This trail passed north of Twin Buttes, turned south and crossed Red River near the Field's dugout. Living in this dugout were Mrs. Fields and some children. These being the first people I had seen since leaving the Goodnight Ranch and wanting to be near company, I camped about 50 yards from the dugout. After supper a boy, I suppose to be about 12 or 14 years of age, came to my camp and visited for a while. The next morning this same boy came to my camp and said: "My mother says she guessed you are tired of eating your own cooking and if you will bring her some flour she will bake you some biscuits." No second invitation was needed. I took my sack of flour and other ingredients over and Mrs. Fields certainly did a good job of baking those biscuits. I left her a generous portion and moved on east. Perhaps no other cowboy passed through Hall County armed as I was. My arms were, a Winchester, a double barrel shot gun and a .45 colts. The Winchester had the lock broken, the shot gun had both hammers off and the .41 colts would not shoot. At the Hall County Old Settlers' Day in 1936 I told this story. Bob Crabb came out of the audience, stood by my side and said: "That was my mother who baked you them biscuits." Yesterday in Hall County, Texas by Inez Baker 1940.
