The Old West
Chronicle of the Old West: Peppard's Folly
By DAKOTA LIVESAY
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Our Western historian sails across the prairie with Peppard's Folly, briefly pickets the working conditions of underpaid cowboys, exhausts the natural gas supply in California, and accounts for the greater efficiency in the production of breadboxes and boots.
WIND WAGON
When The Pikes Peak Gold Rush Called, Samuel Peppard Answered In A Most Unusual Fashion.
In the 1860s when a pioneer family headed out west, they usually did so in a covered wagon pulled by horses or oxen. One man, Samuel Peppard, didn't have horses or oxen — but that didn't stop him. On May 9, 1860, Samuel Peppard set out for Colorado. This was during the time of the Pikes Peak gold rush, and Peppard wanted to do some prospecting. He didn't have any horses or oxen, and he didn't want the obligation and expense of taking care of them.
But he did live in the Kansas Territory. And anyone who has been through Kansas knows it's pretty flat and the wind tends to blow rather strongly. Being a creative person, Peppard decided to take advantage of the resources at hand, and so he designed the world's first wind wagon. Built like a small boat, it was about 8 feet long and 3 feet wide, and it had four large wagon wheels. Weighing about 350 pounds, it was designed to hold four people.
The first time out, the wind blew the wagon over. So Peppard reconstructed the sails, rudder, and brakes. By now everyone called it “Peppard's Folly.” With three of his friends aboard, Peppard raised the sails and Peppard's Folly took off across the prairie. Depending on the strength of the wind, it got up to 30 miles per hour. On days when there was no wind, Peppard and his three friends just sat back, smoked a cigarette, and swapped stories. They traveled about 500 miles before a dust devil came along and turned the wind wagon into a pile of rubble.
Peppard and his friends finally made it to Denver, but as with most seekers of gold, their dreams turned out to be nothing more than dust in the wind.
COWBOYS GO ON STRIKE
Without A Union, They Should've Just Struck For Gold.
In the late 1860s and into the 1870s, a cattle rancher's life was simple. He lived in a small cabin and worked alongside the cowboys on his ranch. A cowboy respected his boss and would give his life for the rancher and his cattle. As they phrased it, cowboys would “ride for the brand.”
By the 1880s things were changing. Ranch owners were now living in large homes or were absentee landlords. They were often Eastern, British, or Scottish investors. They had ranch foremen to work with the cowboys. When these foreign owners did come out West, they brought with them customs unfamiliar to the cowboys. The gap between the cowboy and the owner became wider and wider.
During the spring of 1883, the cowboys from three ranches in the Texas Panhandle were rounding up strays together. One evening, while sitting around a campfire, the cowboys were doing their usual griping about working conditions when they decided to do something about it — to go on strike.
Their demands were simple. Among them, a cowboy's income would increase from $30 to $50 per month. A cook would get $50 per month. And the head of an outfit would get $75 per month.
Unfortunately for the cowboys, they quickly drank and gambled away their strike fund, and the area was full of drifters looking for jobs. So the strike didn't last more than a couple of weeks. Some of the cowboys went back to work; others left the area.
They were hoping for a better life — instead, the strike ended up being just one more nail in the coffin of the Old West cowboy as ranchers retaliated with even more restrictions.
NATURAL GAS IS GIVING OUT
The Supply Cannot Be Depended Upon, And Must Be Abandoned.
April 30, 1892, Bee, Sacramento, California — The days of natural gas are numbered. There is surprising unanimity among the mining engineers on this point. They agree that more gas can be found, and that wells may continue to flow to some extent, but they say that experience has proven that the supply cannot be depended upon for manufacturing or for heating purposes. The amount of natural gas reached its maximum two years ago. It has fallen off each year since, notwithstanding the large number of new wells bored.
Said a Pittsburg engineer: “We have had a pretty bad time this winter in Pittsburg. The flow has given out repeatedly just at the time, perhaps, when most needed. People who had no coal in their houses have had the gas go out on them in some of the very coldest weather. Manufacturers who depended on gas for fuel have had to shut down, business has been deranged, and home life has been made miserable. Some people are still boring wells and trying to keep up a supply by tapping places, but with only partial success. One after another the wells give out.
When they cease flowing the only thing to be done is to turn the valve and leave them alone. Sometimes a well will start up again and flow gas after it has been idle for some time, but all the same to reach a state of exhaustion sooner or later. Manufacturers are going back to coal again, and householders are agreeing that it will not do to depend upon natural gas. One thing has been made certain, the theory that this manufacture of gas is going on fast enough to supply the flow is all wrong. It is a slow process. We have already bored holes enough to overtask Nature.”
WHAT INVENTION HAS DONE
One Man's Machine Is Another's Man's Livelihood.
September 2, 1889, Gazette, Fort Worth, Texas — In making breadboxes, three workers can do the work of thirteen box makers by old methods.
In cutting out clothing and cloth caps with dies, one worker does the work of three by old methods. A carpet measuring and brushing machine will do the work of fifteen men by the old methods.
In the manufacture of flour, modern improvements save 75 percent of the manual labor that once was necessary. In making tin cans, one man and a boy with modern appliances can do the work of ten workers by the old process. By the use of coal-mining machines, 160 miners in a month can mine as much coal in the same time as 500 miners by the old methods.
One boy, by machinery, in turning woodwork and materials for musical instruments, performs the work of twenty-five men by the old methods.
In the manufacture of boots and shoes, the work of 500 operatives is now done by 100, a displacement of wage earners of 80 percent, by aid of machinery.
In nailing on shoe heels, one worker and a boy, with machinery, can heel 300 pairs of shoes per day. It would require five workers to do the same by hand.
The horsepower of steam used in the United States on railways, steamers and in factories and mines was, in 1888, 12,100,000 against 1,610,000 in 1850.
In stave dressing, twelve co-laborers, with a machine, can dress 12,000 staves in the same time that the same number of workers by hand could dress 2,500 staves.
In the cotton mills in the United States, the manual labor has been reduced about 50 percent. Now one weaver manages from two to ten looms, where one loom was formerly tended by one worker. In the manufacture of brick, improved devices save one-tenth of the labor, and in the manufacturing of firebrick, 40 percent of the manual labor is displaced.
In the manufacture of carriages, it used to take one man thirty-five days to make a carriage. It is now made by the aid of machinery with the work of one man twelve days.
In the manufacture of agricultural implements, 600 operators, with machinery, including eighteen classes of wage earners, do the work of 2,145 wage earners without machinery, displacing 1,545 workers. The introduction of machinery in the manufacture of children's shoes during the last thirty years has displaced six times the manual labor now required, and the product of manufacture has been reduced 50 percent, to the consumer.
To find out more about Dakota Livesay's Old West newspaper, radio show, award-winning CDs, and more, visit www.ChronicleoftheOldWest.com.
OLD WEST QUESTION
A reader asks: Why the fringe on jackets and chaps? Did it become part of cowboy clothing because it might shoo away the flies? Or was it a fashion inspired by the Indians? — Joann McCraken
Dakota answers: Joann, I like the idea of the fringe being used to shoo away flies. I ran a test and fringe does a good job of shooing. But that's not the reason it was originally used.
Indians put fringe on their clothing to aid as camouflage. It didn't hide the Indian like camouflage clothing does today. Instead, the fringe broke up the outlines of people as they moved through the woods, thus making it difficult to recognize them as people. During their association with the Indians, mountain men also started wearing fringe on their leather outfits. Later, cowboys began wearing fringe on their chaps and other clothing items to help wick the water off their clothes when they were traveling in the rain or snow.
When Hollywood came along, fringe became totally decorative — as did chaps, scarves, vests, boots, and hats. Today, leather jackets with fringe on the sleeves can be found in any Western store. And they make a great fashion statement. But don't plan on wearing a fringed jacket to a dinner party. The fringe has a tendency to drag through your food each time you reach across the table.
Do you have a question about the Old West? E-mail Dakota@cowboysindians.com. If your question is chosen for publication, you'll receive a free one-year subscription to Dakota's monthly newspaper, Chronicle of the Old West.
Issue: April 2009
