Cowboy Mike -- ASU history professor Michael Searles -- talks with kids at Collins Elementary School about the life of the cowboy. JONATHAN ERNST/STAFF

On the range

Fascination with role of black cowboys in the West brings ASU professor recognition

Web posted May 18, 2000

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 Book signing

By Virginia Norton
Staff Writer

Cowboys held a special place in Michael Searles' heart when he was a little boy, but years passed before he learned some were black like him.

About 20 times a year, he talks to schoolchildren and others about the daring heroes of the West, such as Addison Jones, whose story he contributed to Black Cowboys of Texas, a 361-page book published by Texas A&M University Press in March.

Mr. Searles, a history professor at Augusta State University, will sign copies of the book, a collection of 24 profiles, at Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Saturday.

This is the first time his work has appeared in a book, although he has written for popular magazines and contributed an essay on Mr. Jones to the American National Biography (Oxford University Press, 1999).

His lifelong fascination with the West has developed into an academic interest over the past 20 years, said Mr. Searles, 57, who teaches black history and U.S. history as well as a class on history and the cinema. Mr. Searles, also known as Cowboy Mike, gives out wooden nickels bearing the name and an effigy of a cowboy when he speaks.

A collector of Western photographs, he's a familiar face at Western history conferences and is known as a consultant. When Black Cowboys editor Sara R. Massey was scouting around for contributors, several people suggested his name, Mr. Searles said.

Augusta State University professor Michael Searles explains to Collins Elementary School pupils why cowboys use masks to cover their faces. JONATHAN ERNST/STAFF

He met Ms. Massey and about other 18 writers who contributed to Black Cowboys in March in Austin, Texas, where they signed each other's books.

Larger than life

Most of history's rugged cowpunchers, those courageous and daring men who tended cattle on ranches or herded them to railheads, Indian reservations, Army posts, mining towns or to other buyers, remain nameless. Yet Addison Jones (1845-1926) was a man honored by song and poetry. He was an expert rider, roper and all-round cowboy.

He was an intriguing character who performed with ``real professionalism and bravado'' for decades when most cowboys quit after a few years, Mr. Searles said.

There are several eyewitness accounts of ``Old Add's'' remarkable ability to pull down a horse running at a full gallop. With a rope tied hard and fast around his hips, he would lasso the animal moving at a speed of 30 or 35 mph and pull it down.

Imagine the same trick with a car moving at 30 mph, Mr. Searles said. If the timing had been only slightly off, the horse would have jerked him off his feet and dragged him.

Old Add the bronc buster was still taking ``the sap'' out of horses in his 60s and 70s. Most men gave the job up after four or five years, if not before.

Bronc-busting was a violent occupation - many men spat up blood from torn lungs after a few months. The riders risked that as well as falls and broken bones to pick up quick money moving from ranch to ranch, Mr. Searles said.

But black cowboys did not move around as much as whites because they faced prejudice, he said. ``There was a much greater chance (they would go) where blacks were not welcomed.''

Old Add worked most of his life for George Washington Littlefield, a cattleman who operated in eastern New Mexico and West Texas.

When it came to training new cowboys, reading ear marks and brands and counting cattle - an important skill - Old Add was a welcome sight, Mr. Searles said.

Cowhands would run cattle into a corral to count them at the time of sale. As the animals passed two and three at a time into a pen, Old Add could count them and keep the number in his head, Mr. Searles said. ``He was good at that. A number of black cowboys were good at that.''

Black cowboys were preferred to whites or Mexicans on some ranches. ``Some (ranchers) had been Southerners who had an affinity with blacks. Some thought they were more loyal and hard-working,'' he said.

Demanding jobs

''Coaley'' Owens graces the cover of Black Cowboys of Texas, a book about the often treacherous lives of black cowboys. JONATHAN ERNST/STAFF

On the ranch, cowhands in leather chaps mended fences, rounded up strays, doctored the animals and maintained equipment. The chaps protected them from barbed wire. Their boots protected them from snakes.

On the trail, an average herd of 2,500 head could stretch a quarter mile. A crew of a dozen cowboys would ride herd for three or four months, eating dust or negotiating streams and rivers. Trails followed rivers when they could - cattle get anxious when they can't drink, Mr. Searles said.

Riders changed mounts frequently. A crew took about 100 horses - called a remuda - on a trail ride. A wrangler managed the remuda. Black cowboys were often expected to top the horses off - give them their first ride of the day - while whites ate breakfast. It was another skill Old Add mastered, Mr. Searles said.

By day, their hats protected them from the rain, blistering sun or even doubled as buckets to water horses. Their neck scarves kept out the dust or served as bandages or slings. Some hands packed extra ones for their mounts.

The cowpunchers moved the cattle slowly to their destination, traveling no more than 15 miles in a 12- or 14-hour period to maintain the animals' weight, Mr. Searles said.

No crew was on the prairie alone any more than golfers are alone on a course. There were other herds ahead or behind them, said Mr. Searles, a veteran of several trail rides.

Cowboys and steers faced danger from storms. Many a cowboy has witnessed lighting dancing around a cow's horns, he said.

By night, cowhands circled the herd to keep it together and to prevent theft. A cowboy's jingling spurs and singing or humming helped calm the animals. A sudden noise might cause a stampede, a very dangerous event for man and beast, especially in the pitch dark.

Old Add worked with ``all-black crews, but basically black cowboys did not become trail bosses, no matter how proficient they were. It did not matter. Whites would not work for black bosses,'' Mr. Searles said.

Cowpunchers tended to be young loners who left the farm for adventure. They lived a free and open kind of life with little thought of tomorrow.

Pay was about $1 a day plus food, called ``found,'' typically beans, stew, bacon, biscuits and coffee. A chuck wagon cook with a good reputation was a draw for recruiting hands, Mr. Searles said.

Cowboys would spend four months' wages on a felt hat made of beaver hair, but few owned six-shooters - they were too expensive and inconvenient. Cowhands were more likely to carry a rifle, he said.

At the end of a ride, cowboys turned in their mounts. Towns provided entertainment to relieve the men of their pay before they hopped a train to the next job, he said.

Loneliness was a part of a cowboy's life, but it was worse for men such as Old Add because there were even fewer black women in the West than black cowboys.

Old Add, however, found a wife at age 54. She was 36 at the time they wed. It was she who completed his death certificate in 1926, Mr. Searles said. They had no children.

Changing times

There are a few places where people still herd cattle on horseback, but cowboys today are more likely to ride helicopters or Jeeps, said Mr. Searles, who wears cowboy gear, including chaps and a Western-style shirt for his presentations.

A fellow in a Western hat, neck scarf and boots could walk down a street anywhere in the world and ``people would say `There's a cowboy,'' he said.

Book signing

Who: Michael Searles, a contributor to Black Cowboys of Texas

Where: Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 1336 Augusta West Parkway

When: 2 p.m. Saturday

Phone: 860-2310

Cost: $29.95; $23.96 with a 20 percent discount through May

Reach Virginia Norton at (706) 823-3336 or vanorton@augustachronicle.com.