History of Goree, Part 3

Let us try to draw in our own minds a picture of these hardy souls. For most, they were originally from Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Georgia. A good portion of them had stopped over for a few years after leaving the states of their birth, in what we now call East Texas, comprising the counties of Denton, Collin, Dallas, and others. They had grazed their ponies and cattle on knee high grass from lush green valleys of their native states. This tall grass was strong enough to enable them to break their horses at three years of age, but the grass in this new land was an “Indian pony” of a different color. Here it was a short desert grass and their first thoughts weren’t good; however, they soon had a pleasant surprise. The short grass has a high protein content, and a colt at two years old was strong enough without corn or other grain supplement to begin doing a full day’s work. So, we really begin our story in the year 1879.