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15. 
Jack, Young and Coleman counties at that time were wild places. Colored soldiers were stationed at Jacksboro and at Fort Griffin. Jacksboro was called Fort Richardson. Jack county was a high, rough, post oak country and very mountainous. Young county was rough and rocky and especially was this so of the eastern portion of it. This was the Indians' lookout country. Old stone monuments stood out about the timber where soldiers had been murdered. This was near Lost Valley in this county. Lost Valley was a good stock country owned by J.C. Loving. He and his brother George were at the first Cattle and Stock Raisers' convention. They helped to formulate the first rules of the association. The first convention was held at Graham in Young county. At this convention was J.C. and George Loving, "Bench" Bennett, E.B. Harrold, C.L. Carter and many other old timers. From that convention was organized the Cattle Raisers' association of today. After it the idea of a brand for cattle was started in Texas. A man from each ranch was appointed to be present at the various round-ups. All cowboys were good men in those days and had big hearts, if they did look rough on the outside. It was hard to find a bad man among the bunch.
One time I went out on Elm creek in that country to hunt buffaloes. They were as thick as bees around a clover field nowadays. Then we would have great sport. We would wander away from camp for miles and ruthlessly slaughter hundreds of heads of the big fellows. Bison meat was as common as it could be at that time and I guess that most of us had so much of it that we will never care for anymore of it. We had a way of bringing in hides after one of these expeditions. We would bring in the meat too, and sell it readily to soldiers and others stationed at the forts. We would go on a hunt of this nature and at the same time look for mavericks and some of our brand. In those times every herd had guards at night. We all enjoyed the fun and work of the range in those days as none of us shall ever enjoy it again. 
In May of this year I went back to the ranch and everybody seemed to be satisfied with the way cattle had been handled. The creeks were high at