by rakeeter Tositoya
as told to Montie McBride Rockwell
Tositoya was a little white boy with an Indian name. Tositoya is the Indian name for “White Chief.” When Abigail Stringer came west from Indiana to help in an Indian school in Fort Sill, Indian Territory, she met Dave McBride from Illinois and as you people do, the young couple married, and as the years went by three sons were born to them, Robert (Tositoya), William and Amos. Continue reading “Tositoya”
by rakeeter The Story of Montie Gertrude McBride Rockwell
by Montie Rockwell
I was born on February 6, 1886 at Doan’s Crossing, Texas, fifteen miles north of Vernon, Texas, where the long drive of longhorn cattle crossed the Red River going north to market from north (sic) Texas and Mexico. In those days there were no trucks or cars. Everything was done on a horse, on foot, or by horse-drawn vehicles. The cowboy’s life was anything but a bed of roses! On those long drives there was drought, floods, lightning and thunderstorms to frighten the cattle, making them stampede. Only by going to the front of the here or line and getting the cattle to circling could the boys get the cattle to bunch up and settle down. Boys even lost their lives in the operation. Continue reading “Montie’s story”
by rakeeter Horses I have known
by Montie Rockwell
In the years so long ago, a horse was our mode of transportation. You had a horse or you walked. There were no vehicles then. No cars, no trucks, no tractors. Everything was horsedrawn or maybe drawn by oxen, which was a slow way to go. In my life many horses have come and gone. Continue reading “Horses I have known”
by rakeeter When I was growing up we made trips to McBride once or twice a year. Mostly these were day trips but there was at least one overnight campout. It was a challenge to get to the canyon. We had to enter the ranch — Bivins Coldwater Cattle Company back then — and navigate the dirt ranch roads to the ranch house. I say navigate because if there had been rain at the very least the roads would be rutted and there could even be benign-looking but treacherous puddles concealing mud that would suck a vehicle in right down to the axel. Our family car was a low-slung Pontiac entirely unsuitable for off-roading. Continue reading “Our early visits”
by rakeeter 
McBride, David Nichols (1849-1928). David Nichols McBride, Panhandle rancher was born on October 22, 1849, in Henry County, Illinois. In the 1870’s he arrived at Fort Sill, Indian Territory and made a living by trading in horses and other items with the Indians on the reservation. There, on July 2, 1876, he married Abigail Catherine Stringer, a native of Indiana who was teaching at the agency school. Continue reading “Article: History of David, Abigail McBride”