John Bratt Describes Freighters on the Frontier

This primary source description of freighters on the frontier may help you better understand those figures of the Old West.

Some aspects of the American frontier are romantic. Cowboys driving herds of longhorns comes to mind. So does the secluded camp of a trapper in a high mountain valley. There is also the noble pioneer pushing into trouble and hardship with courage and resolution. All of these do have some romance, and perhaps with good reason. However, the frontier wasn’t all glitz and glamor. One group that I doubt very many people find glamorous is the freighters.

Freighters were an important group of people who played a pivotal role in settling the frontier. Essentially, they were the individuals who freighted goods from trading centers further east to frontier towns in the west. They might be called freighters, bullwhackers, teamsters, or muleskinners depending on who was describing them and how the animals they used. Of course, a bullwhacker was a man who drove a team of cattle or oxen, and a muleskinner was a man who drove a team of mules. Despite these differences, they were all doing the same thing; moving freight.

As the son of a career truck driver, I understand very well the important role trucker drivers play in modern society. We simply couldn’t operate the same way without them. In the same way, freighters were the lifeblood of frontier towns. If the freighters stopped, the town dried up. One story that describes this is the Little House on the Prairie book titled The Long Winter. Basically, the story unfolds as follows. Pa and his family live in a nice community on the frontier. Life is going smoothly before a blizzard hits unusually early. The blizzard created huge snowdrifts that blocked the train tracks. As a result, trains couldn’t get through. What begins as a minor inconvenience slowly turns into a major tribulation. Blizzard after blizzard hit the prairie and the trains remained drifted out. As the winter passes, the goods in the local mercantile begin to run out. The entire community is forced to basic starvation rations and they try to develop a plan for survival. At one point, Pa cusses himself for being so dependent on the outside world. If you’ve never read it, I’d encourage you to take the time. Like several books in the series, it is a good read.

(On a side note, personally, I found it interesting how Pa cussed himself for his dependence on the outside world. Here was a guy who had proven his ability to make a living with his hands, who also only purchased a few essential items like kerosene from manufacturers. Yet, he disdained his dependence on the world. What would he think of us?)

If nothing else, The Long Winter describes a reality that some people may misunderstand. That is, although frontiersmen lived what we see as a self-reliant life, they still depended on goods from the outside world. This is where the freighters came in.

Before diving into freighters, there are two other points worth mentioning. The first is the importance of steamboats. Steamboats were a pivotal invention because they allowed for the movement of bulk goods upriver. This was an enormous advantage to a growing nation. If you don’t think so, read the journals of Lewis and Clark and learn how difficult it was to move even a relatively small amount of goods against the current of the Missouri River. Steamboats overcame this serious challenge.

The second point is that by 1860 there were more people living out west than the average person today may realize. Take this census of Colorado in 1860 for example. If you look at it, you’ll see that by 1860 the total population of the territory of Colorado was over 34,000. Consider this only counts official census results, so the total population was actually more than that. And Colorado territory wasn’t alone. Nebraska territory was over 28,000 at the same time. Simply put, there were a lot of people on the frontier by 1860.

At this point, it might be worth summarizing the points. First, by 1860 there were perhaps over 100,000 people living in what would be considered the frontier. Second, they all depended on manufactured goods to survive. Lastly, the power of steam could produce the products and move them only so far. Remember, by 1860, the transcontinental railroad would not even start as a project until 1863. So, there was a large population dependent on manufactured goods. Steam power was used to produce and move goods as close as possible. The question was how to connect those bulk goods to the frontier communities.

This is where freighters come into play.

Freighters on the frontier were the men who connected the steam-powered east to the pre-industrial West. Of course, the power of steam was tremendous. So, in order to match the movement of freight by steamboat, the great freighting companies employed armies of freighters. These were the bullwhackers, muleskinners, and teamsters that are often overlooked in history. However, they were as important for the frontier way of life as truck drivers are to our modern life.

Freighters were not a group of Sunday school teachers. Almost from the start, they had a reputation as being a rough group. Due to the difficult way of life, this was probably not an accident. It was a life that involved handling unpredictable livestock and living out in the elements for months at a time. Meals consisted of basic staples like beans, bread, and coffee. Also, imagine being 400 miles from the nearest thing resembling law. You’ve got a wagon full of merchandise that is valued and untraceable to you. You’re in an isolated place. It’s easy to imagine that some people would try to take advantage of that situation. As a result, the freighter needed to be a tough man. They needed not only to endure the elements but also to protect what they had. If I was hiring for this job, you can bet that I would hire rough men as well.

Now that we’ve laid out the basic idea of who the freighters on the frontier were and why they were important, let’s take a look at the primary source.

This source comes from John Bratt, who actually worked as a freighter for a short time. During his life, Bratt experienced much of the frontier. In some ways, you could say he grew up with it. Bratt spent most of his adult life in what would become Nebraska but also traveled to other parts of the frontier as well. In his older age, he eventually penned a book titled Trails of Yesterday. Early in the book, Bratt experiences numerous hardships and eventually lands in Nebraska City. Here he first gets acquainted with the freighters. Here is what he had to say:

“Nebraska City at this time was not a large place. There were a number of well-stocked stores on Main street, several forwarding warehouses, many saloons, dance houses and gambling dens. Everything was wide open, free and easy, like the bullwhackers, mule skinners and horse team drivers. quite a different class of men to my late companions on the levee, these being more frank and generous. At the same time each carried a chip on his shoulder and perchance it were knocked off, an account for it would be called for very quickly. Nearly every man carried one or two revolvers on the well-filled belt of cartridges around his waist, besides a bowie knife sometimes stuck in his belt and sometimes stuck in the top of his high-legged boot.

“The city marshal, a man of nerve, tried to keep order; but at times, toward midnight, crazed by drink, the men and sometimes the women would get too boisterous and too many for him and would run the town to suit themselves. At these times camp would be the best and safest place, since the fun would usually end in a killing. It was these wild scenes in the West and others that I had witnessed on the levee that caused me to adopt for my future guidance some resolutions: one that I would not drink; another that I would not gamble; a third that I would avoid swearing; a fourth that I would not smoke or use tobacco; fifth that I would try to be a good, moral man. I noticed many young men going down the road to destruction at a rapid rate and I determined to avoid this if possible.

“I had rigged myself up in bullwhacker's garb-blue flannel shirt, pair of pants, belt, cartridges, revolver, bowie knife, pair of heavy boots, broad-brimmed hat, and an up-to-date bullwhacker's whip - three feet stock and twelve feet lash, with extra buckskin to repair the whip lash and make new poppers at the end of lash. With two pairs of blankets, a war sack ( an empty seamless sack ) and an old army over-coat, I was ready to accompany Swank and join the outfit, which was camped some three miles west of the city.

“We arrived at camp shortly before noon and I was ordered by the assistant wagon boss to go out to the herd and relieve the herder. The herd was a mile or so west of camp. This herding was new to me and being afraid that some steers might stray away, I made it an unnecessarily hard task. But the work was not without interest. While tramping around the steers I imagined I could pick out friends and enemies. These work cattle! Some had never seen a yoke, let alone been worked. Part were native cattle, others Cherokee and some Texas. When the two mounted night herders came out about dusk to relieve me I thought I had put in a faithful half day. I returned to camp but found it deserted. Even my friend Swank had gone to the city. I went through the cook wagon and tent, thinking I could find something to eat but did not, so I spread my blankets under the wagon, lay down and was soon fast asleep. The bull-whackers continued to come into camp until towards morning, when one of the night herders rode in to wake the cook to get breakfast. It consisted of coffee, syrup, fried bacon between a thick pancake or thin pone of bread baked in a covered skillet. The bread was made from flour and common baking soda. The cook said the sugar had not come yet.

“In the morning I was set to work with Swank making ox-bow keys and fitting bows to yokes. I began to get acquainted with my fellow bullwhackers. A few were good, some medium and others very bad. Lack of enforcement of law and order seemed to add to their meanness. The men ranged in years from twenty to forty-five and as I seemed to be the only one in this crowd of about thirty-three men who did not drink, swear, play cards, smoke or chew tobacco, I was soon put down for a " goody-goody" or a fool for lacking these accomplishments. One remarked that my early education had been sadly neglected. I took these jokes good-naturedly…

“Each teamster, with a sixty-hundred loaded wagon, consisting of coffee, sugar, beans, flour, bacon, salt, crackers, condensed milk, syrup, desiccated vegetables, boots and shoes, etc., etc., was given six yoke of cattle. The wheelers and lead cattle were somewhat gentle but the four yoke of swing cattle were more or less wild, as this was the first time they had been yoked up. It took sometimes a dozen men-teamsters, wagon bosses and night herders - to get one team started. At times the wild swing cattle would start on a run or stampede, getting ahead of the leaders, when all we could do was to keep them in the trail. We upset two wagons and by the time night came we had made probably a mile We dropped the chains from the yokes of the swing or wild cattle and unyoked the gentle cattle only. It took about ten to fifteen days before we controlled our wild cattle, but once broken they did good work.”

As you can see, Bratt describes the freighters as a mixed lot, but generally rough. You can imagine it took a generally rough man to work with the half-wild cattle he is describing.

At this point, Bratt describes the daily routine of the freighters.

“The daily routine of a bullwhacker's life on the trail, while a hard one, was not all clouds. It had its sunshine. Each day's travel presented something new, as there always is in going through a new country. Each day's experience would make an interesting chapter if written. We would be awakened by the night herders about three to three-thirty A. M. with the call, "Cattle in the corral!" This meant for all to roll out and the night herders to turn in. It usually took from one-half to three-fourths of an hour to yoke up and commence moving on the trail, which we would follow about eight miles before breakfast, much depending on water and feed for the cattle. Our wagon boss or assistant usually would go ahead and locate these camping places which had to be selected with care, usually on high ground not too close to timber, brush, river or creeks, sudden hills or depressions in adjoining ground - all with a view to avoid being ambushed by Indians. We would try to make these morning camps between eight and nine-thirty, forming our wagons into a circle, the lead team to right forming left wing of corral-second team bowing out in forming right wing of corral, bringing the tongues of the two wagons within twenty feet of each other. The wagons would follow in their places-- first to left, next to right and thus alternately, the off front wheel coming close to the nigh hind wheel of the wagon ahead and vice versa on the right hand wing of the train. After a little practice we could make these corrals almost perfect and by chaining the front and rear entrance, and any wagon wheels that did not come together snugly, we would have a solid corral in which to put our cattle and the night herders’ and wagon bosses' horses in case of an Indian attack. The gaps all chained, the yokes belonging to each wagon were then put on the inside of the corral ready for the next yoke-up. The cattle were unyoked and taken by two herders - bull-whackers, in their proper term- to graze and water in the daytime, usually resting until about one to two P. M., when the steers were brought back into the corral and yoked up and another drive of about eight miles made before dark, two other bullwhackers taking charge of the work steers until the night herders had their supper, when they would take charge of the cattle until time to corral again the next morning.”

Now, for a few stories about the reality of the type of men he was working with.

“The bullwhackers in camp, when there were no wheels to fix, tires to tighten, boxes to wedge, oxen to shoe, or clothes to wash or mend, could sleep, play cards, write letters or tell stories. The stories of one old bullwhacker who had seen much of frontier life were quite interesting. He would tell about the noted stage company boss, Jack Slade, who caught one of his stage tenders listening at a door and who whipped out his bowie knife and cut the listener's ear off, telling him if he ever caught him doing it again, he would cut his heart out - and hundreds of other such bloodthirsty stories. We had one bullwhacker in our train who had been scalped by the Indians near Fort Larnard. The Indians scalped him, stripped all his clothes off him, and to see whether he was dead, stuck sharp pointed arrows between his toes. We had another bullwhacker who carried several scars made by Indian arrows. But no matter this is old. Maybe I will be given a chance to tell what we saw, which I expect to chronicle in this book without coloring, just as it occurred.

"All our men were strong and healthy, good shots and ready for any emergency, even to a fight with Indians.”

As you can see, the freighters on the frontier were certainly a rough group. Perhaps, that is exactly what they needed to be.

Hopefully, you found this primary source about freighters informative and interesting. Bullwhackers and muleskinners played a major role in the American settling of the frontier. Although not as romantic a figure as others, they were certainly one of the most important.

Experience the American frontier…

Those of you interested in the history of the American frontier will enjoy the History of the West series. This book series helps accurately tell the story of the West through entertaining stories. Book one in the Sam Payne series follows young Sam as he starts his life on the frontier as a freighter. Readers of all ages will enjoy following Sam through his trials and tribulations, as well as the primary sources that are included throughout the book. LEARN MORE NOW!