The Devil's Rope; Barbed Wire And The American Frontier
Most people have the opinion that barbed wire has never had more significance than its present day existence throughout the West. This mode of thinking neglects the history and the role that that barbed wire played in transforming American culture. Many technological breakthroughs have impacted the cultural history of our nation significantly. Barbed wire fencing was such a technology, and its invention and rise played a major role in the transformation of the frontier and West. Its effects were momentous, and they may still be felt and seen today.
The transition of open prairie to enclosures of barbed wire was actually a social revolution among the early-day settlers and ranchers. To some, it was a threat to job security, to others it was the only solution to continued living on the Great Plains. To most, it meant a complete change of traditions, daily work and the acceptance of a new way of life.
Since the beginning of time, man has constructed his barriers from natural materials adjacent to the barrier site. These materials were mostly wood from trees, stone, thorny brush, and mud. When settlers arrived on the Great Plains of America, they found these materials in short supply, thus creating a demand for a more economical type of fencing.
Dating back to 400 A.D., the process of pulling hot, bloom iron through dies in a drawing plate produced short lengths of various sizes of smooth wire. By 1870, good quality smooth wire was readily available in all sizes and lengths. Stockmen used the smooth wire in fencing but found it was not a dependable deterrent to livestock passage.
In 1867, two inventors tried adding points to the smooth wire in an effort to make a more effective deterrent. One example was not practical to manufacture, the other experienced financial problems. In 1868,. Michael Kelly invented a practical wire with points which was used in quantity until 1874
Joseph F. Glidden of Dekalb, Illinois attended a county fair where he observed a demonstration of a wooden rail with sharp nails protruding along its sides, hanging inside a smooth wire fence. This inspired him to invent and patent a successful barbed wire in the form we recognize today. However, Glidden along with Isaac Ellwood, a hardware merchant, and Jacob Haish, a lumberman, were all inspired at about the same time by a wood and wire device exhibited at the DeKalb County Fair of 1873. A local farmer, Henry M. Rose had created his contraption to control a “breachy” cow. Impractical as the device was, it was the inspiration that lead Glidden, Ellwood, and Haish into their experiments with barbed wire. Each man independently came up with their own fencing variations. Jacob Haish devised a design that turns out to have been similar but inferior to the design that Glidden was developing. Glidden fashioned barbs on an improvised coffee bean grinder, placed them at intervals along a smooth wire, and twisted another wire around the first to hold the barbs in a fixed position. He set about to improve his designs and he also set about obtaining patents on his inventions including a patent on his famous “S” barb that would lead to battles and much contention among the inventors.
Isaac Ellwood gave up on his own tinkering after seeing the superiority of Glidden’s design., the two men soon became partners in what would become the major barbed wire manufacturing concern in DeKalb. Recognizing a business opportunity
Glidden and Ellwood’s Barb Fence Company began manufacturing large quantities of its new wire., Glidden eagerly sold out his share of the business when the Washburn and Moen Company of Massachusetts approached the businessmen. The new I.L. Ellwood and Washburn & Moen Company soon acquired many of the existing barbed wire patents - important patents that gave them nearly undisputed control of the entire barbed wire industry. However,Haish played his part in insuring that this near monopoly didn’t come easily. It was a battle stretching into the 1880s involving the investigation of hundreds of claims, determining who had precedence, buying up patents, and defending against the claims of others. The advent of Glidden’s successful invention set off a creative frenzy that eventually produced over 570 barbed wire patents. It also set the stage for a three-year legal battle over the rights to these patents. Early on the founders of the Barb Fence Company recognized the potentially huge market for their barbed wire in Texas. However, as wonderful as its inventors and proponents believed it to be, they hadn’t reckoned on the resistance of the open range cattlemen. Wanting to return to his farming and leave the fencing business behind Jacob
Before the farmers came, much of Texas was dominated by cattlemen. These weren’t land owners with vast ranches of domesticated cattle. The cattle of this era were the wild Texas Longhorns and the cattlemen practiced a policy of open range use - driving the herds from South Texas north into the Panhandle and beyond along trails that knew no fences because much of it was public lands. The cattlemen were opposed to the migration of the “nesters” as they called the farmer-settlers.By extension, they were opposed to a product like barbed wire that might make it easier for the nesters to move into “their” land.
Two sales representatives sent to the Lone Star State played different but equally important roles in the introduction and spread of barbed wire throughout the state. Henry Sanborn, a relative of Joseph Glidden,Texas in 1875. Sanborn and his partner J.P. Warner met with a great deal of resistance from the cattlemen and the farmers as well who were all skeptical of this new product. It didn’t look strong enough to hold back one mean cow much less a whole herd. And there was a natural skepticism about anything produced “in the North.” They sold very little wire and returned to DeKalb a year later. Sanborn would return later on and make his mark not as a salesman as much as a forerunner in the “closed land ranching” experiments of the Texas Panhandle. was sent to
Many historians believe one of the defining moments in the history of the West came when a small bunch of wild longhorn steers stopped and backed away from eight slender strands of twisted wire equipped with sharp barbs. This event happened in 1876 when John W. “Bet-a-Million” Gateserected an enclosure on the Plaza in San Antonio, Texas to demonstrate to gathered ranchers, that newly-invented barbed wire could securely contain wild livestock. From that moment on, the West would never be the same again.
This defining event ended the era of open range and the use of free graze which had reigned supreme since the earliest settlers began to populate mid-America. At that same time, new technological inventions and modern manufacturing equipment and processes grew by leaps and bounds providing the start of the Industrial Revolution across America.
Post-war demands for beef here and abroad, new railroads available for livestock transportation and the invention of refrigeration spawned the greatest cattle boom in the history of the new nation. The cattleman was king and his domain seemingly unending. However, the moment those longhorns stopped at the wire in San Antonio, the age of the pioneer, free-range cattleman was doomed. No one foresaw how drastically barbed wire fencing would eventually transform western life at that time and on into the future.
Sales skyrocketed- from 5 tons in 1874, the first year of production, to 300 tons in the following years, surpassing 10,000 tons by 1878 and 100,000 by 1883. Steel barbed wire became more and more common during the late years of the century, when barbed wire was to meet humans rather than cows., fences now became a cheap, labor-efficient resource and so fencing could be extended not only in space but also in its intended uses. Instead of being a prohibitive element of cost
Surely, the changes required a few hectic and sometimes bloody years in transformation, but as inevitable as sunrise the vast ranges from Mexico to Canada were slowly claimed and their boundaries fenced with wire. The greater the adversity met in claiming and fencing the land the greater the pride-of-ownership in the land by the owner.
When livestock encountered barbed wire for the first time, it was usually a painful experience. The injuries provided sufficient reason for the public to protest its use. Religious groups called it “the work of the devil,” or “the devil’s rope” and demanded removal.
The last opposition fell when the large ranches in Texas began fencing their boundaries and cross fencing within. Among the first to fence were The Frying Pan Ranch, The XIT, and the JA Ranch, all located in the Texas Panhandle. Free range grazers became alarmed the economical new barrier would mean the end of their livelihood. Trail Drivers were concerned their herds would be blocked from the Kansas markets by settler fences. Barbed wire fence development stalled.
With landowners building fences to protect crops and livestock, and those opposed fighting to keep their independence; violence occurred requiring laws to be passed making wire cutting a felony. Cattlemen weren’t concerned so much with the barbed wire as they were with the loss of the public lands where they grazed their livestock.A drought in 1883 escalated the tensions because fences blocking the way made it harder to find new sources of grass and water for the herds.
Individuals or small groups felt it was their right, perhaps even their obligation to protect the public lands. The easiest way to do this was to destroy the fences and hopefully drive the squatters from “their” land. It was a relatively easy matter to snip the wires under cover of night. Most fence-cutters went unidentified and unpunished. Their fight might have been successful or totally unnoticed if it weren’t for the fact that the cause was picked up by men with less than honorable intentions. Thieves and cattle rustlers joined in the fence-cutting and what might have remained minor incidents escalated into violence and bloodshed.
While illegally erected fences were the initial target, soon legal fencing came under attack and peaceful resolution of conflicts became more difficult.
While there was some sympathy for the nobler purpose behind the fence-cutting, at the height of activity in Texas the violence, including murder, became a serious threat to Western settlement and expansion. Farming and cattle-raising alike were disrupted. It finally became necessary for the Texas Legislature to step in.
In February 1884 new laws were rushed through the Legislature to help alleviate the problems. New fence installations required that public roads remain open and gates had to be provided at intervals where fence lines met public roads. Erecting fencing without consent of the landowners became a misdemeanor.Fence-cutting was declared a felony crime with one to five years’ imprisonment. The Texas Rangers were even called on to provide protection in certain trouble spots.
In other states where fence-cutting continued it took longer to bring it under control. But quick action by the 18th Legislature effectively ended the fence-cutters’ war in less than a year in Texas.
The end to fence-cutting also signaled the beginning of the end of free, open ranges for Texas cattle.
A problem arose with the advent of extensive barbed wire fencing. As large ranches started fencing their checkerboard sections, they often fenced off access to the state owned sections located in between the privately owned sections. In certain areas, the fences were deliberately placed across known trails in an effort to keep new settlers out.This brought complaints to the state that the public was being denied access to Texas Public Lands.
The state took action in the courts making a single corner post to which all intersecting cross fences were tied, illegal. The public must be allowed to access the public lands. The land owners then countered with a new concept in which they set extra corner posts for each intersecting fence, leaving an eight inch gap in between the corner posts. A person could slip between but livestock were still blocked from passage.. However, juries decided there was an undeniable gap between the corner posts as prescribed by law and the state lost. This was legal but challenged by the state
After losing their cases, the state then passed laws requiring gates to be built at regular intervals giving access along trails and to the state owned sections thus ending the “8 inch gap saga.”
Every successful major change in history that survived to call an “era” was prefaced by need,, turmoil and often tragedy. An excellent example is “The end of the open range era” signaled by the invention and development of barbed wire fences. Not only did these new barbed barriers cause a drastic change in the way business was conducted, it dictated a monumental change in the life-style and culture of those who lived on the vast prairies of the West.
The first step in the conversion from open range and its nomadic culture to totally enclosed ranges had nothing to do with bared wire. This subtle change came when open range operators established invisible boundaries around chosen public areas and hired cowboys to patrol the boundaries on a daily basis.
The riders were called “line riders,” their crude abodes called “line shacks” and their duties included riding the invisible boundaries on a regular schedule turning away stray livestock not owned by the home ranch and gathering ranch-owned livestock back onto the premises.
At times and during patrols they pulled cattle from bog-holes, chopped ice in winter, hunted predators and joined ranch roundups and branding when needed. The guarding-the-parameters effort was very expensive, effective only in moderate weather, but offered the only alternative to control cattle at the time. The choosing of invisible boundaries by ranch owners became the first step in the evolution from a nomadic open-range culture to a total enclosed permanent culture.
These structures were considered cost effective as they eliminated much of the line rider’s work thus requiring fewer employees. By 1882, many such short sections of barbed wire fence were used by larger ranches.
Since these fences were not connected together and were limited in length they were little noticed and offered little inconvenience to travelers.
Newcomers arrived on the Plains almost daily adding their herds to those already in place. Winter storms caused uncontrolled livestock to drift into the protected areas of rivers and creeks where they quickly depleted the coveted winter-graze of the ranchers. Numerous tactics were tried to prevent this loss but none were successful.
Though few ranchers would admit their losses were their own fault, they learned a lesson and changed their ways of operating. Within a few short years, the ranges were properly fenced, winter graze protected and hay stored for emergency use.
Barbed wire was created as a result of a special kind of colonization taking place in the American West. This colonization had two features that set it apart from earlier colonizing episodes. First, it was new in terms of space: an entire landmass was to be exploited. Second, it was new in terms of time: the colonization was to take place very rapidly. Earlier human expansions on similar scales had taken generations, but this one took no more than a few years.
Barbed wire was undeniably integral to the growth and expansion of the United States, including Texas. It changed the face of the plains, farming, and the cattle industry. Barbed wire was a practical solution to a problem, a lucrative business, a political hot potato, a symbol worth fighting over and instrumental in taming the West.
Peacefully grazing the gently sloping hills near Concordia, KS is what appears to be a typical herd of Hereford cattle. To the common eye they are nothing more than livestock, but to the Swenson family they are a cherished product of careful evaluation and strategy. Although humble in a pasture they are sought to be sound in form, efficiently functional and the result of generations of hard work and passion.
