Wooly Times In South Texas
- Wooly Times In South Texas
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Title |
Wooly Times In South Texas |
Subject |
Wool |
Transcript |
Wooly Times In South Texas King Ranch is famous for its cattle ---- the Santa Gertrudis and before that the hardy longhorn. But at one time Richard King had a lot of sheep. In 1854, King began to stock his new ranch with crossbred merino sheep. In 10 years, by the mid-1870's, he had 40,000 sheep on the King Ranch. This was not unusual. South Texas then was sheep country. Nueces County ---- before it was carved into several counties ---- had 1.2 million sheep. Wool was big business. Shearers came from Mexico twice a year. The wool was packed in heavy bags. The bags were hung on iron rims and men would jump up and down on them to compress the wool. When full, the bags weighed up to 500 pounds. They were hauled to Corpus Christi on carts pulled by oxen. Corpus Christi was one of the world's great wool markets. On any day, Chaparral and Mesquite would be crowded with wool carts and teams of oxen. The harbor would be filled with schooners taking on cargoes of wool. The wool went to mills in New England and to overseas markets. By 1880, Corpus Christi was shipping 12 million pounds of wool a year, and the volume was increasing by 25 % each year. Then it crashed, almost overnight. Grover Cleveland was elected President, and he lowered the wool tariff, which flooded the market with cheap Australian wool. About the same time, an epidemic hit, wiping out vast flocks from Corpus Christi to Laredo. That was the end of the sheep era in South Texas. But in its day, great fortunes were tied to the tails of the woolies ---- like that of the longhorn. Murphy Givens: KEDT Radio Scripts |
Author |
Murphy Givens |
Publisher |
KEDT Radio |
Date |
10/19/2001 |
Type |
Sound Recording |
Format |
MP3; Length 2 min. 4 sec. |
Language |
English |
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