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Cattle Drive Heroes and Trail Bosses

Oliver Loving: The Texas Cattleman Who Pioneered Long Drives to Colorado and New Mexico

Loving moved Texas herds north years before the famous railhead trails, and his partnership with Charles Goodnight gave the Southwest its busiest early route.

Who was Oliver Loving?

Oliver Loving was a Kentucky farmer who became one of the first Texans to drive cattle to distant markets, and the older half of the partnership behind the Goodnight-Loving Trail. The Handbook of Texas entry supplies the main outline. He was born December 4, 1812, in Hopkins County, Kentucky, and died at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, on September 25, 1867.

He is often paired with Charles Goodnight in popular accounts, and the Handbook's Goodnight biography covers the partnership from the other side, but his record starts earlier and stands on its own: Illinois in 1857, Denver in 1860, army beef contracts in the Southwest in 1866.

From Kentucky farmer to Palo Pinto County rancher

Loving married Susan Doggett Morgan in 1833 and farmed in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, for about a decade. In 1843 he moved his family to Texas with his brother and brother-in-law. In the Peters colony he received 639.3 acres in three patents, and he farmed and hauled freight to feed a growing family; the couple had nine children, four of them born in Texas.

By 1855 the Lovings had moved to what became Palo Pinto County, where they ran a country store near Keechi Creek and ranched. The first county tax roll, in 1857, listed Loving with 1,000 acres. That same year he started shipping cattle out of the state.

The first drives: Illinois and Denver

In 1857 Loving sent his nineteen-year-old son William up the Shawnee Trail with his and his neighbors' cattle, bound for Illinois. The drive made a profit of thirty-six dollars a head, so he repeated it the next year with John Durkee.

On August 29, 1860, Loving and John Dawson started a herd of 1,500 toward Denver to feed gold miners. They crossed the Red River, followed the Arkansas to Pueblo, and wintered the cattle there. In spring Loving sold them for gold, but the Civil War had begun and Union authorities blocked his return to Texas until Kit Carson and Lucien Maxwell intervened for him. During the war he was commissioned to drive cattle to Confederate forces along the Mississippi, and after the war the Confederate government reportedly owed him between $100,000 and $250,000.

The 1866 drive to Fort Sumner

Postwar Texas had more cattle than its usual markets could absorb. Loving heard that Fort Sumner, New Mexico, where some 8,000 Indians had been settled on a reservation, would need beef, so in 1866 he combined his herd with Goodnight's and drove to the fort. The route later became known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail, although other cattlemen had used parts of it. It followed the Butterfield Overland Mail to the future site of Fort Concho, turned north at the Pecos, and ran to Fort Sumner and on to Denver.

The two men sold beef to the army for $12,000 in gold. Loving took the stock cattle on to Colorado and sold them near Denver. Goodnight went back to Weatherford, Texas, for a second herd, and the partners set up a ranch at Bosque Grande, about forty miles south of Fort Sumner, where they spent the winter of 1866-67.

The Key to Loving's Success

Loving's record shows a rancher who kept looking past the nearest market, tested routes with small first drives, and took on a partner whose skills matched his own. Financing and timing mattered as much as grass.

The record also shows the limits. The war cost him access to his home markets, the Confederate debt was never recovered, and the final trip ended in his death.

  • He tried distant markets early, sending cattle to Illinois in 1857 when most Texas herds stayed local.
  • He followed demand: Illinois farms, Colorado gold camps, then army posts and reservation contracts.
  • He sold for gold in 1861 and again in 1866, protecting his money from wartime currency risk.
  • He worked with friendly intermediaries, such as Carson and Maxwell, when the war closed the road.
  • He kept a base at Bosque Grande so he could supply Fort Sumner and Santa Fe through the winter.
  • He partnered with Goodnight, who shared trail earnings with Loving's family after his death.

The 1867 attack and the burial in Weatherford

In spring 1867 Loving and Goodnight left Texas for a third drive, slowed by heavy rain and Indian threats. Loving went ahead to bid on contracts, taking only Bill Wilson, a trusted scout. He had said he would travel at night through Indian country, but the Handbook says he grew impatient and pushed on by day, and Indians attacked and seriously wounded him.

He sent Wilson back to the herd, eluded his attackers, and with help from Mexican traders reached Fort Sumner, where he died of gangrene on September 25. Goodnight had promised he would be buried in Texas. After a temporary burial at the fort, the body was exhumed and carried home, and on March 4, 1868, Loving was reburied in Greenwood Cemetery in Weatherford with Masonic honors. Accounts differ as to who accompanied the body.

Honors and legacy

Loving has been inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, according to the Handbook. Loving County, Texas, and the town of Loving, New Mexico, are named for him.

To see how the partners' story is told in the Handbook entry on Goodnight, compare the two accounts of the 1866 drive. For more on the cattle trails, visit the ranching pages at farm.FM or read a farm.FM story about the Pecos route.

Timeline

  1. 1812Born in Hopkins County, Kentucky
  2. 1833Marries Susan Doggett Morgan
  3. 1843Moves his family to Texas
  4. 1857Son William drives cattle to Illinois on the Shawnee Trail
  5. 1860Starts a herd of 1,500 toward Denver
  6. 1866Combines herds with Goodnight for the Fort Sumner drive
  7. 1867Wounded in an attack; dies at Fort Sumner September 25
  8. 1868Reburied in Weatherford, March 4

Frequently asked questions

Who was Oliver Loving?

Oliver Loving (1812-1867) was a Texas cattleman who drove herds to Illinois, Colorado and New Mexico and, with Charles Goodnight, opened the Goodnight-Loving Trail in 1866.

How did Oliver Loving die?

He was wounded in an Indian attack in 1867 while riding ahead of a herd to bid on contracts, and died of gangrene at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, on September 25, 1867.

Where is Oliver Loving buried?

Loving was reburied in Greenwood Cemetery, Weatherford, Texas, on March 4, 1868, after Goodnight carried his body home from Fort Sumner as promised.

What is named after Oliver Loving?

Loving County, Texas, and the town of Loving, New Mexico, are named in his honor, according to the Handbook of Texas.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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