Goodnight, Charles, 1836-1929

Charles Goodnight is best known as a cattleman and co-founder of the Goodnight-Loving Trail to bring cattle from Texas to market in New Mexico. However, Charles Goodnight and his wife, Mary Ann, played a pivotal role in saving the Great Southern Bison Herd from extinction. Separated from the Northern Herd by busy wagon trails and the railroad and slaughtered by hundreds of eager "buffalo hunters," by 1895 the Great Southern Herd, once numbering in the millions, was almost gone. Charles and Mary Ann gathered numerous orphaned calves and brought them to their Panhandle ranch where they were protected and nurtured. Today the Southern Bison Herd, one of only three distinct sub-species worldwide, is cared for by the State of Texas in Caprock Canyons State Park not far from Palo Duro Canyon and the original Goodnight bison ranch. Charles Goodnight was born in 1836 on the family farm in Macoupin County, Illinois. His mother remarried after his father died and the new family moved to a farm in central Texas in 1845. In 1857 Goodnight joined the Texas Rangers and during the Civil War he was part of their Frontier Regiment. His experience fighting Comanche raiders and trailing fugitives gave him profound familiarity with the West Texas and Panhandle prairies. After the Civil War, many head of free-roaming cattle were rounded up in Texas but the good markets were farther west. In 1866 Goodnight teamed with cattleman Oliver Loving to forge a trail from Belknap, Texas, to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, thus initiating the famous Goodnight-Loving Trail. After Loving died in 1867, Goodnight continued the lucrative business, extending the cattle drives into the booming Colorado Territory on the Goodnight Trail. In 1870 he married Mary Ann "Molly" Dyer and they settled in his Rock Canyon Ranch on the Arkansas River five miles west of Pueblo, Colorado. In 1877 the Goodnights resettled on the JA Ranch, a large spread in Palo Duro Canyon and the first cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Goodnight was manager and one-third owner behind the principle, John G. Adair of Denver. In 1878 Goodnight established a trail north from the ranch to the closest railhead in Dodge City, Kansas, the Palo Duro-Dodge City Trail subsequently used by many Panhandle and West Texas ranchers. By the time of Adair's death in 1885, the JA Ranch had over 100,000 head of hearty longhorn cattle grazing on 1,325,000 acres. Goodnight sold his interest in the JA Ranch in 1887, purchased property in nearby Armstrong County and moved to the town that now bears his name. There Charles and Molly were civic leaders, founders of Goodnight College, and in later years they concentrated on developing their small herd of bison and promoting awareness and conservation of the "buffalo." After Molly died in 1926, Charles moved to Clarendon, Texas but spent winters in Phoenix, Arizona for his health. He remarried in 1927 and in 1929 died at age 93. Goodnight had no children.

From the description of Charles Goodnight letters 1906. (Denver Museum of Nature & Science). WorldCat record id: 68967576

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