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[ Home > Western Books > CATTLE BRANDS ]
 
A brand is a cowman's ironclad signature, and when he burns it on a hide, there is no question to whom that animal belongs. Since Cortez brought the first horses to this continent and ran cattle branded with his Three Crosses, billions of animals have carried millions of variations of these marks of ownership throughout Texas and the West.
For fifty years, Texan Leonard Stiles studied cattle brands as part of his business and for his enjoyment, first when he was hired by the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in 1950 as a "field inspector"--a cattle detective or brand inspector. His interest in irons came from the part of his job that was brand identification. When Stiles showed an interest in a rancher's brand, the man often told him its history and gave him an iron.
The histories behind the branding irons are as varied and colorful as is the history of Texas and the West, for they are one and the same. The millions of cattle that have worn these marks burned on their sides were walking billboards, each with its own story--from the brand that was traded for a schooner of beer to the mark made to remind its owner of the sound of "Katydids" he heard as a child. Some brands that are still in use originated during the days when Texas was part of Mexico or when Texas was a republic. Even then, brand registration was required. The oldest brands in the Stiles collection is the J Crossed W, established by James Taylor White in Chambers County in about 1819.
There are many brands and many ways to design a brand. Letters or numbers may be single, double, or connected figures and referred to as standard, flying, hooked, barbed, running, walking, dragging, backward, swinging, rocking, lazy or lying down, tumbling, or up and down. Some are in boxes, diamonds, circles, and others are picture brands, such as the anchor, a rocking chair, a hat, a wine glass, a heart. A brand is read from left to right, then from top to bottom. An owner can call a brand whatever he or she likes, no matter what someone else thinks it looks like.
Leonard Stiles stated, "I have been lucky in my career. I've worked for two outstandng organizations during the last fifty years--the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the King Ranch." During his eleven years as a field inspector for the Association and the following years with the historic King Ranch, Leonard's trail took some curious turns. Stiles's story, as told in this book, is as colorful as those of his branding irons. His trail took him from cattle theft investigations in Texas and South Carolina to handling cattle and horses on sea voyages to Morocco and Spain and even a barge trip up the Mississippi River.
Leonard Stiles and his branding irons are a part of the history of the cattle industry, the King Ranch, and the American West.
Hardback, 164 pp - 8˝ x 11
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