A man who was born March 5th, 1836 changed the lives of many Texans, by creating the trail called Goodnight-Loving trail. This man was Charles Goodnight, a Texas hero.
In his youth Charles loved the outdoors, when he was 11 his mother had another baby and left her husband. As he got older him and his brother worked to support the family, they moved to Port Sullivan in 1848. He and his brother caught a mustang which led Charles to race horse at the age of 15. He went into cattle business with his step-brother and began raising cattle while Charles went and delivered cotton and other goods. They moved their cattle and family members to Palo Pinto County and created Black Springs Ranch.
Charles went to fight in the Civil War and returned to find most of his cattle stolen. He started his first cattle drive in 1866 planning to move them northwest because most people in the south had gone bankrupt from the war. For 3 days he drove his cattle and around 300 of them died from the lack of water. He didn’t let his cattle drink from the poisonous water holes near the Pecos River. …show more content…
Charles Goodnight created 2 very useful things when cattle drives were relevant. He created the chuck wagon which changed the way Texans hauled supplies and he created the Goodnight-Loving Trail, with the help of a man named Oliver Loving who would accompany him on cattle drives but would tragically die on one of the drives. Goodnight continued to drive cattle for 9 years after his first cattle drive in 1866. On his ranch he started to raise milk cows which produced a lot of money. Charles would help build schools and churches and put large sums down toward the Goodnight