Frontier Life on the Prairie

About the Book

Jim Tyson was known as English Jim to the desperados and gunslingers in Oklahoma and Arkansas.  He was known as Long-Smokes to the Indians in Oklahoma.  But at home in Kansas he was known as Uncle Jim.

English Jim was a quick-thinking, fast-shooting tall cowboy who yearly drove cattle from down near the Red River, up through Arkansas and Oklahoma, to Kansas.  He didn’t tolerate anyone messing with his gold or his cattle.

Long-Smokes was that tall, cigar-smoking cowboy who, with his sidekick Chippewa Charlie, came to the rescue of Yellowknife in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma.

Uncle Jim was the respected rancher in Linn County, Kansas who was a successful businessman and family man.

This book is the true life story of a small boy from England who grew up to be a 6’4” cowboy.  It tells of his life journey through the interesting times of the 1800s and 1900s.  Jim Tyson was dedicated and true to his family and he was a good provider.  He loved his family and he was a good provider.  He loved his family and he loved adventure.  Those were exciting times on his yearly cattle drives and later on his trips to Canada.

The book tells of the history of these years long ago, and gives an account of how Jim Tyson bought his land and how he bought and sold his cattle.  These were interesting and trying times.  The border war in Kansas, the Civil War, droughts, depressions, pandemics and world wars all happened in Jim’s life time.  A person and his neighbors were on their own, with little help from the law and no help from the government.  Like the man said, “There is no law west of Kansas City and west of Fort Scott, no God.”

About the Author

Robert Tyson grew up listening to the stories told of his great-grandfather, Jim Tyson.  Robert and his wife Linda live on Jim Tyson’s Ranch with its 1800’s mystique.  Robert is retired from several successful and exciting occupations, but he is not retired from life.  He is a retired airline captain, a retired state senator, and a semi-retired rancher.  Presently he is a would-be mountain man, spending his summers on horseback in the Wind River Range of the Rockies in Wyoming.

The peaceful old stone buildings on the ranch and the majestic mountains of the west have silently beckoned Robert to write.  In this encouraging environment, Robert has answered the call with this compelling story of a pioneer on the prairie.