Bellwood Cowboy
The Artie Quinton Story
by
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It was very early in the morning that last day on the ranch. The sun was just rising over the trees on Pennington Creek as he stood and watched the shadows disappear alongside the barn as the first rays struck them. As the walls of the saddle room came into sharp relief with the morning light, he could see the names carved into the rough boards over the years. Names of cowboys who had come and gone. None had lasted as long as he had. After all, this would be his forty seventh year on the ranch. The memories began to come as he gazed toward the east where it all began. He could see it all so clearly as he re-lived the years in his mind. The little three room house at the feed pens as he and Ag started their life together. He could see Ag at the little wood stove as he came in from a long cold day of working in the feed lot. The wonderful smell of her biscuits baking in the oven came to him on the breeze as he stood with his boot on the bottom rail of the corral. The Saturday nights they spent alone on the ranch when all the other cowboys had gone to town and the closeness they felt just having each other to share their hopes and dreams. He could hear faintly the cry of his daughter as she drew her first breath in this world and he remembered how proud he was to have shared this gift of God with the only woman he ever loved. The three of them riding across the pasture with a basket of fried chicken hanging from the saddle horn. Little Janet straining to see from her perch on the saddle behind her mother. He could see the glow on Ag's face as the lights came on in 1949. How excited she was when they delivered the electric washing machine. Faces of cowboys started flashing one by one in front of his eyes. They were all the men he had worked with over the years. Horses running through the tall grass caught his attention and he recognized the ones he had ridden so many miles and shared a day's work with. He could hear the yells and shouts of the cowboys as they drove a herd of cattle toward the corral. But wait! What was that other sound that he kept hearing in the back of his mind? The sound that was so familiar, but didn't seem to go with the yells of the cowboys. As the sound became louder and more insistent, he shook his head to clear his thoughts.. “Artie!, oh Artie!.” The sound finally managed to break through his daydream and as he turned toward it, he could see Ag walking down the road from the house calling his name. As she got closer, she began to speak. “What in the world were you thinking of that kept you from hearing me call?” She asked. “Breakfast has been ready for fifteen minutes.” He turned and took both her hands in his as he looked into her face. “Not a thing Dear,” he said. “Not a thing.” Hand in hand, they started back up the hill to the house they had shared for so many years. It was the last day of that part of their lives. It was the first day of the rest of their lives. As they loaded up the last of their possessions from the ranch house, their lives were once again about to undergo a major change. No more cold winter days feeding the cattle. No more hot, dusty days spent vaccinating and working calves. No more endless hours patching fence and re-building water gaps. They would miss the life they lived on the ranch, they knew they would, but all things come to an end. The end of a dynasty was at hand. The ranch was changing as well though. Along with the demise of the old time cowboys, the days of the huge cow-calf operations for many ranches were coming to an end, and the Daube Ranch was no exception. As they drove away, his eyes misted as he looked once more to the east. Then he turned and looked ahead to a new life in a new place. It would be home, he knew, if Ag was there with him. He squeezed her hand gently and turned onto the highway to their new home.
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About the Book
Bellwood Cowboy is the life story of one of the greatest men I ever knew. Artie Quinton is one of the last of the old time cowboys. His knowledge of livestock and ranch management is renown in Oklahoma. He worked for the Daube Cattle Co. for forty seven years starting during the Great Depression era of the 1930s. Born in a log cabin in 1912 he would lose his mother before he was a year and a half old, then the grandmother who raised him when he was twelve. He attended a country school through the eighth grade. Married to the girl of his dreams, he started working for Daube Ranches in 1937 for $35 a month and that included his wife's pay for cooking three meals a day for up to twenty cowboys. Artie advanced to foreman of Daube Ranches and acquired a reputation as the best ranch manager in the area. He retired in 1984 and at 98 years of age and legally blind, lives alone in the small town of Mill Creek, Oklahoma. Artie has preached more funerals than most preachers, and is the corner stone of his church. Follow his most unique life in the pages of Bellwood Cowboy.
About the Author
Ted Pittman has written about the evolution of the southern and central areas of Oklahoma in short story form and in historical fiction. “Bellwood Cowboy” is his first venture into the arena of biographical writing. Ted was raised in the area that is the setting for this book and has hunted and fished over all the area that is home to the characters in Bellwood Cowboy. Ted started writing after friends suggested he put the stories of his childhood in print. That started a love for writing that has led to the publication of “Black Cotton,” a collection of short stories from the 1950s era, and “Son Of The Red Earth,” a historical fiction set in the Great Depression days of the 1930s. “Bellwood Cowboy” chronicles the life of Artie Quinton, a life-long cowboy who is truly one of a dying breed. There are currently thousands of Ted's books in circulation. Ted and his wife Darlene reside in Sulphur, Oklahoma. They have four children and eleven grandchildren. His interests, outside of writing, include boating and fishing, walking in the park, outdoor cooking, and spending time with family. Ted is a business manager for a major corporation and has worked for the same company for almost forty years.