Florida Cow Hunters

[Lilly001]

My Fl house is just down the road from where the Cracker tral ride starts each year.
I’ve never ridden it but I have several friends who have. They try to stay as authentic as possible.
I’ve tried the whip but almost hurt myself. No wild cows around us, but the circus people who moved out here from Sarasota have the occasional loose rhinoceros or giraffe.

 

[RedHills]

Old Florida-real Florida still exists. You just have to look for it.

"A Land Remembered"

Awesome historical novel of just this subject. My Mother was a Mcleod. Our ancestors helped settle a lot of the Arcadia, Wauchulla, Myakka City sand scrubs. One well known one, helped Judah P Benjamin escape the Union Army after the war. Smuggled him all the way around the Coast from Tampa to freedom. Hiram A Mcleod.

 

[Nicodemus]

Let`s not forget this fine feller.

 

[RedHills]

Let`s not forget this fine feller.


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Ol Bone.....

 

[oldways]

"A Land Remembered"

Awesome historical novel of just this subject. My Mother was a Mcleod. Our ancestors helped settle a lot of the Arcadia, Wauchulla, Myakka City sand scrubs. One well known one, helped Judah P Benjamin escape the Union Army after the war. Smuggled him all the way around the Coast from Tampa to freedom. Hiram A Mcleod.

a very good read that's where my people came out of still have a few down that way. As far as wild cattle go there our probably some on those big ranch's down there that have never seen a person.

 

[BassRaider]

"A Land Remembered" is a fiction novel about a historical time. It is an entertaining read but the author writes at an 8th grade level. To me it reads like a cross between "Huck Finn" & "Old Yeller".
If anyone can post info of accurate history, I am interested.

 

[RedHills]

"A Land Remembered" is a fiction novel about a historical time. It is an entertaining read but the author writes at an 8th grade level. To me it reads like a cross between "Huck Finn" & "Old Yeller".
If anyone can post info of accurate history, I am interested.

Thanks for clearing that up for us..those of us with 8th grade reading skills.

 

[Milkman]

Thanks for clearing that up for us..those of us with 8th grade reading skills.

I liked that book too Redhills.

 

[earlthegoat2]

There are wild cattle on Sapelo. I saw several the last time I was there.

 

[jNick]

About ten minutes from my house is La Chua Trail on the Paynes Prairie outside of Gainesville FL. It’s a cool walk through a prairie on a trail surrounded by gators. It’s pretty normal to see wild horses and wild bison. They actually captured a wild horse stomping a gator on video out there a few years ago. Every time I go there I’m surprised that people don’t get attacked by gators. There’s no fences and you often have to walk around dinosaurs laying on the trail. Some of the biggest bucks in FL come from the private property surrounding Paynes Prairie.

 

[Gary Mercer]

We used to have several "Marsh Tackeys" on the farm. They were in residence when we bought the place in '55.
They were in demand by deer hunters to follow their dogs thru the swamps of the Low Country of SC.
I am sure that most of the wild cows and such were hunted down during and after the Civil War. Mighty tough time in that area.

 

[BriarPatch99]

My Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather Asa Youngblood could possibly have been one those Florida Cow Hunters... Legend has it that he lived just below Tampa ... and was run out of Florida by threat of hanging....for stealing cows...

He was born in Irwin Co. and moved to the Tampa area ... after they "left" Florida.... they came back to Irwin Co. and then on to Coffee Co....

 

[SemperFiDawg]

There were still a few around in the Oconee River swamp where I was raised up back in the 1960s. I`d see one or two on occasion. They were as wild as anything too, and I was warned to never get between a heifer and her calf. This was about 12 miles or so above the forks of the rivers.

My grandmother told me many times about the time her and her sister were treed by a wild cow as little girls and said that it pawed and pawed around the base of the tree trying to push it down. If I recall their father, my great grandfather had to shoot it after he found them to be able to rescue the girls. Apparently feral cows were a real danger. I even heard there were still some on Ft Stewart as late as the 70s. Don't know if there are any left anywhere now.

 

[Doboy Dawg]

Some of the best tasting beef you’ll ever eat.

 

[Use Enough Gun]

A Land Remembered is a fiction novel , but based on a Summerlin family with the patriarch buried in Bartow Fl. McLeod is also a very old Florida family . Wife’s DAR chapter going to the Summerlin gravesite next week then driving to Lake Kissimmee State Park where re- enactors have a cow camp near the river . Been there with the Scouts twice .
Per a HS teacher in wife’s DAR , A Land Remembered is required reading in Florida High Schools.
I was raised in Georgia but have been in Florida for 50 years .
There is some old Florida left but you have to know where to look .

A good historical book on Central Florida is :Florida's Peace River Frontier by Dr. Canter Brown Jr. Brown wrote several books on old Florida history, another one is Tampa before the Civil War. Also co-wrote Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives.

 

[RedHills]

My Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather Asa Youngblood could possibly have been one those Florida Cow Hunters... Legend has it that he lived just below Tampa ... and was run out of Florida by threat of hanging....for stealing cows...

He was born in Irwin Co. and moved to the Tampa area ... after they "left" Florida.... they came back to Irwin Co. and then on to Coffee Co....

Long time ago I knew some "Youngbloods" in Parrish...that's a place south of Tampa a bit. Just got home from Thanksgiving festivities down that way. In 2 days I saw and passed more vehicles than I'll see for the next 6 months

 

[bullgator]

Let`s not forget this fine feller.


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That kinda looks like a Robert Butler print.

 

[fishfryer]

Let`s not forget this fine feller.


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Bone Mizell ain’t it?

 

[Artfuldodger]

Interesting, I just read this story yesterday and wondered about this man who went in a swamp to fetch his new Jewish wife a cow.
I knew that each farmer had some semi-feral cows that they just let roam. I'm assuming they branded those?
Anyway I wondered if there were some that just roamed and weren't the property of anyone. Interesting.

It's got a bad word in the link so google Jebediah Tate was a superstitious farmer that lived northwest of Carrabelle in Sumatra Florida. In the spring of 1875, Cebe married a mail-order bride from New York City. She was a fiery German immigrant. But there was a problem, Cebe only had pigs left, and she was of the Jewish Faith.

 

[Lukikus2]

Florida Cracker cattle. Always heard they were as mean as a water buffalo. A Spanish American breed. Lots of them went wild.