Louis Trumble:
First County Judge
Louis Philip Trumble, first county judge in Moore County, was born in Quebec, Canada on December 8, 1861.
His father, Nelson, was a wanderer at heart and felt the westward expansion in the United States offered exciting prospects. He migrated west with his family and came as far as Syracuse, Kansas, which was the end of the railroad at that time. His wanderlust continued to take them to Denison, Texas, where Louis and the other children helped on the farm.
In his autobiography, Louis tells, "At the age of eighteen, my parents were living in Clay County, Texas. They, learning that I was thinking of leaving home, forbid me in a positive manner not to do so, but as there were enough others to do the work on the farm, I wanted to find work of any kind and earn what services would bring."
Louis had a horse and saddle, but no money. One cold drizzly day late in March of 1880, in order not to cause suspicion, he wore as much clothing as he could and said he would go to town. Looking for cattle ranches where he might find work, he headed west.
Finding no work along the way, he finally arrived at Clarendon where he was hired by Hawkins and Hasser, contractors. They were getting cedar posts and logs out of Palo Duro Canyon to build corrals and houses on the Goodnight Ranch. During the time he was a teamster, he was constantly on watch for Indians in the canyon, especially at night. He worked for the teamster contractors ofr 14 months until July of 1881, when they returned from a difficult trip to Gainsville looking for logs.
He asked Charlie Goodnight for a job. Colonel Goodnight was "an awesome, almost forbidding giant of a man. He expected much of the men who worked for him, but not any more than he himself could live up to," according to Trumble's autobiography.
The Colonel's morals were "almost puritan" and he asked Louis, "young man, do you drink, smoke or gamble?" Louis met the requirements and worked for the Goodnight ranch until March, 1883, when he decided to attend a commercial college in New York for some formal education.
In May, 1884, he returned to Texas and worked on the Frying Pan Ranch, west of Amarillo. In May of 1885, he started work for the Prairie Cattle Company, LIT Division, where he stayed for 17 years. LIT headquarters were about two miles from Tascosa, the "Cowboy Capital of the Texas Panhandle." One of the cowboys, Trumble worked with was Billy the Kid. By this time, Trumble was foreman and his opinion of the young cowboy was "he was totally worthless," so he fired him.
Trumble began a correspondence with Abbie Jane White of Worcester, New York. The courtship had a rather unusual beginning. Trumble found a stack of letters Abbie had written to one of the cowboys on the ranch, but since the cowboy had moved on, the letters had stacked up. He began writing to her and they fell in love through their correspondence. In Decemeber of 1890, he went back to New York to marry her. She was 19 and he was 29.
He was still working for the LIT ranch and living just south of Dumas when Moore County was organized. The election for the first county offices was held July 9, 1892. Trumble was elected first county judge, then re-elected in the general election in November and re-elected in 1894. "I filled that office and worked for the Prairie Company LIT division also."
According to a biography written by Trumble's granddaughter, Lois Trumble Williams, "There was a big hassle over building a new county jail. The county court would not approve it. Just before election day, Trumble's wife, Abbie, got a note from a woman stating that she must stop the fight over the jail or she would be a widow by morning. By this time, Trumble had just about had his fill of politics anyway and he moved his family out of Dumas to the Little Ranch on the Blue, about six miles from town,"
Once a month, Louis made a trip to Channing for food and supplies. Channing was a railroad point and had more to offer then other little towns. he stayed over night as it was quite a trip with a horse and wagon. "One winter on the way to Channing, he was caught in a sudden blizzard, It happened in the middle of the day. The horses wouldn't go any further so he turned them around with their backs to the storm, covered them, and rolled himself up in a wagon sheet inside the wagon and tried to keep warm." Abbie was home with children and, according to the granddaughter's story, "secured the barnyard animals, got a good supply of wood into the house for fuel and worried about Louis." It wasn't until noon of the next day that Louis was able to continue into Channing.
He left the Prairie Company in 1902 and took charge of Fowler and Tod's 54,000 acre ranch at Texline, Texas. He left there in July 1903 and moved to Oklahoma and bought a farm. In January 1905, he took charge of the Fowler and Tod Ranch at Folsom, New Mexico. His family stayed on the Oklahoma farm. Farming did not appeal to Trumble and he worked away from the farm a lot. He was gone when the couple's youngeset child was born on April 20, 1909. Although Abbie had been cared for by a doctor, following a difficult birth, she contracted an infection and died April 25, 1909.
Telegrams were sent to try to locate Louis and when he was reached, he was grief stricken that he was not with Abbie when she died. "She seemed just in the prime of her life at age 38," Trumble related. The couple had been married for 19 years and she left him with seven children. A funeral service was held at the farm in Oklahoma and then Abbie's father took her back to New York to be buried.
Louis sold the farm and moved his family to Folsom.
In 1911, Trumble remarried, but it was not to a happy marriage. In his autobiography, he wrote, "January 7, 1918, owing to domestic discord, I left the Crosselle Ranch and moved into Folsom to await some kind of a solution to the trouble between myself and my wife." Eight months later, she packed up her personal goods and left Folsom.
On April 1, 1921, Trumble quit the Crosselle Ranch and went to the Matador Ranch at Channing. For a short time, he was sent to Okeechobee, Florida, to take charge of a 24,000 acre ranch there. In May of 1926, he was brought back to the Matador and worked there until May of 1930.
Leaving the Matador Ranch, he went back to the Crosselle Ranch and, then was transferred to the company's ranch in Maple Hill, Kansas.
He ended his ranching story with "I had worked 55 years, mostly on cattle ranches, and had reached the age of 73, so I retired."
He bought a Model A Ford and traveled from one place to another visiting children, spending a few weeks or months with each.
He was almost 83 years old when he died on August 13, 1944. He was buried in the Good Hope Cemetery at Helena, Oklahoma.
According to the granddaughter, "Louis Trumble could have done many things. He had the intelligence, drive and stamina for various careers, but all he ever really wanted to be was a cowboy. He was born at just the right time in history, and so it appears to have been his destiny. He was no gunslinger or outlaw, but he knew many of them (he worked on a ranch with Billy the Kid at Tascosa). He was not a well known sheriff like his friend Pat Garrett, but he worked for law and order in organizing Moore County. He didn't possess big spreads of his own, but he was in charge of running many of them. No towns are named for him, and his name will not appear in history books, like that of Charles Goodnight. He was content and proud to be just a cowboy."
Compiled from the archives of Window on the Plains Museum
A Brief Autobiography by Louis Trumble
A Biography of My Grandparents, Louis Philip Trumble and Abbie Jane White Trumble by Lois Trumble Williams
His father, Nelson, was a wanderer at heart and felt the westward expansion in the United States offered exciting prospects. He migrated west with his family and came as far as Syracuse, Kansas, which was the end of the railroad at that time. His wanderlust continued to take them to Denison, Texas, where Louis and the other children helped on the farm.
In his autobiography, Louis tells, "At the age of eighteen, my parents were living in Clay County, Texas. They, learning that I was thinking of leaving home, forbid me in a positive manner not to do so, but as there were enough others to do the work on the farm, I wanted to find work of any kind and earn what services would bring."
Louis had a horse and saddle, but no money. One cold drizzly day late in March of 1880, in order not to cause suspicion, he wore as much clothing as he could and said he would go to town. Looking for cattle ranches where he might find work, he headed west.
Finding no work along the way, he finally arrived at Clarendon where he was hired by Hawkins and Hasser, contractors. They were getting cedar posts and logs out of Palo Duro Canyon to build corrals and houses on the Goodnight Ranch. During the time he was a teamster, he was constantly on watch for Indians in the canyon, especially at night. He worked for the teamster contractors ofr 14 months until July of 1881, when they returned from a difficult trip to Gainsville looking for logs.
He asked Charlie Goodnight for a job. Colonel Goodnight was "an awesome, almost forbidding giant of a man. He expected much of the men who worked for him, but not any more than he himself could live up to," according to Trumble's autobiography.
The Colonel's morals were "almost puritan" and he asked Louis, "young man, do you drink, smoke or gamble?" Louis met the requirements and worked for the Goodnight ranch until March, 1883, when he decided to attend a commercial college in New York for some formal education.
In May, 1884, he returned to Texas and worked on the Frying Pan Ranch, west of Amarillo. In May of 1885, he started work for the Prairie Cattle Company, LIT Division, where he stayed for 17 years. LIT headquarters were about two miles from Tascosa, the "Cowboy Capital of the Texas Panhandle." One of the cowboys, Trumble worked with was Billy the Kid. By this time, Trumble was foreman and his opinion of the young cowboy was "he was totally worthless," so he fired him.
Trumble began a correspondence with Abbie Jane White of Worcester, New York. The courtship had a rather unusual beginning. Trumble found a stack of letters Abbie had written to one of the cowboys on the ranch, but since the cowboy had moved on, the letters had stacked up. He began writing to her and they fell in love through their correspondence. In Decemeber of 1890, he went back to New York to marry her. She was 19 and he was 29.
He was still working for the LIT ranch and living just south of Dumas when Moore County was organized. The election for the first county offices was held July 9, 1892. Trumble was elected first county judge, then re-elected in the general election in November and re-elected in 1894. "I filled that office and worked for the Prairie Company LIT division also."
According to a biography written by Trumble's granddaughter, Lois Trumble Williams, "There was a big hassle over building a new county jail. The county court would not approve it. Just before election day, Trumble's wife, Abbie, got a note from a woman stating that she must stop the fight over the jail or she would be a widow by morning. By this time, Trumble had just about had his fill of politics anyway and he moved his family out of Dumas to the Little Ranch on the Blue, about six miles from town,"
Once a month, Louis made a trip to Channing for food and supplies. Channing was a railroad point and had more to offer then other little towns. he stayed over night as it was quite a trip with a horse and wagon. "One winter on the way to Channing, he was caught in a sudden blizzard, It happened in the middle of the day. The horses wouldn't go any further so he turned them around with their backs to the storm, covered them, and rolled himself up in a wagon sheet inside the wagon and tried to keep warm." Abbie was home with children and, according to the granddaughter's story, "secured the barnyard animals, got a good supply of wood into the house for fuel and worried about Louis." It wasn't until noon of the next day that Louis was able to continue into Channing.
He left the Prairie Company in 1902 and took charge of Fowler and Tod's 54,000 acre ranch at Texline, Texas. He left there in July 1903 and moved to Oklahoma and bought a farm. In January 1905, he took charge of the Fowler and Tod Ranch at Folsom, New Mexico. His family stayed on the Oklahoma farm. Farming did not appeal to Trumble and he worked away from the farm a lot. He was gone when the couple's youngeset child was born on April 20, 1909. Although Abbie had been cared for by a doctor, following a difficult birth, she contracted an infection and died April 25, 1909.
Telegrams were sent to try to locate Louis and when he was reached, he was grief stricken that he was not with Abbie when she died. "She seemed just in the prime of her life at age 38," Trumble related. The couple had been married for 19 years and she left him with seven children. A funeral service was held at the farm in Oklahoma and then Abbie's father took her back to New York to be buried.
Louis sold the farm and moved his family to Folsom.
In 1911, Trumble remarried, but it was not to a happy marriage. In his autobiography, he wrote, "January 7, 1918, owing to domestic discord, I left the Crosselle Ranch and moved into Folsom to await some kind of a solution to the trouble between myself and my wife." Eight months later, she packed up her personal goods and left Folsom.
On April 1, 1921, Trumble quit the Crosselle Ranch and went to the Matador Ranch at Channing. For a short time, he was sent to Okeechobee, Florida, to take charge of a 24,000 acre ranch there. In May of 1926, he was brought back to the Matador and worked there until May of 1930.
Leaving the Matador Ranch, he went back to the Crosselle Ranch and, then was transferred to the company's ranch in Maple Hill, Kansas.
He ended his ranching story with "I had worked 55 years, mostly on cattle ranches, and had reached the age of 73, so I retired."
He bought a Model A Ford and traveled from one place to another visiting children, spending a few weeks or months with each.
He was almost 83 years old when he died on August 13, 1944. He was buried in the Good Hope Cemetery at Helena, Oklahoma.
According to the granddaughter, "Louis Trumble could have done many things. He had the intelligence, drive and stamina for various careers, but all he ever really wanted to be was a cowboy. He was born at just the right time in history, and so it appears to have been his destiny. He was no gunslinger or outlaw, but he knew many of them (he worked on a ranch with Billy the Kid at Tascosa). He was not a well known sheriff like his friend Pat Garrett, but he worked for law and order in organizing Moore County. He didn't possess big spreads of his own, but he was in charge of running many of them. No towns are named for him, and his name will not appear in history books, like that of Charles Goodnight. He was content and proud to be just a cowboy."
Compiled from the archives of Window on the Plains Museum
A Brief Autobiography by Louis Trumble
A Biography of My Grandparents, Louis Philip Trumble and Abbie Jane White Trumble by Lois Trumble Williams