Kinda proud of myself, I have been a bit more committed to my Readings and Ruminations book list recently. Last week I finished another first-hand account from a Cowboy on the trail in the late 1800s. We Pointed Them North is a collection of tales from Edward Charles (Teddy Blue) Abbott, as he told them to free-lance writer Helena Huntington Smith in 1938.
Teddy Blue was born in 1860 in England, to a family who immigrated and settled near Lincoln, Nebraska. As a boy, Teddy longed to be with the cowboys who rode north on the Texas cattle trails and eventually got his way when he left home. He made his living on the trail, taking several herds of cattle North to the great unknown. Eventually Teddy settled with some ranches in Montana, caring for the cattle year-round. He eventually teamed up with Granville Stuart of the D H S ranch, and married Stuart’s daughter.
Teddy Blue died in April of 1939, but not before leaving behind a huge impact on Montana Stockgrowers, the Montana ranching business, and not without sharing his accounts for all to enjoy. I could spend all day sharing Abbott’s stories about life in the Big Sky Country, but I’ll leave that for your reading. I’ll just say this book is a must-read and a unique account of a cowboy’s life in the late 1800s. Here’s a sneak peak to the book’s first 50 pages, but I highly recommend investing in the whole thing.
Have you read the book? What were your thoughts? Have any suggestions for similar reads?
