ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1874, the Indians of the southern plains, led by Quanah Parker, renewed their attacks on the Texas frontier. Frontiers people long engaged in lively arguments over the comparative effectiveness of the three factors that helped to remove the Indians from the plains: the US Army, the Texas Rangers, and the buffalo hunters. The techniques, the lingo, and other aspects of the culture of the cattle kingdom contributed significantly to the history of the West. The Anglo-American cattle industry developed in colonial South Carolina and spread westward. As during the pre-Civil War years, the federal government's efforts to pacify the frontier were supplemented by the state. Typical of the agricultural transformation of South Texas was the Taft Ranch. By the early twentieth century the Taft Ranch had become a model of industrial farming, relying on low-paid wage workers for labor and containing its own cotton gins, stores, and worker housing.
