Notes for: Edward Walter Reynolds

He was a stock-farmer, a Methodist. His picture and an article appeared in the Canyon News in Augusts 1964. The following is from this article: "We"ve had some bad times in the cattle business, but there have always been more than enough good times to make up for it." Edd Reynolds has been in the cattle industry all his life and knows the business from top to bottom. Reynolds came to Canyon with his parents in 1902. He began working Ed Harrell and later Newton Harrell. "Raising cattle has changed a lot since I started working on the ranchm," said Reynolds. "And the way things are going, ranching is going to change even more in the future. The Harrell Ranch has always been luckier than most, mainly because of the geography. When the ranchers started fencing their pastures, it was quite a chore and an expense. The Palo Duro makes a fence for the ranch on the north and the Box Canyon makes a fence on the south. This saved an awful lot of work." Reynolds pointed out that having the canyons on the ranch was one of its greatest assets. "The herd is kept in the canyon for the winter because if offers such good protection from the wind. In the early days it kept us from having to chase all over the country trying to round them up." "We have to bring them out to pasture in the summer because the flies get to them so bad down there," Reynolds said. Ranching methods differe greatly in differenct areas of the country. "We had a partnership in a ranch in Magdelina, New Mexico for a while. Ranching was a lot rougher there than it is here. Even the people were a lot roughter. There are still quite a few cattle thieves, but their methods have modernized, too. Instead of just riding in on horseback and cutting some cattle out and then driving them away, the modern day rustler uses trucks."

"We never had a lot of trouble thoug, because the canyons blocked all the entrances except those that could be seen from the house. Most of the rustlers wnt calves. Now days the calves are just ear marked until they're old enough to leave the cows. Until that time that calf is going to go every place that cow goes and she's going to know exactly which one's hers." There's almost no way to separate a cow and her calf. Therefore, since she's braded, it's fairly easy to tell which one belongs to what ranch. "Ranching's a lot more complicated now----with electric fences and all the other equipment, but there's one thing you can say for it. The cattle now are sure a lot better than the old Mexican steers we used to raise." said Reynolds.

Ed graduated from Canyon High School. Then he went to live with his grandparents in Grayson County. He returned to Randall County in 1918, running his own trucking business and working part time for the Ed Harrells. He leased land from Ed Beard near Umbarger after he and Helen Cozart Britt married on April 30, 1925. He engaged in stock farming until 1929. They leased land from Ed Harrell until 1936, when Newton Harrell bought land around Magdalena, New Mexico. He helped operate this ranch until 1943 when he moved to Endee, New Mexico. There he ran a ranch for the Harrells. Then in 1946, he moved back to Randall County. Here he lived on the Harrell ranch (known as the Light House Ranch) for eighteen years in business with Newton Harrell. In 1960, he bought the Ed Harrell home in Canyon, Texas at 1000 Fourth Ave. He retired in 1963 because of ill health. He died in July 1965.