While taking care of the books for the ranchers, Lizzie learned the cattle business. Although she was still teaching in Austin around 1880, that endeavor was set aside. The shrewd bookkeeper saw opportunities that far outweighed any offered in the classroom. Her accounting job brought about meetings with cattlemen like George W. Littlefield, and ranchers such as Charles W. Whitis and William H. Day that further enhanced Lizzie's knowledge of the cattle industry.Miss Lizzie Johnson
(Day, one of the most active cattlemen of the era . . . had settled in Hays County. He started driving herds north in 1860, the year his father drowned in an accident on the trail. Day continued trail drives, going to Louisiana, St. Louis, and Abilene. He joined up with Jesse Driskill, his brother-in-law . . . . Driskill built the hotel in Austin that bears his name and serves as a city landmark. Day died in June 1881. . . . Although he left his wife, Mabel Doss Day, near bankruptcy, through ingenuity and perseverance she became another Texas cattle queen.)
-Don Blevins, A Priest, a Prostitute, and Some Other Early Texans
Not all successful Texas cowmen were of masculine gender, for there were also "cattle queens" such as Lizzie Johnson and Mabel Day, who through wisdom and determination made their way on a man's range. Lizzie Johnson earned money to enter the cattle business by teaching in her father's school—the Johnson Institute—near Austin, and by writing and selling articles under a pen name. In 1871 she registered her own brand in Travis County and expanded her herd in the conventional fashion by having her cowboys mark mavericks with her brand.
When she was thirty-six, Lizzie married Hezekiah Williams, a widowed preacher whose lack of business acumen was undermined further by his fondness for hard liquor. A shrewd businesswoman, Lizzie had no intention of allowing Hezekiah to squander her wealth, so she insisted that their marriage agreement include a contract allowing her to retain both her property and future profits. She and Hezekiah used the same foreman on their ranches, and according to legend she ordered him to put her brand on Hezekiah's unbranded calves. Whether apocryphal or not, this story simply reflects Lizzie's ability to match wits with men and come out a winner.
Lizzie accompanied her own herds up the trail; Hezekiah took his herds at the same time, but these were two independent operations. Lizzie's only concession was to let him share her buggy. She was completely at home with cowmen and, though ever a lady, talked their language. On a number of occasions she saved Hezekiah with substantial loans, but they were dutifully repaid. When he died she bought him an expensive coffin scrawling across the bill, "I loved this old buzzard this much."
Mabel Day, another Texas cattle queen, inherited her husband's ranch of 77,550 acres in Coleman County, along with upwards of $100,000 in debts. She had to contend with a number of predatory cattlemen, including her late husband's brother and former business associates, who wanted her land and cattle. Hers was a discouraging struggle, but she refused to accept defeat. The courts ignored her protests when the administrator of her husband's estate tried to sell her brother-in-law eighteen hundred yearlings at more than $9,000 below market value. Only after she had posted a bond of $150,000 did the court appoint her executor of the estate. Even then her situation remained precarious.
By negotiating a loan in New York City and a contract with Kentucky bankers and distillers who wanted to buy into the cattle business, she managed to retain her land. At that time the "Fence War" broke out, and miles of her fences were destroyed, an expression of resentment against outsiders investing in Texas cattle ranches. Although she never was able to liquidate all of her debts, her long battle to retain possession of the ranch was successful.-Don Worcester, 'From Wild Cow Hunts to Roundups,' The Chisholm Trail: High Road of the Cattle Kingdom
At Home
Mountain City, Tex.
Oct. 4th, 1864
Miss Lizzie
I have no apology to make for addressing you this note. I do it, to disclose a passion that I have long indulged for you one which I flatter myself has not been wholly unperceived or disapproved of by you. Your company has ever been pleasant and agreeable to me, and this has caused me to cast aside all misgiving, and perhaps with too much presumption, but with a confident belief that the cincerity of my love renders me not wholly undeserving of your regard.
Owing to our national difficulties and other circumstances with which I have been surrounded, has caused me for sometime to feel a delicacy in making known to you the fact that I ever loved or respected you more than a friend;
But such has been the case for several years, and I see no good reason why I should withhold the fact any longer; for if my Love is reciprocated, let me cherish it, and if not let me learn to forget.
Miss Lizzie you may think that I am writing from the impulse of the moment, or that I am governed by the blind impulses of love regardless of consequences. Such I know is too often the case, and choosing a companion is made a matter of feeling; and not enough of reflection, reason, and judgment.
You are the object of my first from the fact that I love you, and regard you a young lady of amiable and affectionate disposition, with a high standard of virtue and morality, correct principles, good intilectual powers, a well trained and balanced mind, with the age, knowledge, and experience necessary to make a happy companion.
You are well acquainted with my character. Wealth I have it not to offer. But a true hand, and loving heart is yours, if you but think me worthy of your affections, if not worthy let me as ever remain
Your most Affectionate Friend
Wm H. Day
P.S. My address will be Austin City. Will.
William H. Day, who later hired Lizzie's brother John as the bookkeeper on his ranch in Montgomery County, definitely wanted Lizzie to be his wife. The seven Day brothers were well known around Austin as the "Weeks boys"; there were seven of them, along with three sisters, and Lizzie knew them well as neighbors on a nearby farm at Mountain City. The boys were pioneer cowmen, and each one served in the Confederacy. As a suitor, William (or Bill or Will, as he was variously known) definitely had much to offer Lizzie. He had graduated as a civil engineer from Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1858, before returning home, where he gathered a herd of horses and mules and set out for Louisiana.
Later that year William, along with his brother, Doc, who was to visit Lizzie in Lockhart just prior to Doc's marriage, set out for Kansas City. After the death of their father on the trail, they were met by armed settlers in southeast Kansas, where they turned the herd around into the Indian Nation and then went northeast through Missouri. Eventually they sold the herd in St. Louis. With the profits they bought horses and herded them back to Louisiana to sell. Returning home in January 1861, William headed for Matamoros to buy more horses. During the war, he served as a teamster out of Camp Colorado with Henry McCulloch's Texas Cavalry. For all his labors, he returned home from the war broke, having all of his assets in worthless Confederate currency. To recoup his losses, he got busy using letters of credit and made numerous cattle drives. Lizzie listened to their stories of the various trail drives as a friend but was not interested in Bill's proposal for whatever reason.
Owing to our national difficulties and other circumstances with which I have been surrounded, has caused me for sometime to feel a delicacy in making known to you the fact that I ever loved or respected you more than a friend;
But such has been the case for several years, and I see no good reason why I should withhold the fact any longer; for if my Love is reciprocated, let me cherish it, and if not let me learn to forget.
Miss Lizzie you may think that I am writing from the impulse of the moment, or that I am governed by the blind impulses of love regardless of consequences. Such I know is too often the case, and choosing a companion is made a matter of feeling; and not enough of reflection, reason, and judgment.
You are the object of my first from the fact that I love you, and regard you a young lady of amiable and affectionate disposition, with a high standard of virtue and morality, correct principles, good intilectual powers, a well trained and balanced mind, with the age, knowledge, and experience necessary to make a happy companion.
You are well acquainted with my character. Wealth I have it not to offer. But a true hand, and loving heart is yours, if you but think me worthy of your affections, if not worthy let me as ever remain
Your most Affectionate Friend
Wm H. Day
P.S. My address will be Austin City. Will.
William H. Day, who later hired Lizzie's brother John as the bookkeeper on his ranch in Montgomery County, definitely wanted Lizzie to be his wife. The seven Day brothers were well known around Austin as the "Weeks boys"; there were seven of them, along with three sisters, and Lizzie knew them well as neighbors on a nearby farm at Mountain City. The boys were pioneer cowmen, and each one served in the Confederacy. As a suitor, William (or Bill or Will, as he was variously known) definitely had much to offer Lizzie. He had graduated as a civil engineer from Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1858, before returning home, where he gathered a herd of horses and mules and set out for Louisiana.
Later that year William, along with his brother, Doc, who was to visit Lizzie in Lockhart just prior to Doc's marriage, set out for Kansas City. After the death of their father on the trail, they were met by armed settlers in southeast Kansas, where they turned the herd around into the Indian Nation and then went northeast through Missouri. Eventually they sold the herd in St. Louis. With the profits they bought horses and herded them back to Louisiana to sell. Returning home in January 1861, William headed for Matamoros to buy more horses. During the war, he served as a teamster out of Camp Colorado with Henry McCulloch's Texas Cavalry. For all his labors, he returned home from the war broke, having all of his assets in worthless Confederate currency. To recoup his losses, he got busy using letters of credit and made numerous cattle drives. Lizzie listened to their stories of the various trail drives as a friend but was not interested in Bill's proposal for whatever reason.
Sara R. Massey, Texas Women on the Cattle Trails
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