Legends and Mythos by Dustin Rice

Obbie Loving left home in Graham, TX to attend college just like many other eighteen-year-olds. He was ready to make his mark on this world, ready to make a name for himself. He’d spent his most of his free time on the family ranch a half hour away just outside of Jermyn. Were there parts of his life on the ranch he was going to miss? Sure. The teamwork of separating calves and branding them was a favorite part of his Spring. 

He wondered who would be holding a hind leg in his place, rolling around in the dirt all day. But life would move on without him on the ranch, he had classes to attend. When his history professor stopped in the middle of attendance and peered at him over his glasses, loudly asking “…direct descendent?!?,” that he thought maybe his name had already been made famous. His full name was Oliver Loving IV, and that name meant much more to his history professor than he knew.

In Texas, there are names that evoke memories of our history. Austin is the “Father of Texas”. Crockett, Bowie, and Travis invariably elicit thoughts of the Alamo. Goodnight and Loving were the creators of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, and the Texas cattle drives that followed. These names go beyond legend into myth. But what happens to the people that carry one of these names? 

Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight are synonymous in Texas history, but the two were very different people. Goodnight had no children and with his death in 1929 came a form of encapsulation of his legend. His work was in his ranching, after he died his work was sold. His meaningful items were donated to museums or willed to friends, and his legacy was left in the hands of folklorists and writers like J. Frank Dobie and Larry McMurtry.

McMurtry used Goodnight and Loving as that basis for the beloved Lonesome Dove characters Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae. In doing so, historical fact has been blurred by the fiction came after. In the book, the men spend an entire career together and are synonymous with justice on the frontier. The reality is that Loving was wounded on the second cattle drive the two attempted and they only worked together for a couple of years. Goodnight really did return Lovings remains to Texas in dramatic fashion, very similarly to the book. 

The Loving family is now eight generations removed from Oliver’s passing. Their story, the one beyond the legend, is ongoing. Oliver’s son James, or JC, should really be considered the person at the center of the family history following Oliver. He started the Loving Ranch after finishing Oliver’s continued business with Goodnight. He chose the Lost Valley, Jack County, Texas. It was the early 1870’s and it was not an easy place. 

They built a house and cleared the land by hand, and it’s the one that the family still lives in.

July 12, 1874, is a day that has no lasting memory in Texas lore, but this date is significant because of what almost happened. A war party of fifty Kiowa, defeated weeks earlier at Adobe Walls, wanted revenge. Their intention was to kill and take. Had Major John B. Jones and his twenty-six Texas Rangers not been there, then certainly the cattle, goods, lives as well the futures generations of those to come would have been taken. Instead, an engagement against indigenous people by Texas Rangers carried on throughout the county, ending on the front steps of the Loving Ranch. Two were dead and two wounded. It was the final straw for local ranchers. 

JC Loving helped to found The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, running the organization out of his house before moving to a bigger office years later in Ft. Worth. This was an effort to secure local ranches against theft, at first by Native Americans. As they were moved to reservations, however, cattle still disappeared. Their sights then turned to other ranchers, thieves, and rustlers. The Association kept track of brands, ensured the upkeep of records, and organized the history of Texas ranching as a result. The Association was the FBI and IRS for Texas ranching, ensuring that no rustling or brand changing went on, continuing to this day. It was this element of Texas ranching that the family would focus on for generations.

More than a century later, we found ourselves searching for descendants of the Loving family, hoping to get information that wasn’t readily available. We discovered that Oliver Loving IV was alive and well in North Texas. We reached out to one of his kin through social media hoping for the best and we were ecstatic to learn that she was the niece of Oliver Loving IV. She said, “My uncle runs the ranch in Loving. I can put you in touch.” We happily learned that Oliver “Obbie” Loving was charming, animated, and fun enough to make most anyone feel undeserving of his time. We set up a meeting with him and he invited us to the ranch. We arrived a little after 10AM and Obbie immediately offered us a drink, “Can I get you a glass of water? A shot of tequila?” We spent a few hours getting a tour of the home and the hundred-and fifty-year-old barn built with square nails. We made friends with his horses and pup “Lola,” being entertained by Obbie’s uncanny ability to elicit laughter. 

To our amazement, Obbie offered to stay in touch and help us with our project however he could. He kept his word. He lent us an important family scrapbook and a rare book about the town of Jermyn that borders Loving. He spoke during one of our presentations and to this day we still text him anytime our research leads back to the Loving family. We were left overwhelmed by his generosity of knowledge, time, and spirit. 

Oliver “Obbie” Loving IV was raised in small town Texas, learning ranching as a way of life. He went on to have a career unrelated to ranching but has maintained the original house and kept Loving Ranch intact and in the family. One of the many relatives of the past century and a half was the family wealth of information, and he died very young without writing or telling most of it. When that happened, most of the history of the family vanished, save some portrait photographs and ranching photo books. The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association has really become the lasting family legacy. And though Obbie can’t escape a history he has no real attachment to, he still puts up with people like us wanting to know about things that he usually doesn’t know. He just shrugs his shoulders as an answer, giving a wry smile as if to say “I have no idea…”