From: clough@texas.net   
      
   Von Fource wrote:   
      
   >    Can you also tell me how much these people made in modern terms?  Would   
   > being a cook or driver pay good for it's time?   
   >   
   > Thanks!   
      
   Establishing salary equivalents are difficult. Certainly, and not   
   surprisingly, they weren't highly paid. Something like $25 or $30 a   
   month for a common drover sounds about like the $1/day working man par   
   for the time, but not everyone was going to find winter work. A cook   
   might make twice that. A highly thought of boss, in a situation in which   
   an owner was hard-up for a good man, might be offered $100/month. And   
   that sort of man could well be an owner in his own right and would   
   likely at least be secure in a year-round job. A man who found himself   
   without a job could end up "riding the line", drifting from ranch to   
   ranch, partaking, however embarassing it was, of the proverbial   
   generousity characteristic of the west.   
      
   Of course, the drover's pay was "and found", his meals being provided,   
   both on a drive and on a ranch, were he fortunate enough to find a   
   berth. A prudent man who didn't have to replace too much of his own gear   
   could wind up with decent money in his pocket, even after getting rigged   
   out in new clothes and boots at the end of drive. (His old clothes   
   likely weren't even worth of being called rags.) Of course, there were   
   no benefits, except what a generous boss might pay for, if a man was   
   hurt. The usual benefit was to ride the wagon for a few days while you   
   healed. And no cowboy cared about lide insurance, nor would any company   
   be so foolish as to insure a cowboy's life.   
      
   Figure a traveler in Texas in the mid-19th century could find lodgings   
   for the night, with meal and fodder for his horse, for about $1. An   
   actor at Ford's Theater in Washington about 1858 might make anywhere   
   from $20 to $80 a month. A US Senator immediately after the Civil War   
   made $5,000 a year.   
      
   A cowboy wasn't going to get rich off his salary. But they had something   
   a city worker found hard to come by. They had considerable freedom, both   
   to move about and freedom from an ever-present set of bills each month.   
   On a ranching operation, until later in the 19th century when a more   
   corporate mentality set in, a man was often allowed to take some time to   
   build up his own small herd, which could be his ticket out of somewhat   
   itinerant bachelorhood to become a ranching family man.   
      
   Earlier, just after the Civil War, in Texas, any kind of paying job was   
   unusual. There wasn't any cash around. Common currency was a note good   
   for a cow and a calf, generally accepted to be worth about $10, and   
   passed from hand to hand, in lieu of money. But a man of determination   
   could accumulate as many wild cattle (and they were mostly all wild as   
   deer) as he could catch and brand. Many men who could be considered   
   well-to-do might not handle $50 in cash in a year. But most of what we   
   expect to pay for was made or grown or built by physical effort. That's   
   part of why it's deceptive to compare pay scales.   
      
   Just think of a cowboy as an agricultural worker on horseback. That   
   gives you a feel for where they fell in earning power.   
      
   Also, keep in mind that trail driving was tough work, and lots of men   
   went up the trail once or only a very few times.   
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
                         clough@texas.net   
   "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)