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Legislature makes fence cutting a felony
On this day in 1884, the state legislature made fence cutting a felony
punishable by one to five years in prison. In 1883, fence cutting had
become a major source of friction between landless cattlemen who wanted
to retain practices of the open range and those who fenced their land
with barbed wire. The fence war was precipitated by the drought of 1883,
which made it all the harder for the cowman without land of his own to
find the grass and water necessary for his herds. Wrecking of fences was
reported from more than half the Texas counties and was most common in a
belt extending north and south through the center of the state. In the
fall of 1883, when damage from wrecking of fences in Texas was estimated
at $20 million, Governor John Ireland called a special session of the
legislature to meet on January 8, 1884, to address the issue. The
ensuing legislation ended most of the fence troubles, although sporadic
outbreaks of nipping continued for a decade, especially during droughts.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- FENCE CUTTING
- BARBED WIRE
- WINDMILLS
- RANCHING
- IRELAND, JOHN
- LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY TEXAS
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Youthful Confederate spy executed at Little Rock by Union soldiers (1864)
- Kickapoos rout Confederates in battle of Dove Creek (1865)
- Prima ballerina Nana Gollner born (1919)
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