Confederate Military Lodge of Research

Created by Warrant from The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Alabama, August 6, 1990

January 25, 2008

Mail Address for CoMiLoR
CoMiLoR
588 14th Street West
Alexander City, AL 35010

For Various Reasons, this website is for contact information only. For requests for further information about the organization either mail inquiries to the address above or contact the WebMaster at the email address below Also, members with articles to submit. Send them to this address and we can possibly get the articles posted here.

Cliff Crisler, WebMaster

William F. Crisler, Asst. WebMaster

The following was submitted by Compatriot and Brother B.T. Maynard. Reminder: responsibility for accuracy resides with the author

Who was Augustus McCrae?

Augustus McCrae, one of the main characters in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, was a fictional character. In his book and the

movie by the same name, McMurtry follows the adventures of Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae (played by Robert Duval) and Captain Woodrow F. Call (played by Tommy Lee Jones), two famous ex-Texas Rangers who run the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium in the small dusty Texas border town of Lonesome Dove

While McMurtry states that McCrae and Call were not modeled after historical characters, there are quite a few similarities between them and real-life Texas cattlemen Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight. For example, Goodnight was a Texas Ranger, and there are several close parallels between the fictional partners of Mc Crae and Call, and the real-life partners of Loving and Goodnight.

But the most striking similarity is the death and burial of the fictional Gus, and the actual last days of Oliver Loving. Both died on a cattle drive from gangrene brought on by a wound inflicted by an Indian. Before they died, both requested of their best friend to be buried in Texas, and both Goodnight and Call made good on a difficult promise to return their bodies to their home, Texas.

Oliver Loving (December 4, 1812 – September 25, 1867) was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky. When he was a boy, his family moved to Muhlenburg County where he farmed until he, his brother, and his brother-in-law moved their families to the Republic of Texas. In Texas, Loving received 639.3 acres of land in three patents spread through three Collin, Dallas, and Parker county.

By 1857, Loving owned 1,000 acres of land and was raising cattle. The need for cattle was elsewhere, so to market his large herd, Loving drove them out of Texas. In that same year he entrusted his nineteen-year-old son, William, to drive his and his neighbors' cattle to Illinois up the Shawnee Trail. The drives made a profit of $36 per head and encouraged Loving to repeat the trek the next year.

In 1866 Loving heard about the need for cattle at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, Loving gathered a herd of cattle and combined it with that of Charles Goodnight. Together they began a long drive to the fort. Their route later became known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail, and the project proved very profitable to them.

In the spring of 1867, Loving and Goodnight started a new cattle drive, again to Ft. Sumner. This drive was “snake bit” from the start; it was slowed by days of heavy rains, and threats from Indians all along the way kept the cattlemen on constant guard. Severa ldays out of Ft. Sumner, Loving went ahead of the herd,

Although he told Goodnight that he would travel only at night through Indian country, Loving became impatient and pushed ahead during the day. His actions brought a Comanche attack, and during the first few minutes of the attack, Loving was seriously wounded.

Loving and Wilson took refuge under a small dirt embankment, and killed several Indians who tried to charge their location. Understanding that their best chance for survival was for one of them to get help, Loving sent Wilson back to the herd for the others. Loving spent the next several days fighting off Indian attacks with a repeating rifle and five pistols. Hungry, almost out of ammo, and facing exhaustion from loss of blood, Loving decided to come out and take his chances. He found that the Indians had moved on, either giving up on him, or thinking he was dead. He started walking, and was found by a Mexican family and taken to Fort Sumner. The doctor at Ft. Sumner was inexperienced, and although the wound to Loving’s arm was infected, he chose not to amputate until it was too late. Gangrene set in and Loving died. Goodnight learned of Loving’s plight and hurried to Ft. Sumner. Before Loving died, Goodnight assured him that his wish to be buried in Texas would be carried out. Oliver Loving was buried in Fort Sumner while Goodnight drove the herd on to Colorado, and upon Goodnight’s return, Loving's body was exhumed and carried back to Texas. Stories differ as to who accompanied the body back to Weatherford, but likely it was escorted by both Goodnight and Loving’s son, Joseph. Oliver Loving was reburied in Greenwood Cemetery in Weatherford, Texas, on March 4, 1868. As a member of Phoenix Masonic Lodge No. 275, it is said that he was “buried with Masonic Honors”… likely it was a Masonic funeral.

Oliver Loving was honest to a fault, very well liked, and considered by all to be the father of the cattle drive in Texas. He was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Loving County, Texas and Loving, New Mexico, are named in his honor.

Compiled from The Handbook of Texas Online and Wikipedia by Dick Brown, Chairman, Grand Lodge of Texas History Committee and Lonesome Dove fan.