5 Research Tips for your Black Cowboy Ancestor

 

 Wichita Beacon, 25 Apr  1975 

The Western Expansion

Sometimes I wonder if I was raised in an alternate USA. The Black Cowboy's importance to westward expansion has ALWAYS been a part of my ancestral history. I went to a "black rodeo" before the age of fifteen.

My maternal ancestors are seven (7) generations Western Kansans, my father's line was five.

Here's a photo of my Great-Grandma's second husband, Arthur White at the Hutchinson Diamond Pow Wow. (For G-GP Arthur, this event was not tied to Native Americans.)

Photo: 1946, Hutchinson Diamond Pow Wow. William Arthur White (Arthur), mulatto, born 23 September 1890 in Trenton, Missouri, died 15 May 1973 in Hutchinson, KS. Hopefully, this was just a git-up, especially the gun, since Arthur was blind in his right eye.

The seventy-fifth anniversary of Hutchinson, KS celebrated its founding with the “Diamond Pow Wow.” This four-day celebration was held May 15 - 18,1946, and featured street entertainment, parades, and a historical pageant. Three pages of pictures were taken and featured in the June 17 issue of Life.

Research Tips

Yes, you can find your cowboy ancestors too.
Library of Congress Learn more about Black Cowboys at “Home on the Range” by Neely Tucker at the Library of Congress.https://lnkd.in/gm7gghJU

1 )Learn more about Black Cowboys at “Home on the Range” by Neely Tucker at the Library of Congress.

2)  use the occupation option and put in Cowboy

Tobler was in enumerated from the Leavenworth Penitentiary, 1900

Get this, he was imprisoned for swindling others with Confederate bills (money) in 1896!!! Yes, a local market and a butcher let him buy a dollar worth of goods and gave him change on his $20.00 of fraudulent money. I'll share how I traced him via a subsequent post. He was fun!

3) local newspaper searches

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-iola-register/159250910/

4) Cowboy Museums. Did you even know there was a Black American West Museum in Denver? Go on a limb, and ask your local museum to share this part of America's history: Black Cowboys: An American Story.

The Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas

5)  Compilation of Black Cowboy Resources: https://lnkd.in/gSqAMs-E

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Kathleen Brandt, a3Genealogy