No Life for a Lady

Agnes Morley was the daughter of a Civil War vet who went home to Iowa and got an engineering degree that led to his becoming a premier engineer for the Santa Fe R.R. He was there when the race took place to be first over Raton Pass and also through the Royal Gorge (where Bat Masterson organized a posse that unsuccessfully held off the Denver and Rio Grande RR as I recall with members of the Dodge City fraternity that included Doc Holliday, Ben Thompson and other notable gunfighers and even Eddie Foy, later a great comedian, who went along for the excitement)all typical of the early days of railroading in the West. Morley was also an associate of the New Mexico participants in the Colfax County War in New Mexico, a parallel to the Lincoln County War that made Billy the Kid famous. Equally famous was Clay Allison, a wild man of the West who was a principal character of the War, which was centered in the vicinity of Cimarron, New Mexico. Agnes's father died in Mexico while pushing the railroad from Benson, Arizona to Guamas, Mexico. He was either accidentally shot in taking a rifle from his buggie, or as his grandon thought, was murdered as part of a plot relating to railroad competition. After his death his strong wife took over the rearing of their children. She managed the Cimarron newspaper that irritated Clay Allison, and he burned it out one night. In the aftermath he learned that a widdy woman ran it, helped set it back up, stating that he didn't make war on women. She later settled on the large range that her husband had aquired north of the present small town of Datil. The adventures there of her family are classics of Western experience that are not exactly things of the past. Read about her and her brother (who went to college and is in the football hall of fame) as they walk down the top rail of their corral with a pet bear cub, a rooster, a goat and sundry other animals following along on the ground. Read how, when she was away to school her brother wrote of the mountain lion that raided the place, killed their bitch hound who defended her pup and generally wrought havoc. Her brother wrote her the information and told her, "You should have been here, there was a hellacious fuss." which she read to her horrified teachers and class, not realizing it was anything out of the ordinary. She knew outlaws and lawmen, such as Elfego Baca, who Disney immortalized in a movie. When he defended her neighbor in a self-defense killing, she recommended to Elfego that he forget the fancy arguments and just tell the truth. He said, "The truth! The truth! This is a murder case. We lie. They lie. Everybody lies." As I recall the killer was convicted on his first trial. He told Agnes, "Elfego took my cattle on the first trial and when he got me off on appeal, he took my ranch." Elfego lived until 1946 as a fixture in Albuquerque. His type are by no means gone. You can go to Datil and vicinity today and see the old west exactly as it was then, with the bark

I work for a school that just purchased 600 acres of the ranch described in this book. The area IS as beautiful as she describes, is as rugged and the people are just as hard-working and caring. I found the book to be a great story. She says she is just a story-teller, but what a good one! It makes the past come alive. My husband and I read parts of it out loud, while camping in the very ranch she describes. WARNING! Once you start, it is hard to put down.

The title is misleading, as she truly must have been a great lady. This is a classic memoir by a woman who grew up in 19th-century New Mexico, and worked and rode side-by-side with the men, taking the full responsibilities and knocks of a hard life and keeping a great sense of humor through it all. The only concession to her gender is that she apparently rode sidesaddle, remarkably enough!

Mrs. Cleaveland has a friendly style of writing that makes it seem as if she is talking to you across a cup of coffee. This is an honest rendition of ranch life before the fence and automobile. The book explains why and how ranchers did what they did. It describes the wiles of cow and horse which were the constant focus of the rancher and all ranch hands. Growing up on a ranch was a job for everone regardless of age or sex, and if you earned respect, you got it. I recommend this book to anyone looking for some good stories, and anyone interested in the history of the west.

An unusual view of ranch life as presented by a well written and humourous female author. They say truth is stranger than fiction, and in this case it certainly is. After you've read the book, next time you're driving through New Mexico stop in Datil for a cup of coffee and talk to the locals, it's an interesting comparison of past and present. A jolly spiffing read.