Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1883 — “Mavericks.” [ARTICLE]

“Mavericks.”

, All range cattle are branded with the private mark of the owner. This is chiefly done while they are calves; the ownership of the young animal,being determined by the brand given its mother. In Texas it was once a legitimate and universal practice to capture any animal uritaarbed and affix your own brand td s ,nQ. ; inatter to whose herd it really belonged so long as it was one year old and -unbrauded. During the year just following tho,break-up of the war, branding -‘.‘Mavericks,” as these young unmarked animals were termed, was the,most profitable business a cattle man could follow. Their attention was chiefly directed to females, which were found in great abundance ranging from one to five years old. The queer title then bestowed upon these unbranded animals still clings to them. It is derived from an old Frenchman named Mauvric, who began stock raising in that section with a very few head of cattle, and in a remarkably .short ypace of time had secured an enormously larfefe herd. It was finally discovered lb ah <he actually branded fifty head for each cow he