"Brand"-Name Dress

In honor of the opening of our newest traveling exhibit, Cowgirls: Contemporary Portraits of the American West A Program of Exhibits USA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance And The National Endowment for the Arts, and our own related temporary exhibit, Cowgirls: Ranchers, Ropers, and Rodeo Queens, which will both be on exhibit from September 13 – November 14, 2009, this column is going to focus on Thelma Webber as a prairie woman and rancher. As part of the Taylor family, Taylor being her maiden name, Thelma was one of the pioneers to the area, back when you could really consider this area to be “the wild west”. She began her life in a two-bedroom mud house in Eddy County where her father raised and sold sheep. Her ranch training began early when her mother risked her own life to help find and herd the sheep in a blizzard saying “Those sheep are our living”. With this dedication ingrained in her as a child, Thelma was destined to grow up to be a strong, confident ranch woman.

Throughout her life, Thelma learned to handle horses, sheep, and household chores. These skills would come in handy later when she married Virgil Linam in 1921 and they began raising their own cattle. When Virgil and Thelma began ranching they used a combination of horses and pick-ups, originally a Model T. Thelma wrote in her book, Life on the Prairies: Settling the Llano Estacado, “I have made many mistakes with both horses and cars, but making mistakes is the best way I know to learn”. Mistakes or not, Thelma assisted Virgil with the animals as well as such tasks as drilling wells and much more all while raising two girls, Bruce Alene and Alta Faye. In 1932 after writing to the Goodnight Ranch to inquire about their buffalo heard, Virgil and Thelma decided to buy three buffalo calves and begin their own buffalo herd. Mr. Hubbard, who was in charge of the buffalo at the Goodnight Ranch, gave Virgil and Thelma many tips for raising buffalo as they were quite different from raising cattle or sheep. For example, he told them to put the buffalo in one pasture and never move them or they would run away. Also, he told them that they would not run into a solid wall but they would try to break through gates. Over the years the buffalo provided Thelma’s family with many robes, coats, and rugs. She also used the buffalo to assist the community. When supplies and food were short during World War II, Thelma and Virgil used their buffalo to feed school children in the community. Thelma kept the buffalo until 1974 when she sold the herd to Pat Chowning in Albuquerque. At the request of Faye and Bruce, Thelma kept three buffalo calves which she then gave to the girls to care for. Thelma kept the cattle until 1968 when she gave each daughter ten cow and calf pairs, sold the rest, and turned the running of the ranch over to her daughters.

Having lived on some sort of ranch all her life, Thelma Webber was not only a pioneer woman in the area but a ranch woman as well. She was not afraid of work and always kept ranching close to her heart. In the Linam Ranch Museum she displayed a dress of green fabric machine sewn with hand-sewn rope trim that contains the brand-marks from her family’s ranches as well as other ranches in the area. Thelma’s own brand is prominently placed on the collar of the dress, the Steeple L. Because of this love and respect of ranching, Thelma’s dress will be featured in our temporary exhibit, Cowgirls: Ranchers, Ropers, and Rodeo Queens, at the Western Heritage Museum Complex and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame from September 13 – November 14, 2009.

Pictures of Thelma’s family’s brands and quotes in this column come from Thelma A. Webber’s book: Life on the Prairies: Settling the Llano Estacado.