Brand names: Ranching history lives on by design By SUNNI THIBODEAU/Gazette Staff Cowboys in the Old West often made a game out of reading the brands of the cattle they tended. Sometimes, the game was taken so seriously there was bloodshed. Brands are still with us today, and they are every bit as personal as they were 100 years ago. Some have been with a family for generations, as in the Hart family. "The brand is one of the oldest in Texas and is on display in the Kleburg building at Texas A&M University," said Kathy Hart. The Hart brand came to Bowie County in 1888 with M.A. Hart Sr. in 1885 and passed to M.A. Hart Jr. in the 1930s, until his death in 1936. The brand was widely known in the state by the time J.C. Hart used it from the 1930s to the 1960s, and Joe Connor Hart still uses the brand today. The brand is a simple heart, but used in a variety of ways to denote each family member's livestock. On the left hip, it belongs to James Hart. On the left shoulder, the stock belongs to Joe Connor Hart. Kathy Hart's stock bears the heart on the right shoulder, and Joe Hart claims the upside down heart. The oldest brands in the state could be considered to be CortŽs' three crosses, but the oldest recorded brands are in Harris County, Texas, circa 1836. Most counties didn't record brands until the late 1870s. Some brands have brought their legacy to new owners. James Berryhill's unique brand is 5¢. Originally the brand came from Rancho Cinco Centavos in Southern California, and was owned by early settlers to the area. "I'm only the third owner of that brand," Berryhill said. He purchased the brand from the second owner, appropriately named Nickles, in 1977 and moved it to Bowie County when he bought the Crossbar Ranch in 1979. Brands are registered at the Bowie County Clerk's Office. They must be reregistered every 10 years. Listed in the book are the name of the registered owner, the design, location of the design on the animal and the date of registration. Some brands are used for both cattle and horses. Of those, some use the same placement for both types of livestock, while others change the location of the brand to fit the animal. The Telford Unit uses a star, but brands cattle on the left hip and horses on the left shoulder. No registered brand can be exactly the same, although it can be the same brand in different sites on the animal. To make the brand unique, registered owners have to be creative. Letters are tipped and turned, topped and circled to create variations on the theme. Over the years, names for the derivations of design developed. A letter on its side was called lazy, half turned was referred to as sleepy, and sitting on a half circle was called rocking. Letters could be boxed, blocked, tumbling or crazy. Bars, stripes, rafters, rails, chains, circles and diamonds could be added. Letters could be extended to make running letters, or tiny feet could be added to make walking letters. Wings make the letters fly. The variety of brands in the Bowie County records is impressive. Capitalizing on the letter "F," Larry Freeman claims the "Raising F" and Dale Freeman attached arrow points to create the "Shooting F." Tommy Batchelor has a capital "T" topped by a lazy" B." The "4 B" brand belongs to Charles Birdsong only slightly altered from Charles Brown's similar brand, the numeral "4" attached to the Letter "B." Frank Cox uses the letter "C" with an "x" inside an ""O" to spell "Cox" in a unique way. Jeff Carlton and his sister, Karla, use the same brand, a "J" attached to a "C," but in different areas of the cow. "That way we only have to buy one branding iron," she said. The "99" brand registered to Jesse Taylor and the "66" brand registered to Jimmy Taylor look as if they would have the same capability. Brands have to be made somewhere, and the job often falls to Justin Totty and his father at their T&H Welding in DeKalb, Texas. Most designs are already registered by the time the welders get the call, although some come in to have their branding iron built before they register. Much of the business comes from older ranches needing new irons, although some new ranches come in for first-time brands. "There are quite a few bars, but most go towards the flying," Totty said. "Any brand that has a "C " or an "O' in it is hard because if you aren't careful, the inside will peel. Most stick with letters or numbers." Some owners change their brands slightly. A registration on an open cloverleaf design shows the owner changing the brand into a closed cloverleaf the following year, citing equipment changes. Heat branding isn't the only method of branding, although it is probably the best known. In recent years, freeze branding, acid branding, microchip implantation and tattoos have all gained in popularity. "If you cross the state line with a horse, it needs a health certificate," said Deanna Crawford, a secretary and receptionist in the office of New Boston, Texas, veterinarian Dr. Edward Higgins. "It needs to be identified in one way or another." The new Equine Passport, allowing extended passage between states, requires a permanent identification such as a tattoo or a brand. Acid branding is not widely used in the area, partly because the extended period required to create the scar tissue is irritating to the animal. Horses are often freeze branded with a cold iron or tattooed on the inside of the upper lip and the numbers registered with their registry. Thoroughbreds are tattooed with an identifying number, but the number is required by the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau for racing identification purposes rather than Jockey Club registry purposes. Cattle are tattooed on the ear or wherever their particular registry requires the tattoo to be located. "A lot of owners do it for their own personal means of identification," Crawford said. Cattle breeders showing their best stock look for easy identification; those with cattle in the pasture need a way to identify their stock if it wanders into another pasture. Microchips are sometimes used for horses and were hailed as the ultimate means of identification when they were introduced, but they have been more widely used for smaller animals and ratites at the peak of that industry's popularity. When Bret Stubbs shod horses, he noticed that he could see the microchips under the horse's skin. "To me, that doesn't seem permanent," he said. Instead, he and his wife, Suzanne, use their Rising Star brand on both cattle and horses as a theft deterrent. Suzanne designed the brand using an "S" with a three-sided star rising from the top curve. They use a heat brand now, but he likes the option of freeze branding, believing it to be less stressful on the animal. The hair follicle is killed by the cold application. Dark hair turns white and light hair resembles a heat brand. Stubbs said it takes only 3 seconds to turn the hair white and only 8 seconds to resemble the heat brand. "I've got a horse I bought that was freeze branded," he said. "On a dark horse it really stands out."