Poems & lyrics celebrating Kansas Flint Hills land & people by Annie Wilson – the “Flint Hills Balladeer”
I met Jane McKee Layman in 1993, when she was on a deer hunting trip back here to the ranch where she’d grown up. She was 62 at the time, had a long braid down her back, and wore a large hunting knife on her belt. My little girls thought she was something special.
She and her friends insisted on camping out that cold December weekend. I asked if I could interview her about early days on the ranch, and she agreed, turning out to be a great storyteller.
Jane told about driving cattle across a large roadless area northeast of the ranch, to and from Hymer - the closest railroad cattle shipping point. She began doing this with her father at quite a young age in the 1930’s. She recalled: “We always had some twoyear old cattle on feed. We used to drive the cattle to Hymer and load out on the train.
“We would go horseback to Hymer. It was about nine miles. We’d go up through the gate just east of the Foster place.
“So often the train was late and we’d have to wait. What was bad is if we were getting cattle IN, and the train was late. That would be hard and we’d have to hurry to get home before dark.
“To ship OUT, we’d get up in the dark, go out and first thing take care of our horses since they’d have to work all day.Then come in and eat breakfast.
“Then we’d be out in the pasture as soon as we could see. We’d take all the cattle and push them up in the northeast end of the pasture. Cut out the ones we did not want to ship and keep the ones we wanted to ship. And then we’d start the drive.
“How many cattle? I can’t remember numbers. It wouldn’t be a big number. Maybe we’d run 500 head through the chute.
“Best part of that trip is at noon my mom would come up in the car and bring us hot food. Hungry? We were so hungry. The food tasted so good.We’d sit out under a tree and eat.
“When I got older, I was so proud because our neighbor Harold Miller would hire me to help him ship cattle to Hymer. That made me really proud.”
Grownup Jane went on to marry a K-State professor of literature, and became a wildlife photographer and nationally-known dog trainer. Yes, she was something special.
See this and other poems and songs of the Flint Hills at tallgrassexpress.com.
