Recording by: Louis Capron

Title: Cowboys in Central Florida

Dates: nd

Duration: 0:21:54

File name : CAPRON 2

 

Originally recorded on reel to reel at 3.75 ips

Digitally reformatted February 2008

 

This recording consists of three segments.  Louis Capron is the speaker for each.  In the first segment he gives Lilly Capron’s recipe for sweet potato pudding.  He lists all the ingredients and explains how to mix and bake them. The second segment is a reading of the poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” which is incomplete.  The third is an account of cowboys in central Florida.  It starts with mention of the type of dog presumably used on the cattle drives.  Capron speaks of some of the equipment used by cowboys such as the type of rope, the bullwhip, and a knife.  He mentions the round ups and how the cattle were branded with a branding iron before a drive.  If a branding iron was not available a running iron was used.  He explains how brands were sometimes altered by cattle rustlers but that the original brand could still sometimes be identified.  Cattle had earmarks too and today the brands and earmarks are registered in Tallahassee.  Capron mentions how horses were not shod as the soil in Florida was sandy and provided soft footing for the horses.  He also mentions cattle drives and how pens were built to contain the cattle overnight.  He mentions the use of “catch dogs” which would go after a bull which might break from the herd.