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CONTACT:
Dean Dixon
Historical Resources
(941) 749-1800 ext. 4075
September 2003 Article
Introduction: The Manatee
County Historical Records Library is a wealth
of information about our local past. Documents from
as early as the 1850's describe the life and times
of Manatee County residents and weave many an interesting
tale. Each month, we will post a new story for you
based on documents in our library. We invite all of
you to come to the library, located
at 1405 4th Avenue West, to see these documents
for yourself and to touch, feel and experience our
heritage.
Manatee County Marks and Brands
Early Manatee
County Marks and Brands
A giant part of Manatee County's agricultural past is the
cattle industry. In fact, Florida has been a region for raising
cattle since the time of the first Spanish colonists. Like
every industry, a system of management peculiar to that industry
evolved with it and the first settlers to the Manatee County
used those methods with varying degrees of success.
Florida was an open range state. Fences to keep cattle in
were illegal and cows were free to go where they wished. Under
these circumstances, it was easy for herds from different
owners to mix. It also made it easy to steal cattle and falsely
accuse others of stealing cattle. On the other side of the
coin, a free range allowed all the cattle to go find the best
grasses to eat and freed the rancher from having to buy and
cultivate the land necessary to raise his own cattle. In early
Manatee County the open range philosophy was considered the
best way for ranchers to turn a profit.
In order to keep an idea of which cattle belonged to what
owner, the ranchers used a system that was universal to ranchers
everywhere. It was a system of marks and brands. After a certain
age, the cow would be marked. This meant that the ranchers
would cut out sections of the cow's ears in geometrical shapes.
They might cut out a triangle on one ear and a rectangle on
the other, or two rectangles on one and cut the corner of
the ear off on the other. The different marks were limitless,
but each mark was the trademark of that owner, meaning all
of that owners' cows had that mark.
The second identifier on the cow was the brand. The brand
was a mark placed on the side of the cow by a burning iron.
The iron was an iron rod with a wooden handle. On the end
opposite the handle would be pieces of metal bent into a certain
shape. The rancher would come up with a design and bend bits
of iron into that shape. For instance, since my first and
last name both begin with D, I might choose to place 2 Ds
back to back and my brand would be called "the double
d." The brands were imaginative. One early Manatee brand
is the "rocking M" which was an M on top of a semi
circle making it look like a rocking chair. Another was the
"lazy diamond B," a B inside a diamond and the long
ends of the diamond were on the sides-- like the diamond is
lying down, hence "lazy." A brand by a rancher named
Daughtry from 1882 was simply the shape of a heart; the Gillette's
brand from 1850 is a simple number 18.
Simply having marks and brands didn't make it legal. You had
to register your brands with the county. In the Historical
Records Library, you will find the books where the ranchers
over the years registered their brands. On a page of the book,
the name of the rancher is written. Beside it is a drawing
of the brand. The pages of the books have a column of figure
8s on the far right hand side. These represent the cow's ears
and the rancher has to draw the earmarks that he intends to
use on the figure 8.
Today, as you drive through the countryside, you can see orange
tags hanging from the ears of cows to register the owners.
Brands today are put on by a freeze-drying process, which
is far less painful to the cow. Florida has not been a free-range
state for a long time but it is still necessary to keep track
of cattle. But, the old system of marks and brands are giving
way to modern technology and creative and interesting brands
are turning into historical amusements, but they can still
be seen at the Historical Records Library.
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