Whiskey & Westerns on Wednesday: The Print Olive Story

Isom Prentice Olive fought with the Texas Volunteers during the Civil War and then returned to his father’s ranch in Williamson County, Texas. After the Civil War, Texas was in the days of the maverick: thousands of head of wild cattle, untended during the war, roamed the thickets. Many Texans considered that any unbranded steer was fair game and belonged to the man who roped it. The big ranchers did not agree and considered these beasts ‘by right’ theirs. It was not long after these disputes over unbranded cattle that the Olive family became a brand of their own. This is the story of Print Olive from Texas to the Western Cattle Trails to Nebraska range and his final resting place in Dodge City.