Abilene adapted after cattle trade left

While some may have mourned the loss of the trade, others were celebrating all across the county.
On Feb. 29, 1872, the Abilene Weekly Chronicle reprinted an article from the Solomon Weekly Times that congratulated Abilene emphatically for finally ending the cattle trade. According to the Solomon Weekly Times: “our Abilene friends deserve credit for the effective manner in which they are clearing out the town of vagabonds, cut-throats, and prostitutes that have infested it in the past.

They have never been tolerated by the citizens of Abilene, but flocked in there on account of the great number of Texas cattle drivers that have made Abilene their headquarters. It is now an orderly, respectable city, filling up with the best of law abiding citizens. The Texas cattle trade is among the things of the past, and the Abilene of today is not the Abilene of the past.”