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Historian Drew Bullard (left) visits with Bernhard Bartels following Thursday’s Historic Scurry County, Inc., meeting. Bullard updated the group on his research of J. Wright Mooar and the white buffalo he killed in Scurry County.
Historian Drew Bullard provided members of Historic Scurry County, Inc., with an update on his research on J. Wright Mooar and the white buffalo he killed in Scurry County.
Bullard said Mooar’s family had arranged for him to travel New York to work, but he rode the train to Hays, Kan., where he began hunting buffalo at the age of 19. He sold the meat to the railroad contractors and the hide to a market.
According to Bullard, Mooar participated in a project in 1871, at the request of buffalo merchant Charlie Wrath to provide 500 buffalo hides to an English firm for leather. After Mooar reached his quota, he sent 57 leftover hides to New York. Bullard said it was at that time a market for buffalo hides began.
Mooar’s brother, John, who was a jeweler in New York, joined him in Kansas to hunt buffalo. They moved their operation to Dodge City, Kan., but later moved to Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.
Bullard said Mooar settled in Scurry County and on Oct. 7, 1876, he spotted a rare white buffalo, a four-year old cow. Mooar shot and killed it and according to Bullard it was the only white buffalo killed in Texas.