Circle-Dot / Bookcrop (ePub)

"Donoho...drove the first herd of cattle from Texas to Abilene... associated with Buffalo Bill and Will Bill...in the early days of the Dodge City and Abilene border troubles." -LA Times, March 24, 1921.

"Donoho...a pioneer cowboy of the Southwest...'Circle Dot' is considered one of the best works every penned by a Kansas writer." -KC Times, March 24, 1921

Donoho...was himself a cowboy back in the 60's and 70's...is conversant with every phase of cowboy life...the book is of value historically and is intensely interesting." -Ft. Scott Republican, Feb. 4, 1908

"35 years ago, March 24, 1921, Judge Milford H. Donoho, 77, Civil and Indian War veteran and former associate of Buffalo Bill, died at his Hollywood home." -LA Times, March 24, 1956

Outperforming all the Hollywood "Wild West" hype, Milford Hill Donoho (1844-1921) himself a cowboy (who later retired as a judge and moved to Hollywood), writes a book in narrative form of the many dangers and difficulties faced by real cowboys like himself in Texas, Kansas, and Indian Territory (Oklahoma) during the true Wild West days of the 1860s and 70s.

Donoho's 1907 book "Circle-Dot: A True Story of Cowboy Life Forty Years Ago," is considered one of the best works written by an early Kansas author. According to the KC Times, Jan. 1, 1948, Donoho's book "is largely biographical and recount's the judge's early years as a cowboy."

In introducing his book, Donoho writes:

"To travel over the ground where these cattle once grazed in countless numbers...makes the old cowboy long to again see the prairies covered with long horned cattle, picturesque wild horses, and herds of innumerable buffaloes; to once more ride the bucking broncho in pursuit of the wild steer and the fighting maverick; to hear the coyote's howl and the stampede's roar; to inhale the aroma of wild flowers whilst breathing the life-giving air that blows across the free and untrammeled plains, where the sun rises and sets in a halo of glory, where you have that thrilling of the heart, that buoyancy of spirit, that drives away every care and makes you laugh at danger."

About the author:

Milford Hill Donoho was born March 29, 1844, in Tennessee and died March 23, 1921 in Hollywood, California. He was a Civil and Indian War veteran and a Kansas lawyer for 30 years He entered the Army at the outbreak of the Civil War and served until its end. At the close of the war he took charge of a number of cowboys and drove the first herd of cattle from Texas to Abilene, Texas. As a government scout he became associated with Buffalo Bill and Will Bill in the early Kansas days and was engaged in many campaigns with these men in the early days of the Dodge City and Abilene border troubles. Shortly before the Custer massacre, Judge Donoho was sent by the government to Cheyenne to confer with Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and other Sioux chiefs. He then received the appointment of chief counsel for the old Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad being the first man appointed to this position. As counsel for the road he became one of the best known lawyers in the Middle West. He was elected judge on the Kansas bench and served for two years. He also wrote a number of books on law as well as history and fiction. He retired from active business life when he came to California in 1912.