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Photo postcard of L. V. Browning and company on the road to the Spud Rodeo in Greeley, Colorado, 1938.

Born in Racine, Wisconsin, around 1874, L.V.  Browning was described in one newspaper article as a “Rip Van Winklish” man about five feet in height, dark-complexioned from spending most of his life outdoors, with a mixed black and gray beard and long gray hair hanging over the back of his neck.   Born with itchy feet in Racine, Wisconsin, around 1870, Browning quit school in the “third reader” then at age 18 set off on a five-year tramp around the world.  At age 26, he joined the Ringling Brothers circus as a trainer/exhibitor of horses and burros.  And, according to the text at the bottom of this postcard, he also performed as a clown for the circus.   It was after leaving the circus over 20 years later that L.V. began traveling the nation to show off his trained burros and other pets.  In 1934 he rode a bull from Edinburg, Texas,  to Washington, D.C., and paid for the trip by selling 17,000 postcards, perhaps ones akin to the promotional postcard featured here.  

As you’ll note in the picture, he has emblazoned his covered wagon with his planned itinerary for his overland trip from Edinburg to Greeley.  According to newspaper articles in the Greeley Tribune and the Harlingen, Texas, Valley Morning Star, L.V. began this journey as early as April of 1938, with a plan to be in the Greeley Spud Rodeo by the Fourth of July.  His planned route within Texas would take him through San Antonio, Fredericksburg and Amarillo.    

Greeley’s Spud Rodeo was the initial incarnation of the present-day Greeley Stampede.  It was first organized in 1922 in honor of potato farmers. 

L.V. probably didn’t make it to Greeley, or, if he did, it would have been long after the Fourth of July, for mid-June found him still in Texas (Lubbock) with his wagon and animals.   His wagon still emblazoned with news of his trek, he indicated to a reporter that his plan to be in Greeley by the Fourth of July was still on.  However, five weeks later he was in Pampa, Texas, where he had encamped behind the Fox Rig and Lumber plant.  Perhaps he was affected by grief after losing his wife, who died in the same year as his Colorado journey.

The pictured contingent of five burros, a cat (on his shoulder) and a dog (at his feet) was a normal one for L.V.  He loved his animals.    He spoke with emotion in his voice about losing his prize burro, Toby, which he had bought in 1902.  Toby is buried near Stinnett, Texas, where he had gotten into some grasshopper poison. 

L.V. succumbed to pernicious anemia on May 21, 1939, in Parkland Hospital, Dallas, Texas.  He’d been in Dallas for about 6 days before he died.  I was saddened in reading his death certificate to count over 10 boxes in which someone has written “Don’t Know” in answer to the questions that determine so much about who we are, such as date of birth, when and where we were born, occupation and the names of parents and spouse.  L.V.’s remains were interred in the Dallas City Cemetery.

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