In 1884 the family moved to Rogers, Arkansas, where John McChesney met and married Tabitha Thomas. In 1887 the young couple relocated to Broken Arrow, Indian Territory, where he opened a blacksmith shop.

In 1890 McChesney moved his operation to Gainesville, Texas, to take advantage of the region's booming prosperity. By 1906, when he issued his first bit and spur catalog, he was working exclusively with those products and also marketing them through local merchants as well as with the Justin Boot Company. In 1910 McChesney's company moved to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, where he bought a city block of property and opened a substantial manufacturing facility that employed fifty workers at its peak.

Following the move to Oklahoma, the company remained a major producer of high-quality, hand-crafted bits and spurs. Its catalogs contained 120 spur patterns and 64 bridle patterns, featuring hand engraving along with copper and silver inlay. However, over time other firms with high-speed machinery began producing a cheaper product that gradually eroded McChesney's sales. He continued the operation with a smaller work force but kept the same high standards for his products until his death at Pauls Valley on January 8, 1928. Ironically, the master spurmaker had also been an active participant in the Garvin County Good Roads Association, which promoted the use of the automobile over the horse. The year following his death the Nocona Boot Company of Nocona, Texas, bought the company and produced the bits and spurs until 1933. J. R. McChesney bits and spurs are now considered one of the finest products of their type and are eagerly sought by western memorabilia collectors.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: "J. R. McChesney," Vertical File, Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Jane Pattie, Cowboy Spurs and Their Makers (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991). "Spur Maker Dies Suddenly," Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), 10 January 1928.

Bobby D. Weaver

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