D. J. O'MALLEY

           D. J. O'Malley was born in San Angelo, Texas. His stepfather, K. White, served in the 19th Infantry of the U.S. Infantry. As a consequence, O'Malley spent many of his early years at frontier outposts. In 1877, White and his family  moved, along with the U.S. 2nd Cavalry, to Fort Keogh, near Miles City, Montana. This move was only about a year after The Battle Of Little Big Horn and Fort Keogh was not many miles from the battlefield. Indian warfare continued for several years, and O'Malley had keen recollections of these early frontier times. He described in vivid terms the removal of 4,000 Indians from the area to reservations in Montana and Dakota by use of sternwheel steamers on the Yellowstone River. He knew many of the scouts, as well as buffalo hunters  and trappers who came to the Fort.

        In 1882,  O'Malley went to work for a Montana cattle outfit, Home Land And Cattle Co., operating under the brand of N-Bar-N.  He became an all-around cowboy; and remained with this company until they sold out in 1896.  For the next 5 years, O'Malley rode for other outfits in Eastern Montana. Three trips over the trail with southern cattle bound for northern ranges are among the many incidents that O'Malley remembered and wrote about.   He worked as a cowboy for about 19 years. O'Malley also served for a period of time as a deputy stock inspector for the Montana Stock Grower's Association. In 1904, he served as a special deputy sheriff for Custer County.  A few years later, he was employed as a guard in the Montana State Penitentiary in Deer Lodge.
  
        It was early in his cowboy career that O'Malley discovered he had a  knack for writing cowboy verses. His verses proved to be good entertainment when sung to old tunes around the campfire. O'Malley sent in a poem or two to the Stock Grower's Journal, the local Miles City weekly. He eventually became a regular contributor.  Using his step father's name, he wrote under the pen name of N BAR N Kid White. Four of O'Malley's poems became well known as songs.: Sweet By And By Revised,  A Cowboy's Death,  After The Roundup and The D-2 Horse Wrangler. 

      It has been said that the most O'Malley ever got for any of his poems, was a $5 hat. While his poems became popular as songs, O'Malley did not get the credit for them.  O'Malley resented the fact that others claimed his poems for their own and collected the royalties on them.  One such person was  R. O. Mack.  Mack's name appeared on a sheet music edition of "When the Work is Done Next Fall", issued in 1929 by a well known publishing house in New York City. When would-be poets such as Mack  would claim his work, O'Malley would haul out the originals which had been published in the Stock Grower's Journal.  Below is  his poem, After The Roundup ((When The Work's All done This Fall)).