By the end of the Red River War in 1875, settlers began moving into this area, where the J.A. Ranch stretched across five counties and employed ranch hands and cowboys to care for over 100,000 cattle, creating a strong need for blacksmiths to make horseshoes, spurs, and branding irons when supplies were hard to obtain. James Oscar Bass was born on March 19, 1879, in Atlanta, Georgia, one of seven children, and moved with his family to Young County, Texas, in 1890 and to the Panhandle a year later, settling in what became Quitaque after they were unable to transport their wagon over Caprock Canyon. In 1897, at age eighteen, Bass opened a blacksmith shop in Quitaque, where he made spurs for local cowboys and ranchers. Lazy F and Matador ranch hands prized Bass spurs for their durability, and orders for his spurs and bridles reached other states, including Montana and Nevada, as well as the Texas Rangers and Western movie star Tom Mix. Bass moved his shop to Tulia in 1902 for a more centralized and populated location, and when Tulia incorporated in 1909 he became one of its first city commissioners alongside other early pioneers. In 1914, he won the metallurgy award at the Texas State Fair for a pair of Gal-Leg spurs with inlaid and overlaid gold and silver. He retired in 1924, bought land west of Plainview, died on February 3, 1950, and was buried in Plainview Cemetery. His craftsmanship, worn and valued by many cowboys and ranchers, left a legacy on the Panhandle frontier and beyond.