Document text
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Djed
IMITOMIAL 60
by
Mrs. Plerasse AngOrS111
Pioneer Xxvorioneos and
Cowboy Tales of
JAEAY Dub 41/1; COMM DISTRICT PIO
ROBERT WILLIAM LITTE
ago I
fE.B.2:(5„.',93
TIGIIIS5,
Alf2110114‘',11 /r.
Sr,M PV:031j
RI was born ta Ovadalupo Goody on Palestina day in 1664 end I've
baan a plumb good Palestine over sins*. Dors on my father's ranoh of
course. It was all open range slaw to the °oast and we had lets of
cattle, horses and hogs. lverything that vent with a ranch. I was
the only boy in the family and I started going out on the roumdups when
I wss 15 years old. I was sort of spoilt too, as had fly. sisters,
though two of than were half-sisters.
”I don't remember mush about my father; he dial when I vas only
two or three years old. Ris same was William Wallowa Little. After I
got old enough, I boon helping nether with the stosk that my lather
had loft her. Right there is where the old L IT bras* startod. They
had cattle and horses. My &Wm' **rail& Y. P. Outlaw a little later and
stayed wiih then till I was about fifteen or sixteen years old before
nulled out for good. He vas a good mask, thoUgh ma& over-avoragr
stepfather.
',When I was little! going to school, I picked out a littlo girl
that was my sweetie. I had to rite horsabeek„ but when I got with her
I'd get off' my horse and load him and walk with her. She was a little
black -headed, blask-eyed thing and I thought she was about thikprettiest
thing I ever saw. I Just naturally lowed her because eh* was my type
and when I was about 16 and she was 35, we Imre engaged. We lived is
Ocwbop Tales --R.W. Little
Peg* 8
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about a half..nile of each other and I *eat see her pretty often. But, I
drifted off and we got sepaisted ant newer married. I still love her
because she is a fine woman. Willi* iliemnito visit her every now and
then, but I haven't soon her in moan mar years.
"I sort of run off from home wheal first left. We lived in about
eight miles of Seguin. They were building thim new railroad down to Laredo
And I helped build that last mile of railroad there now. I was a good
team driver and they At me on the last job finishing up. I was just a kid,
but was a sort of professional with a team. That was the first deb I ever
had away from home. While I was working there, somebody go, to raiding the
horse herd at nights. They told as it was Indians, but I knew better. I
had seen a fine saddle hanging up in the brush a short ways from our camp
and I knew it was either Mexisens or white rustlers.
"There had been two boys run limy from Seguin for owe stealing. They
were from a fine family, too, but they took to that life. I knew them well,
Well, they come into comp one nkht for something to *et. They had been
away from home three or four years when they showed up at this camp, but I
knoved 'em. I give 'es something to emilt'and one of than had one of the
best saddles I ever looked at. Re told ms he had just bought it in Laredo
that day. If I'd been a thief, I'd have stele that saddle, myself.
"After I went bask home, I never said nothing *bout it for I had
some bask to see that little blmeb0eyed girl I was telling you abaft.
It was two or three years from than that both of thotqee brothers died from
t.b. One of them died away from hems and the other one got so low, they
sent for him and brought him home berets he died*
"In September, l886, we loll 0$ that ranch in Guadalupe (Musty and
moved to Frio County. The bairn still own that place down there. I took
the cattle and herein down to the new ransh for then.. Mere was something
Cowboy Tales X. W. Little
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like one -hundred and fifty head at settle and their saddle horses. We got
there just in tine to get atm.& ap la Ike tonip•outting outfit. It was
worse there than anywhere I ovalit was Mpi, lite. They was going to hold
that down, but they couldn't do it. Mei ilikt one pasture fens* there, that
I know of, twice between *soh post for at least ten miles. You know they
passed a law made it a penitentiary offense for fence 'utters,- for it
got to where they were so bad aboUt it that the fonse•builders had to make
it hard on then and they finally broke it up. Of eours*, where there was
so much money to build right bask with andiron building mere fences, they
had the money to fight it with. toe.
"After that, I went from Guadalupe County with a herd up %Us trail
for W. C. Irvin. We started two herds and ihsto we got to San Antonio,
where San Ped-ro springs is, they out then into two herds. One want to
Kansas and one went to Le,Salle ettqh-WIPD the old Irvin ranch. I went through
with two•thousand steers -eat I have been with many a stampede but the worst
one I was ever with was right there where Marion is now, about twenty miles
on the other side of San Antonio. That was by far the worst stampede rives
ever in. You couldn't hold lea at all. We was there three or four days
rounding up. Thunder and lightning smio a big storm vas the cause or than
running. There was about thirteen or fourteen men in the outfit and it was
at night. That was one of the worst eleetrieal storms and hardest rains I
ever saw in this country.
NA Negro was riding right in frost of as and he was on a fine horse.
I was on the hest hors* in the world, myself. I told the Negro to make it
to a certain place, about two or *Arlo miles, to where I knew there was a
pasture set in and a lane run out $0 a settlement. 4 knew if we could
beat them to it we could hold 'Ima up. Well we were riding full
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*peed and I heard something ge 14010$19 That Negro and his horse went off
of Ai bluff that looked like about twenty riot to the bottom. The bluff
was straight up and down. The Negro hollered to ma to look out but that
horse of mine had already stopPed. NO had already set his feet on the bank
or the bluff and stopped. It noway hurt the Negro and his horse very bad
but it could hails killed then easy.
"On this same stampede, one of the relieve was riding full speed
and his horse hit a fence sort of quartering and threw that boy over the
fence and on the other side about toasty feet. I was telling Turner
Fergerson about it later on and he vent eft end told IMMO more fellows
that he 'ins riding right behind that tallow and saw him leave that horse
and straddle the fence and he slid down it for a quarter of a mile* taking
fence -posts, stays and everything as he went. One of the !alloys said to
Turner, 'Why, G-4.- 41;.---S Did it kill sing' Turner said, 'No, it didn't
hurt him mush; just split fin up to his bat band.'
"My mother,rode sideways and was always on a horse. She was the best
woman -rider I ever saw in my life, in test she was a batter brons buster
than ever was. The women never rode astraddle but I don't see how in
the world they could ever stay mr mother nfrer was thrown oft and
she could stay with some pretty bed ones. She had rutharhve seen P horse
race than anything on earth. It use all prairie country down there about
Seguin, then, for miles and mite. 14U eould see horses running a long
ways and there is where we used to oath lets of mustande.
"There were some good women riders down in Frio County. There used
to be a girl who sans to every roundUp aad she sure was rider. They
had some real roundups down there tee. I have seen about one -hundred
and fifty man throw together and work clean to San Antonio. We would
camp right where Union Stock Yards are in San Antonio. I have seen as
Coitboy Tales Little
sway as five«thousand °tittle thrown together, and the best. part Of 'It vas
they didn't have chuck -wagons thee. I never saw a wagon at a roundup till
came to Uvalde County. They were mere up.to...date out here, I reekon, I was
used to a pack hors* outfit. I bislie seen peek horses cause many a stampede
too. He would get the peek under him and stamped* the (tattle. We used to
have fifteen or twenty peek horses on these *ow hunts. Bach little outfit,
like those Germans from Oastroville, vouldihave i peek horse to every six
or seven men.
"One time we were gathering *little the other side of Big Foot and
somebody had a wild horse aid had him tied to the peek horse and that wild
horse stampeded the peek horse and they rum right down the country as hart
as they could go neeked together. At ter awhile they just straddled a tree,
one went on one side of the troweled the other horse went on the other.
It killed tima both deader'n hook,
"Along about then, I stayed with Toot Wallace a year. Somebody
bought all the land in there and his trait of land was right in the middle
of it. He was getting old and they were stealing his stuff from him so
stayed there. He was an awful geed friend of my stepfPther's.
"Once a storm came up and it was the darndest rain I ever saw. We
were sleeping in a wagon, and two *In trees blew down right across the
wagon and broke the wagon -bows ant tor* through the wagon sheet. He was
naturally a wicked old man and when this happened, he just lay there mnd
hollered and cussed. But I got out of there. He left these trees across
that wagon four or five days.
"Old Big Foot used to dress in buskskins but he finally got to wearing
duckin's. Ono* he vent to Son Antonio and some outfit dressed him up and
let him look at himself and he didn't know which one he was. And when
saw him I didn't even recognise him. Whenever he vent down there to San
lowboy Tales R.W. TAM.
Page
Ins
ASionto ha would take a little nromblesd and make himself som* (toffee
right there on the plasm. No always serried his ooffoo pot with him.
If the police arrested him, he didn't *are. They would turn him loos*.
Ono time we was on a roundup down billow whore Lytle is now. There
was a big outfit of us. One night, ono of the boys got out off from um
and the next morning he sou* la and says, 'Boys, I soon something I never
soon before in my life. I rode up to a bows this morning and a bunch of
men and a,voman come loping out of the houio on their all -fours barking
like dogs. Th. Man and his wife apposred to be smart loople but all the
Waldron wor* that way except ono boy.' That old boy said he couldn't bolter
his oyes when those grown men and that grown woman come out at him liko that
and that it vas all he could do to keep tron breaking away from there in
a run.
*1 had always fooled with rums horses from the time I Was a kid so
I naturally took to **tablas aaataiss that I vented. We'd set a loop for
them at a water hole and I realahOW One time Sam Blaloek end me were after
a mustang. Sam got up is the trout aid le sad some hands got after this
mustang. MO got out off from his llama aS4 got with our saddle horses.
We run 'an under this tree shore Smn was end he snared him..
"I have known these mnstangO in IWO County to go clear to the Medina
Rim, after vat*, alsn't thirty muss and some bask right to their ranee
I have soon two and three "bunches rum toolbar. I don't gases there wore
ovor thirty or forty hoed in a WOO hut thus would be plenty of bunches.
About the prettiest mustang stallion I over sew was a blood -red with blaeh
tail sad seas. I baler* h0 vee the yeettiost hors* I over saw. No had
a big buseh with him. About tho prettiest paint_horso I ever saw was
caught with a buil& of mustengm bideir-reersall. He was branded, which showed
that he had get with the wasteag0 and run wild. As solos as ho was rope,
he give up quick and ve found that bo was already broke and a good saddle
Cireber Warn R. W. Little
'often those etallieSe %MU abet act to fishnet' it wee earth
eeelag. They bit, paved died kick** est Z tell yes item they get e
good kick la with these hied feel, ft beeisees.
vei think it was La #511 Chem I awed tO Uvalde. helped take a herd
of settle up in ctioat,Kerrville ea filopea cesek sad vim gilt the Met
fits I *one bask to Uvalde horeebeek I stayed here awhile msd loss4 demi
and act my math, and saved seamy here I market on the George Houston
ranch, milled the Frio reed& *es. mr breast me minim their Steams
reash or the V D. M7 sister and her husband were living up there too and
they sent book to Cuadnlupe County fore teeoberlor their children. Abe
was 1,:,iss :Irrah Charles. 1 hedsseea her but I wasn't acquainted with her.
Aut it :lever did /take as Long to get sequainted with e young lady, you
know. flo I'went to see her regular and we married in 1990. We drove down
to f;eguin and got married end ems bask to the Isaiah. The first thing I
remember seeing when we got to the house end lit the leap wee s quart of
whiskey sitting up on the mente10.boerd that old Captain- Dye had sent out.
Amer and others had sent other things and we got several niee Preients.
Uvalde was the nenrest 9Leoe from that ranch about even Ailes. -I
think we must have been there *bout two yetitro before we Itoved to the old
7M1nsln rrnoh.
"Ike. Ilear bought the old 7D ranch on the Hueoes end the company sold
tmt. -hen I :aoved ur to the old Benson roach above Welder I reflood in
about 24,000 ecres of lend end 1 lived their* till it sold. All mu children
were born there except our daughter, With. Then I moved up on the Dry
Frio. i leased the Bailey ranch and lived there 'Wale. i kat; dialing in
orfttle ell the tine. After I bead that ranch, the well went dry.
SWAM Tales 40[.
Peso
S5S
went down and bought a pines rest of tom but *unto& if that well didn't
go dry too. That was some*ought that year. We moved to Waldo then
and the town well mat dry. I think they eonneeted up with Tau Nunn's
well and got waft, for the teen.
"I bought settle for lots ef the old timers. I bought them for
TOR itelftlly and others but meet of sr buying was for the oompany I
worked for maybe eight or temuothousiaid head a year. I used to buy
lots of yearlings every spring starting up at the head at the Nusells
and coming down this say till I had between 11,500 and 5,000 head. I
had to out and pass on every one of the different bunehee.
"Now, ostohing %hoes old outlaw stows in the brush took a good
roper. Ni Bowls. wee awful pot with a repo but I tell you a good
ropily that I liked his style and that rns Sill Patterson. Ma used his
repo like I did. Ha never did wing itg rode right up to the animal
and put it on bin. had a Maxim that was about as good foro-footiag
an mina as John Sleeker was. Mo never did fail. Everett Johnson said
there never was but ono ma that oculd go *round hia in the brush *nor
a steer and that was old Alf Tolletts Sat gosh: Old Alf was the best
sovhand that over was in the brush*
*Everett Johnson vs. ar brelherwin•law aid when they sold out that
old Cross S rasa, southwest of Welt*, they sold Everett, /ahh 510ahar
and Ed English and N.E. Johns** the ream* at the sattlo, a thousand
head of saddlo horses, six aules and tie wagons for $11.000. Well,
thiro were some real old outlaw *twigs in tiler* that nobody had *Ivor boss
able to bring out of there. They were aged stoops and as wild and mean
as you eould find. Those boys went in *we and gathered between !Ivo
and six -thousand head of settles but they had to rope 2,800 hood of old
stows and bulls and hi* ion to the eking stows and bring 'en out
,ITF-RwliTrirprp7117' •'1,"
Oewhoy Tales 4. RAF: Utile'
PIMP 9
there. They had about forty head of seeking steers and there were about
eight or ten mos replas this aged stuff and were paid by the hest.
Everett was a geed rider and roper and he was trained in the brush.
You have to leant to nearly be a part of your horse. I Dever carried
over a twenty-five feet repo. You had ne use for it in the brush.
knew nobody eould anto.rope me very had in the lornsh for I never failed
to get !ma, but John Sleeker was the hest roper in that part of the
sountry. Hs sould fore -foot 4111 *Wm either way. I souldn't do
that; they had to be soda( all the sem way. nut John soul* eateh a
calf from one aide er throw it on the other side and get the one easing
from the other way either way, it dita't matter.
"We caught ass old *tome illoun on the TM *Melly raneh that was
15 years old. Tam said he We it had been 14 years sine. ha had put
that brand on for he didn't keep that brand up any more after that.
That old steer veighet about 1,440 'pounds. He had got so smart he
could out -smart us and he was an outlaw right. We had been after
that steer about seven et eight years when we'd round up. He would lie
la a thicket like a hog and never sake a sound. 10, that mounted steer
head over there on the wall wasalt him that's a Gus Sleek steer. Ne
was another outlaw and whim they caught 'La, they sold in to the lout-
eher in Eagle Pass. They had the heed mounted mad when we bought that
market, the steer -head went with U.
"You were speaking about that old 'terrapin' brand I used to rya.
That was one I figured up on the old Doom rasa. That Ire* ought ho
be hanging up in the fork of a live -oak tree right now. I believe I
soul* go right there and find it.
',I've got the resort for breeding La Uvalde or anywhere else. I
branded out 1,215 head of big steers in about three and a -half hours.
(Nimbly Tales R.W.LiSthe
sno104
I branded tea out through the iheot, **we true, but old Captain
Lytle said that beat any reword he over is.. We put the brand
on every one of Sboa steers
"About twelve miles above istiOS Creek, we bought a little place
and kept it stook** with Pots Ohl We moved to Uvalde in about
98 and kept the nosh and going. We lived there in town over
twenty years, or until we moved over here twelve years ago. I bad
started in partnership with POO 14100111 town at Laredo handling steers.
That was when the slump hit and we bad boob 0ftetti 40,000 for our trade
after we bought then settle but Pets didatt 'ant to sell', so the slump
bit and we sure lost. VO awed they was worth $10,000 ao4 than me
give for ten. I shipped a train lead of those pretty, black settle
from down there to 8$. Ye and got about three seats (Per lb.) for
than. Woe had about V0,000 agree at good range mad I spent about two
years do= there. I told a fellow She other day when he asked we how
old I was that I was VII not eounSing those two years I spent tom there.
It you want to know whether a riba4ow is sweated or straight, just be part-
ners with him. Old Pete is a great follow Tlit love to see bin. Hats
honest, too.
We have three shildreen living. They arils Harper, Lawrence* and
Edith. Allen died a few years ago. Laironse and I are managing this
ranch down here and like the place pretty well. Just got the house
eompleted and moved into it about three weeks ago.
*I ride every day and enjoy it. I souldn't be idle as long as I
oaa go. But, I've found out one things Via too old to break horses
and *int smart enough to teash 40001 as I don't know what to at
the last. well, believe Mat Imurbeeme is about dome, Floremeia, so
vs better go sample it. Hbat Slime you same, vela sus* have a big
pot of sen-4et-s*gua."
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