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EDITORIAL FIELD COPY
by
Mrs. florionee Angiratillwrof P. W.
Range re and
Cowboy eminiscenees
before rid after 1875 UVALDE COUNTY 9I STRICT ill0
WILLIAM B. BIGGS
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ale Billie" Bigge is a much -loved figure in the tow of Sabinal
and is ell known throughout the County of Uvalde because of his having
coma h e when just a boy, his perticipation in Indian fights, and
being e of the first old timers to (tome to Sabintl Canyon which was
about e only aettlement between Castroville and_Ragle Pass at the
time, cept quihi. "Uncle Billie" tells his experiences with much
enjoym t especially to other old timers or.to"deseendants of families
he kne in early days. His animation,, his use of by -gone ixpressions,
his go memory and physical agility contribute to his amusing personality.
Using s own words the following facts and incidents of his life are
told h the same enthusiasm he shows when dancing a schottische at
dances e attends occasionally:
11 be 83 years old next month. Deeember the 12th is my birthday.
I was rn in 54 and wasn't but about six years old when we coils out
here. was born back in Tipton County, Tennessee, and after my mother
died father brought me and my brother, am, out here to this old fort
Up ab Utopia. We got with an old man in San Antonio by the name of
Jim s and he hakan ox wagon and hauled us out here.
recollect it took about five days to come out. You know Old Man
Sante ben lived over near Castroville and we stopped there to stay ell
night It fl. raining when we got there and they insisted on us sleeping
in th house. My father said he'd sleep in the wagon and us boys could
Range Lore -William B. Biggs
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in the house. Well, after we got in bed, the old mai and old lady
to talking German to each other and It seared me nearly to death. I
ed out of bed and broke' to the wagon where my father was Ind dived right
his arms. I had never heard any German before and he had to sit up most
f the night holding me to quiet me.
"After we hit the Sabina' Canyon, we had just bean up st_the,old fort
bout six days when John Ware and Elizabeth Fenley got married. Elizabeth
as Old Man Johnny Fenley's daughter, the only daughter he and Aunt Edia had.
ey had been living there since '52 and it was about 1860 before we got
ihere.
"The Civil War was just breaking out and my father joined the army.
Ire was in Frank Robinson's Company and in Duff's Regiment. He left um boys
tith Uncle Johnny and Aunt Wits Fenley. Aunt Edie practically rdised me and
he was as kind and good to ms as any mother could ever have been. I
'tarried many a pail of water for her. I remember once that I started after
Obuoket of writer at the spring and I slipped a big lump of brown sugar to
take with me. She bought a big sack of this sugar and I past couldn't get
Onough of it. But I got such a big lump I Gouldtnt eat it so I laid it up
in a crevice of the old stake-and.rider fence where I could get it when I
*anted it again. When I went back to get it, there wasn't a speck of it left.
the sugar ants had carried all of it off.
"We had to watch for Indians up there. You bet we did. About the
AND
Closest shave I ever hnd I'guess it was my first experience was one time when
Aunt Edit, took me and we started to visit John and Elizabeth. They were
living down below us about four mile and Aunt Edie saddled up and put no
ip behind her and we started out. On down tht: road, we could hardly get the
Old mare along so Aunt )die sayd,'Billie, get down and out me a good switch,' _
Lo- I got a good stout syeamorm-ftitoh about four or five feet long and
ought it to her. On doik the rood we saw about a half -dozen Indians
Menge Lore Willie, B. Mimi
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efoot. They was about ft half-alle from us, but they seen us end st-Prted
after us. Titen Aunt Mile sew 'en stert for us,' ohs jumped off that mere
ploom
and nut .7aa in the saddle and told ma to hold *al in the rood. Then she
wrapped that merels tall around her left hand and whiped- her with her right
hand en w we nit they road in high please. she ran behind the mare and
whipped her nearly every jump. Po, nano thrt mare never Altrun Aunt
?Alio and when we nit that river Grossing, we never °hooked. The water
was nearly to Aunt Ale's waist, ,tit 8ha newer .paid no attention to water.
You eee, ne arid 4unt ndie-weo soared wit! Indiana wasn't and we imtrun
'ea too had to talk. about.
"In 0614 when I was about fifteen -year old, t mede-my first trail
drive. 4y father took me end my brother, Jim, rnd five cow hands, en ox
wagon two yoke of stqu'rs, a 4,xleen driver and a cook and st!qrted to
California with about five or -six -hundred heed of onttle, 40 drove the
cattle to Fort !:;tookton and stayed there for about one yerr nnd ran a
dairy while we wore there. Then in 1890, we-deelded to move on to Cali-
fornia. 3eiore we rot to Kl ''eso, we had to tillIve the (tattle two days
and nichts without water and when they got within tour or five lls of
the !do )rends, my father nut all his men in the lord to hold the settle took
'AmPuse they could *vial' the water.
"Yu know when nythin.0?: has been without water a lon time, sonetimes
they'll frill themselves tr they et all they sent at one time. du% it
aesn't Pny we trying to hAd th ttle *ask to nnd a nlee Ulm 'en to
go down to water tAwy fell off the bonk two or three foot high, on top
of 41- oh other rnd fighting, to get to that welter. Alt the water wasn't
dew) along there end none of 'en drowned. 10'e. atrock ocwi ri near
tl Peso !Ind 51:; Other decided to go :Isok to the r_ver t. after the
cattle and ritt than alerted pirlind,the town and as he knew there wouldn't
be anything for 'the oxen to 4.4, he told ma to go to town and buy bey fur
a Lore illl.a 13. iligge
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them. 1,e11, 1 went all over town end couldn't rind any hay to hring peek
and when my tether Game Into camp, he said !Did you get the nay?' and I
told him thrt hPd tried but there issn't any hey in that town. He said,
Why, s no you s -e thnt field right younder? Thrt's hay. That's elrelfai
lIt was the first alfalfa hey T ever sow and I thought it was weeds. There
Ives he:: within -a hundred yards of our ca,p but I had -noosed it by.
.itter we left Fl avo, we hod a long, tiresome time of it. I stayed
jwith the moron, ae and the Kexicen. I chuld sleep if I wanted to and tie my
*roe to the We1. of the voton. After we gA in that krisonst desert country
;Impl had a time A° it. the desert) the sand was blictaring httt. They any
0011s -send is not enowt to cook an egg'and I believe it fLit the opt%tle juat
livxuldn't vent re into it in the evening pfter we nooned. would.go to drive
rthem out of the shade to h_t-rt them on Vs trail end they'd bawl and lick their
;feat and run hrok to the sheds, couldn't do Anything with thee till it
xot cooler. That's a hot country out there end hard to cross with live t.ocic.
eithen we go% off of that dehert and struck the Oils iiiver, the cattle WPW%
iko thirsty that time, but they were nearly burnt up. The boys Arove 'en
down to the river to water and cone beck up to emu.. After awhile, my
'ether told me to saddle up rnd go with him down to the river to sell abut
.t,e cattle. u we rode off down to the river and when we got to the hank
*here we ()wad see them, it ldokad.like half of the herd was lying in the
river, deed. My tether said, 'look younderl-my cattle have et,ten something
Vison and hollow's they're allidyingi' Well, we got to thtmm riet quick
nndifoqnd %hot they 40e0 just lying down in the water and were chewing their
Suds. It was the first time I ever sew cattle lie down in the water and
Show their cud. the aare no they would in the anode. Rut, I guess their hides
liseded soaking after coming out of that terriLle heat.
°There wasn't such haPpened from there on in to California. 44i got to
'kg. Lore William B. Biggs
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%logo Cdunty alt riht. But aftn we crossed the Colorado River and was
ng acl.ois the .1roarinl Volley, we had to drive the cattle dny and night to
to California to water. uy f-ther end the sow hands went on with the herd
•let -e nn the. goxicnn to ixing the wngOn Cr course, we colldn't
Oneo up with them ne we were driving'oxen to the wagon end they hvql to go on
d leave us. Mile we wereHoomled oni niet, close to town, a fellow come
corm 'Ind wanted to sell us some Irlst, potntoen. I never hod honied of on
Apish notsto before but he talked ma into buying fifty cents worth. He said
4 could 000k 'en by biling gem in water till they was done no we took 'sm.
*it we tried cookine.them and never knew to nut salt and oepper end greese on
Inaend T,don!t ree.kom we qot 'ea done, either. anyway, we „couldn't et the
Ingo nhd I thre,w the "yhole outfit away. But the Manley:a went and gethered
a all up. Ee sold they won just whnt he needed to chUvr the oxen wit. e
didn't hove any r4cks oaring the road rind he needed the totntoes to elt the
o we mf‘de use of tem WA le they looted.
we stoyad a year in ftntisgo County before we sold out. le come
Omsk an the roilro,11 tt St. Louis. rl.ter I got home, 1 plerked in a store st
Sanders tar but a yeer. Then I bean marking_ on different rot:whoa for the
Old tLers I floiw. I remer 41ce that I _r,ot in -o a fight with a follow rind
tot arrested because I awed his eyes when the battle c()% nretty hot. They
fined me twenty donors nnd.,Ave ms thirty dnys to nny it out. Vell, 1
didn't know whnt to tio nbAit it. Then one day I set Old Man Chris Xelly and
14, asked me how we getting alng. I told. him about the tight I had and
*bout being fined twenty dollars. It looked serious to me and I told his I
Mos afrold I couldn't get it by then. 4e milled out his linnet and ,:rive 110
twenty -dollar bill right there end told me to pa -nettle un.. I sure was
'tickled over it nud pout right over to UmnIde and Osid thcvfioe, nut it aeons
Ilke it took we six Months to pay U. ?telly book. But I finally sot it. raid.
*fur my brother, am, *Anted we wont into the ?mulling buisnase over
Range Lore William 3. Biggs
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on Big seco several miles east of Utopia. We lived over there eh ut four
years before we finally moved over on the "Muria" (Muele). The "Murlo
settlement was about twenty-four miles west of Uvalde on the .old Eagle Pass
road. a had to have better range and as Uncle Johnny and Aunt Edie and
Joel, Damp and Jim Fenley had moved over there and had a pretty good little
settlement, it was the place for me. I remember when we got there with our
cattle, Aunt Aim told me mot to stay at camp to come on up and stay with her.
"She was the best cook I ever saw. Law, I can see those big, old
fluffy biscuits in that Dutch oven. She had a fireolaoe Ouilt up so she could
cook without h,ving to sto,p so low. She had a stove too that she DO in the
kitchen because Uer daughters-in-law said she was stingy to buy one. But
she wouldn't uee it, he oreforred the fireplace and I tell you she could
cook nnytUiag on earth. She oharged about twenty-five cents a meal to
transients that stopped there for you know the stage ()dale right by there and
that's where the passengers ate. I remember those big balls of :yellow butter
and gallons of buttermilk and big eheaseSshe made. She always had lots of
chickens and egili and she sold butter sod eras in Eagle Pass. The stage
060
would nick up this stuff and take it on in ond it lookedlshe coeldn't supply
the demnnd. he kept meat on hand too for meat was plentiful. Many and
many a ni(!;ht she get up and cooked somebody a Taeal when they come in cold and
hungry. and do you know whet she did with most of her money she took in there?
She bou ht things for the grandchildren and different ones around her there.
-;he always made money and had plenty to s end. She would go over to Engle
Pass and come back loaded down.
aae was over on the "Murlo" about one year when Steve Burchfield
decided to take all his cattle to Kansas and sell out. yes had about three
thousand head and told us if we wanted to take some °cattle with him to round
up and esti:1h him on the trail. Well, we had about six -hundred heed we wanted
to take so we got them together and caught him at Sabinal. That was in 1880.
Die Lore, /illiam R. Signs
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we ii ti1n to get off, .1 was hurrying!trouild there and getting thiqgs
-mother. end wee wonderini *het I could do ennut the little, lieht bur,gy
hed ty,iullit. I finally decided there was nothing to do ut to out it in
lotted and leave it. About that time. Aunt 3die come out and said, 'Mot are
iou-goirw to do with your buggy while yoU're gone, Billie?' I told her I had
plenned to levp it there. e!411,1 she *eye 'I'll give you sixty dollore
Oar it if yilt went to well itt' I told her I'd aell it end she lulled three
!twenty-doller bills from her enron pocket end gave it to me.s I never broke
vas of those -Ails till I started home frost !Cannes end _then it was to buy
ml ti(Wet.
"Vr _iorchrield hod e cr!Auck wRgon, a cook and nine cowboys. is 4ureh-
lield went *long .nd drove a hook ond coked fur her 'n Mr. aurchrield.
.#010 brothr's wire and little by went elong-and she drove our ehuok epgon
end aooked for us. hop *WV a fine womon end as lretty as a, picture. Mrs.
nurchtleld was a blonde end ails ems also e pretty women. It was eerol tires
on them ht they never owlp1,-ined.
,ArTe be,:ggers 7nd We elwoys cut out.e beet end geve it to thew. If we
e ancr-unteret Indirns on the trio but
hoen't, they lrohnly would hfrAo stompeded the 'herd end got lOost they wonted,
enywoy.
"The .en are divided in7:v three 1141fte for alolit herdine. The boys
catolys song ns they rode 'ground them Pt night. 00 took them to Caldwell,
renses, ond eli of us mold out our entire stook there. W05,00k-the train
hone. 1:T. archfield left for Kew uexico 'if tar he sold out his outfit.
He went there, I henrd, end boollht e good.ellnd reboil nnd stoe%ed it. Hd
4° was dun g rine till a od d ooth hit end he sew he couldn't bring the
cattle throuAlo de went to the blank in l mebornd told them he welted to
turn the stuok over to them for the nronth was ruinirw him !lid Le WM going
jto lotie top%cny cottle. The bank told -aim, 'If you ovit'S %Pim thane settle
end mks anything On then, teve, how 40 you ex,,ect urn to?' They told him
Range Lore William B. Bigga
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to go beok end do the beet he could end check on them for exeenses. 7 -ell, he
went back end in no time, it beeun reining end the range got fine, the cettle
got fpt end 'le made eoney on them. He paid up the bunk and hrd plenty to
(lorry on eith end when he died, he owned helf-intereut in thet Iirst National_
Bank in l sac.
"I knew :.;em BASS end the Collins erotheee. They used to be in this pnrt
of the d:Antry and were pretty well known. They were bed men, too. I never
knew Billie, tee' '7id, but I vies Acquainted with Pet Gerrott, the ean riL.o
him. There used to be reel eutlams in through here end in those dsys r men
had to erotect himself whether he was en outlaw or not. I remember thst there
was an nwful herd men living over olose to Uvelde. He lied killed eeverni men.
He hed e blend thet Wee pretty ensy to run over the F F breed Wet ;Joel Fenley
run. Joel wesn't p bed man but he wesnq nfrAld of snyt:eini-. (He wes Uncle
Johnny's pna Aunt edie's oldest son.) He kept fieding his cattle with the brend
run end one dee he hied come to ton in Uvelde end fund this fellow right in
front of R Bel ,on. He waked up to him end ssys, *You've been etenling my
cattle lone enoueh. I found 1AIMB more of them with my brend run yeterdey.
Nom, if I find any more of my orttle brended your brend pgain, I'm goini- to
kill you.' tAe looked him strnIght in the eye when he told him. Both of them
had their suns on, but he couldn'tsheve killed Joel beopuee Joel lies too quick
fur tim end he knee it. Joel cPrriad hie eun inside of his belt on the front
left side and he never eis.ed hti Tlerk when i.e shot. I never heuid of nny eore
cattle beieg stolen.
"1 beve hed some good horses in :1y dey. I uk;ed heve one I thought n
rood deril of. his-tient) was :;em end he wee sure a cuttin* horse. I helm e
horse no thvt will jump puything you tell him. You can ride him u T) to s
fence end climb over it end hold -07e rore end tell him to*eome over' -nd he
jumps it like n circus horse. But, ebout the worst horse I over saw Wee
()tined by alley layses. He didn't knob when to btop and could pitch the hardest
usage Lore William B. Biggs
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Mid look the meanest you ever saw. Riley was about the best rider I
OWer saw, too.
"I've taken many a long, hard ride in my day but about the worst
ride I ever had to make was to get the doctor for a sick neighbor. It
was a dark, cold night and I left Waresville, which is now Utopia, and
had to go twenty mile below Uvalde to find the doctor. When I got there,
found that he had gone to Hondo so I started for Rondo. 7!hen I got
Share, I sent the doctor on and I took about an hour's rest for me end
ay horse and rode back home. That was about a hundred -mile ride in
twelve hours.
"It used to take um about five days to go from sabinal to San An-
tonio in our ox wagons. And in the days during end after the Civil
War, we never had biscuits only on Sunday morning. Now, we can drive
down to San Antonio in a couple of hours and come book and whether we
eat down there or bock home we have all the biscuits we want. But
with all the oonveniences, people don't know how to have a good time
like we used to have. Why, we used to have camp meetings that lasted
three or four weeks. Everybody would come end camp and listen to
every sermon the preacher preached, for no telling when the rreacher
would get bask this way. I remember one big camp meeting they had here
eme time. They sent for the preacher from back in East Texns somewhere
and they got up money enough to carry the meeting for three weeks. They
barbecued beef and goats and had Plenty of other stuff to last for
three weeks but at the and of tha time, the joiners were still coming
in. My wife's father wanted to keep it going another week but those who
had already helped with it didn't want to help any more. But he felt
like a good work would be wasted if it didn't run another week and he
lipeLled to tisanes it himself. Me had laid away the money to pay the
Range Lore B. Biggs
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shearers when they come to shear his goats but as he couldn't raise
the money any other way, he decided to use that money and he said he
believed there would be some way provided for his shearing expense when
time came. The meeting went on another week and he used his money
and killed his own meat for the barbecue. They had a big week of it
with lots of Joiners. Then, a day or two before he was to shear his
goats, man by the name of Mitt Bandy came to the ranch and wanted to
buy a big, black stallion that Mk. Thompson (my wife's father) owned.
He sold the stallion for a good price and had the money he needed for
the shearing expense.
"1 never got married till 1883. But when I decided to settle down,
married Miss.Maggie Thompson. She was Old Thompson's granddaughter
and e granddaughter of the first white woman in the fort up there where
Utopia is now. We settled down on the ranch where we're living now
and we celebrated our Golden Wedding Anniversary four years ago. Maggie
is 72 and I am nearly 83. We still go to the dances when we feel like
it. we have two children, Kenneth and Lonna who are both grown. We've
ha a fUll life tnd wellos seen changes we wouldn't have thought poss-
ibis in this country when we came here long ago."
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