Document text
Range -lore
Cox
Ziar. Lnceloo Texas.
RAIIGE-LOBL.
e one
"Well", says Mr. W. Adney, "I have never seen
an Indian tut I have been in every jail from here to
imporia, Kansas. I wore the jail out at Lallincer.
They called me Calamity bill." "Now," joined in Aunt
Carrie, Mr. Adney's sister, "brother has always been
what we tried to call a romancer for we didn't want to
call him a plain liar. kven when we were very small
children in Arkansas, he could always entertain us with
stories of things conjured out of his imapinetion.
Once the preacher was at our house for dinner and brother
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told such big ones that mother was mightily embarrassed
before the preacher but he was so nice and said, 'Why,
sister Adney, leave that boy alone. Some day he 7ay
be a great writer of stories which we'll all rood. with
pleasure.'" "I did learn to write," continued
Adney, ”but didn't go to school much, for my fother
died when we were all small end I het to help the fenny.
I remeA5er in ;$,rkansas of having big cyclones thct blew
down big pines. The thing that makes rle reLleziber thet
is that one tine our old =ley cow got after me t:nd I
rolled under one of those fallen trees. I had to stay
there until some one could come and run that darned old
heifer away.
"We pulled up and came to i(est Texas where I be-
gan working. I did a men's work when I was fifteen
years old. I freighted stuff in from Abilene for the
soldiers in the fort here (Fort Concho) then vhen the
railroad got to Ballinger, I hauled freight from there
to the fort.
"A. detachment of soldiers would be sent to the
flat just this ,side of Sonora to bale hey. I used to
freight the hey into the fort after it hod beer bciled.
I used two wagons and three teams- five Iloroef7 cnC one
mule. I drove them all with a lease rope 02 the mule.
"One time when I went home to iallirger, the
Colorado River was up and 1 had to cross the river to
ge three
get home. The ferry -man didn't want to take me cne my
teams across but after some persuasion, he offered to
take me and one wagon end team across for r..50. -eve
him a five dollar bill. He couldn't give me the chcnge
but said he would hand it to me. 1 waited and waited
and finally asked for it. he told me that he didn't
intend giving it to me, that the trip was torth the five
dollars. e1l, I told him I'd get even. i took my gun
and went down and shot that fellow's chickens. I had a
fine bunch killed before they stopped me. I had to go
to jail but I got my ,2.b0.
"1 seemed to be mixed up with chickens a vhole
lot, not like "Chiekew-Thief-Jim", thourt. he used to
drive a hack around end when he would find neople gone
from home or all where they couldn't see him cosily, he
would scatter corn in his hack and could he catch chick-
enst An other chicken tale: When I was a young boy
there were two old men who were alwoys disputing as to
which had the best chickens. One had Chode Island leds
and the other had ilymouth Nooks. I pot ttrec hcring
those old fellows argue and argue, so i alippec round
and changed chickens, put so ne Leda in with the 1.)omi-
neckers and the other way 'round. And were those 31d
fellows sorel .6aeh accused the other of having done it,
and they pulled off the dirtiest fight I ever sou.
"If any one ever says that your knecs won't knock
lace four
together- from fright, I am here to tell him that he is
a damn liar. 0hen I was driving a freight wagon, I came
in with the. ord boys and unloaded ot the fort. There
was plenty feed in the forks of the river for our tears,
we had some money, so we decided to have some fun. ;;ID
made straight for the Gray Mule ;„eloon. 1-tocky Avers
was proprietor of the saloon and that ni tt he was
'tending bar. The building wee ion r and narrm. There
were about three hundred fellows there- necraes, •.ex
icons, whites, soldiers, gamblers- evcrything va
that building. About midnight a big fi4lt st3rtcc. The
lights were put out and six-shooters begs to
t -1 -t
the very first, I grabbed my gun, dropped to tho floor
an rolled_ under the counter. The only lilLt cme from
those popping six-shooters. After tLc shootin stopped
and the smoke began clearing, hooky called for lic,hts.
A.th the first light, hooky saw my fect stickiw7 out
from under the counter. He jerked out e iL each hand
end covered me but just about then he could see my face.
'That you, kid?' he inquired oalmly, 'Just stay richt
where you are.' Three men were wounded, a --exicsn monte
dealer, a soldier, and another man, but none were kill-
ed. Ey then I told the boys that I had already had
enough fun for awhile. hesides I was yourw, sixteen
years old, and needed some rest. i,bout three o'clock I
unrolled my beddinp on the river Lluff where tic ?roy
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Laundry now stands. I always slept with my six-shooter
at my heed and my Winchester by my aide. As I slept, I
dreamed end went through that fight at the Grey Mule
Saloon. The firing of the morning cannon at the fort
came to me, its reverberations sounded among those rocks
and before I was, Stake, I jumped off that high bluff in-
to that river bed. I eouldn't see anybody, but Glinted
out, so scared that I felt end heard my knees knocking.
"The youngest fellow on the works always had to
take the "rewhidinge but soon learned to hole my
own. I was hired VJ work on nmearoni" farms, sent to
buy 'striped paint,' but was not as bad as the fellow
who looked all day in a mmd puddle for a frog, because
they needed it ea the railroad.
'We used to haul freight over the country when
there were no roads. Just relit wagon ruts were all
there were to follow. We have eamped many times at
Panther Bluff. That was a vamping place for all travel-
ers. We were never bothered. There were some half-
breeds,. Nextean and Indian, who gave some trouble with
their thieving ways. We used to have the "Night Iiiders"
and "White Ceps." They were "Vigilantes" who helped keep
law in the newly organized country where the let was weak.
We ran six men out of here. When they got to 6onora they
hung them up just for fim. and two of them didn't "come to"
when they let them down*
"I was *shamed of a trick I played on one fellow,
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but I told him shout it twenty-five years after and he
said, 'Dad -burn my hide, was that you?* It happened
this well Wild Bill worked en* raneh out from Lallinger*
kvery pay day he would some to town, get drunk, spend all
his money and the last thing he vould do on leaving town
would be to empty his sixasshooter at all the 'Wits he
could see*
"One night in Bellinger, the lights and crowds and
excitement were all at Den Sullivan** Saloon, I went in
to enjoy the fun, but Sullivan said, 'Boy, this is no
place for you. Get out and go hone to your daddy.* I
told him that I didn't have a daddy, that I was a man
of my own, but anyhow he put me out. I sat across on
the porch of an old building and how I did vent to get
in there and enjoy that fun* As I sat there, I could
see the big lights of the chandelier over the transom
and an idea came to me* I went around to my camp, got
my Winchester and went heck to the porch. I took aim
and shot that *bandolier* Whet a clatter in that
sslooni I *tusk my gun under the steps, ran araund the
old house, out through the mesquite brush, and was coming
up the other end of the street when Den Game out to
vestigete* 'Ws kid, who has been along here?' he asked*
*I don't kmowoher nobody.' I replied* 'Did you see wild
Bill?* he asked* nes,*.ssid I. 'Well, we'll get him
the next time vier* out theri0 In s few days they
Page 801/64
brought Wild Hill in. He couldn't remember havinf, shot
the liphtae but he paid the fine. Twenty-five years
later, when I told him what I had done, he said that he
had not had the faintest recollection of shootirf! out
those lights.
"In Ballinger we had a man named John Farmot. Lie
was breve but dangerous. It. 3. illiss driver, broucJit
the stage to the stage stand one day and while the horses
were being *hanged, the passengers and driver ate their
dinner. John haxmot bad eaten and was standinc around.
Two passengers began to talk of Furmots how they had heard
of him and how they would like to see him. Furmot jerked
out his on, shot a bole in the table right under their
hands end says, 'Well, here he tel Look at him.' Every*,
body fell over themselves and each other getting out or
the rooms exeept flits. He was always ealr in ever?
situation,.
*I was a driver with Tony MOntgomery. \:c went to
every round -up and would deliver cattle wherever the
owners wanted them taken. We have teen iota of cattle
to the Goodnight Ranch and I wish I had all titc cattle
we have delivered to the 101 Rancho Tony 72*lntromcry
was the finest fellow around a herd that ever was. He
had a cuttle horse called, Hog. be never rode Hog
exoept around the herd* Tony Gould rope the beet I ever
saw too. He mover mimosa a loop. H• was a small man,
but he was boss on the wort, The funniest fight I ever
P ge eight
sew was between him and at old fellow with long whiskers
about twice es tall as Tony. This fellow slapped Tony
and then kinder held him,in his arms and began to spank
him. Tony grabbed the old man's whiskers and began to
yank with one hand and beet Riley (the other man) in
the facie with. his free band. Riley began to holler.
They finally got down on the ground- Tony still holding
to the whisker's. Riley began to call to the other boys
to pull him off, but Tenre brother, Sam, wouldn't let
the others interfere until Riley celled, 'Inouch,'
"I worked for Jonathan tales on the Spindle E.
When his stock was sold, we gathered the stook from all
over the country and threw them into the Twin 7olIntain
pasture. From there we shipped them to the buyers."
Aunt Carrie now sew a chance to talk soTe. "Mother
kept a hotel in San Angelo," she said, "and I wac her
right hand helper. At first our hotel was just e hole
in the uall but later we had a two-story house.
"Charley killedge„ the son of en English Lord and
sla e boy we milled Patrick stayed with us for a long
time. Patrick was an Irish Berl. The English peerage
frequently sent their wild eons out here to get them out
of their dignified homes. The families sent to these
young men plenty of money every month ea they the boys)
were Galled °resifts:nee men." One time I was coming down
stairs with a pitcher of water end spilled it over the
bannisters right on to of Charley Milledge. He laughed
and laughed, but I was so mortified.
ge nte
"When we were all snail and livinc in Arkcnses,
my father ran a sawmill andigriat•mill not fcr from
home* 3ne day as mother vorked at home, :ie clLad
hear Tom Beeson's' hounds baying in the voodt tut didn't
pay any attention until brother Viii came runninc in to
tell that there was a wolf or a bear or sanething it
the ooe pen* When mother went out, there was a deer in
the lot with the hounds holding him at boy. ,,other
took the ex, hit that deer in the head and tb,en chopped
its head off* She then sent Miss Jennie, the girl 'who
helped in the home, to bring tether to dress the big
buck* lien e went Liss Jennie, running dorn-the road to
the mill* She met Uncle Ben on horseback and explained
the situation so Unele Ben rode furiously beck to the
mill selling to father, 'John, hurry home, your rife
and Hiss Jennie have played the devil!' Father thouc;ht
we had surely burned up the house but he dressed the
deer and hung it up* Uncle Ben didn't let his horse
rest. Es told everybody for miles about mother killing
that deer and that night tpey all serenedeC slotter. Of
course they had to have some of the dcer and tercl vas
hardly enough left for our breakfast*
"other's sister died on the '0 trail to California
and was buried on the bank of a river, when they Lecein
eolonizing the valley at southern California, mother
wanted to goo but we just didn't have the money. were
lege ten
glad we didn't, for we heard afterward that it took
v50.00 to buy fortp-eight pound sack of flour."
"Texians ain't got no business going to California,"
said *Brother 1111,1". "I have been there two times and
Texas is the best ,country in the world, especially after
us old fellows have cleaned up the Indians and the bad
men and made this such a good place to live."
Range -lore
Nellie B. Cox
San Angelo, Texas*
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. W. Adneys San Angelo, Texas, interviewed,
January 18, 1938.