Category: folklore, legends

The Cowgirl Who Passed Herself Off as a Cowboy

Samuel Dunn Houston told of his experiences on the cattle trails in the latter part of the 1800s.  He had worked his way up from being a hand on the trail to being a trail boss, having previously done enough cattle drives that he felt that he had made more trips over the cow trail from Southern Texas and New Mexico than “any man in the country.”  He had been engaged by the Holt Live Stock Company of New Mexico to head up a trail drive in the spring of 1888.

Continue reading The Cowgirl Who Passed Herself Off as a Cowboy

Sally Scull

Depending upon where you may have heard of Sally Scull, you might get the impression that she was a Texas Civil War heroine, a “black widow” husband-killer or just about anything between the two.  You may also see her name spelled Skull as well as Scull, but for this purpose, we will use the latter.  She had a reputation for being able to shoot as straight with her left hand as with her right.  She usually carried two six shooters, often wore mens’ clothing and had a rough vocabulary that she used freely, and often.

Continue reading Sally Scull

The Barrow Gang Comes to North Texas

Bonnie and Clyde’s crime spree was short, only a few years, but whenever there happened to be an event involving them in a small town, people living there remembered it.  There were at least two such events in North Texas’ Wise County.

fullsizerender3

Continue reading The Barrow Gang Comes to North Texas

Elmer Kelton

elmer_kelton

(Image credit: AmericanCowboy.com)

Elmer was born in 1926 on the Five Wells Ranch, one of the Scharbauer ranches, in rural Andrews County, Texas.  His father was Robert William “Buck” Kelton and mother was the former Neta Beatrice “Bea” Parker.  Three years later, Buck took a job at the McElroy Ranch in Crane, Texas near Midland, where he would remain for 36 years.  Elmer grew up on the ranch, hearing the colorful stories told by Buck and the other cowboys on the ranch.

Continue reading Elmer Kelton

Unsolved mystery: Jesse James’ grave site

jessejamesposter

The  outlaw Jesse Woodson James (1847-1882) is generally thought to have been shot and killed by Robert Ford on April 3, 1882.  Ford, a James gang member, reportedly shot James, then 34 years old, in the back of the head at the Kearney, Missouri home of Ford’s sister as they prepared to head out for another robbery.  Ford’s motive was to obtain a reward. Ford and his brother pled guilty to murder but were pardoned by the Missouri governor Thomas Crittendon. Although James body was identified and buried in Kearney, Missouri,  alternative accounts persist that he somehow faked his death and moved to Texas. Continue reading Unsolved mystery: Jesse James’ grave site