Bee County, TX - Bios:  William Riley Angermiller, born 1875

TX BIOS:  Willaim Riley Angermiller
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   [????]
   
   5,265 Words
   
   EDITORIAL FIELD COPY
   
   by
   
   Mrs. Florence Angermiller, P.W.
   
   Page 1
   
   232
   
   Range Tales and Cowboy Experiences UVALDE COUNTY, DISTRICT #10
   
   WILLIAM RILEY ANGERMILLER
   
   Marfa, Texas.
   
   William Riley Angermiller, whose grandfather and grandmother came to
   Texas from Germany about 1858, is a native of Bee County, Texas. He
   was born September 10, 1875, and while not of the age of our pioneer
   consultants heretofore, is a cowboy of the old days and worked many
   years under one of the ablest and oldest cattlemen in West Texas. He
   owes much of his knowledge to his association with that veteran of the
   plains, the late J. W. Henderson of Ozona. Having handled many
   round-ups and driven many herds to the shipping points, he is well
   versed in range lore and saw hardships and routine work through the
   eyes of a humorist.
   
   Uvalde has been his home for about eighteen years though he is
   managing a ranch at present southwest of Marfa, Texas, close to
   Ruidoso. At a recent interview, he recounted the following incidents
   of his cowboy days:
   
   "I was brought up to handle stock from the time I could walk. I even
   learned to plow by the time I was ten years old and thought I was
   grown then. We were living in Bee County then having moved from Karnes
   County, on the San Antonio River where I was born. But the first
   outside job I ever undertook away from home was on the Fred Cockrell
   ranch near Anson on the Clear Fork of the Brazos. Me and another boy
   left home down in Bee County and started out to find a job up at
   Colorado City and 'make a fortune.' We were broke by the time we got
   to Yoakum so we caught 00022a freight and rode for a long ways but we
   didn't know how to ride a freight except to [?] from the ride. A [?]
   came along and told us to get off of the train and get off right now.
   The boy I was with says, "We can't get off with the train running like
   it is, but if you'll stop, we'll get off.' The [?] got raw and said we
   were going to get off anyway. He began kicking the boy's hands where
   he was holding to the rail and this boy reached for his gun with one
   hand and fell from the train. The [?] started for me then but I pulled
   my gun and fired at him. About that time the train began slowing up
   and when it came to a stop, I got off and started back to where I
   thought [?] was. He got such a fall, I was sure he was killed. I
   hadn't gone very far when I [??] coming right up the railroad track.
   
   "We didn't know what they [?] do to us, so we laid out around there
   for about three days and nearly starved to death. Finally, we made it
   to a little grocery store and we were determined to have something to
   eat no matter how we had to get it. We walked into the store and began
   ordering everything we wanted to eat. We ate and ate and had the
   fellow opening cans and slicing cheese till we couldn't hold any more.
   Once in awhile, the storekeeper would come by and ask us how we were
   getting along. I guess he could see we were starved. Well, you never
   saw such a mess as we had there on that counter. We had no idea what
   we were going to do about paying for the stuff, but we didn't care
   right then.
   
   "After a little, some more customers came into the store and that
   fellow got busy with them and we slipped out the back door. We went
   walking off as full as ticks. We thought he might try to overtake us
   but we never did hear anything of it and kept going.
   
   "We circled around and it the same railroad train and caught another
   freight. That time we didn't get caught but rode on in to Colorado
   City.
   
   00033
   
   My friend had some relatives there and we went to see them but we soon
   saw they didn't have any work for us and I decided I might as well
   hunt a job. We had some awful experiences before we found work but I
   went to work on the Cockrell ranch for fifteen dollars a month. I had
   shipped my saddle up there when I left Bee County, so I didn't have to
   buy a saddle. I worked about four months and had about forty-eight
   dollars saved up when I quit. Then I bought a new trunk and didn't
   have anything to put in it but my saddle. We never let go of our
   saddles or guns. I hit the train for home after I bought that trunk.
   
   "I left home several times like that and had all kinds of experiences
   before I went to work on the [?] ranch west of Ozena. I was about
   twenty-one years old then. My brother and I started in grubbing a
   ten-acre field. We sure slayed those little mosquitos too. At the end
   of the month, the boss came down to our camp and told me he would give
   me twenty-five dollars a month to work on the ranch greasing
   windmills. That sure suited me. I got to riding then, going to the
   windmills. I knew how to work stock all the time, but they didn't know
   it, so when they would work stock I would help them. Next thing I knew
   they put me in the outfit. From that on, I got up to handling the
   herds. The last four years I was there, I didn't do anything but just
   ride around and see after things.
   
   "I have taken many a herd across country to the shipping points --
   maybe ninety or a- hundred mile drive. We generally took two herds of
   cattle to San Angelo to ship. The first was a herd of steers and next
   would be territory cattle. They were called territory cattle as they
   were old bulls and cows they would buy to take up to the territory
   (Oklahoma) to fatten. We would take 1,500 or 2,000 head up every
   spring and about that many steers. We never had less than 1,500 in any
   herd that went up.
   
   "We had plenty of stampedes on these drives. Nearly anything would
   00044stampede a herd especially striking matches to smoke. A horse
   shaking his saddle or any sudden noise would stampede them. The cattle
   are still and go to sleep when they have stampedes. But these runs can
   be avoided if the right kind of guards are with them. You don't want
   to get quiet. I never did have but one stampede when I was on guard.
   That was a man striking a match. He got run over too. They run over
   his horse and knocked him down. He was right in the way they were
   coming and when his horse fell, it turned the herd but several
   trampled his horse a and him too. It mashed him up pretty bad. I know
   he must have been stopped that time. You are never supposed to stop
   but just keep riding all the time. Whenever the cattle were quiet and
   didn't run, there would be a regular trail beat out around that herd
   next morning where the horses had traveled round the herd meeting the
   other riders. And it was always the steers that stampeded. We had
   three-year-olds up and they were big steers. These cows never did
   stampede.
   
   "There would be from twelve to fifteen men, sometimes twenty.
   Sometimes there would be one wagon and sometimes two. When we took the
   steers up, we had one wagon, but generally two wagons when we took the
   territory cattle. One of the wagons was a 'calf-wagon.' The cows would
   bring calves in the spring and we had to haul the new-born calves. I
   sure didn't like that [?] cow buisness. I loved to drive steers; they
   would get up and milk like horses. You could string 'em out two or
   three miles long and it was as pretty a sight as I ever want to see.
   When they are dry for water and you get close to where they can smell
   it, that is when they are hell to hold. But they drive better when
   they are dry. I always worked in the lead and when you et up on high
   places and look back and see them coming for miles, it looks like a
   snake crawling. All of them coming the same way and taking the same
   step just like soldiers.
   
   "The wagon always went on and struck camp for the / boss always told
   00055the cook where to strike camp and he went ahead. And when we come
   to camp, there was always/ a night guard detailed to watch the cattle.
   The rest of us kept a horse ready at camp in case of a run, no matter
   what time we were supposed to go on guard. Some of the boys would keep
   a half-broke horse up for that work but I never did. I always kept the
   very best horse I had, s saddled and ready, for it was the most
   dangerous part of the work. I wanted a gentle horse and a fast one.
   Those horses knew what to do and always knew by the time you got to
   them which way the herd had gone and they would be gone after them
   like a flash. The men who kept their no-account horses up never would
   be in the run at all. Maybe their horses would break loose and go to
   pitching and it would take them an hour to get on.
   
   "The 7N Ranch was the J. W. Henderson ranch went of Ozona and I nearly
   always stood guard with Johnny Henderson (his son) or the old man ,
   himself. Johnny was a sleepy-head and I would always have a time
   getting him out of bed when it came our time to stand guard.
   
   "One night, one of the guards rode in to wake us upffor our turn and I
   got up and got my coffee. I couldn't raise Johnny so I decided to get
   him up one way or another. I went to his bed where he and the old man
   were sleeping and I raised up the foot of the cover and got the old
   man by the feet thinking it was Johnny, and pulled him clear out of
   the bed on the frosty ground before I discovered that it was Old Man
   Henderson instead of Johnny. He asked me what the hell I wanted and I
   told him I wanted him to get up. He said, 'Aw-right.' Then I saw it
   was the old man, I said, 'Hell, you can go back to bed; I got the
   wrong fellow.' Johnny got up about then and wanted to know what the
   row was about and the old man said he might as well get up too. Johnny
   got his coffee and we rode on out to the herd and stood guard.
   
   "I witnessed one of the biggest cattle slayings on a big ranch that
   00066ever took place between two ranchmen in Texas, I guess. The old
   man I was working for owned lots of land and he would have men to take
   up land around there and sell it to him after they had established
   their claims. Once he got a fellow to take up about four sections
   right in the middle o of his ranch. [????? It had fine grass and a big
   tank of water on it. When the settler proved up his claim, he sold it
   to a neighbor instead of the old man. Well, the old man was plenty
   sore. He came in one day and asked me if I would take some poison down
   to the salt troughs. He said he was going to 'clean that outfit up.' I
   refused to take it down there but I told him I would keep it quiet if
   he wanted to go ahead. He had already had the poison fixed up and so
   he took it on down to the salt troughs. The cattle wanted salt anyway
   and next day you could see cattle lying all over the place. It was the
   place that the settler had sold to the neighbor, you see, and the very
   land the old man had been using for years. When the settler sold the
   land, the other outfit took possession and put cattle there. He got
   about two-hundred head that time when he put the poison out in the
   salt troughs. That started a war with this neighbor outfit and of all
   the cattle stealing, killing and [?] that took place between two
   outfits, it did then. These boys in the neighbor outfit wernen't
   letting the old man get the best of them. They rolled his cattle,
   broke their necks, shot them, branded the calves and drove them off
   till it was getting so bad, somebody had to be riding all the time. It
   soon became necessary for somebody to be stationed down in the lower
   part of the pasture next to the dividing fence. I agreed to go down to
   the house on that side and stay there. Well, I knew it was going to
   end in murder if it wasn't stopped so I got in touch with the outfit
   and told 'em that there was going to be more and more trouble if it
   went on and if they would agree to quit that c cattle slaughtering
   right now, I'd see to it that our outfit quit right now.
   
   00077
   
   They wanted to know if I knew what I was talking about and if I could
   guarantee that our outfit would quit for good if they did. I told 'em
   that it was the only way to stop and I'd guarantee that there would be
   no more from that time on. They finally agreed to it so I went back
   and told the old man what I'd done and I got them all to agree to it
   and there wasn't ever any more trouble. I got to know those neighbor
   boys awful well from that time and never had better friends in my
   life. They have stuck by me for years and always been my friends.
   
   "One of the best horses I ever owned was a brown horse about fourteen
   and a-half hands high that I called Culberson. He was extra good for
   everything that a horse could be used for. He was gentle and I could
   shoot a gun on him and I could pull off the saddle and turn him
   wild-loose and he wouldn't leave that saddle. He would graze all
   around it but wouldn't get out of sight of it. I would go catch him at
   night or call him and he would come. And I could rope anything in the
   world on him. I roped a mustang horse on him once. There was lots of
   mustangs down in Five Oak County then. There was about twenty or
   twenty-five head in the herd and I picked me out one -- a young horse
   -- and my horse just outrun him. I run on to him in the [?] kind of
   country where there was cat-claw, mesquite, live-oak, gusjilla, and
   everything that had a thorn on it. I got him in a little opening and
   threw my rope on him and got him right around the neck. I had to choke
   him down and hackimore him, then I took him in necked right up to the
   horn of the saddle. It don't take long to get one going all right when
   you cut him off from the bunch that way.
   
   "This horse, Culberson, liked to work cattle. He was good at anything
   you put him at, a fast runner and good swimmer. A horse has to be fast
   to catch one of those wild mustangs. It sure took a good one.
   Culberson never was a mean-natured horse, but I damn sure remember one
   that was. He was the 00088meanest I ever rode.
   
   "I struck him down in Commanche County. He was a big, brown
   billy-horse, or quarter-horse. He didn't have no name, he was just an
   outlaw that nobody could ride and he had even killed one man, a Negro.
   I didn't know that at the time. They already had him gentle and had
   him up feeding him oats all winter and you could saddle him up as easy
   as you please.
   
   "I was breaking horses for a dollar a year. That meant their ages. If
   they was five years old, I got five dollars. At that time, I was up in
   that county breaking horses all around there and they heard of me down
   below there and came down to see if I would break this horse. They
   offered me ten dollars and they told me that several fellows had tried
   to ride him but failed.
   
   "Well, I went down there. They had him in a pen and he was the
   prettiest horse I nearly ever saw. I first got on him there in the pen
   but he never did a thing. I told them to open the gate and when they
   did, he made for it. The boy that was riding with me couldn't stay
   anywhere near him. He ran till I thought he would run clear off the
   earth. He was making right for a fence and I knew he was going right
   into it. I didn't know how to stop him except to spur him in the
   shoulder, as I pulled my foot out of the stirrup and spurred him in
   the shoulder. Good gracious! He left the earth! He pitched pretty good
   for a little while, but not hard.
   
   "I knew when I saw fifteen or twenty fellows collected up at the
   corrals and sitting on the fence the day I got there to ride him, that
   something unusual was up. And I could see when I rode him from the pen
   that he was a dangerous horse. Well, after he quit pitching that
   spell, I rode him back into the pen. Then, I had this other boy that
   was riding another horse, lead him across a lane to an open pasture
   where he couldn't be running in a fence. When we got him through that
   gate into the open 00099pasture, I got on him. These men all left the
   corrals and came down there to see the fun and that horse didn't
   disappoint 'em. He pitched for a half-hour, I know, the hardest and
   highest pitching any horse could do. He never [?] once but did
   everything in the world to get me off. I began to wonder which of us
   would last the longest for I knew I was hurt already, but I rode him
   till he quit. When I got off, I was pale and my nose was bleeding and
   one of my hips was sort of out of place.
   
   "That horse broke every string in my saddle and finally broke the
   right stirrup loose. I sure had a good saddle but he tore it all to
   pieces. The saddle pockets were torn loose from the saddle where they
   were sewed. I thought lots of those saddle pockets and I had them
   sewed back, but he pitched that sixty-dollar saddle all to pieces.
   
   "When that right stirrup broke, I knew it did something to my back and
   hip. The doctor said that it was the strain and it hurt my hip someway
   and I never did get ever it. My right leg has always been a fraction
   shorter than the other and there was a joint in my backbone thrown out
   of place. Well, I got off and got the saddle off and rested while the
   other boy worked on the saddle and got it rigged up again. Then I put
   it back on him and he started again. He couldn't pitch like he did at
   first and I poured it on him every jump. We had ten miles to go to my
   camp that evening and every three or four-hundred yards he would down
   his head and try it again. When we got to camp, he couldn't jump over
   a foot off of the ground. He would do his best for a few jumps and
   then quit. All the way down there he would run into brush and under
   limbs trying to get me off.
   
   "I never had been very sore from riding broncs but the next morning, I
   sure was sore. I dreaded that horse more then any I had ever rode, but
   I knew I couldn't let him get the best of me then; I would have to
   ride 001010him. So I saddled him up and [?] an him prepared for a real
   cattle. He never offered to pitch another jump. He was so gentle, I
   could ride him bareback the next day. He was such a pretty horse I
   tried to buy him off of those fellows but they were so tickled to get
   him broke, they wouldn't part with him at all.
   
   "It used to be real roping in the days when they roped those big
   steers. It took a sure-'nough man and a good horse to rope / those big
   old steers in roping contests. I think Clay McCensyle and John [DEL:
   Murr :DEL] Murray were the best ropers I ever saw. It sure took good
   roping to rope and tie them and these boys always took the money. They
   were bound to be the best.
   
   "I've killed two or three mean bulls at different times to save my
   horse. [??] you have to kill one when he is tied to a horse after you
   rope 'im and didn't throw 'im. You can't throw one, hardly at all.
   They are so heavy and stout, you can't use an ordinary rope on 'em,
   you have to have a big rope. They will sure break a rope for you.
   
   "One of the darndest jobs I ever got into was roping bulls. They were
   fighting all the time and gutting one another and Old Man Henderson
   decided he would de-horn every bull on the ranch. We'd get a pen full
   of bulls at a time and two of us would get in there with a rope and
   the rest of the waddies would try to get 'em down. One of us would
   rope him by the head and one by the foot. I bet I broke a-hundred
   ropes. We would get ' [DEL: [?] :DEL] em down and saw their horns off
   right next to the head, and fight! They would fight a circle-saw.
   There was about a-thousand big, old bulls on that ranch. We had about
   thirty-thousand head of cattle there. There may have been two-thousand
   head of bulls, I don't know, but I guess there was, counting the young
   ones and all. He wasn't paying taxes on more than ten-thousand cattle.
   He raised the devil about them assaying that many once and said he
   didn't have that many cattle. The commissioners said 'All right, Mr.
   Henderson, 001111we'll just round 'em up and count 'em.' He said, 'By
   God, you wont, either. There was about three-hundred sections of land
   and nothing on it but cattle. We worked that whole country when we set
   in de-horning those bulls. That was about the awfullest job I ever got
   into.
   
   "But, right there on that ranch I saw the biggest round-up I ever saw
   throwed together. There was about eight-thousand head of cattle. There
   was three-hundred U steers got in his pasture and he wanted to get
   them out and wanted to round up his steers too. I never saw as many
   cattle throwed up on the side of a mountain in my life. We had a
   tenderfoot working on the ranch we called Pennsylvania. We cut cattle
   and cut cattle till my horse played out. Finally, there wasn't anybody
   left in the herd cutting but the old man and I rode over to
   Pennsylvania and decided to have some fun. All the other boys' horses
   had played out and my horse got to where he would pitch every time I
   rode him back into the herd so I had to pull out too. So the old man
   had it all to himself and I told Pennsylvania the old man and to get
   in that herd and help out those cattle. He said that would just suit
   him fine so he busted into that herd and slashed 'em right and left.
   He didn't know what to do when he got into a herd but he knew the boys
   were in there doing something. He got in there and if he didn't make
   cattle scatter! We couldn't even hold the herd together. The old man
   never noticed him for a long time and Pennsylvania was having the time
   of his life. We were all sitting on our horses out to the side
   laughing our heads off for we knew the old man was already mad,
   anyway. Well, when he finally looked up and saw Pennsylvania making
   those wild breaks through that herd, the old man gave a beller and
   made a run at poor old Pennsylvania and yelled at him to get to hell
   out of there. Pennsylvania didn't know what had come over the old man
   but he didn't stop to find out. He fairly laid the quirt on that old
   pony and come out of there, his jacket flying straight out in the back
   001212and the old pony's ears laid down flat. The old man was so
   outdone, he give up cutting that big herd and turned all the cattle
   loose and quit.
   
   "I don't know what ever become of Pennsylvania, but I think he went
   back home. We had more fun out of him than anybody I ever saw. He
   wasn't afraid of these broncs at first but he got busted so much, he
   got shy and quit 'em. A fellow like him -- we'd always make anything
   up on him in kangaroo court and convict him. He would try to fight 'em
   sometimes when they made up something that made him too mad, but it
   didn't do no good.
   
   "There would be some of the dangest pleading of cases in those
   kangaroo courts you ever heard in your life. There would be a lawyer
   there and a fellow proscuting the cases. Laugh! It would tickle a dog.
   The attorneys would do some of the darndest arguing you ever heard but
   they always had a judge and had to hurry through the cases, they had
   so many to try. I bet I've helped whip a thousand old boys. They made
   laws that couldn't be broke without getting tried and no matter what
   the complaint was, you were always convicted. You never could prove
   yourself innocent. There would be every sort of complaint you could
   imagine. Some of the boys would pretend to have got a shock while they
   was out rounding up and saw some other fellow who didn't know he had
   been seen and they would have a doctor there to examine this fellow's
   heart to see if the shock had hurt him and of course the doctor always
   pronounced it bad. Some would claim they had been insulted by one or
   the other boys either saying something in his presence or not being
   particular in what he had done and of course that was a bad offense.
   If it hadn't been for something like this going on when all the boys
   were out for weeks on a drive in all kinds of weather and no amusement
   of any kind, it would have been unbearable. They were determined to
   have some fun no matter how they had to have it or who it was on.
   
   "I remember one time there were two old boys come there at the ranch
   001313wanting to work and they took 'em in and let 'em try to work
   some. I had a good friend there on the ranch and we decided to have
   some fun out of the boys. We got to where we would always be
   quarreling when we come in at night and he would get these old boys
   off and tell 'em how mean I was. All the other boys were on to it and
   would try to separate us if our arguments got too hot. Those boys
   would watch me and would sort of take my friend's part when we would
   get to quarreling till he had 'em ready to fight for him. Finally, he
   got 'em to agree that they would just whip me and then he and I made
   it up to pull a good gun fight that night. So we took our cartridges
   out of our pistols and took the bullets out so nobody would get hurt
   and that night we commenced quarreling after we started to bed and we
   sure got bad. Those old boys had got up as they knew they were
   supposed to help whip me, so we kept quarreling till we both pulled
   our guns and I shot at him. He fell back on his bed like I'd really
   shot 'im and said, ' [DEL: He :DEL] He's killed me!' Of course I kept
   shooting but I didn't have anything much to shoot at because these old
   boys had jumped like deer and were running toward the ranch house. I
   went to shooting in their direction and we saw the biggest one of 'em
   run into the corner of the house and I never saw a fellow get such a
   fall or such a lick as he got. He jumped up and I fired again and they
   lit out around the house. They had intended to run into the house but
   they didn't have time. They hid out around there till late that night
   and slipped around and stole their horses out and left. We never did
   see or hear of them any more. The boss got up ready to tear the ranch
   up next morning. We had kept him awake and run his hands off and he
   wasn't in a very good humor.
   
   "There was always something going on at all those big ranches. They
   kept a good many hands all the time and they could think of plenty to
   do. As a general rule, those ranchmen were as good men as were ever
   born. I 001414never worked where I wasn't treated well. But after I
   left the 7Ns, I bought a ranch of my own out on the Pesos River, as I
   had accumulated stock of my own and I knew I could run any kind of a
   ranch I ever saw. Old Man Henderson tried to discourage me from the
   idea at first, but when he saw I was determined to go, he told me I
   was doing the right thing and said he knew I would make good."
   
   -30-

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