TX BIOS:  Billy Robinson, Uvalde Co. TX

   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.
   
   0001
   
   Life History [1,430?] Words
   
   EDITORIAL FIELD COPY
   
   by
   
   Mrs. Florence Angermiller
   
   Page 1
   
   232
   
   Range Lore and Cowboy
   
   Reminiscences of Early Days UVALDE COUNTY, DISTRICT #10
   
   BILLY ROBINSON
   
   Sabinel, Texas.
   
   "There were five boys and four girls in our family. My father was
   killed by the Indians up on Chalk Bluff on the [Hueces?] River. He
   came to this country shortly after the Wares, Kellys, Davenports,
   Kinchaloes, Fenleys and others settled in the canyon. Chris Kelly
   moved my father out from Kaufman County.
   
   "My father settled on the Frio River south of the present site of Con
   Can. While we were living there, Old Man Tom Leakey had a lone battle
   with Indians who came to his place. Their trail showed blood and that
   there were three Indians. He got the settlers together next morning
   who were Old Thompson, [Sebe?] Barrymore, Silas Webster and my father,
   Henry Robinson. There was a steep mountain to be climbed and when they
   reached the top of it, they were hot and tired. My father was in the
   lead and saw at a glance that they were in a trap when Indians began
   to pop up from everywhere. Raising his rifle he fired quickly and told
   Mr. Leakey to do the same, but Mr. Leakey had trouble with his gun ad
   couldn't pull the hammer down so he pulled his pistol when he was
   right at an Indian.
   
   "Finally his pistol refused to fire and thinking he was out of loads,
   He jumped from the cliff, catching at bushes and rocks for a hundred
   feet and he finally caught in a cedar tree. This small sapling
   wouldn't hold his weight so he rolled on over the ledge. The Indians
   thought he was dead and two of them went down a better path to scalp
   him but he raised up with the pistol and 00022and began to cursing
   them and the white men up on the cliff heard him. My father told the
   men, 'He isn't dead yet, listen at im cursing the indians!' They ot to
   Mr. Leakey and gave him water and pulled two arrows out of him. There
   were [?] wounds. He was carried back to the settlement and recovered
   from his wounds in about six weeks.
   
     NOTE: C.12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   "Then before we left the canyon my brother Henry was killed by the
   Indians. He and I had taken a little homemade wagon and gone above the
   house past the field to haul up some wood. Two Indians had hidden in
   the corner of the field and they jumped out to grab us as we came
   along and we started running. They killed Henry and started on after
   me but I kept in the lead. My mother and sisters ran out in the hall
   way and saw the Indian about to catch me. They grabbed a gun and fired
   at the Indian just as I got to the fence and he stopped, so I got
   through the gate and to the house.
   
   "Chris Kelly and some more men were trailing the Indians that had
   stolen Chris' fine race horse and they came across Henry's body right
   soon after he was killed within a quarter of a mile of the house.
   
   "We moved to Fort [?] below Uvalde the same year we got to the canyon
   then we moved to Chalk Bluff above Uvalde where my father was killed.
   
   "We were living on the river and a family had come in there and camped
   below us. The Indians know my father and they had waylaid him this day
   and killed him. No doubt they had feared him a long time for they took
   the pain to take off one of his boots and come on down the valley with
   it to where his home was. Their idea was to bring it to mother to let
   her know they had finally got him.
   
   "When they got to our place on the Hueses, mother was not at the
   house. She had taken me and one of the youngest children down to visit
   some neighbors who were camped below us and right near. These people
   had come in there from California and liked the Hueces valley. They
   had several children.
   
   00033
   
   "When mother heard the awful racket up at our house she left us and
   rushed up there thinking of the children. One of my oldest sisters ran
   out with a little sister by each hand and George, my oldest brother,
   called from the house to mother as she came running, 'What shall we
   do?' Mother saw that the place was full of Indians and George was
   already wounded in the arm. She called back, 'Fight till we die!' and
   she picked up rocks as she came. The Indians were amazed and wouldn't
   even shoot her as she came toward them trying to kill them with rocks.
   They had plundered the house and destroyed all they could by now and
   mother was with George trying to fight them off. The woman and
   children below the camp ran and hid but the Indians fearing some of
   the ranchmen would ride up, left. Down the road, they found my little
   sister hiding with the other little neighbor girl who was red headed.
   They caught the little red headed girl and jerked her up on one of the
   horses and scalped her alive as they rode along while the other
   Indians were lancing her. Then they slung her to the ground and said
   in English, 'Damn you, die!' As wounded as she was, she answered back,
   'Damn you, I wont die!'
   
   "It was about dark when all the ranchmen were gathering and help had
   gotten there, that the dogs at our house began barking and cutting up.
   Then we heard the voice of that wounded, bloody, baby girl, who had
   dragged herself to the gate. She said to the dogs, 'Don't you know
   me?'
   
   "We thought the Indians had carried her off and of course the men were
   gathering to follow them. When she got there she was the most horrible
   looking sight. But she recovered and grew to be a young lady and
   married.
   
   "When the Indians left our house that day they left my father's boot
   and of course my mother knew he was killed. He was an experienced
   Indian fighter and the Indians admired him as well as feared him.
   
   "My mother went back to the Sabinal Canyon to the old Kelly place east
   side of the [?] River. They stayed there about a year then they went
   to the 00044Webster ranch which was our old place on the Frio, and we
   stayed a year or two. From there we came back to Uvalde and lived in a
   house east of the Leons River.
   
   "I remember as well as if it was yesterday when Chris Kelly took his
   big herd of cattle to California. I was just a school kid. I played
   with his boys all the time and had many a fight with them too. We'd
   fight each other or fight for one another. We were living there at
   Uvalde when Chris Kelly left his family there and you know those
   plazas over there used to be full of cows and jacks and we boys used
   to go up to town and catch a jack. They were just loose jacks (or
   burros) that come off the range. One night [?] Mullins and I caught a
   jack and rode along and we got to crowding the old fellow too much and
   he just put his head down and stopped and we went on.
   
   "I can remember the soldiers shooting up the town of night too. You
   know Uvalde used to ba a bad town. Some bad men used to come in there
   and I remember we had, at one time, one of the worst men that ever was
   in Texas -- Henry Young. His own friends killed him in jail. He had
   killed ['sberry,?] his friend. It was a drunken brawl and Young was
   badly wounded too. Pete Howles an Warren Allen went over to the jail
   to see who could kill him first and Warren Allen saw him first and
   killed him.
   
   "George Hammer wasn't a bad man but he was one of the bravest men I
   ever saw. He just wasn't afraid of anything. I saw him in Kansas in a
   saloon one time standing at the bar and he saw a Negro come in with a
   stove-pipe hat on and the Negro drank a schooner of beer and lighted a
   cigar. He was so insolent it was too much for George, so he walked up
   and hit him on the burr of the ear and the hat flew one way and the
   Negro the other.
   
   "I went up the trail twice to Dodge City , Kansas. It took us
   seventy-six days to make the trip. We went out from Uvalde up the Main
   Frio and hit Paint Creek, south Elano and San Angelo. We stayed all
   night on Old man Adams Wilson' place. This was a herd for F. C. Gates,
   and our [?] got lost up on Paint Creek 00055and when we did find our
   selves I tell you there wasn't a man in the outfit that wasn't mad.
   
   "I saw seven head of cattle sink in the quick sand in the [ashita?]
   River. They stopped to drink and kept treading the water and sand and
   going down till there was nothing left but the points of their horns
   sticking out. And I remember John [?] taking his horse out in the
   middle of the stream to drink and when he stooped down to drink he
   started sinking. I came along and hit his horse with my quirt and out
   he went.
   
   "We only traveled six or seven miles a day on the trail on account of
   the drags. It's a funny thing -- when you get to Kansas the drags
   would be your lend cattle. And milk! We sure had plenty to drink.
   Every thing sure got fat on the trail little as you'd think so. You
   wouldn't know your own saddle horse by the time you got to Kansas.
   
   "On that trip we had nine cow-hands and a cook. And we had beans and
   bacon and bacon and beans. No potatoes. Never had seen a potato or
   knew what it was. We had rice and dried apples. But we wanted meat, we
   were used to meat. We had meat about twice or three times except some
   Antelope meat. Antelope meant isn't near as good as venison.
   
   We carried one extra suit of clothes with us but I remember one fellow
   who never washed his undershirt till he got to Kansas. We carried an
   overcoat for that was sure important and that was about all except our
   leggins and rope.
   
   "I remember a good woman rider over at Fort Clark who was called Babe
   Ross. By giminy, she rode horses all the time and she rode after her
   own stock. No, she wasn't a bit pretty but she sure could ride. They
   called her the cowboy girl and she was just that. I didn't know much
   about her but I know she always rode a flea-bitten , gray pony and
   nothing ever got away from her.
   
   "Of course, I saw girls in rodeos and one of the best riders was a
   00066[McHonagin?] girl from Oklahoma. Her father was a regular old
   cowman and a sport but they were fine riders.
   
   "When I quit the cowboy life , I went to work in Uvalde for Old Man
   Burkett in his store and while I was living there I met Miss Alice
   Smith who was the daughter of the editor of the Uvalde newspaper
   called the 'Hesperian.' It was the second newspaper to be established
   there and was later called the Leader News. Alice and I married in '82
   and we lived in Uvalde seven years. She was a genuine brunette, coal
   black hair and eyes and a fine musician. We were all methodists and
   quit dancing and joined the church. When my wife's health broke, she
   had twenty-six in her orchestra there. We never had any children but
   our home was always open to the young folks. She died in 1920.
   
   -30-

************************************************************************
USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced 
in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of
this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives
to store the file permanently for free access.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/

Thanks to the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/txcat.html
***********************************************************************