TX BIOS:  William Whytock
   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
   
   Folkstuff
   
   Range-lore
   
   Nellie B. Cox
   
   San Angelo, Texas. CONTINUITY
   
   Page one
   
   RANGE-LORE
   
   William (Billy) Whytock came from the capital of Scotland, as he
   proudly tells, but the fact that he is a Scotchman is apparent without
   his calling attention to it. After all these years in Texas, his
   speech still retains the Scottish accent and roll. Mrs. Whytock also
   is an 'old-timer'. They are a genuinely congenial couple, observing
   all the courtesies toward each other. Each year Mr. Whytock, with the
   help of the best singers, musicians and other artists of the city,
   [DEL: prepare :DEL] prepars and presents a program honoring Robert
   Burns, who is Mr. Whytock's dearly beloved poet. Mr. Whytock tells in
   detail:
   
   "I was born in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. I was apprenticed for
   seven years and learned the trade of carver, gilder and woodworker,
   but when the immigration agent talked to me and five other young
   fellows, he made the states sound so fine, so wonderful, that we were
   in a hurry to start.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/[41?] - Texas
     
   00022
   
   "The boat on which we came over was loaded with pig iron and as the
   boat rolled, the iron shifted from side to side, sometimes we were up
   and again we were `doon'. One night I remember was particularly rough.
   Some of the boys were in the beds, others were playing cards, when an
   extra hard lurch sent the ones in bed out on the floor, the ones on
   one side across to the other. There was pandemonium. We came in
   November, 1884. I was then 27 years old. The immigration agent took us
   to San Antonio, some went on to California. I had been accustomed to
   macadamized streets in my native city and those streets in San Antonio
   were so rough that we held on with both hands. All the vehicles were
   drawn by mules. The transportation was extremely crude.
   
   "There was no work for us around San Antonio so when we found a man
   coming to Menard, each of us paid him five dollars to bring us that
   far toward San Angelo. The cook of the outfit stayed drunk nearly all
   the way so we took turns at the cooking. None of us knew anything
   about cooking but our appetites were such that we could eat anything.
   
   "At Menard, while looking for work, we met a Scotchmen who said he had
   no work for us but took us in because we were fellow countrymen. `I
   suppose,' said 00033our new friend, 'that you all have guns.' We
   proudly jerked our six-shooters out of our pockets. 'Well,' he
   continued, 'take my advice. Go out to that fence and throw those guns
   as far as you can.' He gave us quite a lecture, telling us how quickly
   a bad man could draw his gun and fill us full of holes. We took his
   advice and so far as I know those guns are still in that pasture where
   we threw them.
   
   "We walked on in to Eden, a distance of about twenty-two miles. As we
   walked along after dark, we could see Eden but something puzzled us
   and that was long streaks of light about twelve inches apart. This was
   explained when we got there- the hotel was built of twelve inch boards
   with no stripping over the cracks. That hotel was one large room and
   it was lobby, bedrooms, dining room and kitchen. The kitchen was
   separated from the other part by a curtain. We were given a quilt or
   blanket and we picked our places on the floor to put down our bed.
   There was a doctor waiting around on a baby case and he told us that
   one of us could ride into San Angelo with him. We tossed a coin and I
   lost. I have always been able to sleep anywhere but that hotel almost
   finished me. Fellows stumbled over me all night, walked in my face and
   all over me.
   
   "My friend came on with the doctor and got a 00044job keeping books
   for Mr. Millspaugh. After a few days, I rode the stage in. My friend
   at Menard had told us that we had better leave our valuables with him.
   I didn't have anything except a gold watch which I had brought from
   the home country but I was glad I had left it, for the stage was held
   up. It was night and two fellows stepped out into the road and ordered
   the driver to halt. None of us were very much excited and if none of
   them had any more than I, the robbers wasted much valuable time. When
   I reached San Angelo, my friend who had come in with the doctor, was
   ready to go home. He was disgusted with this wild, uncivilized
   country. But I was not much of the roving type and stayed on. There
   was very little work in the country; too early for lambing, but a Mr.
   Hill who ranched toward the head of South Concho said he would give me
   work if I could come out there, giving me directions. I started out
   walking. There were no roads and as Hill had told me, I followed the
   river. Walking on one side of the river, I'd think that the other side
   looked much better, so I would cross over. I must have crossed the
   river ten or twelve times. The day had been fine but just before I
   reached the place about where Christoval is now, a cold norther began
   to blow. I went up to a ranch house and asked to stay all night but
   the men were all away and the women looked on me with suspicion. I lay
   down under a tree and went to sleep and when I awoke, I was numb with
   cold and as 00055hungry as a young man could be. I went back to the
   ranch, (it was the W. C. Jones ranch), and by then the men were at
   home. I told my story and explained that I could understand the reason
   Mrs. Jones wouldn't take me in. 'Of all the blundering set of people,'
   said Mr. Jones. He took me in and gave me a good supper. It was the
   first time I remember eating a biscuit. After the meal we went in by
   the fireplace where there was a glowing fire of big logs. They asked
   me question after question. The children were all young. Will, the
   boy, Mrs. Weddell, Mrs. Shepperson and [Janet?], they all enjoyed
   hearing us talk.
   
   "The next morning, the children went with me a short distance to show
   me the way to the ranch for which I was bound and at which I arrived
   in a few hours.
   
   "Mrs. Hill was trying to tack up a wagon sheet on one side of the
   kitchen to keep out the north wind. She turned over the job to me and
   that was my first job on a ranch. My work consisted of getting the
   horses up, hauling wood, crawling under the house for eggs, building
   fires in the early morn, cutting the bacon, grinding the coffee and
   all the other things an inexperienced person might do. Then, while
   this was a big cattle ranch, we had to milk, of all things, a goat. It
   was a wild creature and I had to hold the goat while Mrs. Hill did the
   milking. I had to hitch up a team of mules to haul wood. I had never
   handled mules but thought I must be kind to dumb brutes but my
   kindness went for naught, for 00066a mule kicked me as I stooped over
   to pick up a part of the harness.
   
   "It was the custom to break in a newcomer. When the boys on the ranch
   asked me to ride an unbroke colt, I knew I must make the best of it.
   Then as a boy, I would never take a dare, so they put me on the colt
   without even so much as a string to hold to. Away I went. The horse
   would go up on his hind legs and then up on his front legs. The
   cowboys yelled and hit the colt with their hats. I held on to the colt
   with both hands around his neck and both legs around his belly. When
   he decided I couldn't be thrown off, the horse ran under the trees
   trying to pull me off with the limbs. My clothes were torn in strips
   and my back bleeding and the cowboys decided that 'Scottie' would do.
   
   "In the early days they told many tales on the Englishmen who came
   over. One is of the fellow who rode all day along the river and was
   extremely thirsty but wouldn't drink without a goblet. Another is told
   of an Englishmen who sat somewhat withdrawn from the bunch eating at
   the chuck wagon. 'Come and get it,' called one of the boys. With
   uplifted eyebrows and a haughty tone, the Englishman said, 'In England
   I'm the son of a lord, and by jove, I'll not eat from tin plates with
   iron forks.' 'Well,' said the boys, 'You might be the son of a lord
   over there, but here you are the son 00077of a so-and-so,' and did
   they make him eat.
   
   "Being out in the open air and in a new country gave me a big
   appetite. I am sure Mrs. Hill cut her biscuits with a thimble. It
   seemed that I was always asking that the biscuits be passed. One day
   at the table the little Hill boy said, 'Mama, Mr. Billy sure must be
   hungry. He has eaten 14 biscuits.' I was embarrassed and Mrs. Hill
   kicked the boy's foot to make him observe manners, but he insisted
   that he was right and I guess he was.
   
   "My next job was herding sheep. A man went from place to place
   building rock houses or fireplaces and would take sheep as pay. I
   herded the sheep. We had quite a flock of them and I had such a time
   with those sheep. The Merino sheep would graze quietly on the grass
   but the Mexican sheep would go skipping and jumping over the country.
   My employer came one day and said to me that he would have to go to
   Lampasas as a witness and could I let him have some money. I did and I
   have never seen that man since, but I stayed on with the sheep. My
   camp was in an old rock house beyond Panther Bluff. The house had no
   roof and when it rained I would sit up in the chimney as there wasn't
   quite so much open space above me. The animals would come in and get
   my food, at last getting everything except the salt. I starved for
   several days until a ranchman happened to be passing and I told him of
   my 00088plight. He brought me food which I kept, but one morning my
   clothes were gone. I herded the sheep but when I would think any one
   was coming, I would hide in the brush. I was helped out of that
   predicament by the same man who brought some clothing from town.
   
   "One day a Mexican herder was going along with his flock; and his
   flock and my flock became mixed. While we were running hither and
   thither trying to separate them, the owner of the other flock came
   riding up. When he took in the situation, he jerked out his gun,
   pointed it at me and said, 'Get those sheep separated or I'll shoot
   your head off.' That man on his horse towered high above me and the
   gun looked as big as a cannon but I said, 'Shoot, but in my country
   when we have grievances, we settle them like men.' The man stared a
   moment. 'Why Scottie, you plucky little devil,' he said. Then he
   ordered his Mexican to separate the sheep. That man was always my good
   friend.
   
   "With winter coming on, I turned the sheep over to others and came to
   town. Mr. Nimitz gave me work in his hotel, washing dishes. At that I
   was nothing to brag about. Often the help would all get drunk and Mr.
   and Mrs. Nimitz and I would be left to do the work. Later, after
   saving some money, I went into the restaurant business with a partner.
   This restaurant was called by outsiders the "Fighting Restaurant" and
   it was rightly named. There was scarcely a night that a fight did not
   00099occur. Things were very quiet in the day, but at night the boys
   were looking for fun. In the restaurant for instance, one night they
   saw a mouse and immediately began to throw things- cups, saucers,
   plates, everything; but they paid the bills. My partner, Buck, was an
   Irishmen and a bit of a fighter himself. One night he and a man by the
   name of Delano began a fight at the front door. They had both been
   drinking. They rolled and fought, turning over tables and chairs,
   smashing dishes and making a clear track through the dining room and
   back into the kitchen until they came in contact with the hot stove.
   
   "In business, you never knew whether you would have the same partner
   in the morning that you had the night before or not. They would sell
   out their share or may be all of the business and be gone when you
   found out. It kept you guessing. I once knew of a fellow who sold
   [DEL: [?] :DEL] the same milk cow to several men. They were to go to a
   certain pasture and get her. The man moved, took the cow and the cash,
   too. Mr. Mott, the dairyman who brought milk to our restaurant was
   among those who bought the cow. He said that if he could find some one
   to take his dairy, he would follow that fellow plum to hell to give
   him a beating.
   
   "I have looked down a gun barrel twice in my life, that I know of. I
   was running a short order eating place in the back of the Legal Tender
   Saloon. 001010Above, there was a gambling hall. One evening an
   overbearing fellow came down from the gambling joint and ordered six
   suppers. 'Bring them upstairs as quick as you can,' he said. I told
   him that I had no one to send them by and that he could come and get
   the suppers as I would have them ready in about twenty minutes. He
   threw his gun on me and ordered me to get those meals upstairs. Well,
   I stood and looked in that gun but I was determined I wouldn't do as I
   was ordered. Some men came in for a meal and the man with the gun
   backed off.
   
   "Mrs. Whytock and I were married in 1889. In the early 90's we opened
   a variety or racket store. I painted a sign for my store and Fred Beck
   liked the sign so well that he got me to paint a large sign for his
   butcher shop. From then I have been painting signs of every kind. It
   has developed into an art with me and my work is said to be the very
   best of its kind.
   
   "Of the other boys who came with me, I am the only one left in this
   country. Two went back soon after they got here, two drank themselves
   to death, one who went to California did not live many years."
   0011Range-lore
   
   Nellie B. Cox
   
   San Angelo, Texas.
   
   BIBLIOGRAPHY
   
   Wm. Whytock, San Angelo, Texas, interviewed, February 4, 1938.

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