Heritage, Volume 12, Number 1, Winter 1994 Page: 11
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were called upon to do the hardest work
around the outfit. They were willing and
realized that their chances of staying with
the outfit depended on their willingness.
They did as much as possible to place
themselves in the good graces of the other
hands as well as their bosses. They usually
became top bronc riders and horsemen
with lots of cow "savvy," and many became
outstanding trail and ranch cooks.
Probably the best known of all black
cowboys from Texas was Bill Pickett who
grew up in Williamson County. He was a
top ranch cowboy who gained fame as the
creator of the rodeo event that was originally
called bulldogging. The event is known
today as steer wrestling, but Pickett's way of
putting the steer on the ground gave it the
name. He would jump from a horse onto a
steer and sink his teeth in the steer's nose
and twist it down. His fame was spread as a
featured performer in the Miller Brothers
101 Ranch Wild West Show. It headquartered
on the 101 Ranch in Oklahoma
but produced shows all across the nation.
Pickett initiated a deviation of his bulldogging
technique by jumping from the
running board of an automobile to bulldog
a steer. This was wildly acclaimed by every
audience he performed it for. Pickett has
been recognized and honored in many
different ways by various groups. Two of
the most significant have been his induction
into the National Cowboy Hall of
Fame at Oklahoma City and the placement
of a large bronze sculpture of him bulldogging
a steer in front of the Northside
Coliseum in Fort Worth.
Not many of these
black cowboys were
able to put together
a ranching operation
of their own. One
who did was Daniel
Webster Wallace, who
was born to slave
parents in Victoria
County in 1860.
Other old-time black cowboys who were
well known and well liked include Tom
Ball who worked for the Welder and
O'Connor families in the Victoria countryfor more than 60 years. Bob Remo worked
for the Blocker Brothers for many years on
the trail and on their Texas and Mexico
ranches. Coaley Owens cooked at the 6666
wagon for 36 years, and its owner S.B.
Burnett left him a pension as long as he
lived. Tige Avery worked for the Matthews
family at Albany for many years before
retiring. Prior to his death,
Heck Bazy was a devoted employee
of Tom L. Burnett at his
Iowa Park ranch. Ellis Miller, a
veteran of the Kansas trail,
lived to be well past 100 years
of age and served his employer,
Dr. Ledbetter of Winchester,
as the trustee of his estate while
the doctor was in the Confederate
Army. Major Power
worked for the Branch Brothers
of Edna as long as they were
in the cattle business and was
still breaking horses at the age
of 75. Matthew "Bones" Hooks
was born to former slave parents
in Robertson County and became
a cowboy at age nine. He
went up the trail to Kansas a
number of times and later became
a leading citizen of Clarendon and
Amarillo. When he died in Amarillo in
1951 at the age of 83, he was the last of the
old-time black cowboys of the Texas Plains.
Not many of these black cowboys were
able to put together a ranching operation
of their own. One who did, however, was
Daniel Webster Wallace, who was born to
slave parents in Victoria County in 1860.
He knew little but cow work from his early
years and began drawing wages as a hand
when he was 15. When he was 17 he made
the long ride from Victoria through Indian
country to the corer of Runnels and Taylor
counties near the present town of Buffalo
Gap. He came to work for Sam Gholson,
veteran Indian fighter and cowman. He
worked for Gholson one summer and then
began working for the N.U.N. outfit. They
had a range on the headwaters of the Clear
Fork of the Brazos and ran 8,000 cattle. He
worked for them for 16 months and then
joined Clay Mann's outfit.
The Mann outfit was locating South
Texas cattle on a ranch near the presentday
town of Colorado City; these were the
first cattle to come to that section. Wallace
was given the name "80 John" when he
came into the Colorado City area riding in
the dust of the drag with the first herd of
Clay Mann's cattle. The Mann brand wasthe number 80 in large numerals stretching
from backbone to belly. The nickname was
based on that brand. During the 14 years
that he worked for the Mann's, Wallace
saw every phase of open range cow work
and trail drives to Kansas. Later on the
outfit trailed cattle to the rail heads at
Denison, Gainesville, and Fort Worth. TheT.P. Railroad then came to the area and
the town of Colorado City grew into a
thriving rail head city and cattle shipping
point for the vast area. Wallace worked
with and for cattle barons who have made
history in the Southwest-Winfield Scott,
Gus O'Keefe, Sug Robertson, the Slaughters,
Bush and Tillar, and the Ellwoods of
Spade Ranch fame. He also had dealings
with the managers and ranch bosses of the
Scotch and English-owned ranches to the
northeast.
In 1885, 80 John began to hear talk that
the days of free grass and open range were
nearly over. A person who expected to stay
in the cow business would have to buy and
fence his lands. Acting on this information,
he used his accumulated savings to buy a
section of land. He continued to ride with
the big outfits and saved his earnings and
added land and cattle to his holdings as he
could afford to. His total operation ultimately
reached a total of 15,000 acres with
several hundred head of cattle. In addition
to the livestock operation, he farmed several
hundred acres to raise supplemental
feed and a cash crop of cotton.
Wallace was married to Laura Owens of
Navarro County in 1888 and four children,
three girls and one boy, were born to this
union. Although his formal education was
HERITAGE * WINTER 1994 11
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 12, Number 1, Winter 1994, periodical, Winter 1994; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth46807/m1/11/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.