Vol 24 No. 04 - January 1947

Early Day Stage Robbers

J. Marvin Hunter, Sr.

During the 1870s and 1880s, before the railroads penetrated Central West Texas, and the mails were carried by stages, there were many hold-ups and robberies committed by well organized gangs of bandits. The stage running from San Antonio to Fredericksburg, Mason, Menardville, and on to San Angelo, was often held up and the passengers robbed and the mail sacks cut open and relieved of registered letters and packages. A number of these robberies occurred at or near a stage station known at "Pegleg," ten miles east of Menardville, and a crowd known as the Pitts and Yerger Gang was suspected as being responsible for these robberies. Here is the story.

Mentions: Boerne * Marshall Hal Gosling * Charles Yerger * the "Robbers' Cave Gang," * Jim McDaniels and Ezra Pitts * Castroville, Texas * Gen. Sheridan * the Quill * Hal L. Gosling * H. S. Canfield, * Marshals Manning and Lang * Mrs. Pitts * Rose Yerger * New Braunfels * Canfield * San Marcos * Mrs. Drown * Comal county.

The Story of Sad Sam

Fred Gipson

“It was 1938 and folks in Refugio were pulling off a little two-bit rodeo for South Texas ranch people. Nobody had come with the expectation of seeing the last show of one of the greatest rodeo broncs ever to throw a rider. But when in the middle of a calf-roping contest the announcer halted the show to call an exhibition ride -- "Buck West coming out on Sad Sam!" -- there wasn't a handful of people who didn't sit up and take notice.”

Mentions: Pendleton, Oregon * Long Tom Heard * W. T. Johnston, who furnished stock for the big rodeos of America every year * famous names as Cork-screw, Gates of the Mountains, Fiddle Face, and Buzzard Roost * Jack Laidley * Pete Knight * Chief Corral * Long Tom and Short Tom * Dobe Lewis * the Refugio arena * Buck West * Rocky Reagan * Beeville * Berclear ranch on Blanco Creek * Jack Harvey.

A Texas Cowboy Coming Down the Trail

Jack Potter

Account describes writer's first-hand experience that occurred in 1882 when he was not yet 17 years old and was heading a cattle drive north from Texas to the Big-Horn Basin in Montana.

Mentions: the New England Livestock Company * King Hennant of Corpus Christi * Asa Clark of Legarto * Billie Burke * John Smith * Fredericksburg, Mason and Brady City * Trinidad, Colorado * Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos * the Charles Goodnight ranch on the Staked Plains * the Dim Trail * La Junta. Colorado * the Big Horn Ranch * Crow Agency * Ogallala * Dodge City, Kansas * the St. Charles Hotel * the Tabor Opera House * Albert's Buckhorn saloon in San Antonio * Jack Harris' Theatre * Old `Dog Face' Smith * George W. Saunders * Denison, Texas * the M. K. & T. * Wild Horse Jerry * the I. & G. N. * Capt. Joe Sheeley and Sheriff Quigley of Castroville * A. T. & S. F.