Postcard from Fort Leaton

Marker at Fort Leaton

The area around the junction of the Rio Conchos and the Rio Grande rivers in far southwest Texas was first inhabited approximately 8,800 years ago according to archaeological evidence. From earliest times, humans have considered this to be a special place. Caches of stone tools and ceremonial arrowheads have been found throughout the area. The first Europeans, Spanish explorers,  came in the 1500's and with them, they brought diseases and illness' unknown to the native peoples, basically wiping them out. The Spaniards left and for the next 300 years, even though Spain continued to claim this land, they never settled it. Mexico won its independence from Spain and for the next 50 years, they claimed the land, but they didn't settle it either. Because it was so remote and rugged, everyone knew it as El Despoblado (the uninhabited land.)

There's a reason it was mostly uninhabited

In the 1800's, the Mescalero Apache and Comanche Indians came and ruled the land. During this time, in 1848, Ben Leaton purchased a shack and some land from a Mexican absentee owner, Juan Bustillos, and proceeded to build a 40-room adobe fortress around it. A former scalp hunter, Ben reached an uneasy truce with the Indians by providing them with food and weapons and encouraging them to raid Mexico where there ware many more cattle and horses. He paid them in goods for any stolen cattle they brought back. 

Leaton died in 1851 and his widow married Edward Hal who moved into the fort and took over the Leaton business. When he ran into financial trouble, he used the fort as collateral to borrow money from Leaton's ex-scalp hunting partner, John Burgess. When he defaulted on the loan, Burgess tried to evict Hal and his wife, but Edward refused to leave. He was found murdered not long afterward and there was no proof as to who killed him. The now twice widowed woman promptly moved out and was lost to history. John moved into the fort, but 10 years later was also found murdered. It was said that Ben Leaton's son did the deed in revenge, but he was never brought to trial and the death of Burgess was never solved and largely forgotten.

Be careful where you step

After the Civil War ended in 1865, military forts were established the Buffalo soldiers. mostly African-American cavalry, eventually drove the Indians out of the area and onto reservations far away. This allowed ranches to be established. Due to the scarcity of water and lack of forage, the ranches had to be large to sustain the cattle. The Chillicothe-Saucita Ranch covered 300,000 acres and when purchased in 1998 by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, it became Big Bend Ranch State Park. The Lely Ranch encompassed 70,000 acres. (In case you are interested, as of this writing, it is uninhabited and for sale at an undisclosed price.)

Entrance side of Fort Leaton

Due to murders, financial difficulties and abandonment, the fort and surrounding land was deeded to the state of Texas in 1967. Rumors of the building being haunted didn't help finding anyone who would buy the property. (For the story of the haunting click here.) Located on FM 170,  Fort Leaton is today a Texas State Historical Site and is undergoing restoration. So far, 24 of the original rooms have been restored complete with cottonwood beams and the other 16 rooms are in various stages of restoration. The site contains historic ruins, nature trails, and exhibits and is open from 8:00AM - 4:30PM every day except Christmas. A Texas State Park Store gift shop is located on the grounds.

Restoration continues on the old fort

Postcard from Judge Roy Bean

Roy Bean (historical picture)

Roy Bean was born in Kentucky in the 1820's (nobody knows the exact year). By the time he became a teenager, her was getting into trouble, mostly for fighting. He and his brother, Sam, left home in 1847 and made their way south into Mexico. Not long after arriving, Bean was forced to flee to San Diego after he shot a man in a barroom fight. Once again though, he was soon forced to leave town after he shot a man during a quarrel. He fled to Los Angeles where he tried to be a law-abiding citizen, but within a year, he killed a Mexican officer in a duel over a woman. The officer wanted to duel with lances, but when the two men faced off, Bean pulled his pistol and shot the surprised officer. Angry friends of the officer kidnapped and hanged Bean in revenge, but luckily, the rope was new and it stretched far enough that Bean managed to stay alive standing on his tiptoes until the woman he had fought for arrived and cut him down. He bore rope scars on his neck for the rest of his life. Fearing the men who hanged him would try to finish the job, he left the woman behind and fled to a less risky life in Texas.

After making his way to San Antonio, Bean lived a somewhat quiet life (at least for him) as a business man. His main income came from selling milk door-to-door from a horse-drawn wagon. He married 18-year-old Virginia Chavez in 1866 and had four children by her, Roy Jr., Sam, Laura and Zulema. They also adopted a son named John. With a family to support, Bean soon found a way to increase his milk selling profits by diluting the milk with creek water. When the buyers started noticing minnows in the milk, Roy seemed as surprised as the buyers. "By Gobs," he said, "I'll have to stop them cows from drinking out of the creek." Eventually, his shady deals became so notorious that the neighborhood where he and his family lived became derisively known as "Bean Town."

In 1880, Bean divorced his wife, left her and the kids in San Antonio and moved 200 miles away to eventually settle in the railroad camp of Langtry in southwestern Texas where he opened a saloon and sold whiskey to the railroad workers. While in San Antonio, he had become enamored with the famous English actress Lillie Langtry. Even though the two never met, he named his saloon, the Jersey Lilly, after her and followed her life through numerous theater magazines he read.

The Jersey Lilly saloon and "courthouse"
(historical picture)

Over the next two years, Bean secured an appointment as a justice of the peace and notary public. He had a sign painted and hung on his saloon proclaiming himself to be the "Law West of the Pecos." Even though he knew little about the law or proper court procedures, throughout the years, he relied on a single law book, the 1879 edition of the Revised Statutes of Texas. When newer law books were sent to him, he used them as kindling. The area residents appreciated and accepted his common sense verdicts in the sparsely populated country of West Texas. For ten years, his claimed authority was not questioned and then, when the government insisted on holding elections, he was re-elected three times. Bean controlled the large territory between San Antonio 200 miles to the east and El Paso, 300 miles to the northwest.

Judge Bean maintained such a rough reputation that few, if any, challenged him. If anyone even thought about challenging him, they knew there was always a bunch of broke, thirsty cowboys hanging around the Jersey Lilly who would gladly do Roy's bidding for a shot or two of whiskey. One time, the owner of a Langtry restaurant owed Bean money. When he didn't pay up, Bean waited until the restaurant was full and with a six-shooter on his hip, he stood in the door and had each customer pay him for their meal. The last few customers paid what Bean claimed as the interest. The restaurant owner didn't protest.

Bean became widely known for his outrageous verdicts and fines. One time, a rich city slicker from back east was riding the rails to see the west when the train stopped to take on water in Langtry. The gentleman strolled into the bar and demanded a bottle of beer. Bean set one out for him. The customer ordered Bean to give him a glass, but he was told, "Drink it out of the bottle or leave it alone." The eastern dude took a drink from the bottle, looked up at a sign that read, "Ice Cold Beer" and asked, "How near the ice do you keep this beer?" Bean told him there ain't no ice in the summer time. The visitor dropped a $20 gold coin on the bar. Bean quickly grabbed it and put it in the cash drawer. When the dude inquired, "Where's my change?" Bean told him "Anybody who comes into my bar and puts down a $20 gold piece and expects to get change back must be crazy."But that's robbery!" the easterner protested. "Is there no law in this country?" "I'm the law," said Bean. He took off his bar apron, put on a long, black coat he called his judicial garment, mounted a low stage and sat down on a chair perched there, his chair of justice. "I find you guilty of disorderly conduct and fine you $10 and costs. The costs will be $9. Court is adjourned." He descended from the bench and said, "With the dollar for the beer, that makes $20 which has already been paid into the treasury of the honorable court. The prisoner is discharged, and you better run for that train as it's about to pull out and me and the boys don't harbor disorderly persons in this town." The poor easterner looked around at the large number of armed cowboys looking at him with unfriendly looks on their faces and decided to run for the train.

Judge Roy Bean and others in
front of the Jersey Lilly
(historical picture)

One day a cowboy lassoed a bear cub and brought it to Bean as payment on his bar tab. Chaining it to a post between the saloon and the train station, Bean charged rail passengers $1 to see the bear drink a beer. Within a few months, the creature became the bear equivalent of an alcoholic. Bean loved the bear, named it "Bruin" and made sure it had plenty to eat and plenty to drink. During one of his infrequent trips to San Antonio to see his children, a passenger on the train discovered Bean gone and, as a joke, sent a telegram to him saying, "The bear is dead." Several days later, a telegram came from Bean to his Mexican assistant which said, "Skin the bear. Save the skin." Knowing he better not question or delay an order from the judge, the assistant went over to the bear, killed it with a shot between the eyes and skinned it. When Bean returned, he looked at the skin drying on the wall of the saloon and said, "To bad. I'm sure going to miss the old boy." "Then why you have him killed?" asked the Mexican. When the judge discovered what had happened, he swore vengeance on the perpetrator if he ever came back to Langtry. Fortunately for the prankster, he evidently never came back through. Bean never really got over the reason for Bruin's death and he kept the bear skin in his bedroom. 

Another tale is about a railroad worker who fell from a bridge and died on the Mexican side of the river. Bean quickly got several men to go fetch the body and bring it to the Texas side. Going through his pockets, the judge found $40 and a six-gun. He immediately declared the corpse to be guilty of carrying a concealed weapon and fined him $40.

What few people know however, is that in spite of his "hard as nails" reputation, Bean actually had a soft side. Most of the fines he collected actually went quietly to the poor and destitute in the area. He also often took money he made from his saloon and bought medicine for the sick and injured. And the $40 he fined the dead man? It bought a casket, a headstone and paid the gravedigger's labor. He did, however, keep the six-gun and used it as a gavel. In spite of being known as a hanging judge, Bean never hanged anyone. He did sentence two men to hang, but secretly arranged for the guards to "accidentally" let the prisoners escape the night before the scheduled hanging. The two men never returned to the area to appear before Bean again. He also never sent anyone to the penitentiary. Instead, he sentenced law-breakers to take care of things that needed doing in Langtry such as repairing and painting buildings and people's homes, replacing rotting sidewalks in town, or cleaning and repairing outhouses. If nothing needed doing, he made them spend some time tied to a stake in the hot Texas sun.

After being the Law West of the Pecos for over twenty years, Bean was defeated in the 1896 primary by a Mexican candidate. Angry and bitter, even though he was over 70 years of age, Bean made it a point to visit every single person of voting age in the area and convinced them to vote for the candidate running against the Mexican who had beaten him in the primary. His man won in a landslide.

Inside the Jersey Lilly Saloon

After that election, Bean retired, but refused to give up his judge's seal. He continued to perform marriages for $5 (he always ended the ceremony with the phrase, "May God have mercy on your souls") and granted divorces for the same charge of $5, but he mostly lived off his savings. He continued to help the poor of the area and made sure the school house had free firewood every winter.

In 1902, Langtry began to decline when the highway was moved a few miles north of the town for a more direct east-west route. In early 1903, construction started on a power plant on the Pecos River. Bean complained that times were changing and he was being left behind. He took a trip to San Antonio where he engaged in an epic drinking bout and kept complaining about changing times. He became sick the next day and took the train back to Langtry. On March 19, 1903, he arrived in town at 10:00 AM, went directly home and died at 10:03 PM that same night. It is speculated he simply gave up the will to live. After such a rough and adventuresome life, Judge Roy Bean died peacefully in his own bed, with boots off, friends in attendance and the bear skin with a bullet hole between the eyes on the floor next to him.

The Jersey Lilly today

Lillie Langtry, the object of Bean's devoted, but one-sided adoration, visited the town just 10 months after his death. She went inside the saloon and Bean's house. She took two mementos when she left - a poker chip from the saloon and the six-gun Bean had taken from a dead man's pockets and used as his gavel. 

In the 1920's, the railroad closed its facilities, most all of the remaining jobs were lost and the town of Langtry began to dry up. Today, there is little there except some ruins, about a dozen residents living in isolated houses, the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center and the still standing Jersey Lilly saloon.