Cowboy Capital of the Texas Panhandle

The town of Tascosa was once known as The Cowboy Capital of the Texas Panhandle. Unofficially, it was also known as the Gunfighter Capital of the Texas Panhandle. Tascosa came into being in the mid-1870’s on the vast prairie of the Texas Panhandle. It was surrounded by huge ranches like the LS Ranch which grazed 50,000 head of cattle and covered 4 counties as well as part of New Mexico and the 3-million acre XIT Ranch. The Dodge City Trail ran right through the middle of town which was there strictly to serve the cattle drovers and cowboys who worked the ranches – supplies, whiskey and girls. Less than a mile east of Main Street was “Hogtown,” so named for the collection of “less beautiful” girls who serviced the cowboys.  Homely Ann, Gizzard Lip, Rowdy Kate, Boxcar Jane, Panhandle Nan, Slippery Sue, Frog Lip Sadie and Big Dog Jenny all were kept busy by the boys who came to town after spending weeks out on the lonely trail or riding the prairie with none but other men and cattle for company.

In the 1880’s, the population reached a high of 400, but the entire region was lawless. Billy The Kid escaped his pursuers from New Mexico to spend time playing cards, racing horses and having shooting matches with Bat Masterson. The first permanent resident of Boot Hill was Bob Russell, a former cowboy who quit to open a saloon in town. Unfortunately, Bob was by all accounts a mean drunk and he all too frequently imbibed in his own product. He got into an argument with a local store owner, Jules Howard, and a few evenings later, after a large amount of liquor, he staggered into Howard’s store, pulled his gun and fired off a shot, missing Jules by a wide margin. The store owner, who was stone cold sober, had seen Bob heading his way and was waiting with his 6-shooter drawn. After Bob’s wild shot, Jules fired three shots, hitting his target in the chest, head and trigger finger. Bob was placed in a pine box and buried the next day, minus one finger.

Tascosa's Boot Hill

Several months later, the second resident of Boot Hill was planted. Fred Leigh came to town while driving a cattle herd to market up north. After spending most of the day in a saloon, he drunkenly mounted his horse and rode through town shooting his revolver. At one point, he shot the head off a resident’s pet duck which chose the wrong time to cross the dirt street. The county sheriff arrived and with a posse of four men, including the duck’s owner, confronted Fred. When the cowboy reached for his gun, the sheriff blasted him off his horse with his double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun.  Within the next year, eight more men would be buried in Boot Hill. All died of gunshot.

In 1886, a gunfight erupted over a girl. A cowboy was caught flirting with the girl another cowboy considered his. He shot and killed his rival, but then the dead man’s friends came after the killer and then his friends got involved. By the time it was all over, there were four dead, including an innocent shop owner, and four more men badly wounded.

Still maintained, but rather sad and lonely
out in the middle of nowhere

Until the early 1890’s, there was an average of a gunfight every two weeks. Fortunately for the participants, most occurred after much alcohol had been consumed and the bullets either missed a vital organ or totally missed their intended targets. Often, sobering up after a day in jail, the combatants would shake hands and go back to cowboy work. However, not all fights ended so amicably. A total of ten gunfights were recorded with fatalities. All became forever residents of Boot Hill.

During the late 1890’s, Tascosa began to decline as cattle drives ended and roads made it easier to go elsewhere. In 1915 the county seat was moved to Vega and Tascosa’s business owners and residents went with it. The adobe buildings were abandoned and began to crumble into dirt piles.

Cal Farley’s Boys Town now occupies the old town site. All that remains is the 1884 stone courthouse, the reconstructed schoolhouse and Boot Hill, the forever home of pioneer Tascosans who lived, fought, and died in the Cowboy /Gunfighter Capital of the Texas Panhandle.

Who Fired The Actual 1st Shot of the Civil War?

Historical photo of William Simkins

William Stewart Simkins was born on August 25, 1842 in Edgefield, South Carolina. In 1856, he entered the Citadel, a South Carolina military academy. Simkins was on guard duty as the sun began rising on January 9, 1861 when he saw an alert signal from a guard boat in Charleston Harbor. The guard boat had detected the arrival of the Union steamship Star of the West entering the harbor. Since South Carolina had declared she had seceded from the Union several weeks earlier, this was considered a military incursion by a foreign power.

The Star of the West was a 172-ton steamship built in New York in 1852 for Cornelius Vanderbilt. She made regular runs to Nicaragua, Havana and New Orleans until she was chartered to the War Department on January 1, 1861. She was loaded with ammunition, food, uniforms and sundries in New York before being sent to deliver the supplies to Fort Sumter. 

After alerting the other cadets, Simkins loaded his cannon and fired upon the "Star of the West." Within seconds, his mates joined in. Although not damaged to a great degree, the ship was hit three times and the captain of the Star of the West considered it too dangerous to go on. He ordered the ship turned around and, with both paddle wheels churning, fled from the scene. Although the bombardment of Fort Sumter would not take place until April 12th, three months later, William Simkins had effectively just fired the first shot of the Civil War.

Grave of William Simkins & family

Due to the inevitability of the coming war, Simkins and his fellow cadets were graduated early on April 9th that year. Three days later, he was on duty once again and participated in the bombardment of Fort Sumter, marking the official beginning of the war. 

Simkins was commissioned as a first lieutenant of artillery and fought in a number of battles during the first two years of the war. He was named inspector general for General Hagood in 1863. He survived the war and surrendered as a colonel under General Joseph Johnston in 1865. After he surrendered, he and his brother moved to Florida and eventually organized the Florida Ku Klux Klan. He became a lawyer in 1870 and moved to Corsicana, Texas in 1873 where he established a law practice. In 1885, he moved to Dallas and established a law practice with his brother. The firm was very successful, but he moved to Austin to be a law professor at the University of Texas in 1899.

At the university, he became a very popular professor and his publications became standard textbooks across other schools in Texas and many campuses across America. He became professor emeritus in 1923, but still lectured once every week until he died in 1929. He is buried in a family plot in Greenwood Cemetery in Dallas.

Simkins was such a popular teacher and held in such high esteem that a new residence dormitory was named Simkins Hall and a green-space park on the campus was named Simkins Park. Simkins' history with the Ku Klux Klan in Florida was rediscovered and in 2010, the African American trustee, Printice L. Gary, made the motion to delete the name "Simkins" from the dormitory. The motion was unanimously approved and the dormitory name was changed to Creekside Residence Hall. The park was also renamed and the name "Simkins" has been disassociated from the University of Texas.

Postcard from the Frontier Times Museum

Years ago in America, there were hundreds of "dime museums," private collections of anything and everything the owners found interesting. Most of the time, the artifacts were simply thrown together in no particular order. Visitors were charged a nickle or 10 cents to see freak animals in jars, trinkets from faraway lands and strange, but realistic-looking fakes like "monkey boy" and "fish girl." Sadly, there are only a few dime museums left now. One of the best of those left however, can be found in the little central Texas town of Bandera at 506 13th Street. Founded in 1933 by J. Marvin Hunter, the Frontier Times Museum remains alive and well.

The haphazard arrangement of the many artifacts is part of its charm. As you walk through the rows and rows of display cases, you will come across a 2-headed calf skull sitting next to a collection of old Novocain syringes used by a dentist. A beautiful example of Native American bead-work shares space with a serpent made from hundreds of old English postage stamps. Look through the World War I and II memorabilia to see guns, equipment, ammunition and a German helmet with a large hole in the side and then gaze at the "Shrunken Head of Zorro" from a doglike creature that lived in the jungles of Ecuador and was unlucky enough to have been captured by Jivaro headhunters. In another room, you don't want to miss the shrunken human head which a few years ago was noggin-napped and missing for a while, but then returned after it was found in a plastic bag in a San Antonio parking lot. No doubt it was abandoned after the noggin-napper was afflicted with a South American curse.

The Frontier Times Museum does have a western theme as its name implies. There are arrowheads, branding irons, pistols, flintlock rifles, furniture from log cabin days, a bottle from Judge Bean's saloon, a map of Texas made from rattlesnake rattles, and the mounted head of a longhorn named Big Tex whose horns measure 7 feet 6 inches from tip to tip. But then, as you are looking over these artifacts, you unexpectedly come upon a magnifying glass under which is a pair of fleas dressed for a night on the town and a few steps away, next to the leather saddle used by a local cowboy who won a rodeo championship, is a stuffed lamb with two faces. 

Could you be in oddball heaven? You just might be.

Where Men Were Spanked

The Whipping Oak

There is a public gathering spot called Central Park in the middle of the town square across the street from the county courthouse in Seguin, Texas. On the northern edge of Central Park stands a group of live oak trees. One of these large oaks was used by early courts for the punishment of those found guilty of breaking the law, harsh punishment by use of whip. Runaway slaves, thieves, and wife-beaters were among those who received such punishment.

On the side of one oak, a 3-inch iron ring still usable today, is embedded in the tree about five feet from the ground. It was to this ring that the prisoners were tied for their lashing. The number of lashes was always prescribed by the court. One court in 1846 gave the following sentence: "...as many licks as (a certain settler) had given his wife.” Sometimes the sheriff wielded the whip and sometimes the court hired someone at 10 cents per lash.

Being sentenced to receive lashes was the most feared punishment by lawbreakers. Lawmen and many citizens deemed it more effective than sitting in jail for a few days. For wife beaters, judges thought sentencing the convicted man to jail for a while would just end up being much harder on the poor wife when the man got out. They must have had a point as it was noted there were far fewer men who committed crimes again after a lashing at the post then those who had just sat in jail as punishment. 

The punishment was public and, thinking it would be a good deterrent by putting the fear of the whip in their minds, everyone was encouraged to attend. Often, the lashing would be scheduled at lunchtime so spectators who wanted to see it could get off work and have a picnic during the beating. 

The local Texas Mercury newspaper printed a description of one lashing - 

"The shackled accused was stripped of his clothing in front of all who wished to witness the prisoner receive his licks. As his bound arms were raised, the sheriff fastened his wrists to the iron ring implanted in the tree roughly five feet above the ground. The murmuring of the crowd was suddenly silenced as the sheriff began to raise his four-foot rawhide whip to proceed with the punishment. The lashing of the whip could be heard hitting the bare body of the convicted from blocks away. With every whack, whack, whack a painful moan was heard from the accused as he cringed in agony. The crowd which had grown in large numbers flinched with every blow and a slight gasp would follow. The ten strokes were delivered so slowly it took ten minutes to complete. Though no skin was broken, large raised red markings were visible."  

It also reported one of the spectators that day said, "The sheriff did a real nice job of it. In my opinion though, the sheriff did not hit him as hard as my own pa used to hit me."

When I visited "The Whipping Oak," it was a beautiful, sunny day, a perfect afternoon to enjoy a picnic in Sequin's peaceful, shady Central Park. Of course, there wasn't a crowd of onlookers straining to see a man being lashed with a whip, no rawhide whistling through the air, and no painful moans could be heard. I leaned up against that oak tree with the iron ring embedded in the trunk and for a moment I closed my eyes. I know it was just my imagination, at least I'm pretty sure it was, but while leaning against the rough bark, I swear I heard the subtle, but anguished cries of an abusive husband vowing to never strike his innocent wife again. 

Miracle of the Lady in Blue

One of the most fascinating stories of early Texas is of the missionary efforts of a Spanish nun who worked in Texas from 1620 to 1631. She instructed various Indian tribes in the Catholic Faith and told them how to find the Franciscan Mission in New Mexico to ask for priests to come to baptize their people. Her name was Mother Mary of Jesus of Agreda, a nun who never left her Convent in Spain.  

For six years, beginning in 1623, small delegations of Jumanos Indians had come at the same time each year to Isleta, a Pueblo mission near present day Albuquerque, to speak to Fr. Juan de Salas, a much respected missionary who had established the church there in 1613. Each year, the Indians requested a mission be established in their lands and spoke about a woman who had sent them. They were the first to report the visits of the “Lady in Blue.” But the story was disregarded as impossible. Also, to travel from Isleta into the middle of Texas was a long and very dangerous trek – over 300 miles through the hostile lands of the Apache. At that time, the missionaries lacked both the priests and the necessary soldiers to make the trip and establish a new outpost, so the mission was delayed.

Then, in the summer of 1629, a larger delegation of 50 Indians arrived at Isleta requesting priests to return with them and baptize their people.  That year, a messenger was sent to Superior Friar Alonso de Benavides about the strange story of a lady who was supposedly teaching the Catholic faith to the Indians. 

Friar Benavides, who had recently arrived to be in charge of all mission work and who had heard the story of the miracle back in Spain, was very interested to know more. He decided to question the Indian party and ask how they had come to have knowledge of the Faith. In his Memorial to Pope Urban VIII, he reported the results of his inquiry: “We called the Jumanos to the monastery and asked them their reason for coming every year to ask for baptism with such insistence. Seeing a portrait of Mother Luisa (another Spanish Franciscan sister in Spain) in the monastery, they said, ‘A woman in similar clothing wanders among us there, always preaching, but her face is not old like this, but young and beautiful.’

“Asked why they had not told us this before, they answered, ‘Because you did not ask and we thought she was here also.’” The Indians called the woman the “Lady in Blue” because of the blue mantle she wore. She would appear among them, the Jumanos representatives said, and instruct them about the true God and His holy law. The party, which included 12 chiefs, included representatives of other tribes, allies of the Jumanos. In Fr. Benavides’s 1630 Memorial, he notes that they told him “a woman used to preach to each one of them in his own tongue.” It was this woman who had insisted they should ask the missionaries to be baptized and told them how to find them. At times, they said, the 'Lady in Blue' was hidden from them, and they did not know where she went or how to find her. 

Fr. Benavides quickly put together the needed men and materials for a visit to the area requested by the Indians. After traveling several hundred miles east through the dangerous Apache territory, the weary expedition was met by twelve Indians from the Jumanos tribe. They had been sent to greet them and protect them on the last few days journey, they said, by the 'Lady in Blue' who had told them of their location. As the friars drew near the tribe, they saw in amazement a procession of men, women and children coming to meet them. At its head were Indians carrying two crosses decorated with garlands of flowers. With great respect the Indians kissed the crucifixes the Franciscans wore around their necks. 

Fr. Benavides wrote in his report that they learned from the Indians the same nun had instructed them as to how they should come out in procession to receive them, and she had helped them to decorate the crosses. Many of the Indians immediately began to demand to be baptized. The missionaries found the Indians were already instructed in the Faith and eager to learn more. Their astonishment increased as messengers arrived from neighboring Indian tribes who pleaded for the priests to come to them also. They said the same lady in blue had catechized them and told them to seek out the missionaries for baptism. 

The next year, in his Memorial of 1630, a report on the state of the missions and colony, Frier Benavides made a precise account of the Indians who had been instructed by the “Lady in Blue.” His Memorial of 1634, written after he had returned to Spain and personally met and visited with Mother Mary of Agreda in late 1631, also describes that meeting and his favorable impression of the nun. She informed him that beginning at the age of 25, she could, in a trance-like state, travel over the oceans to the New World and while there, instruct the native peoples in the Catholic faith. She said that even though she spoke Spanish, the Indians understood her, and she understood them when they replied in their native dialect. On her first two visits, she reported, the natives were afraid of her and shot her with arrows. She felt the pain of the arrows entering her body, but when she awoke from her trance, she was fine and her body had no wounds. On her next visit, she said she admonished them to stop shooting arrows into her and to listen to her words of salvation. They did and she went on to visit and preach to them hundreds of times over nearly eleven years. She reported she then lost the ability to be in two places at once and her visits to the New World stopped.

Over 50 years later in 1687, Franciscan Damian Massanet had established Mission San Francisco de los Tejas, the first mission in East Texas. In his report, he tells of an incident that took place on his expedition while they were distributing clothing to a group of Indians. Their chief asked for a piece of "blue baize" for a shroud to bury his mother in when she died. Fr. Massanet wrote, “I told him that cloth would be better, and he said that he did not want any other color than blue. I asked then what mystery was attached to the color blue, and the governor said that they were very fond of blue, particularly for burial clothes, because in times past a very beautiful woman visited them there, who descended from the heights, and that this woman was dressed in blue and that they wished to be like her."  Massanet asked how long ago this happened and the chief said it was before his time, but that his mother, who was very old, had seen her, as had the other very old people. 

In 1689, Spanish explorer Alonso de Leon made his fourth expedition into Texas, arriving in the area between the current day towns of Paint Rock and Concho. In his hand-written report giving a detailed record of the expedition, he said some of the Indians encountered were already partly instructed in the Catholic Faith because of the visits to their forefathers of a "Lady in Blue." He wrote, “They perform many Christian rites, and the Indian chief asked for missionaries to instruct them, saying that many years ago a woman went inland to instruct them, but that she had not been there for a long time.” 

Finally, in 1699, Captain Mateo Mange traveled with Jesuit priests Eusebio Francisco Kino and Adamo Gil on another expedition into the same area. Captain Mateo reported that while talking with some very old Indians, the explorers asked them if they had ever heard their elders speak about a Spanish captain passing through their region with horses and soldiers. They were trying to find information about earlier expeditions.  The Indians told them that they could remember hearing of such a group from the old people who were already dead. Without prompting, they said that when they were children a beautiful white woman, dressed in white, brown and blue, with a cloth covering her head, had come to their land. They reported, “She had spoken, shouted and harangued them … and showed them a cross." They said some of the Indian warriors were afraid and shot her with arrows, leaving her for dead on two occasions. Reviving, she disappeared into the air. They did not know where her house and dwelling was. After a few days, she returned again and then many times after to preach to them.

Mother Mary of Agreda, "The Lady in Blue," continued her Godly ways, assuming the role of Abbess, the highest ranking nun in her convent, a position she held for the rest of her life. She never left Spain and there were no more reports of her bi-locating to teach the Indians in America. She passed peacefully from this life in 1665. 

Inspired by their love and respect for the Lady in Blue, a story has been passed down by the Jumanos Indians. According to the tale, after the Franciscans came to baptize the people, the Lady in Blue told the Indians that her visits were at an end. When she left them that last time, the hillside where she had appeared was blanketed with beautiful blue flowers, a memory of her presence among them. That flower came to be known as the Bluebonnet. Today, it is the state flower of Texas. 

The Mighty Wedding Oak

The day I visited, it was very overcast and raining

Down in the heart of Texas, near the state's geographical center, stands a huge and very old live oak tree known as the “Matrimonial Oak” or the “Wedding Oak.” Legend says that even before the Spanish came here, Indian braves and maidens met and were united in wedlock beneath this oak's sheltering boughs. Later, from pioneer days into the 1900's, the tree was a popular spot for residents of the area to visit and exchange pledges and marriage vows.

Historical records tell of the tree also being a place for Indian council meetings, but that's about it. No ghosts, hangings, or treasure tales are connected to it, Bonnie and Clyde didn't temporarily stop fleeing from the law to have a picnic beside it and Elvis never slept under it. It's just a beautiful, very large and very old tree that has seen a lot of history and survived many cold winters and hot summers since it was just a stick.

The Matrimonial Oak lives in the quiet countryside just outside the city limits of San Saba, on the east side of China Creek Road, about half a mile south of the San Saba River. From US Hwy. 190 in San Saba. turn right on 9th Street, then left on China Creek Road (CR 200) and go one mile to the Matrimonial Oak.

Texas Historical Marker next to the Wedding Oak

Son of an Alamo Hero

The Alamo, a revered historic shrine for Texans and where

hundreds of men died for the cause of freedom, is today

a major tourist attraction.

A lot of people, especially Texans, know of William Barrett Travis, commander and hero of the Alamo who, along with Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and about 185 other men, valiantly gave his life in the cause of freedom. Few know he had a son who fell from grace.

When William was only 18 years old, he had already finished his schooling and was working as an assistant teacher. When he was 19, he married 16-year-old Rosanna Cato, one of his former students. In 1829, less than a year later, they had a son, Charles Edward. Leaving for Texas in early 1831, William left his pregnant wife and young son behind. Although neither publicly commented as to the cause of the breakup and no proof ever came forth, rumors swirled for years that it was due to Rosanna's unfaithfulness and that the daughter she birthed after he left, Susan Isabella, was not William's. Whether the rumors were true or not are still disputed, but in his will, William named Susan as his daughter. What is undisputed was his devotion to his son.

Rosanna went on to marry twice more before dying of Yellow Fever in 1848. She raised her daughter until Susan's wedding shortly before Rosanna's illness. In 1834, William brought his 3-year-old son Charles back to Texas to be near him. By this time, William was in the Texas Army so he arranged for Charles to live with his good friend, David Ayres, who, along with his wife, ran one of the first Anglo-American schools in Texas out of their home in Montville, Washington County.

Historical picture of William Barrett Travis

On February 12, 1836, William became the official commander of the enlisted forces in the Alamo alongside Jim Bowie, commander of the volunteers. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his 6,000 Mexican Army forces laid siege to the former mission on February 23 and declared their intention to kill every defender. Over the next week, William sent out couriers with his letters asking for more men to come to their aid. In his last letter, sent March 3rd to his friend David Ayres, he wrote, "Take care of my little boy. If the country should be saved, I may make him a splendid fortune; but if the country should be lost and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is the son of a man who died for his country." On March 6, before the sun rose, Charles Travis lost his father when the Mexican Army overran the Alamo and killed every defender.

After his father's death, young Charles was sent to live in New Orleans with his mother and her 3rd husband, Dr. Samuel Cloud. When they both died of Yellow Fever in 1848, he moved in with his sister Susan and her husband back in Texas.

Historical photo of Charles Travis

After becoming a member of the Texas bar, he was elected to the legislature to represent Caldwell and Hays counties in 1853-54. He then briefly served as captain of Company E of the Texas Rangers until his appointment to the command of Company H, Second United States Cavalry.

Things began to go wrong for Charles soon afterwards. While stationed at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, Second Lt. Robert Wood, Jr. brought charges against him for slander. Travis was quickly assigned to lead a company of soldiers to be stationed in Texas, but during the march south, additional charges of cheating at cards and unauthorized absence from camp were brought against him. In a telling entry in her diary, Eliza Johnston, wife of Col. Albert Sidney Johnston (Charles' commander), said of him, "Travis is a mean fellow. No one respects him or believes a word he says."

On December 10, 1855, Johnson relieved him of command and placed him under arrest in quarters. He was charged with "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman." Travis pleaded not guilty.

Courthouse in Mason, Texas where over 40 battles were

fought in the area by Fort Mason soldiers against the Indians.

The court-martial was convened on March 15, 1856 (almost exactly 20 years after the fall of the Alamo and his father's death) at Fort Mason in Mason, Texas. With his father being regarded as a hero, it proved to be one of the most sensational trials in Texas history. After almost a month of testimony and deliberation, with Colonel Johnston and nearly every one of Travis's fellow officers testifying against him, he was found guilty of all charges and summarily dismissed from service on May 1, 1856.

Town square, Mason, Texas. Fort Mason was the last

command of Robert E. Lee before being called to Washington

and asked to command all Union forces during the Civil War.

Charles refused to accept the findings and publicly claimed the graduates of West Point had discriminated against him as an appointee to the regiment from civilian life. He tried to enlist the help of the Texas legislature in clearing his name, but even with their political assistance, President Franklin Pierce declined to reopen the case. Travis then took the misguided effort of trying to force several of the officers who testified against him to reverse their testimony. The tactic led to a severe backlash of public sentiment against him.

Giving up the fight, Charles Edward Travis went back to live with his sister on the land grant given to them by the state of Texas for their father's sacrifice. He never married and had no children. William Barrett Travis' "little boy" died of consumption in 1860.