http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._A._Wallace This is the true story of William Wallace. Pretty run of the mill name, but his full name was William Alexander Anderson "Bigfoot" Wallace! Now we’re getting somewhere! He was born April 3, 1817 and died January 7, 1899. He “was a famous Texas Ranger who took part in many of the military conflicts of the Republic of Texas and the United States in the 1840s, including the Mexican-American War”. “When he learned that a brother and a cousin had been shot down in the Goliad Massacre, he set out for Texas to "take pay out of the Mexicans"; years later, he confessed that he believed the account had been squared. Wallace was a large man at 6'2" and 240 pounds in his prime”. “He drove a mail hack from San Antonio to El Paso, and on one occasion, after losing his mules to Comanches, walked to El Paso and ate twenty-seven eggs at the first Mexican house he came to-before going on to town for a full meal”. Now here’s the part I like about Wallace: “The later years of his life were spent in South Texas in the vicinity of a small village named Bigfoot. He never married. He was a mellow and convivial soul who liked to sit in a roomy rawhide-bottomed chair in the shade of his shanty and tell over the stories of his career. Wallace was personally honest but liked to stretch the blanket and embroider his stories”.
Joe, you sound like a fellow Texan. I grew up on tales of the Texas Rangers. I had a stepfather who was a Texas Ranger, and I would beg him to tell me stories. He told of long ago, and into the 1960's.
No Ma'am, I am a northerner, living in the keystone state....also one of the kettle states. Haven't you heard Ina, everyone loves Texas!
Joe, are you in Pennsylvania? I have two grandson living there. I am hopeing to visit there in the next couple of years. My oldest grandson will be 28 this year, and I think he will be marrying soon. I want to see him settled, and beginning his own family. He calls me his Cowboy Grams. I'm happy to hear that people like our state of Texas, as many do not. I've been told we are to proud, and I can see how folks could get this idea. What a lot of people don't understand is that we were a country before we joined the USA.
My grandfather grew up in Texas, too, and he was apparently such an expert marksman that the Texas Rangers wanted him to join; but my grandmother was afraid that it was too dangerous; so he never signed up. He became a piano tuner instead, which my grandmother must have felt was a whole lot safer occupation. My mother used to tell me the stories about riding to school in the old buckboard, and the longhorn cows chasing the wagon and trying to turn it over. She said that all of the schoolchildren would be huddled together in the floor of the buckboard, while the driver would try to fight off the longhorns with his bullwhip. It definitely made for a scary adventure story, and to this day; I am terrified of cows ! Robin and I were talking about her childhood one day, and she said that her Grandmother used to tell her that story, too, and she is also afraid of cows. My mother was a pretty convincing story-teller, I guess. PS Ina, it seems like Joe is kind of a meanderer, and just kind of goes places as he gets around to it.
Yvonne, I enjoyed your story about the buckboard school-wagon and the longhorn cows. ....and to think how young-ins today... think riding in a big hunk of yellow metal is an adventure! HAHA! Sounds like the makings of a children's book to me!
Joe, "Mom and the Longhorns" is one of the stories in my blog. Check out the link in my signature below. The blog is my way of saving family stories for my children and grandchildren, and as i remember stories, I write them down and put them in the blog, and often they are also one of my posts in a forum as well.
Yvonne I like your idea of writing the family stories in your blog. All families have stories that have been passed on by word of mouth, more families should follow your lead and write them down. I always enjoyed the stories the older people I have met would tell.