b'Bill Picke ttAmerican Cowboy HeroPART 1 By Alan RockmanH e didn\'t actually inventOn the eve of the 20th bulldoggingthe Greeks, the Romans, and a bunchCentury, Bill Pickett was of bulldogs that went for thestill an ordinary Cowboy cow\'s lip beat him to it. But it can be said that Bill Pickett was theblessed with some very Cowboy who not only tooled andextraordinary skills. refined the art of bulldogging that is jumping down upon a steer and biting the cow\'s lip into submission, he was instrumental in bringing it to the rodeo-going masses. Perhaps the best two sources,later, after the Bartons had left South Carolina, journeying one a biography that waswest to the new and still very wild lands across the Red He toured with Buffalo Bill Cody in the Miller Brotherswritten 45 years ago, theRiver, the Texas children of the Picketts, including Thomas 101 Ranch Wild West show, he was close and good friendsother a recent, best-sellingJefferson, were expected to do the same. Dr. Barton seemed with Tom Mix, another 101 Ranch showman, and withchronicle of the fabulousto be a fairly benevolent man for a slave owner, for while Will Rogers. He was adored, admired, and respected byMiller 101 Ranch are thethe work in breaking horses and tending cattle was hard thousandsall this while having to endure the sickeningbest works that tell theenough, there was no indication of the atypical back-racism of early 20th Century America; sometimes havingstory as best as possible of Bill Pickett as a Black Cowboy,breaking field work for the Barton and Pickett slaves. At any to be billed as a "Comanche" Indian in places in the Deepa worldwide rodeo champion and a man. This writer,rate, Thomas Jefferson Pickett\'s years in slavery in the Texas South that were verboten to a Black man, even a Blackusing primarily those two books, Colonel Bailey C. Haines\'Hill Country were fairly short, for by the time he turned 11, Cowboy. He was first known as the "Wonderful Negrobiography of Pickett entitled "Bill Pickett, Bulldogger" andthe Civil War was over, the Confederacy had crumbled, and Pickett," then as his fame became known far and wide, hefamed Western HistorianMichael Wallis\'s "The Real Wildthe Bartons had freed their slaves.would later be called the "Dusky Demon," a name that stuckWest: The 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American with him throughout most of his life. West" intends to hopefully flesh out the story of this quiteChoosing to remain in the Hill Country, the Barton remarkable Black Cowboy and American man by the nameand Pickett cousins would become known for their This is the story of Bill Pickett, Black Cowboy, championof Bill Pickett. horsemanship skills and their work with cattle, and they rodeo rider, bulldogging expert, and yes, American would soon be hired on by the local white Texas ranchers. Cowboy hero. THE BEGINNING Little Willie\'s older cousin Anderson Pickett, whom the Black Cowboys in the American West accounted for upyounger Pickett looked up to, would soon become one of "There never was another Cowboy quite like Bill Pickett.to an estimated 25 percent of workers in the range-cattlethe most trusted and dependable ranch hands and drovers The world of brave bull riders, bronc busters, and steerindustry from the 1860s to 1880s, estimated to be at leastin the Hill Country. Anderson Pickett would be hired on wrestlers never saw his match. Across all of the old cow5000 workers according to the latest research. Typicallyas a servant and ranch hand of the famous Hill Country country and throughout the rodeo circuit, if anyone daredformer slaves or those born into the families of formerrancher Thomas Snyder. (Thomas Snyder was a cousin of to wager otherwise, the bet was quickly snapped up and theslaves, many black men had skills in cattle handling andfamed country rock musician Chris Hillman of the Byrds, ante was raised. Gambling on Pickett was sure money in theheaded West at the end of the Civil War. Though theFlying Burrito Brothers, and Desert Rose Band fame bank. Never mind that this Cowboy was a Black man withindustry generally treated black men equally to whitethrough Hillman\'s mother). As Snyder\'s servant and skilled tinges of Cherokee and white blood, subjected to extrememen in terms of pay and responsibilities, discriminationranch hand Anderson Pickett would participate in a famous racial prejudice. Never mind that he was one of thirteenpersisted, though to a lesser extent than in other industries1879 cattle drive from the Hill Country to Dodge City, children born to dirt-poor former slaves. Never mind thatof the time (from the "black cowboys" Wikipedia entry). in one instance saving the life of one of the young white he didn\'t get much formal schooling. Never mind that hisdrovers, Baylis John Fletcher, who would later write:earnings were almost always far less than those of white"Where did all the almost 9000 Black Texas Cowboys men who were not half the ranch hand he was. In the longwho went up the trail come from" (Jack Weston, The Real"Anderson Pickett, a Negro Mr. Snyder took along as his run, as far as the measure of the man went, none of thatAmerican Cowboy, Schocken Books, New York, 1985, p. 158)? servant, came to me one night while I was on herd and said, meant a damn thing" (Wallis, Michael,The Real Wild West:"Look heah, boy, I know youse sick, ain\'t you?"The 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American West, St.According to Pickett family records, a baby boy by the Martins Press, New York, 1999, p. 251). name of Willie M. Pickett was born into the family of"Yes," I said. \'I\'m sick tonight."Thomas Jefferson Pickett, an ex-slave, and his wife at Since source material about Bill Pickett\'s life was andJenks-Branch Community, about 30 miles northwest of\'Don you des\' let me herd in yo\' place. You des\' lay down is minimal at best, there were just a couple of mainlyAustin on December 5, 1870. Since family records werehere under dis here Mesquite tree, an\' I wakes you up \'fo\' secondary sources that chronicled and celebrated hisoften unreliable on the frontier especially when it cameday." I was too sick to refuse the proffered aid. Dismounting, life as a Black Cowboy and rodeo champion. Even histo recording the lives of former slaves, the official TravisI gave the reins of old Happy Jack to Anderson, who contemporaries like Will Rogers and Tom Mix, bothCounty Census records of 1880 indicate that a child wasfaithfully did my guard duty until dawn, waking me as of whom were close friends of the Black Cowboy andborn approximately a year later to a Mr. Thomas Jeffersonpromised in time to prevent detection. The relief was of who were known to admire him greatly apparently leftPickett, 26, born somewhere in Louisiana in 1854 (Hanes,great benefit to me . . .no written records about having known him, let aloneColonel Bailey C., Bill Pickett Bulldogger: The Biography of befriending him. There\'s nothing written on record abouta Black Cowboy, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman,We camped near Manor, where I went to a physician and Rogers\' association with Bill Pickett, not even in Rogers\'Oklahoma, 1977, p. 20). Whatever the exact date was, inhad a prescription filled. My fever, however, continued to "Autobiography" or the biography written by the wife andmany ways the life of Willie M. Pickett, soon to be knownrise every day and my legs were so swollen that I had to widow of the famed Indian Cowboy even though he wasas simply Bill was typical of the sons and daughters ofsplit the uppers of my boots to get them on. My condition a welcome guest at the Pickett family\'s dinner table andex-Slaves but in some ways, it was unique as well. For hiswas such that I could no longer conceal it. And now it vice versa. Pickett was also a pard of Tom Mix\'s, the two offather had been born into a family of slaves who had notbegan to rain. All night long the rain poured in torrents. them first participating together in Colonel Zack Mulhall\'sonly been kept together by their masters, the white familyWe had reached Bushy Creek north of Manor and near famous Wild West shows which would later morph intoknown as the Bartons, but Welborn Barton had trained hisHutto Station. The pain from inflammatory rheumatism the Miller Brother\'s 101 Ranch Wild West, but Mix tooadult slaves in the Carolinas to tend to the family livestockin my ankles was excruciating. We forded Bushy at Rice\'s apparently left no written records of his friendship andand to train the family\'s acquisition of wild horses, andCrossing, and Mr. Snyder, learning of my condition, told working relationship with the "Dusky Demon."54 September 2022'