b'the faithful Anderson to take me to someto and taking on bigger cattle, theIn short, Taylor, like Dodge City, Tombstone, Deadwood, farmhouse where I could be cared forLonghorns, and Beef steers, bothor any other Western town of the period was the kind of and kept dry. The Negro did his best todomestic and eventually, as he entered hisbudding Western place where a good citizen could make comply, but every application for shelterteens, the wild critters out in the mesquitea good livingnot to mention make a reputation for was refused until we became discouraged.(Wallis, The Real Wild West, p. 254). himself as well. Bill Pickett\'s expertise at bulldogging and I thought I should have to give up and diebronc busting became known far and wide in the Taylor of exposure in the cold, blinding AprilAs Colonel Hanes would elaborate in hiscommunity and soon he was a regular hire and cowhand rain. But Anderson persevered. "Yonder isbiography of Pickett: "The Cowboys wereat the many ranches in the area. In 1889, Pickett accepted a little rent house," said he. "Mebbe so weamazed and soon spread the word arounda job at the Williamson County ranch of Buck Wills, a kin git you in dar." Sure enough, the poorAustin that the Pickett kid could bulldoglocal saloon owner. The pay was five dollars a week, much renter had not the heart to drive me away.a calf while it was being branded. Thusless than what white Cowboys received. It was hard work, My host and hostess, who had recentlybegan a legend that was to grow into onesometimes an 84-hour work week with no benefits, no married, received me kindly. of the most colorful realities of the sportsvacations, at one point Pickett out among the elements of a world in the twentieth century" (Hanes,Texas winter froze his hands and for a time was fearful he Anderson explained that I was one of TomBill Pickett Bulldogger, p. 27). had lost their use, a working dead sentence for a Cowboy, Snyder\'s Cowboys and that I was sick.fortunately for him he did regain the use of them.The big young fellow said, "Bring him in.The story of how this not quiteWe have only one room and are not fixedPickett first met good 11-year-old boy was able to bring Nonetheless, Pickett stayed on at the Wills ranch for at least to entertain, but I\'ve been on the trailfriend, Tom Mix, duringdown both calves and full-bodied steersfour years, in good part because not only was he taking myself, and I can\'t turn off a sick puncherColonel Zack Mulhall\'sby just grabbing their ears, then sinkingcare of his own immediate family in his spare time, but he in this rain." I was helped into the cabin asfamous Wild West shows. his teeth into the sensitive membranehad also decided to take a wife, having met pretty Maggie Anderson led my horse away" (William W.of the cattle\'s upper lip was repeatedTurner, the daughter of a white plantation owner and his Savage, Jr., Cowboy Life: Reconstructing an American Myth,through the Hill Country. His exploits became known ex-slave. Married, they chose to stay and settle down near University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1980, pp. 125-126). far and wide throughout Texas as experienced Cowboystheir kin in Taylor, where they raised nine children, the boys told of a young boy who could keep a steer motionless dying in early childhood but seven girls living on to full Bayliss John Fletcher would soon recover from his ordeal,by "bulldogging" him while he was being branded (Ibid.,adulthood, a loving, close-knit family, with Pickett devoted and return to the cattle drive continuing onward whilepp. 26-27). The preadolescent\'s bulldogging services wereto his wife and daughters.Anderson Pickett would sign off with another outfit, thissoon in high demand at the ranches that surrounded the time delivering saddle horses to ranches in Wyoming.Texas State capital of Austin, and he almost often foundBesides being known for his ranch hand work, Pickett Young Willie Pickett, all the while learning Cowboy choresregular employment. became quite respected in the community, a deacon of his and the cattle trade, was greatly admired by his CowboyBaptist church for many years, and when America went cousins and aspired to join them, riding on the trail,Bill Pickett may not have invented the art of "bulldogging,"to war with Spain in 1898, he volunteered to serve in the lassoing, branding, and driving the cattle north, but was stillor steer wrestling, as it was a common sport practicedTaylor Company of the Texas National Guard. To Pickett\'s quite young to participate on cattle drives, not even 10atby the ancient Greeks and especially the Romans manydisappointment and those of the other men in his company, the time of cousin Anderson\'s famed adventure. centuries earlier. But it was this young Black Cowboy, Billthe war ended before they could be deployed for action Pickett, who not only would make it his own event, it would(Ibid., pp.32-33, p. 37).But his time to shine on the trails, on the prairies, and in thebe Bill Pickett, "The Dusky Demon" who would bring it to arena, and with it, the sport he would become most famousthe arenas and the rodeo grounds of America and Europe. Up until this time, on the eve of the 20th Century, Bill for, would soon be coming. For one morning in 1881, thePickett was still an ordinary Cowboy blessed with some very young barefoot boy doing his ranch chores saw somethingTHE EDUCATION OF A COWBOY IN extraordinary skills. But all this was about to change when that would fascinate him greatly. He witnessed a bulldogCOWBOY MATTERS Pickett went to work for the fatherly Lee Moore, a white holding a cow motionless, his fangs deep into the cow\'sPickett had barely graduated fifth grade, but he had arancher and a veteran of cattle drives and ranch ownership upper lip. It must have been quite painful for the cow, yet itnatural intelligence, especially when it came to horses andin both Wyoming and Texas. It was Moore, encouraging refused to squirm, to move, to shake off the tenacious holdcattle, and in the art of training them. But what was alsothe now almost 30-year-old Black Cowboy to show off his of the bulldog\'s teeth until he eventually released his gripquite remarkable was the way he kept his wits about him,bulldogging skills at county fairs and rodeos, would through and wandered off. The incident stayed fresh in young Billable to make a decent living, which was extremely rare forhis brief management of young Pickett, open up the doors for Pickett\'s mind, until a few days later when he decided toa 15-year-old boy, especially a Black 15-year-old boy inPickett to experience fame throughout America and Europe, do something about it. Spying a calf on the trail, the youngpost-Reconstruction Texas, where racism was once moreif not so much fortune, in his subsequent employment with boy grabbed the calf\'s ears with his hands, then proceededbeginning to rear its ugly head. For example, he wouldthe Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Shows.to sink his teeth into the calf\'s upper lip just as the bulldogusually spend his Sunday afternoons riding broncs through did, then, all the time his teeth sunk deep into the calf\'sthe streets of Austin and other Hill Country communities,From modest beginnings Bill Pickett was on his way to upper lip while the frightened calf bawled and cried, heattracting a large crowd as he rode past them. But it justbecoming arguably the best Black American Cowboy in Old then wrestled the frightened calf to the ground (Hanes, Billwasn\'t for show, as Pickett would often take off his batteredWest history but that\'s saved for the next installment. Pickett Bulldogger, pp. 25-26). ten gallon, in effect passing the hat and earning extra wages (Ibid., p. 29). Shortly thereafter, Pickett\'s father chose toPick up our October issue for Part 2.(Don Russell, in his otherwise excellent The Wild West:move his family to Taylor, a then-growing agricultural A History of the Wild West Shows, Amon Carter Museum,community in the center of Texas where ThomasFort Worth, Texas, 1970, p. 78 erroneously mentions that itJefferson Pickett hoped to become a prosperous was an adult Pickett, who made his first bulldogging exploitlandowner. Taylor "boasted a national bank, in 1903, while trying to save his horse from being gored by aseveral good hotels, and sixteen brick business steer. The facts compiled by Colonel Haines however provedbuildings, in addition to many frame structures. otherwise. It was a ten year old Pickett who bulldogged hisThere were fourteen dry-goods and grocery first calf at ease, not as an adult under pressure trying tostores, three drugstores, two furniture stores, five prevent a steer trying to gore his horse). saloons, two hardware stores, a bookstore, two boot-and-shoe houses,two saddle and harness While no one else had seen Pickett using the bulldogshops, four blacksmith shops, one Chinese laundry, procedure to subdue, and then wrestle the calf to thetwo lumberyards, two corn-and-cotton mills and ground, the opportunity for a public demonstration tookgins, two barbershops, two bakeries, five church place just days later, when Pickett, on the way to school,buildings, an opera house, an Odd Fellows Hall, spotted a bunch of Littlefield Cattle Company Cowboysand a Masonic Hall . . .The largest saloon was the branding cattle on the side of a road. He walked up to them,Golden Rule, which had a back room for gambling saying he could hold down the cattle with his teeth. Theand Bud Saul\'s saloon was its chief competitor. older men laughed and waited to see the not quite 11-year- Negroes operated the two barbershops. Taylor\'s old boy be tossed and thrown up and down on his exterior.main street was so muddy when it rained that Their laughs however turned into wide-eyed amazementwagons bogged down. There were hitching posts as young Willie Pickett moved in, grabbed the calf\'s ears,along Main Street in front of every store, and the then sinking his teeth into the calf\'s upper lip, brought himsidewalkswhere there were sidewalksweredown, yelling for the Cowboys to turn him loose. They didmade of boards. This was the Taylor that greeted The Dusky Demon brought the art ofand were stunned to see the cow remaining motionless asthe Picketts in 1888 upon their arrival from bulldogging to the arenas and rodeo groundsthey proceeded to brand him. Pickett began to develop hisAustin" (Ibid., p. 31). of America and Europe.expertise of "bite-\'em-on-the-lip" bulldogging,graduating ArizonaRealCountry.com September 2022 55'