Tag: Scalp Mountain

  • The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez

    Gregorio Cortez and his brother Romaldo were working as ranch hands at the W.A. Thulmeyer ranch in Karnes County one day when they saw County Sheriff W.T. Morris and his deputies riding toward them. It was June 12, 1901, and life for Cortez would never be the same. Within five minutes Cortez, 25, became a…

  • When Congressmen Carried Guns

    by Julia Robb In 1832, Sam Houston stood in the U.S. of Representatives, on trial for attacking Ohio Representative William Stanbery. It was a headline trial. Sam Houston, a six-foot-two, good-looking Tennessean, was already famous. While Houston defended himself, a woman in the balcony threw him a bouquet of flowers and cried “I would rather…

  • William Barrett Travis and his Critics

    by Julia Robb   Texas has a problem. The wimps of this world hate courage. And because so many intellectuals are wimps, they pour contempt on Texas, on Texas heroes and our history. Small people tear down big ones, especially when the bigger souls are dead and can’t fight back. Faced with the Mexican army,…

  • SCALP MOUNTAIN (an excerpt)

    By Julia Robb Chapter Thirteen Report to Major Lou Phillips, Austin headquarters, from Texas Ranger Capt. W.E. Henry            Sir: I have the honor to report the death of Mage Higgins, the man who shot down Sheriff Dell Rogers. After Higgins, we also trailed the gang stuck up the Round Rock bank and recovered the…

  • Scalp Mountain (an excerpt)

    by Julia Robb Mission San Jose Texas Ranger Capt. W.E. Henry’s prayer, at Mission San José, in San Antonio, 1876   Lord, I’m a Methodist and talking to you here in a Catholic church, but I guess you don’t mind, this place has been here one hundred years and folks has offered up a lot…

  • How the Old West Bad Men Did or Did Not Get to Midland, Texas

    by Julia Robb I’m standing in the Midland County (Texas) public library basement staring down at six plaster of paris death masks. Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Bill Dalton, Robert Ford, Wild Bill Hickok and Clay Allison lay in a waist–high glass display case, with their eyes closed. Bill Dalton’s tongue is stuck between his lips,…

  • The Little Girl Who Wrote the Waltz

    The Little Girl Who Wrote the Waltz By Julia Robb                 Certain kinds of people do not believe in coincidences: They believe everything is planned, that unseen forces coordinate life.         I’m one of those people, although it’s not always clear who’s in charge of the non-coincidence department­­­–God, guardian angels, or whatever.        …