THE FIRST BALD HORNET RACE

                    
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THE FIRST BALD HORNET RACE

(The Bald Hornet was a famous race horse, discovered to be fast on a ranch. He was promoted by Matheson, the saloon keeper, primarily. When being promoted, some of the boys saddled up a jackass, put a blanket over him, with the name "Bald Hornet", and led him ceremoniously in front of Watson’s Saloon, making him become enraged. Songs were even written about him. Not too many hears ago, when they were trying to find a date in court, someone asked if it was before the first or second bald Hornet races. Like the date of the death of Billy the Kid, it was almost the way of fixing time.)

The Bald Hornet Race was in February that year. (Means 1886, apparently). Mr. Williams was out there for the occasion and was riding a gray horse that sometimes shook. He was on the track before the race, they were there for hours, talking to Will Doggett and somebody. Suddenly his horse shook. He had opened his saddle bag to have access to his pistol, if needed. It shook the gun down to the ground. Doggett, as a joke, said somebody had lost a pistol and put it in the forks of a tree.

(I don’t find it in this file, but Mr. Williams told about the First Bald Hornet Race. Old Man Owens, had two boys, and I believe they later went west, said he had a herd of cattle. He bet his entire herd on the other horse that it was generally thought would easily beat the Bald Hornet. Then the latter ran away from the other horse, and Old Man Owens had to deliver his cattle, he said, as they were driven away, that "they looked as big as "kivvered wagons." There was a handsome young man on a horse, with a will trimmed moustache, holding up a hundred dollar bill to bet on the Hornet. Someone asked who he was, and was told it was John Man, a school teacher from Shive.

(He and my mother taught together one year at Shive in the old school house that is still standing. He later became my uncle, and my father’s law partner till his death in 1907. They were having a hard time at a Blue Ridge school with the boys. They were big and tough. They engaged Uncle John to teach there. The first day one of the big boys started to take him in. He squared off and gave him an undercut that floored him. Had not more trouble. One of the boys said it was the only term he ever learned anything. He didn’t learn very much at that.)

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CHESLEY'S  HAMILTON COUNTY INTERVIEWS

BY

HERVEY EDGAR CHESLEY, JR.

Born: 21 November, 1894

Died: 17 July, 1979

 

 

 

 

 
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People and Places: Gazetteer of Hamilton County, TX
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Copyright © March, 1998
by Elreeta Crain Weathers, B.A., M.Ed.,  
(also Mrs.,  Mom, and Ph. T.)

A Work In Progress