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• i I TALES OF THE I i I OLD FRONTIER f* By ELMO SCOTT WATSON | ♦♦♦♦♦❖•I**6»lt;**S»lt;'❖*}♦lt;i*£,' 23. Western .Newspaper LIlloO THE STEER BRANDED “MURDER, 1889”1 rpo THE cowboys who rode the ! •* range In West Texas during the nineties there was one longhorn steer 1 i that was always an object of dread.He was a big, white fellow with Mur-1 | der. 1889 branded In huge letters on ■ I his left side. His appeurunce among ! their herds brought a chill of terror to | the superstitious, for tlds steer was* J suld to have been responsible for the1 killing of at least nine men and It ■ was believed that his coining to a . ranch Invariably meant another trag-edy.The steer’s sinister hljtory began In | January, 1889, during a round-up ou the Leou Clpu ranch In Brewster county. In a dispute between H. H. 1‘owe and Kino Gilliland over the ownership ;| I of this steer, then a yearling, Ulill- j land shot Powe and fled. Thereupon Powe’s cowboys Imprinted the grue- | some brund upon the steer’s hide and turned him loose on the range.A short time later Jeff Webb, Ullll land’s nephew, was killed under toys- j terlous circumstances near the town i of Alpine und Gilliland believed that ! Sam Taylor, u noted desperado, was j responsible for the deed. One night Taylor was playing poker In a suloon In Alpine when some one tired a loud of buckshot through the window, killing him Instantly und mortally 1 wounding an easterner who was sitting In the gutue.It was in this game that the cowboys' dead man’s hand—aces and eights—originated, for Taylor had Just won a pot with those cards and he fell dead across the table with them ' clutched In his baud. Hut the strangest part uf the utfair occurred sooo I afterwards. A big white steer with i Murder, 1889 branded on bis side was seen near the saloon looking mod Itutlvely through the window where the fatul shot had been fired.About six months after Gilliland killed Powe, he himself was shot down by two Texas Hungers when he resisted arrest. While the ottlcers were looking over the scene of the battle a steer walked out of a patch of scrub ; oak to where Gilliland lay and stood snldlng at bis body. As It turned to leave the Rangers saw the brand Murder, 1889 on Its side By some mysterious coincidence the steer bad drifted to this spot, 7f» miles from the scene of Its branding, and was here at the exact time when Gilliland was I killed.After this Incident the big longhorn 1 was seen at many places where crimes had been committed and Ignorant Mexicans of the country spread the story rhat It possessed the spirit of the dead (1 Ullland.
Newspaper Details
The Wakefield News
Wakefield, Michigan, US
Sat, Jan 17, 1925
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 08 May 2025
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