Bill Pickett
Bill Pickett was born on December 5,
1870 to Thomas Jefferson Pickett, a former slave, and Mary “Janie” Gilbert near
Taylor, Texas. He was the second child of 13 with an ancestry of
African-American and Cherokee. He left school in the 5th grade to
become a ranch hand and married Maggie Turner, once a slave and the daughter of
a white southern plantation owner. They had 9 children together.
Pickett Demonstrating Bulldogging
An extraordinary cowboy, Pickett
invented the technique of bulldogging, the skill of grabbing cattle by the
horns and wrestling them to the ground. Pickett had witnessed cattlemen using a
trained bulldog to catch a stray steer. He figured, if the bulldog could do it,
he most certainly could. He practiced this feat by riding hard, leaping from
his horse, and wrestling the steer to the ground. I guess he mimicked the
bulldog by biting the cow on the lip and then falling backwards. Kind of gross
in my opinion, but the stunt changed over time into what is called steer
wrestling which is still practiced in rodeos today, but without biting the
cow’s lip. Thank goodness.
Bill Pickett A Star Of The 101 Ranch Wil West Show
Soon enough, Pickett became known for
his tricks and stunts which he performed at county fairs. Along with his four
brothers, Bill Pickett formed The Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough
Riders Association. That’s a mouthful, for certain. His name became well known
and synonymous with popular rodeos. He performed his bulldogging stunt as he
traveled around Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.
I’ve talked about the 101 Ranch
before because of two rodeo posters dated May 1901 that I found in my
grandfather McNeal’s trunk. Well, in 1905, Pickett joined the 101 Ranch Wild
West Show that featured famous cowboys like Buffalo Bill, Will Rogers, Tom Mix,
Bee Ho Gray, and Lucille Mulhall. It wasn’t long before Bill Pickett became a
popular member of the show and toured around the world and appeared in early
motion picture shows in which he was known as “the Dusky Demon”.
His ethnic background kept him from
performing in many of the rodeos until he was forced to claim he was of
Comanche heritage. In 1921 he performed the movies, The Bull-Dogger and The Crimson
Skull.
He retired from the Wild West Shows,
but continued ranching. In 1932, a bronco kicked Bill Pickett in the head.
After lying in a coma for several days, Bill Pickett passed from this earth.
A headstone for Bill Pickett was
erected beside the graves of Miller brothers who owned Ranch 101 at the Cowboy
Hill Cemetery, but his actual burial place is near a 14 foot stone monument in
honor of the friendship of the Ponca Tribal Chief White Eagle and the Miller
Brothers on Monument Hill. The monument is also known as the White Eagle
Monument to the local people and is less than a quarter mile north east of
Marland in Noble County, Oklahoma.
Pickett was indicted into the
National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1971.
The United States Postal Service
included Bill Pickett in its Legends of the West commemorative sheet which was
unveiled December 1993. Bill Pickett’s family informed the post office they has
made the stamp with the wrong image which was of Bill’s brother, a fellow
cowboy star. The United States Post Office corrected the image and reissued the
stamp in Bill Pickett’s honor October 1994.
The Taylor City Council announced in
March 2015 that the street that leads to the rodeo arena would be named in
honor of Bill Pickett.
It is always exciting to me when I
learn of someone from such humble beginnings makes something of themselves and
becomes an honored icon for others to look up to and emulate. Bill Pickett was
such an icon.
To read more about Bill Pickett:
•
Hanes, Bailey C. (1977). Bill Pickett, Bulldogger: The Biography of a Black
Cowboy. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1391-X. OCLC
02632780.
•
Johnson, Cecil (1994). Guts: Legendary Black Rodeo Cowboy Bill Pickett. Fort
Worth, TX: Summit Group. ISBN 1-56530-162-5. OCLC 31374075.
Diverse
stories filled with heart
