Posted By: Son of a Blitch
Just got an article published in the TTHA magazine... - 10/22/15 03:38 PM
Hello everyone - as you may recall, I posted pics of this vehicle below and some close ups of the rifle, to identify them properly a couple months back. I appreciated everyone's help and suggestions.
This is an article about my great grandfather, Erskine Rhodes, who helped settle (and ranch in) Carrizo Springs, TX. It appears in the latest "Journal of the Texas Trophy Hunters" magazine, in the Blast From the Past section, pg. 199. Here's the article:
The ranch holds some very interesting history. In the article, I mention a gentleman named Bob Lemmons. Here's a pic of him from the Library of Congress files:
Bob was a former slave that was freed when he was a child of around 7 years old. He developed an interest in horses and he was taken under the wing of a local land owner/rancher at the time, who taught him how to ride and eventually to become one of the best Mustangers in Texas. Bob has been written about in many books, most famously J. Frank Dobie's "The Mustangs". Many people also believe that the black cowboy character in Lonesome Dove that leads the horses (and never stays with the men, to not get any human scent on him), is a representation of Bob Lemmons, himself. My great grandfather ranched with Lemmons after the barbed wires started to divide the Texas pastures, thus ending the wild Mustangers' way of life. In his final years, Lemmons lost his eyesight and needed greater assistance. Our family constructed a one room cabin for Bob and he lived there until he passed away one day shy of his 100th birthday. The chimney still stands where the cabin was, and is a frequent home to some really cool owls. I'll see if I can locate a picture of the chimney. Eventually, I hope to reconstruct a cabin in the same place, and utilize the chimney once again, to preserve that history inside new walls. I plan on writing a bit more about Bob Lemmons soon. I'll post more when I do.
Thanks for checking this out!
~George Blitch
This is an article about my great grandfather, Erskine Rhodes, who helped settle (and ranch in) Carrizo Springs, TX. It appears in the latest "Journal of the Texas Trophy Hunters" magazine, in the Blast From the Past section, pg. 199. Here's the article:
The ranch holds some very interesting history. In the article, I mention a gentleman named Bob Lemmons. Here's a pic of him from the Library of Congress files:
Bob was a former slave that was freed when he was a child of around 7 years old. He developed an interest in horses and he was taken under the wing of a local land owner/rancher at the time, who taught him how to ride and eventually to become one of the best Mustangers in Texas. Bob has been written about in many books, most famously J. Frank Dobie's "The Mustangs". Many people also believe that the black cowboy character in Lonesome Dove that leads the horses (and never stays with the men, to not get any human scent on him), is a representation of Bob Lemmons, himself. My great grandfather ranched with Lemmons after the barbed wires started to divide the Texas pastures, thus ending the wild Mustangers' way of life. In his final years, Lemmons lost his eyesight and needed greater assistance. Our family constructed a one room cabin for Bob and he lived there until he passed away one day shy of his 100th birthday. The chimney still stands where the cabin was, and is a frequent home to some really cool owls. I'll see if I can locate a picture of the chimney. Eventually, I hope to reconstruct a cabin in the same place, and utilize the chimney once again, to preserve that history inside new walls. I plan on writing a bit more about Bob Lemmons soon. I'll post more when I do.
Thanks for checking this out!
~George Blitch
Saw that a couple of days ago.
