Raymond Quigg

  Raymond Quigg

        By

              Skeet Gould        

We were living in Brewster County, Texas, north of Marathon on the Hess Ranch. It was maybe 1951. There were things that happened to men horseback that was very memorable to me. Once we were  moving a herd with some bulls in it. Dad was  riding a grey horse he called Piero. One of those horned Hereford bulls ran up behind another bull, stuck a horn in his rear end. That bull bellered and ran under Piero, threw him in the air and went on. Piero was down on top of Dad, but got up with Dad still with him. Nobody was hurt.  

One of the neighbors was named Raymond Quigg. I know Dad thought of him as a good friend and he was a really good cowboy. The Glass Mountains are pretty rough in places. There is plenty of rock, cactus and brush. Raymond’s country was some of the roughest.

Tragedy struck.  I think Mr. Quigg had a niece visiting and they were horseback and the young lady’s horse stampeded for some reason. Mr. Quigg tried to pick the runaway up and both horses fell, killing Dad’s friend. The young lady was not hurt, thankfully. I remember Mom getting a call coming in on the crank phone. Dad, who was around the barn, jumped in a pickup and left in a cloud of dust. I don’t remember more, except it was a sad time around the country.