Cowboy Williams

I met V.T. Cowboy Williams in San Antonio in the late 70's or early 80's. He was a regular exhibitor at the Texas Folklife Festival and quite a character to see and talk to. He was in the Back Forty section with the rawhide braiders, horse hair braiders, and chuckwagon cooks. He was quite a sight in his big old worn out Hoss Cartwright black hat. He would have on tall top boots with his jeans tucked in and his spurs on. He usually had on a big bolo tie with a bunch of huge hog tusks hanging off the end of each string. He loved to talk about his dogs. In the earlier years he would have a handful of good looking leopard dogs tied near him. He had to quit bringing the dogs because of liability issues! He had lots of pictures and stories of hog hunting, especially in the Brazos River Bottom.

In later years I hunted with another older fellow in south Texas who had done some dog trading with Cowboy and I told him that i had met and visited with him on several ocasions. This man gave me a copy of an old stockman magazine that had Cowboy on the cover and a good story about him. Still have that magazine somewhere. The story said that at one time Cowboy went all over the country catching wild cattle with his dogs. His wife was a Chappell from the Chappell Hills area near Brenham.