Excerpted from: The Old Timers Talk by Kathryn W. Walker (1968)

Mrs. Baker of Alpine told that her husband's parents had been reared in the same locality as John Wesley Hardin and had liked him in his early years. One day years later after Hardin of the good first names had become a desperado, officers came to the Baker ranch hunting for John Wesley. Earlier Hardin has gotten permission from Mr. Baker's father to hide on his ranch, but the wife had not seen him or known of the conversation. The husband was not present to talk to the officers, and the wife stated that she had not seen Hardin, which was true. When questioned further, she had to admit that she knew Hardin, and that she would not turn him in because of the early friendship. The offiicers would have to do their job without any help from her. Hardin was not caught on their ranch.

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Life in the early days was pretty hard on the women. Pioneer women had to become hardy and efficient to survive in the midst of dangers I can remember that my mother could handle a shotgun well. Whe I was very young I saw her shoot and kill an owl which was perched on the chicken house roof. My older brother and sister tell of her dealings with a fence-cutting sheepman. Father was a way often, supplementing his small income by doing surveying. Once when Mother was alone in charge of the ranch and the children, my brother brought word to her that a sheepman had cut the fence of an alfalfa pasture and had turned his flock in to graze. Mother had Waldo hitch up the buckboard and and with gun by her side, she drove to the pasture and confronted the stranger. She informed him that she would not kill him, but if he did not drive his sheep out of our pasture, she would begin killing them one by one tuntil he got off the property. The man realized that this was a woman who meant what she said, and he got his sheep out of the pasture "pronto".

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Mr. Jim Wilson in his drool manner stated that after he brought his bride to a lonely ranch in this area, when he had to leave home he carried her shoes tied to his saddle horn to make sure that she would not run away. While E. E. Townsend was inspector of Customs on the border, his wife rode over 1,000 miles on horseback to keep him company as he went about his duties.

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A Story about the grandfather of the present Mrs. William Russell of Casa Piedra was written up for the San Angelo Standard Times (Nov. 27, 1955) by Mrs. William H. Earney. It tells that Mrs. Russell's grandfather during an Indian attack on his place vowed that, if he sould be allowed to survive, he would carry a large statue of Christ from Presidio to his ranch. He survived, and carried out his promise by walking by the night the twenty-five miles over rough country with the unwieldy statue on his back. The statue is still in the possession of the family and is estimated to be well over 100 years old.