WILLIAM "BILL" PICKETT: Pioneer Cowboy
William "Bill" M. Pickett was born on December 5, 1870 at the Jenks-Branch community on the Travis County line near Austin, Texas. His parents, Thomas Jefferson and Virginia Elizabeth Gilbert Pickett, were ex-slaves who had thirteen children. Bill was the second child.
Bill had two cousins who were trail-driving horsemen. They would talk to Bill about protecting their trail crews against buffalo stampedes, roping steer, and breaking ponies. Bill loved to listen to these stories and wanted to learn these skills. One day when Bill was looking at cattle dogs controlling cattle, he saw a bulldog hold a cow's lower lip with its teeth. Bill thought that he could control an animal by using this technique. After this incident, Bill passed a group of Littlefield Cattle Company cowboys on his way home from school. They were having trouble branding their calves. Bill asked if they wanted his help. After the calf was roped and laid on the ground, Bill bit into its lip. He held the calf while the cowboys branded him. This is how Pickett invented this unique way of subduing cattle called bulldogging, also known as steer wrestling. At the age of fifteen, Bill worked as a cowhand on ranches throughout Texas. He learned to lasso and practiced his technique of bulldogging.
To earn extra money, Pickett rode bucking horses and gave demonstrations of his method of bulldogging and would pass the hat for donations. He would leap from a horse, grab the steer by the horns, and pull the head back and bite its upper lip. This would immobilize the animal and cause Pickett to fall to the ground with the animal landing on top of him. The technique, called steer wrestling, is forbidden in bulldogging today. Pickett, who was five feet, seven inches and weighed 145 pounds, would use this technique on steers weighing between 800 to 1,100 pounds. He was frequently injured and subsequently lost all of his teeth as a result of his technique. Throughout his life, it is estimated that he bulldogged about 5,000 animals.
Pickett married Maggie Williams on December 2, 1890 and they had nine children, seven girls, who lived to adulthood, and two sons, who died in infancy. Pickett lived with his family in Taylor, Texas where he was a member of the national guard and deacon of the Taylor Baptist Church. After his marriage, he worked on farms and ranches and picked cotton to support his family. He eventually tired of this and went on the road, participating in rodeos. He became well-known because of his biting technique and stories about him were printed in the Denver Post and the Wyoming Tribune. In the late 1890's he became blind for eleven months. After his sight was restored, he never had anymore trouble with his eyes.
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