Henry Clinton Williams

Henry Clinton Williams (1856-1929); cowboy and charter member of the Texas Trail Drivers Association.

The first of his Williams family came from Wales into the southern shores of Virginia in the late 1600’s or early 1700’s, soon moving into Chowan and then Nash County, North Carolina, where they lived and prospered for decades before moving to Scott County, Mississippi for a few years before moving to Refugio County, Texas by 1855. 

Henry Clinton Williams was born in Texas on May 24, 1856 to Henry Boyling Williams and Elizabeth Winstead. Henry Boyling built and operated the first stock pens in Rockport.

Sometime after 1870, Henry Boyling and son moved to Bexar County and bought land on the south side of the Medina River near the current highways 16 and 1604 intersection.  He died in August of 1900 and is buried in Rambie Grove Cemetery near Somerset.

Henry Clinton worked with his father, gathering and herding cattle all over south Texas and participating in cattle drives north before he married Angeline Frances Putnam of Kendalia. They bought land near the Pleasanton and Neil Roads intersection, and reared their family of four girls and two sons. The children were Clara Rebecca, Mary Frances, Adeline Elizabeth, Nellie who died in infancy, Waymon Putnam, Scott Mitchell, and Henrietta May. 

Henry Clinton and Angeline Frances are buried in Oak Island Cemetery.

Having been a trail driver and a member of the Texas Trail Drivers  Association, a pocket watch and chain he found on the trail that were entrusted to the care of his grandson, Aubrey Seiler, along with his portrait were installed in a ceremony, with a delegation of generations of grandchildren and spouses in attendance, at The Texas Trail Driver’s Museum in San Antonio in May of 2008.

(bio by Marguerite Williams Blackwelder)

Standing, l to r: Henry Clinton and his father Henry Boyling Williams (1821-1900).
Seated, l to r: H.B.'s children Henderson, Mourning, and Joel.
Ca. 1880s. (From the book "Deep Roots and Strong Branches" by Clara O'Brien.)



TOOK TIME TO VISIT HIS SWEETHEART
By Henry Clinton Williams, San Antonio, Texas
(from the book The Trail Drivers of Texas, edited by J. Marvin Hunter.)

I was born on a stock ranch in Refugio County in 1856, and spent most of my life working with cattle. In those early days people lived on cornbread, beef, milk, butter and coffee, about the only store-bought articles being coffee and sugar, and not much of that. I helped to gather and drive cattle to Rockport for W.S. Hall in 1869, and for several years thereafter. In 1872 I drove a herd to that place for George W. Saunders, who is now the president of our Trail Drivers' Association. George was a good boss and a hard worker. He was also a lover of fine clothes and pretty girls, and one day while we were near William Reeves' ranch, four miles above Refugio, George had us stop the herd and make camp so he could call on his sweetheart, Miss Rachel Reeves. We had plenty of time to reach a good stock pen six miles further on, but he was so anxious to see his girl that he held us there. George later married Miss Reeves, in 1884. I have known Mr. Saunders all of my life and know he will "stand hitched" any place on earth. He never forgets a friend.

I worked stock in all the coast counties and knew all of the old-timers in that region. In 1880 I went to Kansas and drove a drag herd with pack horses from Caldwell County, Texas.

In 1871 I built seven miles of barbed wire fence for W.E. and Tom McCampbell of Rockport, it being the first barbed-wire fence in San Patricio County.

I am now living in Bexar County on a farm and ranch and can ride all day and do any kind of farm or ranch work. My father was a well-known stockman in the early days and was known as "Uncle Boiling" Williams.

HENRY CLINTON WILLIAMS, OUR COWBOY     

Bio by Marguerite Williams Blackwelder

Written for my grand daughters when they were little girls.

My grand father, your great, great grandfather Henry Clinton Williams was a cowboy, riding and herding cattle  throughout the south Texas country side during the 1870’s where his father Henry Boyling Williams built the first stock pens at the gulf coast town of Rockport from where the cattle were taken by ship to eastern United States markets.   Also in 1880, he drove a drag herd of cattle with pack horses from Caldwell County, Texas along the Chisholm Trail to Kansas where there were railroads.  It was there that the cattle were loaded onto box cars and taken to the eastern markets.  These were the beginnings of his working with live stock all his life.

Because the cattle of several owners could be in one herd being driven to market, it was necessary to put a brand on them so that the owner could be credited and paid for those of his that were sold.  Using his initials, Henry Boyling Williams originated and registered the brand Hb that he and his son, Henry Clinton used.  It was kept current and used by  my father, Waymon Putnam Williams  and his brother, Scott.  Our cousin, Henry Clinton Williams III, who lives in Snook near College Station, Texas currently has the brand.

Henry Clinton worked for years with his friend George W. Saunders.  Because it would have seemed he was bragging, he did not say in the autobiographical sketch he wrote in the book TRAIL DRIVERS OF TEXAS that he and Mr. Saunders were the organizers of the Texas Trail Drivers Association which was a highly respected organization of cattlemen and ranchers that had their meetings, conventions and balls at the Gunter Hotel on Houston Street in San Antonio.  Anytime those men went to San Antonio on business or pleasure, they always went to the Gunter Hotel for meals or to spend nights where they knew they would meet friends.  They always looked so handsome in their western town clothes: good looking, well made cowboy boots, a fine leather belt with a sterling silver belt buckle and a fine Stetson hat.

Grandpa died in 1930 when I was four years old so I do not remember seeing him there but I do remember seeing others when I worked in the city during the 1940’s.  It was a fascinating atmosphere when they were visiting and doing business in that fine hotel lobby and coffee shop.  Grandpa took my mother to the Trail Drivers Balls as she liked to dance and grandma did not.  Since they were tall and slim, I am sure they made a fine looking pair.  Those balls were always held in the Grand Ballroom at the Gunter.  I was lucky to go to dances in that same room but not to those of the Trail Drivers.

My clearest memories of grandpa was seeing him sitting straight and tall on his horse in the shade of a big live oak tree that was between the house and barn on his ranch when we drove out to see him and grandma.  At the age of 68 years, he wrote in the aforementioned book printed in 1924 that he could ride all day and do any kind of farm or ranch work.  I also remember him sitting, reared back on a chair in the big kitchen/dining room.  All the dining chairs had cow hide seats that could be replaced as needed.  Some had hairs on them, and the hairs were worn off on others from people sitting on them.  He and my father, Waymon Putnam Williams, worked cattle together until the year after my father married Jennie Marie Collins on October 7, 1917 and they moved to San Antonio. 

When he died on October 11, 1930, the headline on his funeral notice in the San Antonio newspaper read RANCHER FINDS “END OF TRAIL.”  He and grandma were buried at the Oak Island Methodist Church Cemetery near her Texas Ranger brother, James Mitchell Putnam.