The Real Father
of Pecos Bill
by C. W. (Bill) Smith
anderson history has an unending
supply of interesting characters that
came and went or settled for life
here. From all walks of life
and every type of back-
ground, both good and
bad, they came here to
make their home.
The lack of law
enforcement in its early
years and the extreme
remoteness of its location
made it an ideal hideout
for those wishing to drop
from public sight. But
only a few were of bad
character, especially after
Terrell County was organ-
ized and a new sheriff
came to town.
Some folks came to escape a bad situ-
ation at home. Serapio Perez had been a
lieutenant in villa’s
army of insurrectionists,
and one of the general’s
personal favorites, but
he grew tired of the bar-
barity of the revolution
and feared for the safety
of his family. In 1914 he
immigrated to the US
to escape his sordid
Soldier of Fortune past
and ended up in
Sanderson as an assis-
tant shoe repairman at
Ross Blackwelder’s shoe
shop. Few people knew
his history, and his quiet
and peaceful demeanor
gave no indication of
the horrific acts and bat-
tles he had seen.
And then there were the wild and
rowdy guys, such as the Reagan
Brothers, who had a mean reputation
and all kinds of schemes and shenani-
S
gans going at any one time.
Their search for the Lost N___ Mine
will go down in the annals of folklore,
both by the true facts and
by the invented tales that
cloak that interesting
story.
Character after charac-
ter came and went
through our history, mak-
ing life for the historian
very interesting and mak-
ing an unending supply of
stories available.
Perhaps one of the
most interesting charac-
ters who came to
Sanderson was a man
named Edward Sinnott
"Tex" O’Reilly, who
moved to Sanderson in 1910 with his
wife and two sons to publish a magazine
called the Rio Grande
Coyote.
Publisher was just
the latest of O’Reilly’s
job descriptions. He
had spent years as a
mercenary, first as a
professional soldier in
the US Army serving in
Cuba
and
the
Philippines during the
Spanish-American War
and the Philippine
War, and then as a
bona fide mercenary in
the foreign armies of
venezuela, Nicaragua
and Honduras. At the
end of the Philippine
resurrection he ran an
English
language
school for young men in Kobe, Japan,
and then crossed the Sea of Japan to
China, where he became a Shanghai
international policeman. In that turbu-
lent time in China, just after the Boxer
Rebellion, he was asked to train a
Chinese police force in western military
technique. He won the admiration of
the Chinese government and plans were
made to train an army. But, he decided
to come back to the US and get away
from the impending war. Being a
reporter, he also claimed participation in
the Rif War in North Africa with the
Spanish Foreign Legion and rode with
Pancho villa in the Mexican
Revolution. In this period he became a
"major" and used that title or "captain"
for the rest of his life.
He re-joined the Mexican Revolution
while living in Sanderson in 1911, par-
ticipating in an expedition into Mexico
from Comstock, Texas, with 17 local
Sanderson men.
They succeeded in holding off 150
federales and rurales in a battle just
across the river south of Comstock, los-
ing only one man and inflicting a large
number of casualties on the opposing
force.
O’Reilly had come to Sanderson to
recuperate in the arid environment from
an acute case of malaria acquired in the
tropics.
They lived on a small ranch outside
of town and he used the publication of
the Coyote as a sideline to occupy his
time.
The few copies he published in the
fall of 1910 were well accepted among
area editors and appear to have been
very entertaining, even though no copies
have turned up. He served in several
capacities in the Mexican Revolution
and witnessed many of the battles first
hand. He also served as an AP corre-
spondent during that time.
After his battle in Mexico in January
of 1911 he decided to move his publish-
ing operations to Alpine in order to use
the local print shop as his printer.
Cenizo
Shortly after that he removed from
Alpine and went back to San Antonio,
where he worked as a reporter for the
San Antonio Express and the San Antonio
Light.
With his Mexican contacts along the
border he was hired by AP to report
again on the Mexican Revolution.
Around 1915 O’Reilly came back to
the US from Mexico and continued as a
reporter. Tiring of that life, he decided
to write fiction, and in 1918 he submit-
ted a set of tales featuring Pecos Bill,
which he said were gathered from cow-
boys on the range. In truth, he had
invented it all, getting the name from
one of his former commanders, General
William Shafter, namesake of Shafter,
Texas, and who was called "Pecos Bill"
by his men. Century Magazine published
them in a series, and then collected them
together in 1923, and they were wildly
popular. Other authors added to the
tales, but the core stories were written by
O’Reilly.
In the basic story invented by
O’Reilly, Pecos Bill was born in Texas,
and while he was still a baby his family
decided to move by covered wagon to
New Mexico Territory.
When they neared the Pecos River,
continued on page 26
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