April 3, 1817 Texas Ranger William A. A. "Big Foot" Wallace born
190 years ago today, the legendary Texas Ranger and frontiersman "Big Foot" Wallace is born in Lexington, Virginia.
In 1836, 19-year-old William Alexander Anderson Wallace received news that one of his brothers had been killed in the Battle of Goliad, an early confrontation in the Texan war of independence with Mexico.
Pledging to "take pay of the Mexicans" for his brother's death, Wallace left Lexington in the Shenandoah Valley and headed for texass. By the time he arrived, the war was over, but Wallace found he liked the spirited independence of the new Republic of Texas and decided to stay.
Bigfoot's crib in Big Foot, TX.
Over six feet tall and weighing around 240 pounds, Wallace's physique made him an intimidating man in an era when average male height was 5'6" and weights were typically well under 150 pounds. His unusually large feet which were a modern size 13 won him the nickname "Big Foot" when the most common man's shoe size was equivalent to our modern size 9.
In 1842, he finally had a chance to fight Mexicans and joined with other Texans to repulse an invasion by the Mexican General Adrian Woll. Later that year Wallace joined the Somervell Expedition. This was a punitive foray to even the score and there was also the added incentive of rape and plunder.
Adrian Woll, a soldier of fortune. Woll had served in Napolean's army, in the US Army under Winfield Scott, and under Santa Anna. He ended up back in France after the Mexican's kicked out the French.
The party turned back when they discovered there was nothing on Mexico's border to pillage. Wallace aligned himself with a splinter group which mutinied and continued into Mexico, determined to make it worth their time and trouble. This was later called the Mier Expedition after the town in Mexico where they were surrounded and captured by a force ten times their size.
After being moved into the interior of Mexico the group escaped, but their freedom was brief. They were rounded up and made to participate in what has become known as the "Black Bean Incident". This was a lottery in which 159 white and 17 black beans were drawn from a crock to determine which men (one in ten) would be executed. A black bean meant execution; a white bean meant prison. Wallace, always a non-conformist, drew a gray bean. The Mexican Officer in charge determined the bean to be white and he was thereby spared death.
He survived an 800-mile march to Perote prison in the state of Vera Cruz and was eventually released in 1844 by a petition signed by several United States Congressmen.
Bigfoot towards the end of his life in the 1890's.
After returning to texass, Wallace decided to abandon the formal Texan military force for the less rigid organization of the Texas Rangers. Part law-enforcement officers and part soldiers, the Texas Rangers fought both bandits and Indians in the vast, sparsely populated reaches of the Texan frontier.
Williams served under Ranger John Coffee Hays (Ft Hays KS namesake) until the start of the Civil War in 1861. Opposed to secession but unwilling to fight against his own people, Williams spent most of the war defending Texas against Indian attacks along the frontier.
Old Bigfoot
During his many years in the wilds of Texas, Wallace had hundreds of adventures. Once, Indians attacked Wallace while he was working as a stage driver on the hazardous San Antonio-El Paso route. He escaped with his life but the Indians stole his mules, leaving him stranded in the Texas desert. Forced to walk to El Paso, Wallace later claimed he ate 27 eggs at the first house he encountered after his long journey, then he went into town to have a "real meal."
In his later years, Wallace decided he had enough of life as a fighter and adventurer. In exchange for his loyal service, the state of Texas granted him land along the Medina River and in Frio County in the southern part of the state.
Highly accomplished as a texass bullsh1t artist, "Big Foot" was always happy to regale listeners with highly embellished tales of his frontier days. Wallace became a contemporary folk hero to the people of Texas -- who have always placed accomplished bullsh1tters on a pedestal. As one of his admirers concluded, Wallace was the perfect symbol of "old-timey free days, free ways, and free land."
Wallace died in 1899 and is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin next door to Stephen F. Austin.
