Kelley (Texas)
New member
I awoke to blizzard like conditions this morning, cold and damp, temperatures in the 30's...not much to do outside with such deadly weather conditions. I have decided tell you folks a story that was told to me when I was a young boy sitting around the campfire with some old cowboys...don't know if it is true, but to a young boy it was kinda scary.
Back in the 1880's, a rancher by the name of Lee Jordan owned a small ranch just south of Devine, Texas. Lee Jordan had married a woman from hell, ordered her through one of those newspaper ads that advertised women looking for husbands. She was a Yankee woman from somewhere up near Boston...beautiful, but had a mean streak in her.
When they were first married, everything was just fine the first few months...then things slowly changed. The Yankee woman's mean streak started appearing...she did not like ranch life, she did not like cows, she did not like the warm South Texas winters, she just did not like much of anything about South Texas. Lee Jordan started finding reasons to stay away from the ranch house as much as possible. He started going to town for an evening of drinking with his cowboy buddies. Now Lee Jordan was a devoted South Texas Baptist, while he might drink the night away, he never messed around with other women...many opportunities arose to mess with other women, but he stayed true to that mean spirited Yankee woman. He knew that was the proper and right thing to do.
It was not long before the Yankee woman started accusing him of running around with other women...something he strongly denied. The more that she accused him, the more time he spent in town drinking beer with his cowboy friends...he had to get away from her!
One hot summer evening when he returned home from working the cattle, he encountered a large, mean tempered female tabby cat out in the barn. That old cat hissed at him...kinda a spooky looking old cat. As he was putting his horse up for the night, the mean natured wife appeared at the barn door...asked him how he liked her new cat. She said she got the cat to keep her company in the evenings while he was in town drinking beer with his cowboy friends, and then injected "while he was messing with other women." He did not say anything, just walked pass her to the kitchen to eat his dinner.
The next morning, he told her that he would be gone for several days, he was going to drive some cattle to the market up in San Antonio. To his surprise, she was very pleasant, told him she would miss him, and for him to hurry back. At the last moment, she reached across the table and squeezed his hand.
As he saddled his horse, the mean Yankee woman walked into the barn with the spooky tabby cat in a big cloth bag...she had a surprise for Lee Jordan. She demanded that the cat go with him so that he would be thinking of her the entire trip...everytime he saw the cat, he would be reminded of his wife back home. To keep the peace, he tied the bag to the saddle horn. As he headed out the barn, the last words that he heard was that he better not do anything to the cat and he best return with the cat!
For three days, that cat gave him hell...would hiss at him, try to bite him, would follow him everywhere. He would almost trip over the cat...it was as if the cat was keeping tabs on him. He began to notice that the cat was acting the same way towards him that his mean spirited Yankee wife acted towards him.
The fourth day, it came to an end...he was fed up with that cat hissing at him, trying to bite him, and everything else. When the cat attempted to attack him, he grabbed a butcher knife and cut it's head off...no more cat. It was then that he decided that when he returned home that afternoon he was going to send the mean Yankee wife packing back to Boston...he had had enough!
As he approached the ranch later that day, he was met by one of the ranch hands. The ranch hand told him not to go into the ranch house, that he had some bad news to tell him. They had found his mean Yankee wife decapitated that morning.
When I heard this story around that campfire, my first thoughts were that maybe the cat was his wife in a cat's body. Maybe she wanted to go along on that cattle drive so that she could keep tabs on him, make sure that he did not mess around with other women. What other explanation would explain why that when he cut off the cat's head, his wife was found many miles away decapitated? Strange legend indeed.
Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas)
Back in the 1880's, a rancher by the name of Lee Jordan owned a small ranch just south of Devine, Texas. Lee Jordan had married a woman from hell, ordered her through one of those newspaper ads that advertised women looking for husbands. She was a Yankee woman from somewhere up near Boston...beautiful, but had a mean streak in her.
When they were first married, everything was just fine the first few months...then things slowly changed. The Yankee woman's mean streak started appearing...she did not like ranch life, she did not like cows, she did not like the warm South Texas winters, she just did not like much of anything about South Texas. Lee Jordan started finding reasons to stay away from the ranch house as much as possible. He started going to town for an evening of drinking with his cowboy buddies. Now Lee Jordan was a devoted South Texas Baptist, while he might drink the night away, he never messed around with other women...many opportunities arose to mess with other women, but he stayed true to that mean spirited Yankee woman. He knew that was the proper and right thing to do.
It was not long before the Yankee woman started accusing him of running around with other women...something he strongly denied. The more that she accused him, the more time he spent in town drinking beer with his cowboy friends...he had to get away from her!
One hot summer evening when he returned home from working the cattle, he encountered a large, mean tempered female tabby cat out in the barn. That old cat hissed at him...kinda a spooky looking old cat. As he was putting his horse up for the night, the mean natured wife appeared at the barn door...asked him how he liked her new cat. She said she got the cat to keep her company in the evenings while he was in town drinking beer with his cowboy friends, and then injected "while he was messing with other women." He did not say anything, just walked pass her to the kitchen to eat his dinner.
The next morning, he told her that he would be gone for several days, he was going to drive some cattle to the market up in San Antonio. To his surprise, she was very pleasant, told him she would miss him, and for him to hurry back. At the last moment, she reached across the table and squeezed his hand.
As he saddled his horse, the mean Yankee woman walked into the barn with the spooky tabby cat in a big cloth bag...she had a surprise for Lee Jordan. She demanded that the cat go with him so that he would be thinking of her the entire trip...everytime he saw the cat, he would be reminded of his wife back home. To keep the peace, he tied the bag to the saddle horn. As he headed out the barn, the last words that he heard was that he better not do anything to the cat and he best return with the cat!
For three days, that cat gave him hell...would hiss at him, try to bite him, would follow him everywhere. He would almost trip over the cat...it was as if the cat was keeping tabs on him. He began to notice that the cat was acting the same way towards him that his mean spirited Yankee wife acted towards him.
The fourth day, it came to an end...he was fed up with that cat hissing at him, trying to bite him, and everything else. When the cat attempted to attack him, he grabbed a butcher knife and cut it's head off...no more cat. It was then that he decided that when he returned home that afternoon he was going to send the mean Yankee wife packing back to Boston...he had had enough!
As he approached the ranch later that day, he was met by one of the ranch hands. The ranch hand told him not to go into the ranch house, that he had some bad news to tell him. They had found his mean Yankee wife decapitated that morning.
When I heard this story around that campfire, my first thoughts were that maybe the cat was his wife in a cat's body. Maybe she wanted to go along on that cattle drive so that she could keep tabs on him, make sure that he did not mess around with other women. What other explanation would explain why that when he cut off the cat's head, his wife was found many miles away decapitated? Strange legend indeed.
Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas)
RJ
