Texas
Collinson
Walter James COLLINSON (1855-1943) born in Yorkshire on 13th November, 1855, buffalo hunter, cattleman. (Later known as Frank.) After his 16th birthday he left boarding school in Beverley and sailed to the USA, landing at Galveston, Texas in 1872 and went to work on the Circle Dot Ranch in San Antonio. In 1873 he helped round up and brand 3,500 catttle and drive them to the Red Cloud Indian reservation in north western Nebraska; there the stock was handed over to George Armstrong Custer. In 1887 he ran his own ranch, in Big Bend country in South West Texas, through several droughts until 1895 with marginal success. In 1922 he moved to El Paso, where he died in 1943. Among the several famous people that he knew were Pancho Villa and John S. Chisum of the Chisum Trail.Life in the Saddle, Frank Collinson's memories ».
Thompson
William THOMPSON & wife, Mary Ann (Nee Baker) from Knottingley, emigrated in 1851 with their first three children, Benjamin b.1843, Billy b.1845 and Mary Ann to Texas. Benjamin and Billy grew into their teens in the "Wild West" and they were greatly influenced by it.Benjamin 'Ben' THOMPSON (1843-1884). Benjamin went into the printing trade and moved to New Orleans in 1860. He is reputed to have killed a man in a knife duel while defending a woman. He returned to Texas and joined Capt. Edward Burleson Jr's. ranger battalion, where he learned to shoot while protecting the frontier against the Commanche. He fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederates. In 1871 he began following the Texas cattle drives, so that he could gamble in Abilene, Wichita and Dodge City. He was elected Austin's city marshall in 1880. In 1882 he shot and killed a man over a card game in San Antonio. In 1884 he returned there and was shot and killed by the friends of his victim. Benjamin had been so popular in Austin that they gave him a 'royal' send-off with 62 carriages following his casket.
Younger brother, Billy THOMPSON (1845-1897) killed his first victim in a shoot-out in a bordello in Austin, Texas in 1868 and for the following 29 years Billy was on the run from the Texas Rangers. He was a serious gambler and got into many gunfights and was arrested each time but released due to a 'self defense' plea. He died in a Houston hospital from an abcess in his stomach in 1897.
