Bill Pickett - Taylor, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 30° 34.130 W 097° 24.578
14R E 652514 N 3382896
Bill Pickett was raised in Taylor, Texas. The plaque next to the statue calls him the "Father of Bulldogging".
Waymark Code: WMY2TB
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/09/2018
Views: 3
Statue
Unveiled 06/02/2017. Stands at the corner of 2nd and Main Streets. Shows a standing man wearing cowboy boots with spurs, chaps over jeans, a long sleeved shirt and a hat. He has a small mustache. His left hand hangs at his side while his right hand holds a coiled lariat on his right hip.
Biography from Wikipedia
Bill Pickett was born in the Jenks-Branch Community of Williamson County, TX in 1870. He was the second of 13 children born to Thomas Jefferson Pickett, a former slave, and Mary "Janie" Gilbert. By 1888, the family had moved to Taylor, Texas.
In 1890, Pickett married Maggie Turner, a former slave and daughter of a white southern plantation owner. The couple had nine children.
Pickett left school in the 5th grade to become a ranch hand; he soon began to ride horses and watch the longhorn steers of his native Texas.
He invented the technique of bulldogging, the skill of grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground. It was known among cattlemen that, with the help of a trained bulldog, a stray steer could be caught. Bill Pickett had seen this happen on many occasions. He also thought that if a bulldog could do this feat, so could he. Pickett practiced his stunt by riding hard, springing from his horse, and wrestling the steer to the ground. Pickett's method for bulldogging was biting a cow on the lip and then falling backwards. He also helped cowboys with bulldogging. This method eventually lost popularity as the sport morphed into the steer wrestling that is practiced in rodeos.
Pickett soon became known for his tricks and stunts at local country fairs. With his four brothers, he established The Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders Association. The name Bill Pickett soon became synonymous with successful rodeos. He did his bulldogging act, traveling about in Texas, Arizona, Wyoming, and Oklahoma.
In 1932, after having retired from Wild West shows, Bill Pickett was kicked in the head by a bronco and died after a multi-day coma.
In 1971, Pickett was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. In 1989, Pickett was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.