Ye-oh, sic'em! - Stephenville, TX
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member WalksfarTX
N 32° 13.180 W 098° 12.197
14S E 575075 N 3565062
Mural of how a parrot caused a cattle stampede which destroyed the village of Stephenville back around 1870.
Waymark Code: WMWJTW
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 09/13/2017
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member PTCrazy
Views: 1

Plaque Text:

In the eighteen seventies, some of the north-bound herds of Central Texas passed through Stephenville. It wasn't much of a village, and a few fenced-in fields made going around it inconvenient. There were six or seven log cabins, with shed rooms of rawhide lumber, strung along the trail and out from it. The central and largest structure serves as the courthouse. It had a gallery covered with boards made of pin oak. The liveliest place in town was a saloon, where, for two-bits, a purchaser could get a "fair-sized drink" of wagon-yard whiskey drawn in a tin cup from a fifty gallon barrel. Usually a group of cowboys congregated here, but the dogs of the village far outnumbered both inhabitants and visitors. Dog fights furnished the chief amusement. The sheriff owned a large parrot that had habitually perched on the roof of the courthouse gallery. It had picked up a considerable vocabulary from the cowboys, including profanity. Its favorite expression was "Ye-oh, sic'em!" which usually started a dog fight.

One day a herd was stringing through town, shying, but keeping to the middle of the road, when the parrot flapped his wings, gave a cowboy yell, and screeched "Ye-oh, sic'em!" In a second all dogs in the town charged to steers. They stampeded, knocked down all the galleries, including the one the parrot was perched on, rammed through the sheds, and even demolished some of the shacks. Stephenville looks as if a cyclone had struck.
City: Stephenville

Location Name: City Hall

Artist: Debra Warr

Date: May 2004

Media: Painted on stucco building

Relevant Web Site: Not listed

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