And speaking of Books, guess I come by it natural.
A while back I wrote about a book I was looking into. A book that was supposed to have a photo of my Great-Great Grandfather. It’s called “Badmen of the Old West” by Robert Elman. I found it at an online antique book seller, and sure enough Granpa Billy was in there on page 149, just like my Dad was told years ago. There’s not a lot about him other than this picture of him, (Wild Bill Ellis, in the center), and his two fellow Deputy U.S. Marshalls (for the Arkansas Territories), Wess Bowman on the left and John Tolbert on the right. John and Bill are both holding Winchesters, while Wes is holding a Henry. They all have Colt single actions on their belts and Bill has the cartridge loops on his belt full of rifle ammo. (suggesting to me that the revolver was mainly for quick, close up work and that unless they moved their holsters around front for the photo, they didn’t do much work on horseback). Great Granpa Bill actually looks a lot like (or the other way around), my Uncle Billy Ellis, who was GGpa’s Grandson.
I have a story or two about him passed down by word of mouth, and I plan to get them posted here in the future, along with any other tidbits I might find in the book.