1981 Cowgirl Honoree Texas

While studying trick riding, Goldia was hired for the Malone Wild West Show. As Goldia Fields, she performed with the Wild West Show, trick riding and competing in rodeo events. She was the only woman to ride the famous bull "Funeral Wagon." Farming after she retired from rodeo , she was honored for her long years with the 4-H and FFA Clubs. 

Goldia Bays "Fields" Malone

A Member of Congress
Claude Hudspeth, El Paso, Texas

I was born in a little log cabin that stood on the banks of the Medina River, one mile below the town of Medina, in Bandera county, forty four years ago. (1878)

I worked as a cowboy from the time I could sit in the saddle and whirl a lasso until this present hour, having just returned from my ranch on Devil's River, where I rounded up and delivered in person a herd of steers at the railroad station at Barnhart, some distance from my ranch.

My father was a frontier sheriff. He was away from home a great deal of the time running down outlaws and cattle thieves who infested that country in the days when the good right hand was the chief protection that was afforded the citizenship of that country, exercised by efficient peace officers of that day. I worked for some of the old time pioneers of that section, namely John R. Blocker, Eugene McKenzie, and many others.

I have held the offices of State Representative, State Senator, District Judge, and am now serving my second term in Congress. In my early life my principal job was a cook in a cow camp where cowboys will testify, some of them that survived, "that I cooked things that nobody could eat." The boss, wishing to promote, and also to prevent indigestion among the men, elevated me to the position of horse wrangler. There was hardly an old time trail driver that I have not met up with, and for whom I hold the highest esteem, love and friendship.

My education consists of three months in a log cabin out on the banks of the Medina, where I thoroughly mastered the contents of Webster's Blue-back speller and reader combined. This constitutes the curriculum and the extent of my literary studies. June 19, l922.

Texas Fact
In 1900, the approximate county population of Texas was 3,048,710.

Texas Wisdom
Life offers no obstacles - only challenges!

Deaf Smith County, Texas
Deaf Smith County, Texas, was named for "Erastus "Deaf" Smith, a Texas scout and Indian Fighter and also a participant in the Battle of San Antonio and the Battle of San Jacinto. He was born in New York on April 19, 1787.
Smith was "hard of hearing" at an early age, which caused him to "remain silent and fond of solitude". This led him to become observant and get to know the land around him well. In turn, this enabled him to pass valuable information for the Texas revolution. His monument says, "Deaf Smith, The Texas Spy."

A Story of Charlie Packhurst
Driving a stagecoach, full of passengers, loaded with baggage, mail and probably gold dust over the Sierra Nevadas was a hair-raising operation. It required skilled drivers who took danger and hardship in stride.

Charlie Parkhurst was one of the earliest and best of these drivers. He drove for nearly 20 years in California. Twice Charlie was held up. The first time, without a gun, he was forced to throw down the strongbox. The second time Charlie was prepared. When he heard the command to halt, he whirled, fired a shot gun blast into the chest of the outlaw and escaped.

Toward the end of the 1860s. Charlie had had enough of the mud, the dust and the ruts. His hands were crippled with rheumatism and he retired. He opened a stage station and saloon on the road between Watsonville and Santa Cruz. Later, he did some cattle ranching and, after he could no longer sit in a saddle, raised chickens near Aptos.

Finally, old age and failing health drove him to a small cabin near Watsonville where he died on December 29, 1879.

Very little is known about Parkhurst before or after he came West. He was born somewhere in New Hampshire and as a youngster ran away to Providence, R.I., either from his uncle's farm or an orphanage. He got a job as a stable boy. It was natural to become a driver and Charlie drove steadily before coming to California in 1850.

He was small (only about 5'6"), slim and wiry, with alert gray eyes. He rarely smiled but was well liked, Apparently shy, Parkhurst never volunteered information about himself. Not an uncommon trait in those days. When he did speak it was in an oddly sharp high pitched voice.

When his body was prepared for burial, it was discovered that Charlie was a woman! And, a doctor maintained, at some point in her life, a mother. When Charlie cast a ballot in an election on November 3, 1868, he became the first woman to vote - 52 years before that right was guaranteed to women by the 19th Amendment.