Lemmons' birth name is not known. We do know that he was a slave of John English, who ranched near Carrizo Springs. After he was freed, he went to work for an area rancher named Duncan Lammons, who inspired the name that Lemmons took in his honor. Lammons took Lemmons to Eagle Pass to learn the ways of ranching and mustanging. Especially mustanging.
The wild mustangs of legend and lore roamed the state and most of the West in vast numbers for hundreds of years, and they still run wild in certain parts of the West today. Horses were in great demand in Texas during the early days of ranching and during the era of the great cattle drives. The mustanger's job was to go out on the prairies and bring back wild horses to be broken, ridden and worked. The mustangs were there for the taking, but taking them was no easy task. Bob Lemmons was just as wild as the mustangs.
"I acted like I was a mustang," Lemmons told Dobie when the former was 84 years old and living on his ranch outside of Carrizo Springs. "I made the mustangs think I was one of them. Maybe I was in them days. After I stayed with a bunch long enough they'd foller me instead of me having to foller them. Show them you're the boss. That's the secret."
Lemmons worked alone for days and weeks as a time. He had mind-bending patience, often tracking a herd of wild horses for days. When he found them he had a routine that allowed him to take over the herd. He found the dominant stallion and drove it off, making him and his horse the leader of the band.
Lemmons believed that when you're living with a herd of wild horses it's best to do as the wild horses do, and to this end he sniffed the air for danger and took off at the scent of any perceived or real threats. When he led them to water, he did so with a sense of the wind direction and escape routes, the same thing the other horses would be noticing. Other ranch hands left provisions for Lemmons along the way, but they were never allowed to come any closer than a hundred yards.
The process of becoming part of the herd took several weeks. Once the horses were under his command, Lemmons would lead them slowly home where they were carefully corralled, sorted and controlled. When Bob Lemmons brought in a bunch of horses they were as fresh and healthy as on the day when he first spied them and joined their ranks.
Just as a time came when ranches didn't need to spend time and money bringing in wild horses, the time came when Bob Lemmons' particular talents were no longer needed. The vast stretches of Southwest Texas where he roamed as free as a mustang were eventually fenced and civilized, leaving few accommodations for the mustangs or for Lemmons' special talent.
Like a mustang would have done, Lemmons adapted. The $1,000 he earned as a mustanger in 1870 alone was a princely sum and Lemmons was frugal enough to afford his own small ranch once the mustangs were gone. He taught himself to read and write and married Barbarita Rosales, who bore him eight children. He raised horses and cattle and increased his holdings to the point where he and his family had enough to tide them over during the Depression. The couple is also remembered for helping their neighbors out during that difficult time, even though Lemmons and his wife had to endure racial prejudices that were common in those days.
After Barbarita died, Lemmons lived on the Erskine Rhodes Ranch, not far from his own ranch and the family helped care for him the rest of his days, which were many. He died in 1947 at the age of 99 having lived through slavery, the Civil War, the era of the cattle drives and World War II.
The best and fullest account of the life of Bob Lemmons is in Tricia Martineau Wagner's book "Black Cowboys of the Old West: True, Sensational and Little Known Stories From History." Wagner wrote of him: "The remarkable ability to gain the confidence of an entire herd of wild mustangs belongs to Lemmons alone. "Only he could drive off a lead stallion and bring in a herd as fresh and beautiful as they were when he first laid eyes on them. Some have tried to imitate the legendary cowboy over the years, but no one seems able to bond with the mustangs quite like Robert Lemmons."
