Charles H. Noyes

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says, out on a stretch of Runnels County road. Now, most monuments get built to mark a battle, or a founding, or some grand occasion where a crowd showed up and speeches were made. This one started with a horse falling.

And a family's grief. And a sculptor who spent two years just watching horses before he ever picked up a chisel. Charles H.

Noyes was twenty-one years old. He died on the Noyes' Ranch, doing the kind of work that defined this part of Texas, rounding up cattle. His horse fell.

That's all it took. One moment, a young man in the saddle doing what cowboys do. The next, gone.

His father and mother, Gus and Lula Noyes, carried that. They carried it for years. And in 1919, they did something about it.

They erected a monument, not just for Charles, but as a tribute to their son and to all Texas cowboys. Think about that intention for a second. Their grief was personal, as personal as grief gets.

But what they built, they built for everyone who ever worked cattle under a Texas sky. To make it right, they brought in Pompeo Coppini of Chicago. And Coppini, he didn't just show up with a block of stone and get to work.

He studied horses. Two years. Two full years of watching horses, learning how they move, how they stand, how they carry a rider, before he ever put tool to material and began sculpturing the statue.

Two years of preparation, for one moment frozen in bronze, honoring one young man and every cowboy who ever rode behind him. Out here in Runnels County, Gus and Lula made sure that moment doesn't fall.

What the marker says

Charles H. Noyes, 21, died when his horse fell while rounding up cattle on the Noyes' Ranch. His father and mother, Gus and Lula Noyes, erected monument in 1919 as a tribute to their son and all Texas cowboys. Pompeo Coppini of Chicago studied horses two years before sculpturing statue.