DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and friend, this one's worth a slow mile. R. Dick Bussell.
Born 1845, died 1935. Now those two years alone ought to stop you right there, because a man who came into this world before the Civil War and was still drawing breath well into the twentieth century had time to live more than one life — and from the looks of it, he did exactly that. The marker calls him a famed hunter, and it earns that word.
In the 1870s, Bussell was out on this very square of ground killing buffalo, running one of the earliest commercial buffalo hunting operations this part of Texas ever saw. He wasn't just a man passing through with a rifle — he was among the first to hunt buffalo here on a commercial basis. That's a particular kind of early.
Then, in 1874, he came to Texas. He put down roots. And if the buffalo days were chapter one, chapter two was something altogether different.
By 1887, Bussell was helping survey the townsite right here — laying out the lines of a place he apparently decided suited him just fine, because he never left. He became a lifelong resident, running a livery stable and a wagon yard. From the wide-open commerce of the buffalo range to the day-in, day-out work of keeping horses stabled and wagons ready — that's a man who knew how to read which way a place was heading.
R. Dick Bussell is buried in the local cemetery. The land he hunted, helped survey, and settled is still right here.
Some men just choose a square of ground and become part of it.
What the marker says
(1845-1935) Famed hunter, in 1870s killed buffalo on this square; was one of the first men to hunt commercially. Came to Texas in 1874. In 1887, helped to survey the townsite here, where he became lifelong resident, operating a livery stable and wagon yard. Is buried in local cemetery. (1967)