William Edward Russell

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about William Edward Russell, out there in Presidio County. Now, some men come to Texas and Texas comes right back at them. William Edward Russell was one of those men.

He was born in Kentucky in 1839, and sometime in the 1850s he made his way to Texas, a young man with, apparently, a considerable appetite for the harder end of the frontier. Because he didn't stop in the comfortable parts. He kept going.

All the way out to the Big Bend region, where the land is enormous and the margin for error is thin. Out there, Russell found his footing as a trader along the Chihuahua Trail, and he ran a store at the Horsehead Crossing of the Pecos River, which, if you know anything about that stretch of the Pecos, you know it was not exactly a gentle place to do business. But Russell was the kind of man who seemed to expand to fill whatever space the country put in front of him.

Over time, he became a landowner, a rancher, a merchant, a farmer, and a silver miner; all of that, in the Presidio County and Northern Mexico region. He acquired property along the Old River Road between Candelaria and Presidio. And then he did something that leaves a mark on a map: he founded the settlement of Ruidosa.

He constructed irrigation ditches there, set up a mill. He didn't just move through that country; he built into it. He held county political offices, too, including commissioner and sheriff.

The man was woven into the fabric of Presidio County from just about every angle you can imagine. He and his wife, María Tomasita Rodriguez, had seven children together. Four of them lived past young childhood.

That quiet detail (four of seven) says everything about the world they were living in, without needing to say anything more. William Edward Russell died in 1890. He'd come out of Kentucky, worked his way to the far edge of Texas, and left behind a settlement, a mill, irrigation ditches, and a family.

Some men pass through a place. Russell became part of it.

What the marker says

Kentucky native William Edward Russell (1839-1890) came to Texas in the 1850s and worked his way to the Big Bend region, where he traded along the Chihuahua Trail and had a store at the Horsehead Crossing of the Pecos River. Russell became a prominent landowner, rancher, merchant, farmer and silver miner in the Presidio County/Northern Mexico region. He acquired property along the Old River Road between Candelaria and Presidio and founded the settlement of Ruidosa, where he constructed irrigation ditches and set up a mill. He held several county political offices, including commissioner and sheriff. He and his wife, María Tomasita Rodriguez, had seven children, four of whom lived past young childhood. (2002)