W. T. ("Uncle Bud") Roberts

Other cattlemen soon followed the Robertses, among them F. G. Oxsheer, C. C. Slaughter and B. F. Wolcott, whose ranch is said to have put up the first of the county's many windmills. Until the railroad came in 1881, Brownwood was the settlers' supply point and mail came from Fort Concho. L. F. McKay arrived to install the railroad's pumping equipment and stayed. The Earl of Aylesford bought 37,000 acres in 1883 and put up the first permanent building in Big Spring. In 1880 the whole county counted only fifty people.

What the plaque says

W. T. ("Uncle Bud") Roberts (1849-1940) William Travis Roberts, son of William and Rachel Roberts, was born near Georgetown, Texas. At 13, "Bud" assumed care of the family while his father fought and died in the Civil War. In 1870, he married Mary Thompson (1855 - 1915) at Georgetown. The young couple quit cotton farming for cattle raising, but soon lost most of their small longhorn herd to rustlers. When buffalo hunters told of free range farther west, they decided to make a fresh start in Howard County, becoming its first permanent settlers in 1877. They built a dugout and homesteaded at Moss Springs near Signal Peak until forced out by rival land claimants. The Roberts family relocated about 1.5 miles away on Moss Creek, promptly filing a claim on this land in 1883. They had the first wire fence and the first water well in the county. Enduring many hardships, they attained success, and gradually acquired 12 sections of land. Four of Roberts' seven children reached maturity. The family raised Whiteface Hereford cattle and fine Morgan saddle horses. The Roberts "B 5 Bar" brand on a horse was for many years the supreme guaranty of quality. "Uncle Bud" died on his beloved ranch at the age of 91. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hotel Settles — 6.8 mi
  Big Spring's fifteen-story hotel of 1930, built on ranch oil money, once the tallest building between Fort Worth and El Paso, empty and roosted in by pigeons for decades and now restored.
• Big Spring State Park — 7.6 mi
  A CCC drive looping up Scenic Mountain, a 200-foot bluff above the town that grew around the only dependable spring within sixty miles of open Llano country.
• Hangar 25 Air Museum — 9.0 mi
  A restored World War II hangar on the old air base above Big Spring, telling the story of the bombardier school of 1942 and of Webb Air Force Base, which trained pilots until 1977.
• Lake Colorado City State Park — 26 mi
  A mesquite-plains park on a lake built in 1949 to cool a power plant, southwest of Colorado City, where controlled burns are bringing back the grassland and 300 bird species pass through.

More markers nearby

• Big Spring School District — 6.1 mi
• First Christian Church of Big Spring — 6.4 mi
• First National Bank in Big Spring — 6.9 mi
• Howard County — 6.9 mi