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Home » In The News » Bull wasn’t tamed, just sleeping

Bull wasn’t tamed, just sleeping

Cliffside prime beefer wasn’t tamed, just sleeping.

Cliffside’s recent excitement over a prize western bull roaming the countryside subsided with his capture, but today had broken forth anew as the apparently tamed animal showed evidence he had merely been sleeping, rather than broken.

Robert "Tubby" Hawkins
Robert “Tubby” Hawkins
Courtesy Bob Hawkins

Several weeks ago, Pick Biggerstaff collected a $5 reward for corralling into his barn the wild steer which has been the source of considerable worry to its owner, Robert [“Tubby”] Hawkins. The beefer had been the object of a long and extended chase over hills and valleys and was so lean when finally caught that it was deemed necessary to feed and fatten him.

Romeo, as he’s called, ate as contentedly as a Carnation cow, and to all appearances was at the same time getting fat and tame. But that’s just what his keepers thought.

Hawkins hired a big truck and some men to take the steer to the slaughter house. After much work they returned without Romeo.

Pick Biggerstaff standing at his barbers chair.
B. F. “Pick” Biggerstaff
Courtesy Jack Biggerstaff

A second detachment was sent under personal direction of Biggerstaff, a man who tips the scales at over 200 pounds. He selected Hawkins and Ern Wilson, likewise 200-pounders and announced the steer would be brought to slaughter without any trouble–but he hadn’t consulted old Romeo.

When they flipped back the door there stood Romeo in the bright sunshine. He blinked his eyes several times, jumped high into the air, shook himself and begin to tear the fence down while the alleged captors swung to ropes that held Romeo. The second shift gave it up as a bad job, the men uttering direful opinions as they trudged homeward, under the weight of mud and humiliation that had come to them.

Biggerstaff offered the suggestion that old Romeo wasn’t tamed, he had been sleeping. So far, as he is concerned, he said this morning, while so sore and weary he could hardly operate his barbershop, he’s through worrying with that steer.

He declared his purpose to have that bull out of his barn.

“How you gonna get him out?” asked a friend.

“I don’t give a ____, I mean for him to get gone,” Biggerstaff dismissed the question.

This clipping is thought to be from the Forest City Courier, sometime in the 1940s. According to Jack Biggerstaff, who provided the article, Romeo was a long horned steer that Tubby Hawkins had bought from somewhere out west. “Pick” Biggerstaff was Jack’s father. The pictures above did not accompany the actual news article.

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In The News

  • Introduction
  • Profiles
    • Hazelhurst Farm
    • Kenneth McMahan
    • Z. O. Jenkins
  • Community Columns
    • 1938 News
    • Live News ’03
    • Memorial Building Usage
    • Many Visitors
    • Events of Past Week
    • Garden Prizes 1926
    • Events Noted
    • Detailed Record
    • School Renamed
    • Garden Prizes 1927
    • Cliffside Gets 1st Bale
    • Big Sale Ends
    • Relics Exhibited
    • Cliffside Band on Radio
  • Advertisements
    • Cliffside Advertising in 1920s
  • Tragic Events
    • Husband Kills Wife
    • Fatal Car Crash
    • Explosion Fatal to Woman
    • Hunting Accident
  • School News
    • High School Accredited
    • Senior Superlatives 1927
    • Basketball Teams Practicing
    • School Commencement ’26
    • School Commencement ’27
    • School Commencement ’28
    • School Commencement ’29
    • Back From Christmas Holidays
    • New Gymnasium Planned
    • “Play House” Opens
  • Church News
    • 37 Are Baptized
    • Farewell to Pastor
    • New Methodist Building
  • Changes in Town
    • Scouts Dedicate Cabin
    • Haynes Mill to Open Soon
    • Mill Enlargement Plans
    • Improvements at Mill
    • New Highway Work Progressing
    • Work on Creek Bridge Under Way
    • Mill Now Making Terry Towels
    • Cliffside Builds Reservoir
    • Mill Building Ladies Rest Room
    • New Dry Cleaning Plant
  • News Briefs
    • News Briefs – 1926
    • News Briefs – 1927
  • Cliffside Christmas
    • Letters to Santa
    • Community Tree
    • Christmas Spirit Invades
    • Cliffside Takes Careful Census
  • Miscellaneous
    • Big Social Event
    • Corn Cracker
    • Cliffside Style Weddings
    • Cliffside Youth in Wilds of Africa
    • Cliffside One of Model towns
    • Cliffside Youths Hitch-hike to Kansas
    • County As It Will Look in 1936
    • A Day’s Journey
    • A Day’s Journey 2
    • A Day’s Journey 3
    • Two Escape Death
    • New Romina to Open Thursday
    • 1928 Election
    • Bull Wasn’t Tamed, Just Sleeping
    • Cliffside Jack Credited With K.O.

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