William R. "Billy" Guiberson (1903)

GUIBERSON, SHANNON

Posted By: Kent Transier
Date: 11/8/2023 at 18:03:26

The Winterset News
Winterset, Iowa
Friday, March 6, 1903
Page 5, Column 2

In response to numerous inquiries regarding the “Billy” Guiberson, whose death was chronicled in the El Paso Times and reprinted in the News last week, the News informs its readers that it was not W. R. Guiberson, a brother of Mrs. Kate Wray, who died but a brother of S. S. Guiberson and Mrs. Joe Shannon. The paper containing the account of his death was sent to us by A. W. Crawford, an old companion of Billy Guiberson, who was spending the winter in Texas.
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El Paso Times
El Paso, Texas
Wednesday, February 18, 1903
Page 3, Columns 1 & 2

DEATH RESULTS FROM EXPOSURE

"Billy" Guiberson Dies as Result of Wandering From His Room While Ill With Pneumonia.

WAS AN OLD FRONTIERSMAN

Known About the City as "Billy the Cabman” He Had Been in the Old Days Hero of the Plains Well Known for Braverv.

FRIEND TELLS OF HIS EXPLOITS

William Guiberson, the well known hackman, who as told in yesterday's Times wandered away from his room in the Washington house Monday night in a delirium caused by a spell of pneumonia. was found stark and dead on the bank of the canal back of Finnegan’s hide house early yesterday morning. Death had resulted, as his friends who searched high and low for the delirious man Monday night feared it would, from exposure.

Guiberson had been seriously ill with pneumonia since last Thursday night, and it was this illness which caused the derangement of mind which led to his untimely death. His many friends in this city indignantly deny that the statement contained in an afternoon paper that he was delirious from drink at the time he wandered away from his room.

When the body was found yesterday morning it was immediately removed to the undertaking establishment of Nagley &; Carr, where Judge Spencer held an inquest and pronounced death due to exposure. “Billie” Guiberson, as he was known to a score of old friends in this city, was 54 years of age, an old timer in El Paso and an extremely interesting character.

His early life was colored with the wild exploits of the frontier and full of those stirring incidents that books are made of. But first to his life in El Paso.

William Guiberson came to this city in the year 1880. He served on the police force under Marshal Thomas White and later under Marshal Frank Carr. He was the first policeman to don a uniform in El Paso and was noted for his bravery and devotion to duty.

About five years ago he took up the occupation of a hackman and as such was a familiar figure on the streets of El Paso. His hack always stood in front of the Gem saloon and he had a class of patronage that belonged to him alone.

When President Harrison and party visited El Paso several years ago Guiberson had the honor of driving the distinguished visitor about the city in a hack.

He was a member of the benevolent society known as the "Friend In Need." in which he carried sufficient insurance for his burial. He is said to have been a man of good family and has a well to-do sister, Mrs. Rachel Shannon, living at Winterset Ia.

Arrangements for the funeral will be made today, by which time it Is thought his sister will be heard from.

His Early Life.

As stated above, Billy Guiberson's life was full of stirring incidents, noble deeds and adventure. In the early 70’s when life on the plains was a panorama of exciting events, he was a stage driver and as such passed through some experiences as thrilling as any ever described by the pen of Bret Harte.

An old pioneer in this section who knew him and was with him in those days expressed the following reminiscence of the dead hackman to The Times last evening: “Poor Billie! I knew him In the early 70’s.. Then he was driving a stage for the Overland Stage company between Fort Concho and Stockton and various other points on the line. I have ridden many, many nights on the Overland mail coach with him. Sometimes when the coach was full of women and children, and Billie,. always faithful and true, drove them safely to their destinations.

I recall vividly an experience that we had one dark night with the celebrated gang of Peg Leg mail robbers, who were robbing all the mail of the Overland stages and were terrors of the James boys stripe. In the stage was Judge Allen Blacker, district judge at El Paso, against whose life the Peg Legs were plotting earnestly, and who was on this occasion saved from death by the rare shrewdness and bravery of Billie. As the gang came up to make the attack, Billie in a perfectly cool voice, called out to them: 'You had better be careful, boys, the government pay wagon is not far behind with a strong guard.' "The robbers took him at his word, although there was not a word of truth in his statement, and withdrew.”

"His rare presence of mind never forsook him, and It was due to this fact that be once saved a stage load of people, among which were two women and three children, from a watery grave. It was while fording the San Saba river that the Incident occurred. It was a dark night and Billie had not noticed the extent to which the river had suddenly swollen, due to a freshet, and began to cross as usual. Before he knew It his horses were swimming and the coach was swirling in the eddy like a cork. Billie stuck to his post and by skillful driving managed to land horses, coach and all on the opposite bank in safety. This was undoubtedly one of the most skillful pieces of driving ever performed."

The old pioneer paused for a moment in his narrative and said: "To one who knew him as well as I did, his good deeds and acts of bravery are not easily forgotten. I recall another incident in which Billie’s rare good sense, courage and Judgment saved a lot of helpless women and children from a horrible death. It was in the early 70's, during the terrible outrages of the Kickapoo Indians in this section. On the day that the station at Kickapoo was burned and the keeper and his family murdered by the Indians (an incident remembered by some of the old timers here) Billie, by rare foresight, saved his load of people from being massacred. He saw the smoke of the burning station at a distance, and smelled trouble instantly. 'That's the work of the Indians.' he said, and stopped the coach. After a few minutes' consultation with some of the men on the coach he turned his course and drove across the prairies and out of sight of the Indians and thus saved his precious load of human freight from being murdered, for the Indians were then on the war path and out for carnage. I might relate enough of similar incidents in Billie’s life," continued the old timer, "to fill a book.” In all of his varied experiences he showed a character for bravery and faithfulness that is seldom seen In a man. "He was a man of many fine parts and was worthy of a higher station in life, which nothing but the perversity of circumstances kept him from attaining. Poor Billie. Peace to his ashes!"
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Transcriber's note: The deceased's family first appeared in Madison County in the 1849 census. The deceased grew up in Madison County and left sometime before 1870. His middle initial is taken from the 1860 Madison County census.