W I L L
C A R V E R
A Time Line
Clockwise from top left: Will Carver, Harvey Logan ("Kid Curry"), Butch Cassidy, Ben Kilpatrick (the "Tall Texan"), and Harry Longabaugh (the "Sundance Kid").
September 12, 1868 William Richard Carver is born in Wilson County, Texas, to George Alfred and Martha Jane (Rigsby) Carver. Will’s older sister is Frances Emeline Carver, born in Comanche County, Texas, on January 9, 1866.
January, 1869 George Carver flees with his father William after they are involved in a gunfight, leaving Martha and the two children behind.
April 16, 1872 Believing that George is now dead, Martha Carver marries Walter Scott Causey in San Antonio, Texas. Her brother-in-law Richard T. Carver and his wife Margaret stand up for her.
1872 – 1880 Martha and Walter Causey settle on a ranch in Pipe Creek, Bandera County, Texas, where they are blessed with six more children.
November 8, 1880 Will’s sister Frances marries Frank Hill. Will soon leaves home with his Uncle Richard and hires out to western Texas ranchers.
June 1889 Will and Richard Carver both join the Sixes Ranch, also known as the T Half Circle, near the town of Sonora, Sutton County, Texas. Also hired on are George and Ben Kilpatrick, Tom and Sam Ketchum, and members of the Byler family from nearby Tom Green County, Texas.
February 9, 1892 Will Carver marries 17-year-old Viana Byler in San Angelo, Texas. She soon dies of pregnancy complications on July 22, 1892, and is buried in the family cemetery plot at Dove Creek, Texas.
December 12, 1895 Will Carver and Sam Ketchum are accused of killing John N. ‘Jap’ Powers in Knickerbocker, Texas. Fearing the law, they close their joint saloon and gambling venture in San Angelo, and hit the outlaw trail. Within six months, Mrs. Powers and her lover J. E. Wright are arrested for the murder, but it is too late for Will.
August, 1896 Will participates in the unsuccessful bank robbery attempt in Nogales, Arizona.
May 14, 1897 The Ketchum Gang, including Will, holds up a Southern Pacific train in Lozier, Texas. Will is now courting Viana’s niece, Laura Bullion, during his visits back to Dove Creek.
September 3, 1897 Will, Tom and Sam Ketchum, and Ben Kilpatrick rob the Colorado and Southern Flyer Gulf Express at Folsom, New Mexico, and escape with $3500.
December 9, 1897 Will, the Ketchum brothers, Ed Bullion, and three others stop the Southern Pacific Railroad at Stein’s Pass, New Mexico. A gunfight erupts with the forewarned crewmen, and Ed Bullion (Laura’s brother) is killed. Will and the others escape.
July 11, 1899 Will, Sam Ketchum, and Elzy Lay hold up the Colorado and Southern Flyer at Folsom, New Mexico, a second time, taking about $50,000. They escape to Turkey Creek Canyon near Cimarron, New Mexico, where a shootout with a posse occurs wounding Lay and Ketchum, and killing Deputy Ed Farr. Will puts the wounded men on horses and leads them out of the canyon. Ketchum eventually stops, but Will and Lay escape to Eddy (now Carlsbad), New Mexico. While Will is out rounding up supplies, Lay is captured.
August 5, 1899 Will is seen in San Angelo, Texas, according to the local newspaper, and heads north.
September 19, 1900 Will, the Sundance Kid, and Butch Cassidy rob the bank in Winnemucca, Nevada, getting $32,640, mostly in gold coin. He heads for a visit with Laura Bullion in Texas and convinces her to go with him to Fort Worth. Laura believes they will be married and agrees.
October, 1900 Instead, Will deserts Laura when he meets Callie May Hunt at the San Antonio Exposition and Fair. She is a prostitute working for Fannie Porter, a well-known San Antonio Madam. Together they party with other members of the Wild Bunch at the Maddox Flat Apartments in Fort Worth, Texas.
November 21, 1900 Will, Ben Kilpatrick, the Sundance Kid, Butch Cassidy, and Harvey Logan sit for a portrait at the John Swartz Photographic Studio in Fort Worth. When Swartz displays the picture in his front window, however, a detective recognizes Will as an outlaw and presumes the others are also. The picture, which can identify the gang, is referred to as the ‘Fort Worth Five’ and becomes their downfall.
December 1, 1900 Using the name William Casey, Will and Callie May Hunt marry in Fort Worth, Texas. They leave for a honeymoon, taking Harvey Logan and his paramour Annie Rogers with them.
December 23, 1900 Will sends Callie home to her father in Palestine, Texas, and takes off to spend the holidays with his family in Bandera, Texas. Callie and Will never see each other again.
February, 1901 Will and Harvey Logan are noticed near the Sixes Ranch outside Sonora, Texas; they are suspected of casing the First National Bank of Sonora.
March 27, 1901 Will and Logan are visiting the Kilpatrick ranch in Eden, Texas, when their neighbor, Oliver C. Thornton, is killed, probably by Logan. After hiding the body, Will leaves with Logan, Ben Kilpatrick, and George Kilpatrick.
April 2, 1901 With Ben Kilpatrick and Harvey Logan waiting outside of town, Will and George Kilpatrick ride into Sonora to buy supplies. Sheriff Elijah ‘Lige’ S. Bryant and his deputies attempt to arrest Will for Thornton’s murder, and a shootout begins. When the smoke clears, Will is dying, and George Kilpatrick is badly wounded.
April 4, 1901 After a graveside service, William Richard Carver is buried in the Sonora Cemetery. His personal effects are auctioned off to pay burial expenses, and the remaining money is mailed home to Will’s mother in Bandera, Texas.
Summer, 1901 Using the money received from the sale of Will’s belongings, his sister Frances Carver Hill has a gravestone placed on his grave which reads only ‘April 2, 1901’.
Further Reading From Cowboy To Outlaw, The True Story of Will Carver, by Donna B. Ernst, available from the Sutton County Historical Society, P. O. Box 885, Sonora, Texas 76950.
Favorite Links http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/danne/ is the web site for researching Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy, and Harry A. Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, especially in their South American years.
http://hometown.aol.com/WayneK423/index.html will provide you with numerous articles by different authors who specialize in the Wild Bunch.
http://ourworld.cs.com/dnpernst is the homepage for researching Harry A. Longabaugh, alias "The Sundance Kid."
http://home.att.net/~wk354/ contains numerous articles by different authors about the Wild Bunch.
For more information, please contact Donna B. Ernst at dnpernst@cs.com.