Aylett C. "Strap" Buckner, a legendary frontier hero, was born about 1787 in Caroline County, Virginia.
He made his first visit to Texas in 1812. By then the ownership of Texas was contested since the United States claimed that the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 included all of Texas, while Spain believed the boundary rested at the Red River. Many men, lured by the promise of free land and potential wealth, joined various expeditions to try to gain control of Texas from Spain. Aylett Buckner was a member of three such expeditions, the first as a member of the unsuccessful Gutierrez-Magee Expedition. He returned in 1816 with another failed expedition led by Francisco Xavier Mina. Buck - ner made his last journey to Tex as when he was recruited to join Dr. James Long's expedition as a citizen soldier in 1819.
Long's effort failed in 1821 but by then Buckner had found a new home in Texas. He settled in the untamed wilderness alongside a tributary of the Colorado River across from present day La Grange. He was a mem - ber of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" and was one of the first men to build a cabin along the river and the first to plow a field. This later caused escalating difficulties between the two as Austin promised the land to other settlers and Buckner would not release his hold on it. At one point, Austin or dered Buckner arrested to “answer charges of disorderly and seditious conduct” against the peace and tranquility of the Colony. Eventually, their arguments were worked out and Buckner received his land.
By 1825, he was operating a trading post, dealing in livestock, farming and fighting Indians. Buckner felt that he had lost more property to the Indians than any other man in the entire colony. In 1826, Captain Aylett C. Buckner commanded a militia company against the Waco and Tawakoni tribes and later defeated a band of Karankawa who had murdered two families.
Aylett C. Buckner lost his life on June 26, 1832, during the Battle of Velasco. A company of Texans had gone to Brazoria to secure a cannon when they were drawn into a fight with Mexican forces at nearby Fort Velasco. The fight lasted two days until the Mexicans ran out of ammu- nition and surrendered. Buckner and six or seven other Texans, including his neighbors Leander Woods and Andrew Castleman, were the first to sacrifice their lives in the clash between the colonists and the Mexican gov - ernment that would lead to revo - lution and independence.
Aylett C. Buckner was a man of giant stature with a freckled face and a head of heavy hair "as red as a flame". Though he was physically large his status as a hero of folklore as Strap Buckner is even larger.
Strap possessed the strength of ten lions and like many giants, he was friendly and good-na tured, so much so that he went about the colony knocking men down as he greeted them with a tap on the back. If, by chance, he injured anyone, he would carry them to his home, nurse them back to health so that he might knock them down again. Strap eventually knocked down every man in Austin's colony at least three times, including Austin himself.
Tales of his exploits grew when a black bull, known as "Noche" mysteriously appeared in the colony terrorizing the settlers. Buckner challenged the bull to a fight. With a red blanket thrown over his shoulder and no weapons, Strap strode onto the prairie where “Noche” twisted his tail, pawed the earth, and bellowed mightily. Strap pawed and roared back and when the bull charged, Strap stood his ground and met him with a re- sounding blow to his head. The bull staggered, turned tail and fled, never to be seen in the colony again.
Legend has Strap clearing out the Indians by knocking down all the warriors and instead of scalping him the Indians praised him and named him "Kokulblothetoff", meaning the "Red Son of Blue Thunder". The chief offered Strap an Indian princess for a bride but Strap declined re - fusing to have his powers weakened by a woman.
Strap had now knocked down all the living things in the colony. He took to drinking his jug of "demon rum" and proclaimed himself champion of the world. He defied all that lived and then three times challenged the Dev - il. At nightfall a violent storm began shaking Strap's cabin and in the middle of a blinding sheet of lightning and deafening crash of thunder, the Devil appeared to answer Strap's challenge. The next morning the battle began in a raging storm and lasted all day until the Devil bested Strap and carried him away. Three months later Strap returned bearing a sad, far-away look and retreated to his cabin for another three months. Then one night a giant blue flame arose from Strap's cab - in and out of the flame came a horse carrying a gigantic man and a cowering red Devil. The next morning the cabin was
found in ashes and Strap was no more.
And now the story goes that on stormy nights, while the wind howls, and lightning flash es and thunder cracks, the ghost of Strap Buckner with red hair streaming behind, rides through the air up and down the Colorado Valley.
