{"id":2246,"date":"2020-03-31T23:11:18","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T23:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/?p=2246"},"modified":"2020-03-31T23:11:18","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T23:11:18","slug":"belle-of-the-starr-hollow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/biography\/belle-of-the-starr-hollow\/","title":{"rendered":"Belle of the Starr Hollow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pete Kendall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/td><\/tr>
Bandit queen Belle Starr<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(Editor\u2019s Note: This is Part One of a two-part series.)

Gracious living still appeals to Belle Starr. The old gal is alive and well, along with son Pistol, at Starr Hollow Ranch and Golf Club, a little bit of paradise between Tolar and Lipan.
Belle has mellowed considerably since a scandalous stint as America\u2019s queen of chaos in the 19th century. Her bark these days is worse than her bite. She\u2019ll lick your hand if you call her a dog \u2026 perhaps because she is one.
The four-legged Belle is a current resident of the sprawling estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original Belle is nowhere to be found, though many believe she passed through on more than one occasion.
It\u2019s part of the rich folklore surrounding Starr Hollow and among a number of weighty research issues for Fort Worth advertising magnate Scott Dally, who hopes to publish a literary and photographic history of the place.
Myra Maybelle Shirley Starr was born Feb. 5, 1848 to John and Elizabeth Shirley on a farm near Carthage, Mo. Belle, as she was known, was educated in private schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the aftermath of the Civil War, which exhausted her family\u2019s fortunes, Belle took a walk on the wild side. She gave birth to daughter Rosie Lee out of wedlock. She married rapscallion Jim Reed.
Reed took up with the Cole Younger, Jesse James and Tom Starr gangs, which defied authority in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma Indian Territory. You name it, they stole it.
After Reed was killed by a deputy sheriff east of Dallas, Belle cohabitated with Bruce Younger of the sociopathic Younger clan. That didn\u2019t last. Belle then married Native American horse thief Sam Starr in 1880. Sam taught her the tricks of his trade, and Belle instructed him in hers.
Both did time in the Detroit, Mich., House of Corrections. She was all accounts a model prisoner. He was not.
Belle accumulated a lengthy list of professional and personal enemies, some of them kin. On Feb. 3, 1889, an anonymous gunman ambushed and killed her in old Choctaw Nation on the present Oklahoma border. There were, it seems, numerous suspects. Authorities never got around to arresting one.
Belle was reportedly buried in the front yard of her cabin at Younger\u2019s Bend on the Canadian River.
There are those who question such factoids.
Some believe she was buried at Starr Hollow \u2026 or at least nearby. In Evergreen Cemetery at Lipan rests someone named \u201cB. Star.\u201d Maybe she wanted to rest in anonymity. It\u2019s one of life\u2019s little mysteries. Death\u2019s, too.
\u201cAt this point in my research, I don\u2019t believe she\u2019s buried around here, but I would add that I don\u2019t think my opinion matters very much,\u201d Dally said with a grin. \u201cThere are people who know a great deal more about it than I do.\u201d
Belle and numerous others of her ilk traveled widely throughout North Texas. Many hid from pursuers in the Palo Pinto Mountains. Sam Bass Canyon, near Mineral Wells, attracted desperados and coyotes in equal numbers. The coyotes had more scruples.
\u201cThere seems to be evidence that Belle had family in the North Texas area,\u201d Dally said. \u201cThere is some evidence that she had a brother living in the Palo Pinto Mountains, a hangout for bandits. The land was so rough that lawmen wouldn\u2019t go in after them.
\u201cI\u2019m extremely confident that she was very active on a number of occasions in this area. I\u2019m extremely confident that she was one very rough female who knew how to use her femininity to get whatever she wanted.
\u201cI\u2019m fairly confident she owned and knew how to use firearms. I\u2019m fairly confident there was a great deal of larceny in her heart. I\u2019m very confident that she associated with people who were wanted by the law and who were guilty of all kinds of crimes in this area.
\u201cHaving said that, how many banks did she personally rob? How many horses did she personally steal? I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t have a feel for that. I do feel strongly that she operated livery stables and sold horses and that her last husband did not acquire horses by legitimate means.
\u201cHe was like all the other men with whom she associated, a noted criminal.\u201d
He did have a catchy last name.
\u201cThat\u2019s where her name Starr came from,\u201d Dally said.

If Belle possessed redeeming traits, researchers such as Dally have yet to unearth them.
\u201cShe was very much a female but not so much a lady,\u201d Dally said. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt she hung out with a lot of bandits. The question is how much stuff she did herself.\u201d
Her murder may have been unrelated to any supposed crime.
It may have been a payback for a personal transgression. She committed a few of those.
History states she met her demise while riding down a dusty road on a horse. There were no witnesses.
She was not forgotten.
\u201cHer daughter (Pearl) ended up running a couple of brothels,\u201d Dally said. \u201cWith the money she made from that, she was able to pay for Belle\u2019s tombstone \u2026 or so the story goes.\u201d
The tombstone inscription reads, reverentially:

Shed not for her the bitter tear,
Nor give the heart to vain regret;
\u2019Tis but the casket that lies here,
The gem that filled it sparkles yet.

As it turned out, Belle was a legend after her time. Her exploits, or supposed exploits, were chronicled by Richard K. Fox in his 1889 novella \u201cBelle Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James.\u201d
It was Marvin Leonard, a Fort Worth business mogul and golf course builder, who bought Star Hollow Ranch in 1965-66 and added an \u201cr\u201d to the name in remembrance of Belle. The late Mr. Marvin, as he was known, had an eye for history shared by daughters Marty Leonard and Madelon L. Bradshaw. They oversee the golfing and ranching operations now.
The four-legged Belle Starr is highly public. She feels right at home on Starr Hollow\u2019s 3,000-plus acres.
The two-legged Belle Starr might favor seclusion in a Starr Hollow sand trap.
\u201cI don\u2019t think she had any problems with luxury surroundings,\u201d Dally, a Starr Hollow member, said, \u201cbut this place might be a little too accessible to the law for her comfort.\u201d
Starr Hollow\u2019s 9-hole golf course might be her greatest comfort zone.
\u201cIf Belle put her mind to it, she could probably beat you fair and square at golf,\u201d Dally said. \u201cShe was apparently a pretty persistent woman.\u201d

Part Two, Tuesday

Scott Dally wants to hear from anyone with historical information, maps and photographs related to the history of Starr Hollow Ranch. He can be reached at (817) 332-5299 or e-mail sdally@dally.com

Pete Kendall can be reached at (817) 573-7066, ext. 248, or e-mail pkendall@hcnews.com

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History Makers<\/strong>
(Monday, September 20, 2004
Pete Kendall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Editor\u2019s Note: This is Part Two of a two-part series.) Marvin Leonard was cognizant of local history when he purchased Star Hollow Ranch in 1965-66. He renamed it Starr Hollow, for \u201cBandit Queen\u201d Belle Starr, and constructed a challenging 9-hole golf course among the picturesque hills, native grasses and centuries-old trees.
Marty Leonard is her father\u2019s daughter. She\u2019s as intrigued with the history of the 3,000-plus acre estate as Mr. Marvin would have been. And she wants it all on paper.
That\u2019s the story behind the project undertaken by Fort Worth advertising executive Scott Dally, who is collecting literature, maps and photographs related to the history of Starr Hollow, located between Tolar and Lipan.
He plans either a book or booklet \u2026 certainly a keepsake for the Leonard family and for visitors to their country paradise.
\u201cI\u2019m not doing this for money,\u201d Dally said. \u201cI\u2019m doing this because it needs to be done and because Marty Leonard had done so many good things for so many people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo many people approach Marty, wanting her to give something. I thought it appropriate that I give something back to her.\u201d
Mr. Marvin, who died in 1970, would surely be pleased with the project.
\u201cDaddy was always interested in anything like this,\u201d Marty Leonard said. \u201cThat\u2019s what spurs me on to try to find out more history about Starr Hollow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wish we\u2019d done this sooner, when there were more folks still around to tell us, but we\u2019ll still come up with a pretty accurate history of the place, a really good current history from the time daddy bought it.\u201d
Mr. Marvin and brother O.P. Leonard were co-proprietors of Leonard Brothers Department Store, a downtown Fort Worth fixture for most of the 20th century. Adults patronized Leonard\u2019s for clothes, farm implements, furniture, linens, groceries and fishing lures. Kids patronized it first for the escalator, Fort Worth\u2019s best, and then for the M&O Subway.
Marvin Leonard also built golf courses \u2026 world-renowned, championship golf courses. He laid out Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth in 1936, sold it to Colonial\u2019s members in 1942, then built Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth in the 1950s.
Mr. Leonard relished the history of Shady Oaks, Marty said. That history included tidbits of a sordid nature.
\u201cWhen daddy was building Shady Oaks, an older gentleman told him about a hanging tree there. The hanging tree became famous.\u201d
Star Hollow Ranch was famous for any number of things before Leonard bought it \u2026 Native Americans, bandits, wooly mammoth bones, rattlesnakes.
\u201cDaddy was a merchant and golf course builder, not a rancher,\u201d Marty said. \u201cBut he had a good friend who was a rancher, and they would go places to look at property. This became available. He loved the thought of Belle Starr having been here.
\u201cBut he bought it basically because he wanted to build another golf course.\u201d
It\u2019s a golf course to Marty \u2026 also a playground with a past.
\u201cI\u2019ve walked the whole perimeter,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve walked lots of parts of the ranch. I\u2019ve been to what I thought was the site of the last Indian battle in Hood County. Then I found out it was.\u201d
In 1869, a band of seven pesky Native Americans, probably Caddo, robbed settlers of horses and clothing and beat a leisurely retreat in the direction of the Palo Pinto Mountains. Angry settlers engaged them near Robinson Creek. Fighting commenced.
The Native Indians hid behind fallen timber in a small cave-like opening, from where they were no threat to the settlers and the settlers no threat to them. Then the skies opened like a sieve.
\u201cAn enormous amount of water fell,\u201d Dally said. \u201cIt flooded the cave and washed the Indians into a ravine below the cave. The settlers came around to the ravine side with their guns. When the Indians came up for breath, that was the end of the Indians.\u201d
Historian Lance Clapp told Dally about the site. He even supplied pictures.
\u201cI had interviewed Mr. Clapp about the Indian battle, and then I\u2019d gone back to my office,\u201d Dally said. \u201cI remembered something else I wanted to ask and called back. I got my information.
\u201cThen he said, \u2018You know that Indian battle I told you about? I have pictures of that site if you\u2019d like to see them.\u2019 I said, \u2018Holy smokes.\u2019 I jumped in my car and went back and got the pictures.\u201d
One of the photographs shows colorful J.D. Sargent posing by a pickup truck, presumably Mr. Sargent\u2019s.
\u201cThat was taken in 1993,\u201d Dally said. \u201cHe\u2019d called Mr. Clapp and asked if Mr. Clapp would like to go see the site of the last Indian battle.\u201d
The settlers collected souvenirs after their triumph over the Native Americans.
\u201cThey scalped the Indians and divided up the scalps,\u201d Dally said. \u201cIt was pretty uncommon for a settler to scalp an Indian. Normally, the reverse was true. The hatred that developed between the settlers and Indians was not unwarranted. They had reason to hate each other.\u201d
The settlers weren\u2019t a well-oiled machine when they cornered the Indians on Robinson Creek.
\u201cThey weren\u2019t that well organized,\u201d Dally said. \u201cEverybody had a different opinion on how to go in and get the Indians. Some had differing opinions on whether or not they should be sober when they went in.\u201d
The Native Americans believed in orderly cohesion at home and on the job, Dally pointed out.
\u201cThe story I heard is that there were six bucks and one squaw at the battle. The bucks always traveled with a squaw because they needed somebody to do the hard work. So not only were the women smarter, they also worked harder.\u201d
Marty Leonard has encountered no bucks or squaws. But she\u2019s not averse to looking for them.
\u201cWhen I walk the ranch,\u201d she said, \u201cI always wonder about who lived here and who was on the property. I wonder what it was like 100, 200, 300 years ago.\u201d
These days, a historian is apt to find a golf ball quicker than an arrowhead. That\u2019s okay, too. Time passes, and so do people.
\u201cI took up golf about five years ago as a hobby,\u201d Dally said. \u201cAbout three years ago, a Starr Hollow member brought me down. He started telling me about it on the drive. I fell in love with the place and joined.
\u201cI\u2019ve brought clients here who\u2019ve played Scotland, Ireland, Pebble Beach, Augusta, all unbelievable places. They say they\u2019ve never seen anything like Starr Hollow.\u201d
Maybe they\u2019re familiar with the tales of buried gold at Starr Hollow \u2026 spoils of robberies perpetrated by the Younger, James and Starr gangs, fine folks all.
\u201cThat\u2019s intriguing, of course,\u201d Marty Leonard said with a chuckle. \u201cI guess that would be the real gold, not the liquid gold from the ground.\u201d

Scott Dally wants to hear from anyone with historical information, maps and photographs related to the history of Starr Hollow Ranch. He can be reached at (817) 332-5299 or e-mail sdally@dally.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pete Kendall Bandit queen Belle Starr (Editor\u2019s Note: This is Part One of a two-part series.) Gracious living still appeals to Belle Starr. The old gal is alive and well, along with son Pistol, at Starr Hollow Ranch and Golf … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2247,"href":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246\/revisions\/2247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}