Brian Moore lives with his family in Elm Grove, La., just south of Barksdale Air Force Base. He comes from a family which has enjoyed great longevity in their family genes. That propensity for long life has illuminated a story which centers on an old saddle out back in his workshop.

Moore is the grandson of Bob Spearman. Spearman, who just turned a spry 94 years of age, lives in Franklin County and was recently featured in the Monitor for his experiences in the waning days of World War Two. 

Some years ago the story, as related by Spearman, was published in the Agri-News, a rural paper published in Billings, Mont.

Spearman wrote, “Wait – you must hear my story before you start making fun of my saddle! In 1936, when I was nine years old, my parents took me to Dallas to the fairgrounds to see the Texas Centennial Celebration. 

“We lived in Shreveport, La. at the time. We went in my Dad’s yellow Nash Roadster with a cloth top and a rumble seat.

“I could care less about the fair. I wanted to go to my grandfather’s farm near South Sulphur, west of Commerce. His name was R.T. Spearman, and the last time that I had visited with him he had promised to give me an old saddle he had hanging in the barn.

“So when we left to go back to Shreveport the saddle was in the rumble seat and I rode it all the way home. 

“Mr. Judson Pope, the depot agent at the Railway Express Agency where my father worked, gave me a wooden barrel to mount my saddle on. My dad made me a stand for the barrel and I saddled up and rode off to cowboy land. 

“I named my horse Tony, after Tom Mix’s horse. I helped Buck Jones, Tom Mix, Ken Maynard, Randolph Scott and other brave men of the West round up many an outlaw over the next few years.

“Something happened about the time I reached the age of 15. I began to notice girls and lost interest in old Tony. I started driving when I was 16, and a 1937 Pontiac became my primary mode of transportation.

“Shortly after I turned 17 I joined the Navy and before long a Navy destroyer was my way of getting from place to place. My saddle was long forgotten.

“After Harry Truman and I won the war and I got out of the Navy, I settled near San Antonio, married and started a family. My folks in the meantime had moved from Shreveport to Oklahoma City to San Antonio to Dallas and back to Shreveport. 

“When my dad was retired at the age of 70, my folks moved to Franklin County near Mt. Vernon, on 40 acres of sandy land that had been in my family since 1845. I now live there.

“On one of my visits, my dad asked me what I was ever going to do with my saddle. “What saddle?” was my reply. He took me out to the tractor shed and there was my saddle. He had kept it all that time and moved it place to place. Dad passed away in 1995 at the age of 100.

“I know it looks bad. The rats, time and neglect have taken their toll. To tell you the truth, it didn’t look much better when I got it all those years ago. But how do you retire an old useless saddle with dignity? I would hate to think that it will wind up on a trash heap after I’m gone. 

“Now you may make fun of this old saddle that hasn’t been on a horse in decades. But then again maybe you will see it in a different light.…”

That saddle is now the proud possession of Brian Moore. As Moore recently commented, “Having something which my great-great-grandfather owned is something special.”

He related that there was also a muzzle-loading shotgun which accompanied the saddle through the generations. Family lore hints that both the muzzle-loader and the saddle were equipage in the Spanish-American War. 

That aside, the saddle is safe in his hands. Moore hopes that someday his daughter will recognize the value of that old saddle.