Judge Roy Bean: Law West of the Pecos

Guerra Branch Lib, San Antonio, TX
    The Jersey Lillie, where Roy Bean ran a saloon and dispensed justice to miscreants who felt there was no law "west of the Pecos."
    The establishment also housed a billiard table and was named for British actress Lillie Langtry, who was known as the "Jersey Lily." [Perhaps the sign-painter had a few too many belts before incorrectly painting "Jersey Lillie" instead of "Jersey Lily."]

 

    Here's the bar where Justice Bean dispensed both justice and "joy juice." In fact, he was known to interrupt proceedings to serve a customer.
    While some think of Roy Bean as a "hanging judge," there's no record of a single "necktie party." Instead he fined a law-breaker everything he had: cash, horse, and firearms, telling him to hit the road and not come back or there would be a hanging!

 

    The Opera House at Langtry where Judge Roy Bean had invited Lillie Langtry to perform several times to perform; she finally accepted, but Judge Bean died before she eventually made her way to Texas.

 

 

    The original Jersey Lillie burned in 1896; Bean had a smaller version rebuilt (which explains why there was no room for both a billiard table and his bed.) The "Opera House & Town Hall" actually served as his home thereafter until he died on 16 Mar 1903.

 

 

 

    A authentic pot-bellied stove typical of the late 19th century as well as a closeup of the contruction of the walls of the Opera House.

 

 

 

    While not the exact bed in which Roy Bean slept, it is similar to what my maternal grandmother used well into the 20th century.

 

 

 

 

 

 

    A Texas Historical Marker explaining Roy Bean service as Justice of the Peace near the Pecos, where a Silver Spike was driven in Dead Man's Gulch upon completion of the bridge over the Pecos River Canyon. [Click once to enlarge; pres ESC to return here.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Another historical marker -- this one on the town of Langtry.
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Links:

• Wikepedia article on Judge Roy Bean
• Biography & links of or to Judge Roy Bean on the Val Verde County GenWeb site
• History of the Southern Pacific System

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