RoadRash — Roleplayer Guild

Name: William Joseph Cothran

Alias: Bill

Age: 41

Gender: Male

Origin: Born in San Antonio in 1827, moved to Laredo as a child in 1840, after the Texas Revolution

Current Occupation: Cowboy / Foreman at Joseph McCall’s Double-Eight Ranch

Appearance: Bill Cothran is the quintessential cowboy. He stands 5’8 in his stocking feet, all lean muscle and wiry strength. His skin is tanned dark, leathery from exposure to the elements, and there is a good deal of gray in his unruly shoulder-length mop of hair, his bushy mustache, and the stubble on his jaw. He walks slightly bow-legged, a testament to a life spent on horseback, and his hands are scarred and calloused from decades of hard, honest labor.

He wears the usual long-sleeved work shirts and trousers associated with cowboys of the day, as well as sturdy leather boots and a wide-brimmed hat. He has battered leather chaps for use on the range, and tan duster for when the weather turns ugly. His horse Injun is a bay paint gelding, a mustang he roped and broke himself.

Armaments:
 Remington 1858 Revolver, with the new 1868 conversion to .46 Rimfire cartridges
Winchester Model 1866 Repeater chambered in .44 Henry, carried in a saddle scabbard
Double-barreled shotgun, carried in his bed-roll on his horse
Natchez-style Bowie knife
40 foot lariat

Personality: Bill Cothran is a grump. He’s an ornery old ranch-hand with little time for nonsense, and among his men he’s known for his zero-tolerance policy in regards to whining, back-talk, and laziness. While he’s known to let expletives and (occasionally) fists fly around his hands, he’s unfailingly polite in the presence of ladies and believes that a man who doesn’t take his hat off at church is a man who’s looking to get a beating.

Skills/Abilities: As a lifelong trailhand, Bill is a master horseman. Some men ride their horses; Bill makes his dance. He’s raised Injun to be a cattle-running steed, and can make the horse jump, stop, or pirouette on a dime, and has the skill to stay in the saddle on the sharp, brutal turns required to cut a cow from the herd or lead one back in.

He’s a decent hand with a revolver, but is a solid shot with his Winchester. Though not a veteran, Bill has fired plenty of shots at banditos, rustlers, and Apache raiders in his long tenure on the plains. 
By far Bill’s greatest assets are his physical and mental toughness. Rain or shine, hot or cold, feast or famine, Bill’s single-minded nature and lifetime of trail riding allows him to stay on task in conditions and situations that many men would shrink from. 

Thanks to a life lived in Texas and often working alongside Mexican ranch hands, Bill speaks fluent Spanish. 

Miscellaneous: As a young man, Bill was married to the lovely Maria Cothran. She died in childbirth in 1849. He also has a fear of snakes, and kills them on sight.

Fun Facts: Bill is very nearly illiterate. He only began learning to read within the last few years, at the behest of his employer.

Joseph McCall, the owner of the Double Eight ranch, is a childhood friend of Bill’s.

History/Bio: Born in 1827 in San Antonio, Texas, Bill was the son of Arkansas ranchers who moved to Mexican Texas seeking good land for low prices. His father, Thomas Cothran, owned a small ranch with a few dozen head of cattle, and began teaching his son to rope and ride almost as soon as he could walk. When Texas launched its revolution against Mexico in 1835, Tom Cothran went to war and left Bill and the rest of the family behind. After the Battle of San Jacinto, he returned home to resume his duties on the family ranch.

In 1840, five years after the war, Thomas moved Bill and the rest of the family to Laredo. Tom found work at the Double Eight ranch, then owned by John McCall. Tom Cothran quickly proved himself a skilled hand, and by the time Bill was old enough to start working out on the range his father was already the foreman of the Double Eight. 

After his father died in 1855, Bill stayed on at the Double Eight, eventually taking over his father’s position as foreman in 1858. When the war began, Bill stayed out of it. Though not a stranger to violence, he couldn’t bring himself to go out and kill his fellow Americans over what amounted to political squabbles. Instead he remained in Laredo, faithfully running McCall’s cattle for the duration of the war.

Secrets: None

Relations: Benjamin Ross works as one of the hands under Bill on the Double Eight.
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