If it's June, Black Cowboy Museum founder Larry Callies is talking about Juneteenth to someone somewhere.
On Thursday, he was giving a seniors group from Houston a tour of the museum, located at the intersection of Third Street and Avenue I in Rosenberg.
The great-great-great grandson of a slave owner, Callies is well-versed on all things Juneteenth — the day Black Texans were informed they had been freed.
The seniors group, made up mostly of Black folks, may well have already known much about the annual federal and state holiday.
But Callies shared other lesser known facts, which roused the group's curiosity and wonder.
Were they aware the first Black sheriff in the United States was elected right here in Fort Bend County?
Walter Moses Burton served as sheriff during Reconstruction and was respected by Blacks and Whites, Callies said.
Moses went on to serve in the Texas Senate, the last Black to do so until Barbara Jordan in 1966.
Callies asked the seniors if they had ever heard of three Black men by the name of Samuel McCulloch Jr., Alnozo Mitchell and Charley Willis?
McCulloch was a free Black soldier in the Texas Revolution, Callies explained.
"He was the first casualty of the Texas Revolution at Goliad when a musket ball shattered his right shoulder," Callies said.
"He later fought a legal battle over his right to residence and property in Texas that was threatened by the passage of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas."
Callies said McCulloch later had to fight for his right to citizenship after the passage of the Ashworth Act and after that he battled against the Comanche Indians at the Battle of Plum Creek, Callies informed the seniors.
"He also served as a spy under Col. Clark L. Owen and in his later years he lived as a farmer and a cattleman."
Mitchell was a cowhand on the long cattle drives that would at times travel all the way from Texas to Canada, Callies explained.
Willis was known as the singing cowboy.
"He worked on and off at the Morris Ranch near Bartlett, Texas, for over 20 years," Callies said. "He drove cattle from Georgetown, Texas,to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Another job he performed was horse breaking. Charley brought back songs from the trail and wrote a song himself called "Goodbye, Old Paint," which became popular at the time and is still sung by cowboys today."
One thing McCulloch, Mitchell and Willis have in common: They are kin to Callies, he informed the group.
Callies said the Black Cowboy Museum is planning its first-ever Juneteenth parade on Thursday, June 19, in Rosenberg.
The parade will start at 8:30 a.m. behind Planet Fitness and travel down Old Richmond Road to Third Street where it will turn south and end at the museum.