By Page H. Gifford
Anyone who has lived in Fluvanna County long enough will come across notable historical figure John “Texas Jack” Omohundro.
Born in Palmyra on July 27, 1846, Omohundro was a Confederate courier and scout from Fluvanna County who headed west after the Civil War. He became a cowboy, trail boss, Army scout, and eventually the first cowboy star of the American stage.
Matthew Kerns, author of Texas Jack: America’s First Cowboy Star, published in 2021, has worked to separate the real man from the myths that grew around him. Kerns’ article “Texas Jack Takes an Encore” won both a Spur Award and a Western Heritage Award in 2023.
His interest in Omohundro also led him to become active in the Texas Jack Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the memory of the Fluvanna native.
The association traces its beginnings to 1980, the centennial of Omohundro’s death. Springfield, Illinois, attorney Frank Sullivan encountered Texas Jack in the writings of Irish nobleman Lord Dunraven. Sullivan tracked down Jack’s nephew, Malvern Hill Omohundro Jr., and organized a gathering of family members and friends in Leadville, Colorado, where Texas Jack is buried.
In 1984, Dennis and Julie Greene of California expanded the group into the organization that exists today, establishing its structure and launching its newsletter, The Scout. Members have gathered for a biennial roundup in Texas Jack’s honor ever since.
The association returned to Virginia for its most recent roundup, held June 24–27 in Richmond. The four-day program included visits to the American Civil War Museum, Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond National Battlefield Park, the Chimborazo Medical Museum and Colonial Williamsburg.
The association’s proudest achievement came in 1994, when Texas Jack was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, largely through the efforts of association member Jack H. Omohundro Sr.
“He was the first stage actor ever so honored and shares that hall today with the likes of John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Clint Eastwood,” Kerns said.
The “Texas Jack” Omohundro state historical marker stands in Palmyra, near Pleasure Hill farm, where he was born.
The association is also planning a fundraising campaign to place a permanent grave marker in Chicago for Texas Jack III, whose name carries its own unusual story.
According to Kerns, the original Texas Jack once rescued a young boy during a cattle drive. The boy did not know his own name and took the name of his rescuer, growing up to become Texas Jack Junior, a Wild West showman in his own right.
Junior’s infant son, also named Texas Jack, died while his parents were performing in a Western show in Chicago. He was buried there in a grave that has remained unmarked.
Kerns hopes readers of his book recognize how much the familiar image of the cowboy owes to a boy from Fluvanna County.
“The figure we know from films—the tall, lean man in the Stetson, with the quiet nerve and the lasso—isn’t a generic type,” Kerns said. “It’s very specifically the image Texas Jack built on the American stage in the 1870s and that Buffalo Bill then sold to the world after Jack’s death.
“Every fictional cowboy since owes him something.”
