A Cowgirl of the Texas Costal Bend 
Henriett Williams Foster, "Aunt Rittie"
Costal nd Texas, 
Rosieleetta Reed

Costal Bend, Texas encompasses Victoria, Goliad, Refugio, and Aransas Counties. It is from these early land holdings and acquisitions that the great ranches of the Texas Costal Bend were born. On these ranches were the people who formed a unique culture of Europeans, Irish, Africans, and Mexicans.

Henrietta W. Foster (Aunt Rittie) was one of these pioneers, she was born in Mississippi and had six sisters. They came from there on a boat to McKamey when she was eighteen. Isaac Newton Mitchell, bought her and she was a slave to him (on a ranch west of Victoria). She was a rare person in her time, a woman who worked cattle with men, and was their equal. She was half African American and Indian by birth, which made her most uncommon in the pastures and Cowpens of the Texas Costal Bend. Females, except in the rarest of instances, did not work cattle, and black women were normally confined to the fields or homes of the large landowners. Aunt Rittie was a person of honor and great strength. Aunt Rittie said they would pick cotton, clean up, cook and then they would go down on the river and have church. They sang the old hymns in secret. Slaves weren't allowed to have church or school. They weren't allowed to learn how to read or write; and if they were caught at either, they were given a good "lashing". She did laundry from Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Shelton. They made a slide to pack water from Miss Ellie Moss’s house to Aunt Rittie's house to do laundry, she did all of these things in one of the great big skirts they used to wear. She ironed with those big pot irons they heated on the fire. She said life was tough.

Aunt Rittie married Charles Foster and had a place on San Diego Street in Refugio. She paid twenty-five dollars for it and paid it out a quarter a week. She only made $1.50 per week. Aunt Rittie said that she and “Doc” Mitchell got in a ruckus one time over her cattle because she didn’t like the way he was handling them. She kept all twelve of them on her place. Her place was off from Uncle John Thornton’s. She got into a fight with him over her land, she went and told him he was stealing her land.  She accused him of putting his crops on her property. She gave him a good cussing when he went out there to see her about that land problem. She went and a got a hammer and knocked a hole in his head and beat him until it was a wonder the law didn’t come right away. She thought he was dead and ran to tell the law that she had killed John Thornton. Then she said she wanted him put in jail for stealing her land if he wasn’t dead. She hadn’t killed him, so they let her go. She wasn’t afraid of anyone.

She worked cattle bareback with the men and would go out in the cow camps with the different cow crowds. She liked to ride horses and it was said she was the only woman that worked with the men. Aunt Rittie would move around and go with the cow crowd from different ranches. Wherever men were working cattle, she was working with them. She rode side-saddle and bare-back on her white horse. She could ride like an Indian because she was half -Indian.

Although Aunt Rittie had no education, she was a Midwife and taught other women how to help the women give birth to their babies. She had one daughter, which she also taught her to Midwifing . Aunt Rittie had to quit Midwifing because her sight started failing her.

There once was an old Mexican guy who was stabbed at a Cinco de Mayo Celebration. His intestines were all hanging out and someone took him to Aunt Rittie. She sewed him up with black thread.

Aunt Rittie was a Midwife, a cow rider, and a slave. She was lots of things and she was real dark in color. Aunt Rittie was a person of honor and great strength. It was not easy to step out of the restrictions imposed on African Americans of the era, but she did and became a legened in the Texas Costal Bend.

Aunt Rittie lived up in her hundreds. She died in 1926 or somewhere around that big freeze in the twenties. She is buried in Refugio, Texas,and remains in the folklore of the county as the Legendary Aunt Rittie.

Notes
Stories From Black Cowboys of Texas
Louise O'Connor