Richard August Buck was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1825. He never knew his parents or what became of them.  His foster parents told him they were from England.  The foster parents moved to South Carolina and took him with them when he was about 2 years old.  They had five children of their own.  R. A. was never happy, wondering about his own parents.  When he was in his early teens he ran away from home.  He wanted to make enough money to go back to Massachusetts to find his parents.  He thought he had been kidnapped.  (He never accomplished this).  He landed in Chambers County, Texas, and went to work for a Mr. Barber, who took him into his family as his own.  Mr.  Barber had several children.  The only one I know the name of was Eliza Ann.  At the time, she was a young widow with a 2-month old baby girl named Cindy.  Her husband, a Winfree, had died just before.  Eliza had been born in Chambers County, February 17, 1830.  It wasn't long until R.A. and Eliza fell in love and were married.  Mr. Barber had a big place, and was well off, so he helped them get a place of their own.  They had 6 children born there:  Leona, Emmett, Josephine, Gally, Austin (my father) and Lula.

     Austin was born January 8, 1865.  When he was 3 years old, his parents sold their place and moved to Refugio County, and bought a ranch.  Not long after, R. A. was voted assessor of Refugio County.  R. A. died in 1874.  Meanwhile, Cindy, had married R. L. (Coon) Dunman. (See R. L. Dunman).   In 1877, Mrs. Eliza Ann Buck sold their ranch and moved to Coleman County with her family.  She died July 4, 1916, buried in Coleman.  Austin rode horseback and helped drive their stock all the way.  Eliza Ann had bought a place southeast of Coleman City.  Mr. and Mrs. Dunman helped raise Austin.  He was near the age of their older children.  When he was 14, Mr. Dunman let him go with his cowboys to gather their cattle.  There were no fences, and cattle would drift miles off their home range.  When Austin was 18, he began to brand mavericks in his own brand, A.M.B. (connected).  He later sold this brand and stock, and bought the Circle Bar "O" brand and stock.

     Meanwhile, Emmett and the girls had married.  Leona married Lewen Rogers, had 2 girls.  Emmett married a girl from south Texas, Ada?, they had 5 boys and several girls.  Josephine married Jim Huddleston.  They had one daughter, Nora, and Josephine died. Nora married a Mr. Kemp.  Gally, married (1) Pete Popino.  They had several boys, and he died; she married (2) a Mr. Parks, they had two daughters in Dexter, New Mexico, one was Johnnie, who married E. A. Latimer, Sr.  Lula married John Jones.  He was sheriff of Coleman County at one time and Tax-Assessor a number of years.  They had 3 boys and a little girl, who died when very young.  The boys were Cecil, Calvin and Buck.

     One day Austin met a beautiful, black-eyed, curly-haired young lady at the Dunmans, Nannie Brightman (my mother).  She was a close friend of the two older Dunman girls.  He said that she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen.  Nannie was the daughter of Harriet (Howard) and Lyman Brightman, born in Old Saint Marys (Bayside, Texas) June 11, 1857.  Harriet Howard was born in Georgia, February 10, 1838, and moved with her family to Goliad when a child.  Lyman was born in Indiana in 1828 and came to Texas with his family in 1845 and settled below Goliad.  He and Harriet were married July 18, 1855 on the Howard farm below Goliad, they lived in Refugio County.  They had 11 children born there, 7 boys and 4 girls.  One girl died when a baby.  Lyman served in the Confederate Army.  Lyman moved his family to Coleman County and bought a stock farm southeast of Coleman City about 1883.

     Austin and Nannie were married December 13, 1886.  They bought land joining her father's about halfway from Coleman to Santa Anna.  They were living here when Santa Anna was blown away.  They had 5 children born here, 3 boys and 2 girls; Pierce, Lee, Euda, Emmett and a baby boy, stillborn.  Austin needed more land.  At this time, a person could take up 8 sections in West Texas; all you had to do was drill a well and live on it 3 years.  So they went prospecting and found what they wanted in Crockett County, 10 miles northeast of Ozona.  They went home and sold their place and moved by covered wagons and drove their stock, arriving at their new home in November 1895.  Mrs. Buck had to move to town when the children were ready for high school.  They had another daughter, Kathleen.  Their children:

     (1) Pierce, married Ollie Montgomery in Ozona, had one daughter, Ammah (Mrs. Freddie Hoey, San Antonio);

     (2) Lee, married Roger Dudley in Ozona, had 3 boys and a girl:

       (2a) Roger, Jr., married Elizabeth Richardson of Rockwood;

       (2b) Lee married Merle Holmes of Sheffield;

       (2c) Walter married Wynta Dorris of Iraan, had one son, Clay;

       (2d) Betty, married J. W. Munsell of Richland Springs, had a daughter, Euda Lee, and a son, Jay Dudley.

     (3) Euda married Walter Smith of Sipe Springs, Comanche County, they had a son born while she had the flu, and both died January 18, 1919, both buried in Sipe Springs.

     (4) Emmett, married Trella Nelson of Indiana, had 2 sons and l daughter:

       (4a) E. A. (Bud), Jr. married Jo Williams of Bridgeport;

       (4b) James P. married Barbara Wooldridge of Plainview, had 2 sons, Jerry and Jeff;

       (4c) Billie Kathleen married Warren Williams of Tulia.

     (5) Kathleen married Billy Stewardson of Fort Stockton, January 26, 1936, the son of Arthur and Ora (Williams) Stewardson (see Stewardson Family).  He was born on their stock farm south of Santa Anna in Coleman County on June 27, 1909.  Arthur was the son of John Stewardson, who had come to Coleman County with his wife and family from Indiana in 1876 and settled below Santa Anna.  Arthur, August 25, 1871-December 29, 1949, and Ora, July 19, 1871 in Bell County-February 17, 1954, both buried in Eldorado, was the daughter of Mary Alice and Merrimen Williams.  Mr. Williams was voted County Judge and served many years.  Arthur Stewardson married (1) Artie Moore, they had four daughters.  She died and he married (2) Ora Williams, they had three girls and one son.  The girls were: Sammie Lee, Lillie (also Lily) (see James C. King), Ada, Artie Mae, Salome, Mary Alice (Waxie), and Elizabeth and the son, Billy.

     Austin Buck died September 20, 1936, Nannie, October 8, 1954, both buried in Ozona.  Billy and Kathleen ranched east of Fort Stockton until 1947, then bought a ranch on northwest Roswell, New Mexico, where they still live.