Texas Jack (South Africa)

Texas Jack Jr., (1860 appr. to 1905), who adopted the name of his rescuer Texas Jack Omohundro, is best known for running a Wild West show and circus where he gave Will Rogers his start as an entertainer.

Not long after the American Civil War, Texas Jack Omohundro found a five-year-old boy, along with two small girls, orphaned when their parents were killed by Native Americans. Omohundro escorted the children to safety, and provided for their care. The child took to calling himself Texas Jack Jr., dropping the "Jr." in later years after Omohundro's death in 1880. Texas Jack Jr. told his story to the family of Texas Jack Omohundro after that man's death, receiving their blessing to use the name in show business.

Texas Jack became a sharpshooter and rough rider in shows around the world, including South Africa. By 1899 he was in England with a show called "Savage South Africa". The show included a historical re-enactment of the 1893 Shangani Patrol, a last stand of 34 white soldiers against an overwhelming number of Ndebele warriors, with Texas Jack starring as Frederick Russell Burnham, the American Chief of Scouts who was one of only 3 survivors of the battle. Later in 1899, the re-enactment was filmed and released as a war movie entitled Major Wilson's Last Stand. A couple of years later he returned to Africa and started "Texas Jack's Wild West Show & Circus".

In 1902, Will Rogers met Texas Jack, hoping to get some kind of job wrangling the tents or the horses, but when Jack asked him if he could do a rope trick, Rogers obliged and was hired as an entertainer.

Texas Jack died in Kroonstad, South Africa, in 1905. He was survived by his common law wife, Lyle (or Lil) Marr, who was a sharpshooter in his show.