"Amos-Harris"

More affectionately known as "Big Amos" or "Nigger Amos" ,is said to have been Nebraska's first negro cowboy.He was reported to weight between 250 to 300 pounds,and was 6 foot 3.He spoke 5 languages.It was reported that he was born south of Galveston,Texas,on the Brazos River,the son of freed slaves.Amos was known as "One of God's True Noblemen."He carried a rawhide rope which he,himself,had braided.He was considered to be one of the best ropers in the Sandill's.


Legend has it that he drove 5 herds of cattle up from,Texas over Chisholm Trail to Nebraska in 1878 as a member of the famous Olive Crew.Amos was reported to be only 15 when he started this trade.It is reported that they drove over 15,000 hea
d of Texas cattle to the open range in Custer County and along the Dismal River.From here Amos,began his colorful career as a cowboy in the central counties of Nebraska.It was on one of these trips,that he bought and sold cattle to the Ed Cook and Tower Ranch Ainsworth.
On the 1880 census he was listed as being in the household of Ed Cook,for whom he was working at the time around Ainsworth Brown County and around Blaine and Loup counties for various other rancher.It lists his birth as 1852,and his parents as being born in Tennessee.
His birthdate is questionable,unknown even to himself.It was known to be between the 1840's to 1860's.Amos was a very cheerful and happy man.The people of the times,bankers,lawyers,lumbermen,editors,farmers,and other people with whom he had a working relationship remembered him as picturesque,courteous,friendly and happy.In 1897 he married,Miss Eliza Young,daughter of  R.Young of Nebraska They started life on a ranch 18 miles north of Brewster on the Galamus River.
They remained on this ranch until the turn of the century when they moved to Valley county where Eliza passed away.Amos later remarried Elizabeth Jane Fears.
In 1904 Amos went to Wheeler county and took a 400 acre claim west of Lake Erickson.He eventually lost his ranch to a homesteader.
When Amos would come to Brewster Café to eat,he always came in the back door and ate with the cook at the kitchen table.Meals were twenty-five cents.Amos had been brought up this tradition from the South.
No information is readily available just how Amos died,it is rumored that Amos may have died of "lead poisoning." One source states that he died of natural causes.He suffered small strokes and was in ill health.He died in 1911.Amos is buried at the Grand Island Cemetery.A Tombstone was donated by the African American community of Grand Island.

Amos with one of his wives.