WILLCOX Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees
Earl Houston Davis (141)
1910-1985
2025 COWBOY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
Earl Houston Davis, was the third generation to ranch on the Davis Ranch. He was following in the footsteps of his pioneer ancestors who had settled in Cochise County in the late 1800’s. Houston was born in Bisbee, March 11, 1910, and lived the first seven years of his life on the ranch his dad, WJ Davis, had homesteaded. Houston graduated from Bisbee High School and attended Lampson Business College for one year.
Houston was a cowboy through and through. He loved working cattle and riding good horses. He could ride one further and have more horse left at the end of the day than anyone around. For years the family drove their cattle from the Mule Mountains where they wintered to the Sulphur Springs Valley to summer pasture.
He was really fond of riding bucking horses and though he never rodeoed, he would travel twenty miles horseback if he heard about a horse that nobody could ride. Houston didn’t have to go far to find horses that would buck, because when Houston was a youngster, the family raised horses for the Army. These horses descended from a Thoroughbred stallion the government had loaned them to raise remount horses for the army. They were pretty rank and had had lots of buck in them. This was a match made in heaven as far as Houston was concerned.
In 1934, he married Bennie Lucille Bennett. She is the daughter of Fred Bennett who was the wagon boss for Colonel Green on the Boquillas Ranch. They had three children, two daughters Zona and Lucille plus one son, Fred. They added 8 grandchildren to the family.
It was Fred’s interest in roping that prompted Houston to compete sometimes in local team roping jackpots. Houston was not a rodeo roper, but could still rope pretty well. He won a fair amount and placed several times at Prescott’s Viejos del Lasso.
Houston Davis was about as even tempered a man as you would ever meet. He was very patient with people and animals both. He was very seldom angry and if he did get mad, it just lasted a few minutes.
He was the kind of person that if you told him a secret it died with him. He also had a great sense of humor. Ben Snure (also a Hall of Fame member) commented at Houston’s funeral that he’d never met a man that didn’t like him.
Houston’s involvements included serving as president of Pioneer Cowboys and Cochise Graham Cattle Growers, director of AZ Cattle Grower, member of Cochise County Sheriff’s Posse, and was past master of the Masonic Lodge in Tombstone. He served on the Tombstone school board for 20 years. He was also appointed to the Arizona Livestock Sanitary Board and he belong to the Tombstone Community Church.
Houston Davis is our link to an era that we only can read about in books or occasionally see on the movie screen. Think about it for a moment, his father-in-law was a wagon boss. He broke horses to mount the Army soldiers. He rode 20 miles horseback to find another rank bucking horse to try. In our world today, there are no more wagon bosses. The Army doesn’t need horses for the soldiers. And if you are headed somewhere 20 miles away you jump in your pick-up.
Houston passed away in 1985. It is his lifestyle, and this heritage that the Willcox Cowboy Hall of Fame wants to celebrate and preserve. It is my pleasure to present Earl Houston Davis as the newest member.
Houston Davis