105-year-old cowboy, wife lose four homes in Stonewall County wildfires

Last week was a sad one for N.L. "Boss" Winter because three of his family homes, as well as a home on his wife's side of the family, were reduced to piles of ashes after the massive wildfire that burned more than 103,000 acres in Stonewall County. "It is the worst fire I've ever seen," said Boss, a rancher who has lived in Aspermont for more than a century. Boss Winter was born April 30, 1905, in a half-dugout, 10 miles north of Aspermont in Stonewall County. In 1910, his dad Floyd "Pa" Winter, built a two-room house just off Highway 83. His grandmother's half-dugout home, with a wood roof, was located about a half-mile away. Several miles down the road and around the corner, stood another house where Boss and his wife, Leta, raised their son, Wad, and daughters, Betty and Marie. All three places burned last week. "He's cried a few tears," said Betty Rash Whigham, his 81-year-old daughter from Abilene. Just a few weeks shy of his 106th birthday, Boss, the lifelong cowboy, remembered being only 5 years old when he moved to the house his dad built. He was emotional Tuesday using two canes to get close to the pile of rubble, while the ashes from the home where he was raised whipped around his cowboy boots. "It stood right where he put it until last week," Boss said, remembering the sturdiness of the old homeplace where he lived with his dad, Floyd, and mother, Effie, along with sisters "Peg" and "Shug," more than a century ago. Staring at the ruins, Boss' chin quivered a little...more