The Man from the Brazos — Ermal Walden Williamson

The man from the Brazos is Matt Jorgensen, the alias for Matt Andersen who was the surviving son of Wil Andersen from William Dale Jennings' novel, The Cowboys with his permission. Because of a botched-up freight company robbery that resulted in the death of two men, Matt's brother Lukas and a tramp named Jeff Manning who were killed in the robbery. Jeff was mistaken for Matt and when Matt showed up at home, his father made him leave home rather than risk being arrested and hung for a robbery for which he had nothing to do. Matt traveled to the Bar M Ranch south of Waco, Texas, across the Brazos where he became a fast gun and lived a comfortable life. When he heard about his best friend, Rob Best, being killed, he traveled to Abilene, Kansas to avenge his death. On the way, he reminisced about how he and Rob became friends and the first fast guns of the west, and how they helped win the fight as spies at Fort Scott, Kansas. Ergo: the man from the Brazos.