Monroe Bell Pulliam was born to William Haskell and Matilda White Pulliam. He was the sixth child, the fourth son of 12 children. He was reared in Uvalde County, attending school there for a time, but for the most part he is self-educated, due to the fact that there were but few schools in the early pioneer days of Texas.

Monroe was married in Uvalde, Texas, in 1874, aged 22, to Miss Mary Homlsley. They had 2 daughters and 2 sons.
After many years as a cattle rancher, Monroe was elected president on January 1,1887 for San Angelo National Bank and served until January 10, 1892.

PULLIAM, M. B.
That the lives of the cattlemen of Texas compose the warp and woof of the State's history will be readily conceded by all; indeed, so largely do the lives of these men enter into the building up of the State, that were they eliminated, Texas would to-day present the unique appearance of a State without historical record.
Among the cattle raisers of this distinctly cattle country (and their name is legion) there is not one more deserving of mention than M. B. Pulliam, of San Angelo, Tex. His life is replete with interesting data, and his personal reminiscences, from boyhood down to the present, are such as to make the historian glad; his entire career exemplifying in a most forcible manner how success is the natural result of patience, pluck and endurance.
He is one of a large family of children. His father, W. H. Pulliam, is a Missourian of Scotch-Irish descent, born May 1st, 1810. His mother is a native of Tennessee, born in 1818, and prior to marriage was a Miss Matilda White.
M. B. Pulliam, the interesting subject of this biography, was born in Collin County, Texas, March 29th, 1851. The first definite work he ever performed to amount to anything was for a Mr. Riner, of Uvalde County, by whom he was engaged in the capacity of sheepherder at the not very munificent emolument of 512.00 per month. He continued in the employ of the above gentleman for something like two years, carefully placing his wages aside, thus proving that the boy, even at that early age, had formed resolutions to branch out for himself as soon as his finances permitted. Concluding his term of service with Mr. Riner, he next entered the employ of Mr. A. B. Dillard, at $15.00, for whom he worked one year. He now adopted the active and stirring life of the cowboy and engaged his services to Messrs. Martin and Brown, for whom he drove cattle to Kansas. He was now twenty years old and commanded a good salary. Messrs. Martin and Brown paid him $75.00 per month, and he saved every cent of it, not drawing one cent from the time of his departure for Kansas until his return. At this time, he invested the result of his past savings in cattle and placed them with his father's herd in Uvalde County. During all these years of early manhood Mr. Pulliam's life was the life of the average cattleman of that day; that is, he was continually subjected to danger from depredating bands of Indians by which that section was thickly infested at that time. He relates in his own graphic manner the following incident, which came near proving the closest call of his life:
"One of the greatest exhibitions of feminine bravery I ever witnessed, "said Mr. Pulliam, "was that of a Mrs. McReynolds, who, in company with her two little children and a very much inebriated husband, I was escorting to a ranch of mine situated some fifteen miles in the interior of Uvalde County, on Turkey Creek. We were making the trip in a carriage, the husband and myself occupying the front seat, while Mrs. McReynolds and the little ones sat in the rear. We had proceeded on our journey uninterrupted until about ten o'clock in the morning, when we were suddenly attacked by a party of Indians who were ambushed within five feet of the road. At the first shot I was wounded in the shoulder. The suddenness of the attack took us completely by surprise and found us almost without any preparation whatever. Returning their fire as best we could, however, we managed to keep up a sufficient fusillade to prevent any nearer approach on the part of the red outlaws. This irregular fight kept up the entire day, only ending with the going down of the sun; every hour of which Mrs. McReynolds sat quietly in the carriage, holding the reins of the frightened horses, seemingly unconscious of the perfect storm of bullets that now and then rained around her. The children were hidden under the sideboard of the carriage. Her husband was wounded three times in this fight, which wounds were entirely attributable to reckless exposure on his part. About sundown the savages drew off and left us to continue on our way, which we did, finally reaching our destination without further interruption."
This was only one of many similar adventures participated in by Mr. Pulliam. Mr. Pulliam's eldest brother, Benjamin, was killed in an engagement with the Kickapoos, in Uvalde County, when only thirty-two years of age. Benjamin, with his two younger brothers, Henry [Xury] and Needham, were out herding cattle, when they were suddenly fired upon from ambush by a lot of savages. Seeing their brother fall, the two younger brothers quickly sought safety in the neighboring bush, from whence they kept up a constant fusillade on the Indians, finally succeeding in driving them off. They then took the body of their brother, tied it to the back of a horse and drove forty miles to where the subject of this sketch, M. B. Pulliam, was engaged in herding cattle. M. B. joined them, and the sad little cavalcade took up their march to the distant home of their parents where the body was properly interred. He had another brother, John by name, killed in an engagement against horse-thieves whom he had followed across the Rio Grande. John's body was rescued by his companions and taken back to the home of his father, then living just above Fort Clark.
M. B. Pulliam was married in 1874, to Miss Mary Holmsley of Uvalde. On the following year he severed his cattle interests from those of his father and moved to San Angelo, at that time little more than a wilderness. He was not long in discovering the fact, however, that he had made a splendid selection for his future home, as Tom Green County, with its abundance of good water and fine grazing lands, is even to-day considered one of the finest stock sections in any portion of the State.
On his arrival in San Angelo, he probably had a thousand head of cattle which he gradually improved and increased until the following year when he drove a herd to Kansas, which he disposed of at a fair profit. Returning to Texas he reinvested his money in cattle and made a similar trip to Kansas the year after. He has followed this program ever since, making a goodly profit annually; handles something like seven thousand cattle per year at present, and is equally at home whether directing the finances of a bank, or "cutting out" steers for market. Mr. Pulliam resides in San Angelo, owning and occupying one of the handsomest residences in the State.
He is the head of an interesting family; consisting of his wife and three charming children, as follows: Fannie the eldest, seventeen years, now attending the seminary at Waco; Thomas Monroe, fourteen years, and M. B. Pulliam, Jr., now in his eighth year.
Mr. Pulliam is universally popular in San Angelo and vicinity; there having been no position in the gift of the people of that section which he could not have held, had he so desired. Indeed, he has refused time and again to accept positions of public trust on account of his multifarious duties connected with personal interests. He was for six years President of the San Angelo National bank, a flourishing institution with a capital of $100,000.00. This position he resigned in order to devote his entire attention to his outside interests. His ability as a financier may be judged from the fact that, since his resignation of the presidency of the San Angelo bank, he has had the refusal of three or four similar positions with other banking institutions.

(Source: Historical and Biographical Record of the Cattle Industry and the Cattlemen of Texas by James Cox, Published by Woodward & Tiernan Printing Co, St Louis, 1895)

Recorded by Vicki Smith, wife of Larry Pulliam O'Conner Smith, October 2021