James Harper Gillett (1884 - 1941)

Born 5 Sep 1884 in Ysleta, El Paso County, Texas, United States

Ancestors

Died 26 Jun 1941 at age 56 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, United States

Biography

James Harper Gillett, also known as Harper Baylor Lee and Harper Baylor Gillett, was the first American matador de toros, son of Helen (Baylor) and James Buchanan Gillett, born at Ysleta (El Paso), Texas, on September 5, 1884. His mother was the daughter of Col. George Wythe Baylor, commander of the ranger company in which his father served. In 1889 the couple was divorced at El Paso, and James Harper subsequently lived with his mother and grandparents in the Baylor home at Ysleta. His father moved from El Paso, settled on a ranch in Presidio County, and had no contact with his son for twenty-four years. In 1895 Harper's mother married Samuel M. Lee, a resident of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Harper joined the family there and enrolled in high school in 1899.^[1]

He finished high school in 1904 and worked for his stepfather's firm on railway construction jobs in central Mexico for the next four years. Throughout this period he took time off frequently to appear as an aficionado in amateur corridas. Under the tutelage of his friend Francisco Gómez, El Chiclanero, a retired matador from Spain, he subsequently left his job to try his hand as a professional torero. He made his first appearance as a novillero, or apprentice matador, at the bullring in Guadalajara on July 28, 1908, launching a remarkable career. On February 20, 1910, in the Plaza de Toros at Monterrey he was awarded his alternativa in a formal ceremony making him a full-fledged matador de toros, the first North American to earn such rank.^[1][2]

After reconciling with his father in 1914, and after the deaths of both his mother Helen and stepfather Samuel Lee, he changed his name to Harper Baylor Gillett. In San Antonio, Texas, in 1915 he married Roxa Dunbar, whom he had first met before a bullfight in San Luis Potosí. They owned and operated a farm on the outskirts of San Antonio and had no children. Gillett died of cancer, after a long and painful illness, on June 26, 1941.^[1]

Research Notes

It is has been speculated that the name change to Harper Baylor Lee was due to his mother's marriage to Samuel M. Lee, and an unofficial adoption, in an article from Andrew Weber entitled "The Rise and Fall of Mexico's First Gringo Bullfighter", Harper's name change is explained as:

After the two divorced on the grounds of infidelity in 1889, Mary changed her son's name from James Harper to Harper Baylor. She married, was widowed and married again before the family moved to Mexico with railroad engineer Samuel L. Lee in 1899, her new husband who unofficially adopted Lee.

The claim by Marshall Hail in the book "Knight in the Sun", is explained as:

On March 2, 1889, District Judge T. A. Falvey granted Helen a divorce and custody of Harper until he is old enough to choose for himself at the age of fourteen which one [of his parents] his guardian shall be. The court gave Gillett the right to see Harper at all proper times and places. With little Harper, Helen moved back to her parents' home in Ysleta. She abolished his first name, James, substituting Baylor as a middle name; by maternal decree he was now Harper Baylor Gillette.

So the name changes appear to have been done (whether official or not) as follows:

James Harper Gillett > Harper Baylor Gillett > Harper Baylor Lee > Harper Baylor Gillett

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Handbook of Texas Online, Tom Lea, "GILLETT, JAMES HARPER (HARPER BAYLOR LEE)".
2. ↑ Marshall Hail, "Knight in the Sun: Harper B. Lee, First Yankee Matador". Boston: Little, Brown, 1962.

• Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 16 August 2020), memorial page for Harper Baylor “Harper Baylor Lee” Gillett (5 Sep 1884–26 Jun 1941), Find A Grave: Memorial #149930622, ; Maintained by Cj Hoch (contributor 47059088) Cremated, Location of ashes is unknown.
• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_B._Lee
• https://paradiseinhell.net/tag/harper-baylor-lee/