Legendary Texas Ranger John Coffee Hays’ items are up for auction Saturday. Hays county is named after him. Burley Auction Gallery is celebrating its twentieth anniversary Saturday Nov. 16 with a live auction starting at 12:00 p.m. The auction will feature estate items from legendary Texas Ranger John Coffee Hays. The collection includes some of the earliest known daguerreotype photographs of Jack Hays and other notable figures from Texas’ and California’s history. During his time as a Ranger, Jack Hays achieved legendary status when Hays and 14 Rangers, each armed with a pair of the new Colt Paterson revolvers & a rifle, held off a group of several hundred Comanche warriors at Enchanted Rock near Fredericksburg Texas. Hays left the Texas Rangers and headed to California in 1849. He became the first Sheriff of San Francisco in 1850. He was one of the founders of Oakland California. Jack Hays was also the Surveyor General of California. The auction includes Jack Hays’ survey ledger, equipment and compass along with early California photographs.
Burley Auction was founded in New Braunfels in 2004 by auctioneer Robb Burley and family. Over the past twenty years Burley has sold hundreds of estates and collections from around the country in New Braunfels. Some of the more notable auctions have been the final estate of Roy Rogers in 2011, Ted Nugent’s gun collection, Ray Benson’s collection, Eddie Wilson’s Armadillo World Headquarters Collection, Threadgill’s in Austin, Centerpoint Station, Dicks Classic Car Garage, Ranger Jack Dean’s collection and even an entire Texas ghost town The Grove, Texas. A PBS documentary of the same name was made about the sale of the town. Burley has recently teamed up with Moody Gardens in Galveston and Muscle Cars of Texas to form the annual Galveston Classic Car Auction on Labor Day weekend.
In addition to the auction house, Burley has raised over $60,000,000 for local charities over the last twenty years, all pro-bono. All on a volunteer basis. Some of the events Burley has been doing for 19 straight years. Last year Burley helped Boysville orphanage of San Antonio raise $2.6 Million dollars just off the live auction at their annual gala.
“We try to add new worthy events to volunteer at every year, with the goal to raise as much or more money through volunteer work as the auction house has in gross sales a year. As the auction house continues to grow, so does our volunteer work,” Burley said.
The auction starts at 12:00 p.m. at Burley Auction Gallery 134 Deborah Drive New Braunfels Texas. An online catalog available at Burleyauction. com Dale Watson will be playing live at the auction after party starting at 6:30 p.m. No entry fees, and the general public is welcome.
