| About Your character: | Hugo was born in Germany, his family moving to Texas in the 1840s, taking up ranching. There's more to the story but that's about all most would know. Fewer know that along with others in the German-Texan community, especially under the influence of the 'Forty-Eighters' who came in the wake of the failed revolutions in Europe the Richters became part of the Underground Railroad, though given the area not many passed through their stations. When he was twenty he married his sweetheart from the local area, Marta Blick, who died several years later after two difficult pregnancies. The German immigrants in the Hill Country did not take well to the Confederacy, many refusing to join the Confederate Army and there was violence with their more pro-Confederate neighbors, violence Hugo participated in. When things got too hot in Texas, he made his way with others over the river into Mexico. There he fell in with a band of locals and expats, part bandit, part revolutionaries, whose activities stepped up with the French intervention, fighting against the French and their local allies. It was during this time he also met his second great love, Esmerelda who left her landholder husband, declaring herself married to Mexico instead. After the French withdrew, Esmerelda's husband tracked her down and killed her. For the next month Hugo hunted the man across Mexico, finally catching him and leaving his strangled body in a gulch for the buzzards. With his primary tie to Mexico gone and the war over, he crossed back over and started wandering the southwest, looking for a place to belong. A few months ago he happened upon Sweetwater. During an evening of 'quiet contemplation' above the saloon, his meditations were interrupted by a commotion. A gang of railway workers repairing the track through Sweetwater had been causing trouble, emboldened by the vacancy left by the recent death of the sheriff. Two of the toughs had started slapping some of the girls around, trying to get...drinks for free. Hugo helped thrash them and toss them out. Over the next few days they incited the rest of the crew to start causing more trouble in town and Hugo helped the locals organize to intimidate them into backing down, keeping to their camp under armed watch until they could finish their job and move on. Soon after the town stakeholders offered him the position of Sheriff. |
