A true Texas fact

[woodman6415]

My hometown

Traces of Texas

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

The first irrigated farm in West Texas was Bismarck Farm, established by Jake Marshall in 1868, three miles south of Fort Concho on the South Concho River in what is now San Angelo. While I have you, I should note that before San Angelo became San Angelo it was called "Santa Angela" and, before that, "Over the River." I kind of wish they'd have kept the name "Over the River" because Over the River, Texas, has a very nice ring to it.

 

[Wildthings]

At four o'clock one April afternoon in 1836, some 900 men, unwashed, underfed, caked with mud and dressed in rags, began a slow walk through knee-high grass.

A half hour later they crested a low hill. What they did in the next eighteen minutes made our world possible.

These were the Soldiers of San Jacinto.

They were the most dangerous group of men ever gathered on Texas soil. Not because they were born fighters. These were farmers, lawyers, and shopkeepers.

But they had been pushed to the edge, run from their homes, their crops and houses burned. They did not know if their families where safe. They had lost close friends and family at the Alamo and Goliad. They were set for blood and had nothing to lose.

The Texian victory at the Battle of San Jacinto changed the entire world.

That's no hyperbole. Without the deeds of the men who fought there, we would have no states of Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada or Colorado. Take away those eighteen minutes and there would be no superpower on the American continent

 

[Gdurfey]

On April 21st, on the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, Aggies gather together wherever they are to commemorate fellow Aggies who have died the previous year. The Aggies will call the roll and a friend will answer “here”........ Aggie Muster...... the most famous being on Corregidor, just weeks before it fell to the Japanese......

 

[Wildthings]

Today in Texas History -- April 21st


Texas forces win at San Jacinto

On this day in 1836, Texas forces won the battle of San Jacinto, the concluding military event of the Texas Revolution. Facing General Santa Anna's Mexican army of some 1,200 men encamped in what is now southeastern Harris County, General Sam Houston disposed his forces in battle order about 3:30 p.m., during siesta time. The Texans' movements were screened by trees and the rising ground, and evidently Santa Anna had no lookouts posted. The Texan line sprang forward on the run with the cries "Remember the Alamo!" and "Remember Goliad!" The battle lasted but eighteen minutes. According to Houston's official report, the casualties were 630 Mexicans killed and 730 taken prisoner. Against this, only nine of the 910 Texans were killed or mortally wounded and thirty were wounded less seriously.


Legendary lawman joins the Texas Rangers

On this day in 1906, Frank Hamer enlisted in the Texas Rangers. Hamer, born in Fairview in 1884, was recommended for a position with the Rangers after capturing a horse thief while working as a cowboy in 1905. In 1908 he resigned from the force to become marshal of Navasota and then a special officer in Harris County. He rejoined the Rangers in 1915 and patrolled the South Texas border from the Big Bend to Brownsville. He was criticized for his use of force, and legislator José T. Canales accused Hamer of threatening him in 1918. In 1934 Hamer became a special investigator for the Texas prison system and was assigned to track down outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. After a three-month search, he and his men shot and killed them near Gibsland, Louisiana. Congress awarded Hamer a special citation for stopping the pair. Hamer retired in 1949 and lived in Austin until his death in 1955.


First internees arrive at Kenedy Alien Detention Camp

On this day in 1942, the first group of internees--456 Germans, 156 Japanese, and 14 Italians--arrived at the Kenedy Alien Detention Camp on the outskirts of Kenedy, Texas. The United States Border Patrol had entered into an agreement to lease a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The lease was made for the purpose of establishing an internment camp for aliens from the United States and Latin America who were considered dangerous to the public safety. At the outset of World War II, when conditions were bleak for the Allies, the U.S. undertook to protect its national interests by entering into agreement with Latin-American countries to arrest and intern all resident aliens or citizens of German, Japanese, or Italian descent who could possibly aid the Axis war effort. From the time the Kenedy Camp received its first internees until it was converted into a prisoner of war camp on October 1, 1944, more than 3,500 aliens passed through its gates.

 

[woodman6415]

Traces of Texas

Y'all are not going to believe the Texas Quote of the Day, written in an 1883 article in the San Antonio Express newspaper:

"Colonel Albert C. Pelton, whose beautiful twenty thousand acre ranch is out toward the Rio Grande, near Laredo, has been the "Peter the Hermit" of Texas for years. He has believed that he held a divine commission to kill Apache Indians. Colonel Pelton came to Texas in 1844, a common soldier. By talent and courage, he rose to the rank of colonel. Finally, in 1867, he commanded Fort McRae. That year he fell in love with a beautiful Spanish girl near Albequin, New Mexico. Her parents were wealthy and would not consent to their daughter going away from all her friends to live in a garrison... But after two years of courtesy and devotion, Colonel Pelton won the consent of the beautiful Spanish girl and they were married.

Then commenced a honeymoon such as only lovers shut up in a beautiful flower-environed fort can have. The lovely character of the beautiful bride won the hearts of all the soldiers of the fort, and she reigned a queen among the rough frontiersmen. One day, when the love of the soldier and his lovely wife was at its severest, the two, accompanied by the young wife's mother and twenty soldiers, rode out to the hot springs, six miles from the fort, to take a bath. While in the bath, which is near the Rio Grande, a shower of Indian arrows fell around them, and a band of Apache Indians rushed down upon them. Several of the soldiers fell dead, pierced with poisoned arrows. This frightened the rest, who fled. Another shower of arrows and the beautiful bride and her mother fell in the water, pierced by the cruel shafts of the Apache. With his wife dying before his eyes, Colonel Pelton leaped upon the bank, grabbed his rifle and killed the [Apache] leader. But the Apaches were too much [and he] was pierced with two poisoned arrows, so he swam the river and hid under a ledge. After the Apaches left, the Colonel made his way to Fort McRae. Here his wounds were dressed and he finally recovered, but only to live a blasted life without love, without hope, with a vision of his beautiful wife dying perpetually before his eyes.

After the death of his wife a change came over Colonel Pelton. He seemed to think that he had a sacred mission from heaven to avenge his young wife's death. He was always anxious to lead any and all expeditions against the Apaches. Whenever any of the other Indians were at war with the Apaches, Colonel Pelton would soon be at the head of the former. He defied the Indian arrows and courted death.

Once, with a band of the wildest desperadoes, he penetrated a hundred miles into Apache country [and] the Apaches fled, leaving their women and children behind. It was then that there darted out of a lodge a white woman. 'Spare the women,' she cried, and then fainted to the ground. When the Colonel jumped from the saddle to lift up the woman, he found that she was blind. 'How came you here, woman, with these d___d Apaches?' he asked. 'I was wounded and captured,' she said, 'ten years ago. Take, oh take, me back again.' 'Have you any relatives in Texas?' asked the Colonel. 'No; my father lives in Albequin. My husband, Colonel Pelton, and my mother, were killed by the Indians.' 'Great God, Bella! Is it you, my wife?' 'Oh, Albert, I knew you would come!' exclaimed the poor wife, blindly reaching her hands to grasp her husband. Of course, there was joy in the old ranch when Colonel Pelton got back with his wife. The Apaches had carried the woman away with them. The poison caused inflammation, which finally destroyed her eyesight."

----- San Antonio Daily Express, January 25, 1883

 

[woodman6415]

Traces of Texas

The Texas Quote of the Day finds old cowboy J.F. Harrell describing a visit to Fort Worth in 1884:

"We stayed in Fort Worth a few days. This was grand after having been on the road about four weeks. Fort Worth was really a boom town [with] a new rail road, street shows of every description and people of every kind, cattlemen, horse traders, bone haulers, gamblers and fakers of every conceivable nature. The town at night resembled some noted seashore pavilion. The streets and sidewalks were jammed. There were amusements of almost every description and everywhere. It seemed that every other door on either side was aglow and the music was mostly from fiddles and organs. There were not many violinists but many fiddlers, dance halls, saloons, shooting galleries and on the street, soap box orators and an occasional street preacher.

During the day, it was horse trading, cattle selling and conversations which usually included where was the best place to locate or where are you from and to what part of the state are you going. There were big herds of cattle from the west, for this was a big shipping point. Men with four to six horse wagons loaded with bones, others with horns and still others with only cowhides for sale. Many of the hides were so green or fresh, one could whiff the odor from them for several blocks. One might wonder where so many bones hides and horns could have been collected. If you could have made a trip across Western Texas during early spring at that time, you could have easily seen. As cattle wintered themselves on the dried grass, they were always poor by spring and as soon as the new grass began shooting up they would quit eating the dried grass and [with] the difficulty of trying to get enough of the young, tender green grass, they lost flesh and many of them would become so poor and weak, they would find themselves too weak to rise and after a few days would die of hunger. At this time, one riding over the country would scarcely ever be out of sight of a carcass.

Cowhides sold at about $1.00 per hide. Many people made their living by riding the distant range and skinning dead cattle for their hides and no doubt in many instances, where it was seen that the cow could not regain her strength, she was killed and skinned and nothing further said about the matter."

----- J.F. Harrell, 1934

 

[Tony]

 

[woodman6415]

Traces of Texas

The Texas Quote of the Day:

"Denton, June 22 ---- This afternoon Mrs. Leona Lyles, wife of a prominent business man of this city, accosted W.B. Roberts at Ball and Poe's livery stables. She told him he had been slandering her and asked him to sign a libel, which he refused to do. She persisted in her request, telling him at the same time, that if he did not sign it he would regret it. He again refused, whereupon she drew a revolver and shot him five times. Each shot took effect --- two in his neck, breaking it, and one in the head. Either of these three shots was fatal. The other two shots entered his shoulder. Roberts died in a few minutes. Mrs. Lyles, after snapping several times upon empty cartridges, walked quietly from the scene and surrendered to the sheriff.

Roberts leaves a wife and two children. He was formerly sheriff of this county and stood high. Mrs. Lyles has a husband and two children. The shooting was incited by Roberts making statements that he had been intimate with Mrs. Lyles, which the woman pronounced to be false at the muzzle of a revolver. The coroners jury rendered a verdict in accordance with the facts. Public sympathy is with the woman."

------- Austin Weekly Statesman, June 24, 1886

 

[woodman6415]

 

[woodman6415]

Traces of Texas

The Texas Quote of the Day finds an old Texas trail driver describing a meeting with alien creatures in Kansas:

"We gave several camp dinners for them [rural Kansas settlers]. They would come in their wagons, the girls and all the families. Our cook would outdo himself in getting up all kinds of camp dishes. Our boys would do all kinds of stunts, riding bronco horses and roping, which interested and amused the people. At first they seemed to think we were a bunch of Arabs or outlaws. It was my first contact with real Yankee people, and to my surprise, they seemed just about like other people."

------ Old Chisholm trail driver A. G. Mills, writing his personal memoirs in "Frontier Times" magazine, 1933

 

[woodman6415]

Traces of Texas

This awesome photo shows Dick "Night Train" Lane intercepting a pass as a rookie defensive back for the Los Angeles Rams in 1952. Night Train was born in Austin, Texas, in 1928. His mother was a prostitute and his father was a pimp. When he was three months old, he was abandoned by his birth parents. He was found in a dumpster. Night Train later recalled, "My father was called Texas Slim. I never saw him - I don't know if he's the one that told my mother to throw me away. A pimp told my mother I had to go. They put me in a trash can and took off. Some people heard me crying. They thought it was a cat."

Lane was adopted and raised by Ella Lane, who also had four other children. As a youth in Austin, Lane grew up poor, busing tables at local hotels and shining shoes on Congress Avenue. He also helped his mother with a laundry business she ran out of the home. Lane became known as "Cue Ball" and later recalled how he acquired the nickname: "I was in a pool hall in 12th street. We were playing for money, maybe a dime. As soon as I made the eight ball, the other guy took off running. He didn't want to pay. I grabbed that cue ball and just as he made the corner I threw it and hit him upside the head. The guy didn't know what had hit him."

Night Train went to high school at Anderson High in Austin. After graduating from high school, Lane lived for a time in Council Bluffs, Iowa, with his birth mother, Johnnie Mae King. She had visited during Lane's youth, and the two reconciled. His mother and a man had opened a tavern in Council Bluffs. While in Council Bluffs, a baseball scout signed Lane, and he played for a time with the Omaha Rockets, a farm team for the Kansas City Monarchs.

In the fall of 1947, Lane enrolled at Scottsbluff Junior College in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. He played one season of college football at Scottsbluff. He was the only African American player on the team, and a clipping from the college newspaper noted, "He is outstanding for his vicious tackles, hard running and pass snatching." He then served in the U.S. Army for four years, getting honorably discharged in 1952. After that, he got a job building airplanes at a plant in Los Angeles.

While working at the aircraft plant, Night Train Lane passed the Los Angeles Rams offices on his bus ride to work. He walked into the office with a scrapbook of clippings in 1952 and asked for a tryout. He was recommended to the Rams by Gabby Sims and signed as a free agent. Lane initially tried out as a receiver, the position he had played at Fort Ord, but was switched to a defensive back by the Rams. In the Rams' first scrimmage on August 3, 1952, Lane drew praise as "the outstanding player in the scrimmage by a country mile" due to his "ferocious" approach to the game and his speed in chasing down Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch. After the scrimmage, Rams head coach Joe Stydahar said, "Lane came out here to make the ball club. Well, last night he got himself a job.

Lane acquired the nickname "Night Train" during his first training camp with the Rams. Teammate Tom Fears had a record player in his room and frequently played the record, "Night Train", by Jimmy Forrest. The record was released in March 1952 and was the #1 R&B hit for seven weeks. According to an account published by the Los Angeles Times in August 1952, "Whenever Fears plays it Lane can be found in the hall outside Tom's room dancing to the music." Night Train was initially uncomfortable with the racial implication of the nickname, which had been bestowed on him by his white teammates, but he embraced it after a newspaper reported on his performance against Washington Redskins star Choo Choo Justice with the headline, "Night Train Derails Choo Choo".

As a rookie in 1952, Lane had 14 interceptions, a mark that remains an NFL record more than 65 years later. He played in the Pro Bowl seven times and was selected as a first-team All-NFL player seven times between 1956 and 1963. His 68 career interceptions ranked second in NFL history at the time of his retirement and still ranks fourth in NFL history. He was also known as one of the most ferocious tacklers in NFL history and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974. He was also named to the NFL's all-time All-Pro team in 1969 and its 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994. In 1999, he was ranked number 20 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.

He had gone from being an unwanted baby to one of the greatest football players of all time and he had, in my opinion, the best nickname ever given to anybody in the history of football. Due to reduced mobility from diabetes and knee injuries, he spent the last two years of his life at the Five Star Assisted Living facility in North Austin. He died there from a heart attack in January 2002 at age 73, after playing dominoes and while listening to jazz in his room. His family believed that he also suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) brought on by football-related Injuries.

 

[woodman6415]

The very reason I retired in the Hill Country

Traces of Texas

The Texas Quote of the Day is an eloquent paean to Christmas and family in The Hill Country:

"When I return home during the Christmas season, I usually spend the first day just standing around in rooms. I peel tangerines while my mother talks about the hometown goings-on; I stare at the same family photographs I have been looking at in the bedroom for the past thirty years; I lean against the fireplace mantel and shell pecans. After dark I stand in the kitchen talking to my father, home from work at his feed store, and having perhaps my sixth or seventh cup of coffee of the day as I listen to my father's often-told tales. But on the second day I excuse myself from the house about noon and get into the car and take my traditional half-day drive: my simple-minded but satisfying tour through hills and trees and river places. I prepare myself, of course: I select a paperback or two from the grocery bag of books I had put in the trunk for Christmas reading; I stop at a 7-Eleven for a Lone Star and Fritos; and then I ease on down the road toward Medina, the first of the small hill country towns on my itinerary.

It is a rewarding thing to do, this slow driving along the highway. I munch a Frito, gaze benevolently at the barbed wire of a rancher's fence, thinking of .... damn, just about everything. My thoughts freewheel nicely on that curving farm-to-market road. I notice, I welcome, the steady yellow lines down the center, the silvery shine of metal sign poles, the continuous fence-line posts, the white caliche roads that lead off to hunting cabins and farms. I coast through the mellow browns of winter grasses, pastures, hills while the sun covers the land like the bright fur of a hibernating animal. Cedars stand along the roadside like friendly country cousins. Midday shadows lie intimately across the road: beguiling, weightless pools. I feel almost sinfully pleased by such an agreeable home territory. I turn each curve knowing that I can come again in any season and drive along these same roads, gaze into these same fields. I look out my window and I smile: this is my place of worship, my personal museum of art.

In Bandera I go into Hilbrunner's Drug Store and head for the snug little Christmas corner behind the pharmacy's small counter: three tables, men drinking coffee. I sit at the counter and have hot tea. A rancher sitting next to me is wearing a new leather jacket, new Stetson, thick glasses. I drink my tea and look secretly at the mystery of his large old rancher ears, the red broke veins in the rancher nose. \

In Camp Verde I buy a bag of peanuts and another beer and stop for a look at Verde Creek. I get out, walk beneath the trees. Birds are moving slowly through the cypresses, not singing, flapping their wings heavily: cardinals, woodpeckers, robins down south for the winter. There is no wind, just sunlight coming strongly in an afternoon slant, the clean smell of the creek. Back in the car I pick up Brighton Rock and read a little. In Center Point, just about dusk, in clear Wyeth-light, I park beside an unplanted field. Beyond the field, several children are still out, idling away the last moments before dark.

But the light, the light. It is ordinary for the hill country, for December, yet as I stand there beside the wire fence, with a windmill rising behind the field, with red and green Christmas bulbs strung around the side windows of nearby houses, with unpaved streets wandering off into the countryside, such light is almost like a voice, a soundless, continuous speaking from the sun-haloed oaks. Darkness comes; the land shuts down. I drive back toward home, sated, having feasted on cattle guards, creeks, pecan trees, earth."

----- Elroy Bode, "This Favored Place," 1983. This book is a sensitive meditation on life and values and The Hill Country and comes highly recommended.

 

[woodman6415]

Traces of Texas

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

Houston is so large that Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Detroit could fit inside it ----- simultaneously.

 

[woodman6415]

Traces of Texas

The Texas Quote of the Day:

"The St. Leonard Hotel [in San Antonio] is much frequented by Texas ranchmen, some of whom are not very refined in their habits. On the staircase, at the time of my visit, a notice was displayed requesting, 'Gentlemen not to spit on the floors, walls or ceilings;', and the request was by no means unnecessary."

----- Mary Jaques, "Texas Ranch Life," 1894

 

[Wildthings]

Today in Texas History -- May 3rd

The Sea of Mud (1836 Texas History)
On this day 183 years ago, the main part of the retreating Mexican army struggled through an "endless sea of mud" on the Lissie prairie.

General Santa Anna, wanting to move fast to catch Sam Houston, had taken about 900 of his best soldiers to San Jacinto leaving several thousand to follow. When the following forces under General Filisola and Urrea got word of the defeat at San Jacinto, they planned to move West across the Colorado River and await orders from the Mexican government. In their view, the capture or death of Santa Anna did not mean an end to the conflict.

Almost 4000 Mexican soldiers and camp followers left Madam Powell's Tavern (near present day Kendleton) on the morning of April 26th. As soon as they crossed the San Bernard River the rains came. Heavy pouring rain that hardly let up for almost two days. Trapped between the Middle and West Bernard Rivers in "El Mar de Lodo" (a sea of mud), the withdrawing Mexican forces left behind wagons, artillery, and many other items in the knee to waist deep mud.

Slogging their way North, they finally reached the Atascocita crossing (present day Columbus) on May 9th...exhausted, sick, and with most of their weapons lost or ruined.

The Battle of San Jacinto was a decisive victory for the Texans, but Mother Nature had put the final nails in the coffin of the Mexican forces.

Artifacts from the Sea of Mud are currently on display at San Felipe de Austin State Historic Museum.

http://www.sealynews.com/stories/sea-of-mud,81247

Most of the research and artifact recovery of this significant event of the Texas Revolution is due to the efforts of Greg Dimmick, a pediatrician from Wharton....

 

[Tony]

The Texas Quote of the Day: "On the day of battle I am glad to have Texas soldiers with me for they are brave and gallant, but I never want to see them before or after, because they are too hard to control." ----- General Zachary Taylor during the war with Mexico, September, 1846

 

[woodman6415]

In order to understand the Texas Quote of the Day, you need to know that a regiment of Texas Rangers commanded by Jack Hays fought in the War with Mexico in 1847. The Rangers took great pride in not being confused with regular soldiers. Per a Frontier Times magazine article, here's how two newspaper correspondents described the Rangers' arrival in Mexico City:

'1. 'There arrived here recently the greatest American curiosities that have as yet entered the City of the Aztecs They were the observed of all observers, and excited as much lively interest as if President Polk and the American Congress had suddenly set themselves down in front of the Palace, to organize a government and laws for the people of this blighted land. Crowds of men flocked to see them (however always keeping at a respectful distance) and women, affrighted, rushed from the balconies of their houses. Perhaps you would like to know whom these terrific beings are. Why, they are nothing more or less than Jack Hays and his Texas Rangers, with their old-fashioned maple stock rifles lying across their saddles, the butts of two large pistols sticking out of the holsters, and a pair of Colt's six-shooters belted around their waists, making only fifteen shots to the man. .. "The Mexicans believe them to be a sort of semi-civilized, half man, half devil, with a slight mixture of lion and the snapping turtle, and have a more holy horror of them than they have of the evil saint himself. We have several times been asked by some of the inhabitants if the Texans will be allowed to go into the streets, without a guard over them. It is really surprising that men with such a reputation should be among the very best disciplined troops in our army, and not disposed to commit outrages or create disturbances in any way."

2. "They rode, some sideways, some upright, some by the reverse flank, some faced to the rear, some on horses, some on asses, some on mustangs, some on mules. On they came, rag, tag and bobtail, pellmell, helterskelter; the head of one covered with a slouched hat, that of another with a tower cocked hat, a third bareheaded, while twenty others had caps made of the skins of every variety of wild and tame beasts: the dog, the cat, the bear, the coon, the wild cat, and many others, had for this purpose all fallen sacrifice, and each cap had a tail hanging to it, and the very tail, too, I am keen to swear, that belonged to the original owner of the hide. "A nobler set of fellows than those same Texan tatterdemalions never unsheathed a sword in their country's cause, or offered up their lives on their country's altar. Young, vigorous, kind, generous, and brave, they purposely dressed themselves in this garb, to prove to the world at a glance that they were neither regulars nor volunteers, but Texas Rangers, as free and unrestrained as the air they breathe, or the deer in their own wild woods."

------ Frontier Times Magazine, March, 1927. I have to say that I LOVE the words "affrighted" and "tatterdemalions" and shall endeavor post haste to add them to my daily conversation!

 

[woodman6415]

The Texas Quote of the Day:

"It was high noon in the town of Ogalalla, Nebraska, the 6th day of August, 1877. A.I. (Babe) Moye and a dozen more Texas cowboys were seated at a table in a restaurant enjoying the noon meal. It was while the party were engaged with their meal that there sauntered into the room a man by the name of Bill Campbell. Campbell hung his hat on a nail, spoke to some of the boys he knew, and later made an uncomplimentary remark about a dish the party was eating sauerkraut. Hardly had he finished his remark than it was excepted to by Babe Moye, and in a manner that could leave no doubt in mind of anyone but what he meant what he said. Moye's remarks brought forth a sharp retort from Campbell, with the final result that it was agreed they would meet over at the saloon across the street and shoot it out after they finished the meal. By a strange coincidence neither Campbell or Moye was armed at the time, otherwise the quarrel would have been settled then and there.

Moye soon walked out of the restaurant, going across the street to the hotel, where his brother, Andy, Monroe Hinton, Capt. Gosman, and W.G. Butler, were seated at a table figuring up some final details of a cattle sale. Babe Moye came in very abruptly and called for a pistol, and from his actions, his friends knew trouble was brewing. No one offered to let Moye have a pistol and he whirled around and walked out, followed by Andy [and the other men]. Babe Moye walked straight across the street and entered the rear door of the saloon. He walked boldly up to Campbell and without a word slapped Campbell in the breast with his left hand. Campbell immediately drew his pistol and [fired] at Moye. Andy Moye, a witness to what was going on, and thinking Campbell had shot his brother, suddenly jerked his pistol and fired before Campbell could shoot again. His aim was perfect and the ball entered Campbell's breast, a death shot. Both men then advanced on each other, shooting as they approached. Finally Andy Moye and Campbell clinched and continued shooting until both pistols were empty, and the latter crumbled on the floor stone dead, and with five bullet wounds through his body.

When the smoke of the battle cleared away, Monroe Hinton was found to have two bullet wounds, one through his body and one through his leg. Campbell was dead and W.G. Butler had been struck in the thigh by a stray bullet. Capt. Gosman's life was saved by a watch he carried in his vest pocket... Andy was never indicted for the killing of Campbell, as it was considered that he had shot Campbell believing that Campbell had shot his brother and was acting in the defense of his brother's life."

------ article in The Kenedy, Texas, "Advance," September 2, 1926

 

[Gdurfey]

....wonder if that Campbell is a relation to me; early settlers up in the panhandle on Buck Creek and the Red; near present day Wellington and Childress (Loco). Inquiring minds want to know..........

 

[woodman6415]

The Texas Quote of the Day was written in 1878 and is a good one!

"On his return from San Antonio to Cove Hollow, on or about the 20th of December, 1877, Sam Bass and his gang conceived the plan of robbing the stage running from Fort Worth to Cleburne, Texas. They took their positions on the roadside, about ten miles from Fort Worth, and awaited the approach of the stage, which reached that point late in the evening, bearing two passengers. They threw their guns on the driver and ordered him to throw up his "props" [slang for "hands"], which he did promptly. They then called to the passengers to come forth and hold up their hands, while Bass examined their finances. The others held their guns on the victims, while Sam proceeded very coolly through their pockets. The results of his search was only eleven dollars. After some complaint about the meager state of the purses, and giving it as their opinion that there ought to be a law to prohibit such poor trash from traveling on the highway... ...

[A]bout the middle of February [Bass decided to rob] the stage running between Fort Worth and Weatherford. Passing the former place, they proceeded to look for a suitable spot for their operations, which they found at a gulch near Mary's Creek, about midway between Marysville and Fort Worth. They tied their horses, and masking themselves, they laid in wait by the roadside. In due time the stage came up, having on board three passengers. They presented their guns on the driver, saying they wanted some money. Bass called for the passengers to step out, which was promptly obeyed. No resistance was offered, and Bass went through them as usual, getting about $70 in money and three watches. This gave Bass considerable encouragement. He remarked, with evident satisfaction, "Well, this is the best haul I ever made out of a stage, and I've tapped nine of 'em so far. There's mighty poor pay in stages, generally, though."

----- The Authentic History of Sam Bass and His Gang, Monitor Book and Job Printing Establishment, Denton, Texas, 1878