Nancy Hill's Hanging

The Texas frontier, distantly removed from most societal institutions, became a refuge for people of 'suspect character'. As lawlessness grew on the frontier, secret groups formed with the express purpose of ridding their communities of these unwanted types. Lord Acton's words, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." rang true in his time, and certainly spoke true of most vigilante groups who more often than not degenerated over time to administering self-serving vengeance. In some Texas communities, counter-vigilante groups emerged to watch over the vigilance committees.

In 1873, a vigilante group operating in Parker County pursued and hanged horse thief, Nancy Hill in Montague County. Hill is notable as the only woman ever hanged in Montague County. After Hill's demise, vigilantes grabbed Nancy's sisters, Katherine and Martha and hung both three miles south of Springtown. The vigilantes then proceeded to burn the Hill farm and pursue the remaining family members. Nancy's mother, Dusky, and sisters, Adeline and Eliza, were captured, shot, and killed.

Due to the violence shown the Hill family, most historians believe their murders were the result of prejudices that labeled the family as "Yankee Sympathizers." Father, Allen Hill, was killed ten years earlier over the considered prejudices and eldest brother, Jack Hill, was killed in early 1873 after an argument with Aaron Bloomer.

Only the two youngest Hill children, Belle, (12) and Allen Jr. (11) were spared the mob's wrath. Belle and Allen Jr. were turned over to "Good Samaritan" citizens in Springtown, Texas. After that, both Belle and Allen Jr. become lost in history.

None of the murdered Hill women were buried as citizens feared the vigilante mobs who had hanged or shot the family. Sometime later, it was reported that former Texas Rangers, Al Thompson and Dock Maupin defied the watchmen and buried the decaying bodies of the women in Springtown.

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Charles Stillman

In 1849 Charles Stillman, a steamship magnate who founded Brownsville, challenged one south Texas ranchero, Rafael Garcia Cavazos, an heir to the 1781 Spanish grant, El Agostadero del Espiritu Santo, in court. Stillman claimed land title based on his purchase of squatter's land in the Espiritu Santo grant. After years of legal battles, Cavazos prevailed, but was forced to sell to Stillman's lawyers several months later after the attorneys threatened to appeal the court verdict. Cavazos relented, as he could not finance further legal battles. Stillman later purchased the disputed land from his attorneys.

The Espiritu Santo litigation was indicative of the struggles of many Hispanic landowners in south Texas. Most historians believe that Juan Nepomuceno Cortina's rise as a bandit was a direct result of the Espiritu Santo court battle. Cortina's mother was one of the heirs to the El Agostadero del Espiritu Santo grant. Cortina protested the loss of Mexican land to Anglos by rustling cattle from ranches in south Texas. Cortina, a common thief to Texans, and a hero to Mexicans, was also known as, "the Red Robber of the Rio Grande"

In 1850, the Bourland-Miller Commission was established to consider all claims in the Nueces Territory and establish procedures for claimants. By 1852, the legislature approved the majority of claims in favor of the Spanish and Mexican applicants.

Stillman's son, James, had two daughters, both of whom married into the William Rockefeller family.

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The South Texas Plains

The brush country of south Texas, also referred to as the brasada, is home to numerous and varied species of plant life, each equipped with its own armament of thorns and barbs. The brasada of 1878 was thick with prickly-pear, cats-claw, Spanish dagger, black chaparral, twisted acacia, all-thorn, wild currant, and mesquite. Photo- Longhorns in the South Texas Brasada

The brasada required that a brush cowboy’s equipment be suited to working in these dense and dogged thickets. Every brush hand’s armor included toe-fenders on his stirrups, leather leggins that covered his legs all the way to his waist, (no respectable brush cowboy ever referred to his leggins as chaps), gloves that extended past his wrists, and a wide-brimmed hat that could be tied around his chin.

J. Frank Dobie wrote in A Vaquero in the Brush Country, that, “In running in the brush a man rides not so much on the back of the horse as under and alongside. He just hangs on, dodging limbs as if he were dodging bullets, back, forward, over, under, half of the time trusting his horse to course right on this or that side of a bush or tree. If he shuts his eyes to dodge, he is lost. Whether he shuts them or not, he will, if he runs true to form, get his head rammed or raked. Patches of the brush hand’s bandana hanging on thorns and stobs sometimes mark his trail. The bandana of red is his emblem.”

The brasada was also home to Texas and Mexican bandits and desperadoes. In the parlance of the time, they were known as owl hoots, bad men who rustled, robbed, and murdered at their own will. Texas and Mexican bandits used the brasada as an exchange point. The Texas rustlers often had Mexican cattle to dispose of that carried no known state brand and contrariwise.

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The First Caudillo

The word, caudillo, as used in Mexico, came to mean a political-military leader. Caudillo, translated into English as “leader,” or “chief,” but as in most peasant societies, the word came to express a dictator or potentate. The Merrimam-Webster dictionary defines caudillo as “a Spanish or Latin-America military dictator.” Image -
Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Aramburu

One of the best known caudillos in Mexican history was José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, also known as Pancho Villa. Villa was a provisional governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua from 1913-1914.

Villa led a 1916 raid on Columbus, New Mexico, which resulted in a year-long expedition by General John J. Pershing to find the “bandit.” Pershing’s pursuit proved unsuccessful.
Pancho Villa was assassinated in 1920 by seven gunmen outside of Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Other historically famous Mexican caudillos were Antonio López de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón, Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Aramburu, José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori, and Álvaro Obregón Salido.

Iturbide marched troops into Mexico City on September 27, 1821. The following day, Mexico was declared an independent empire. Iturbide is known as Mexico’s first caudillo.

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The Marlow Brothers

In 1888, Deputy Marshall Ed Johnson of Graham labeled five Young County men, the Marlow brothers, as rustlers and murderers. Many historians believe Johnson concocted the story against the brothers as a means of gaining favor with the powerful cattleman's association. Johnson's work for the association, had failed to apprehend any of the known rustlers working in the county.

Sheriff Marion Wallace of Graham tried to serve papers on the Marlow's at the behest of Johnson on December 17, 1888. Wallace was shot by Boone Marlow and died a week later. Boone Marlow claimed that Deputy Tom Collier, who accompanied Wallace that evening, fired the first shots inside his house and then fled outside. Boone said he pursued Collier and seeing a man approaching, gun in hand, shot and mistakenly killed Wallace. Boone took flight, but brothers, George, Epp, Alfred, and Charley were arrested and jailed in Graham.

On January 14, 1889, the captured brothers dug out of their jail cell, but were recaptured the next day outside of their ranch. Tom Collier, now sheriff, shackled the men together in pairs to prevent any further attempts at escape. A vigilante group mobbed
the jail on the night of January 17 in an attempt to extricate the Marlow's to a suitable place for lynching, but the brothers thwarted their assailants. George struck one vigilante, Robert Hill, so hard that the man died of his injuries two days later.

The next morning, a concocted story made its way through Graham saying that the jailhouse ruckus had been caused by Boone Marlow's attempt to free his brothers and only the jailer's bravery prevented such escape. A telegraph sent to United States Marshall, William Cabell in Dallas repeated the fabrication. Cabell immediately ordered his deputy, Ed Johnson, to move the brothers to Weatherford for safekeeping.

The day of the transport, outside of Graham, on Dry Creek, the vigilantes attacked the brothers once again. At the fight's conclusion, three vigilantes lay dead, as well as Alfred and Epp Marlow.
Boone Marlow was killed in Indian Territory on January 28, 1889.
In 1892, damage suits brought against their attackers awarded Charley Marlow $1950.00 and George Marlow $1000.00.

The movie, The Sons of Katie Elder, was based on the Marlow brother's story.

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The Dictator and Thomas Adams

Thomas Adams (1818-1905) was the first person in the United States to manufacture chewing gum that had chicle as the base ingredient. Image - Thomas Adams.

Large quantities of chicle, which comes from the sapodilla tree in Central America, had been given Adams by friends of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. The former Mexican dictator was in exile at the time and spent time at Adams’ house on Staten Island. Santa Anna persuaded Adams that the inexpensive chicle could be compounded with the more expensive rubber to make an economical alternative for carriage tires.

Adams tried for a year but was unsuccessful at every attempt to accomplish the ex-dictator’s “get-rich” scheme. One day, after yet another rubber failure, Adams is reported to have popped a piece of chicle into his mouth. He remembered that Santa Anna enjoyed chewing chicle gum. Adams realized that the softer chicle gum was superior to the paraffin wax gum that was popular at the time in the United States.

Shortly after that, Adams and his oldest son, Thomas Jr., made up “penny sticks” of the gum and distributed them to a local drugstore. The chicle gum was an instant hit. Adams sold his chicle gum with the slogan "Adams' New York Gum No. 1 - Snapping and Stretching."

In 1888, Adams’ Tutti-Frutti flavored gum was the first gum to be sold in a vending machine. By 1899, Adams Sons and Company had become the largest and most profitable chewing gum company in the United States. In that same year, Adams and five other chewing gum companies joined forces as the American Chicle Company. Thomas Jr. was named chairman of the board of directors for the new company.

Thomas Adams Sr. died in 1905.

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Cuerno Largo

In early November of 1493, a fleet of seventeen Spanish ships carrying over one thousand men, including Christopher Columbus, landed on an island that Columbus named, Dominica. Also on-board the ships were domesticated pigs, horses, and of course, cattle.

Twenty-six years later, Hernán Cortés began his conquest of New Spain, (Mexico) with six hundred soldiers and fifteen horsemen. The horses were descendents of the original herd brought to Dominica in 1493. In 1521, Gregorio de Villalobos transported the first cattle, also descendents of the first herd, from Dominica to New Spain.

New world cattle soon became a form of currency for the Spanish. Owning a great herd provided men with disposable and liquid wealth. Cortés stocked his great estate in New Spain with significant numbers of the animal.

As the Spanish began their campaigns to conquer their new world, they took with them, horses and cattle. In 1540, one conquistador, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado set off in search of the famed Seven Cities of Cibola. He departed with thousands of sheep, goats, hogs, and, by most estimates, five-hundred head of cattle. Coronado’s ‘five-hundred’ were the first cattle to set ‘hoof’ in what is now the United States.

Over time, escaped, dispersed by Indian raids, abandoned, or left behind purposely, these strays or wild cattle propagated prolifically. Left to their own survival, Spanish cattle developed the traits necessary to survive and reproduce efficiently and providently in the new world environment. These traits included robustness, vitality, fertility, and most importantly browse-efficiency. By 1835, wild cattle, sometimes referred to as mustang cattle, and later, Texas cattle, could be found from the Red River to the Rio Grande. Some records of the same year put the total number of cattle and horses running wild inside this area as three million head.

These Texas cattle, what we today call longhorns, were, in the words of Captain Richard Ware, “…wilder than deer.”

Another chronicler, Colonel Richard Irving Dodge offered the following comment on wild Texas cattle. “…animals miscalled tame, fifty times more dangerous to footmen than the fiercest buffalo.”

After the Civil War, men returned home to Texas to find untended fields and millions of wild Texas cattle. A few far-thinking men looked at the vast cattle herds and saw a profitable future ahead. These far-thinking men began to round-up, brand, and then drive these wild Texas cattle toward railheads that serviced burgeoning northern markets, markets “hungry” for beef. We know these men by names such as cowboy, rannie, buckaroo, or cowpuncher, but they are all descendents, not by blood, but instead by the common love of their occupation from the Mexican vaquero.

The cattle drive era was short in duration but provided millions in gold to those few entrepreneurs who saw the potential of a rangy, long-legged animal that was shaped by Mother Nature for self-preservation. The Texas longhorn could live on a diet of browse that would kill other breeds. It was an animal that could go tremendous distances without a drink, swim the broadest rivers, and run, when needed, like a mustang pony. In short, the longhorn of that period was the right animal to accomplish what those far-thinking men had in mind. The longhorn, Cuerno Largo, was without peer.

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