Excerpts from "A Tragic Affair in Old Montgomery, Texas" by Sue Moore:
"William J. McGrew might have been a hero, but unfortunately he turned out to be a scalawag. Born in 1844 in either Claiborne or Copiah County, Mississippi, his roots were Old Alabama, but his destiny was an early grave in unholy ground in Texas......
.......What caused the shootout in late December of 1868 is not recorded in the county records, but two old citizens of Montgomery County, Mrs. W.C. Cameron and Mr. Buck Martin recounted the following, according to Narcissa Boulware of the Montgomery County Times:
"When they (the gang) stole a fine horse from the Cartwrights and came into town to rob the stores and head out on ‘a scout’ for Mexico, a mob was formed at Bear Bend where the Gaffords, Cartwrights and others who came in after the men, lived.” According to Montgomery’s History, "Finally the citizenry had had enough, and led by the old family of Cartwrights from Bear Bend, they engaged in a bloody shootout with the outlaws in Montgomery which ranged over several blocks. At the end of the battle, all four desperadoes were dead and placed on Mrs. Oliver’s porch.” Sadly, Cameron and Martin, recounted the deaths of one of the boys, "Bob Oliver the youngest, was scarcely 16 years old at the time. When the shooting started, he ran to Mrs. Chilton’s house. The mob followed, promised not to shoot him if he would come out. Someone killed him with a Bowie knife. He ran back into the house before he died. Here he died under a bed. The blood stains can still be seen on the floor.”
Another citizen and local judge, Nathaniel Hart Davis, recorded the bloody event on page 33 of his journal, "McGrew-Oliver Killing of Dec. 28, 1868 - On the 28th of December in the forenoon four men , Wm McGrew Esq. County Atty. for the last two years and his two half-brothers, John and Bob Oliver of this town and "Charles Brown” of Cokesbury, S. Carolina alias "Texas Brown” of whom an account is given in Harper’s Monthly of Decr. 1868 were shot to death here (Montgomery) by some ten to 20 or thereabouts, men of this town and vicinity. If the people or society can be said to act in necessary self defense in the destruction of lawless desperados then I am of the option that this was such a case- a few others hereabouts may be nearly as bad as they-or some of them-one, May, made a narrow escape. McGrew for a young man was a moral disgrace to the legal profession as we as to the office he filled. I did not recommend him to the Police Court - the appointing tribunal. After I started for Miss. and Tenn. in Jany., I learned that he was in the crowd that took the Negro at court and that he and others had disguised themselves in the Post Office that night. On my return I found quite a change for the better in Montgomery. It is now rather an orderly quite place. And the general expression is that much good was done in the killing of Dec. 28. There may be some, for reasons best known to themselves who regret the death of McGrew. One white single female to whom he paid marked attention both before and since his marriage, manifests a fondness for his memory and a sorrow at his loss and continues to talk long after with a silly sentimentality-so says gossip. I heard not talk but believe it true - Miss E.A.”
The desperadoes were not buried in the consecrated ground of the old cemetery, but rather outside the gates in what would become Montgomery’s New Cemetery. There is a CSA marker on Lt. William McGrew/McGraw’s grave, but his young stepbrothers, buried near him lie unmarked. The only good thing said of William McGrew was recorded in the Houston Times, picked up by the Texas News, dateline January 23, 1869, "Tragic affair at Montgomery County. Death of William McGraw, county attorney. Mr. Brown of San Antonio and two brothers named Oliver.... William McGraw was in no way connected with the difficulty. He was trying to prevent the parties from using their pistols.”
______________________________________
1st LT
CO K
20 REGT
Texas Inf
Confederate
States Army
"William J. McGrew might have been a hero, but unfortunately he turned out to be a scalawag. Born in 1844 in either Claiborne or Copiah County, Mississippi, his roots were Old Alabama, but his destiny was an early grave in unholy ground in Texas......
.......What caused the shootout in late December of 1868 is not recorded in the county records, but two old citizens of Montgomery County, Mrs. W.C. Cameron and Mr. Buck Martin recounted the following, according to Narcissa Boulware of the Montgomery County Times:
"When they (the gang) stole a fine horse from the Cartwrights and came into town to rob the stores and head out on ‘a scout’ for Mexico, a mob was formed at Bear Bend where the Gaffords, Cartwrights and others who came in after the men, lived.” According to Montgomery’s History, "Finally the citizenry had had enough, and led by the old family of Cartwrights from Bear Bend, they engaged in a bloody shootout with the outlaws in Montgomery which ranged over several blocks. At the end of the battle, all four desperadoes were dead and placed on Mrs. Oliver’s porch.” Sadly, Cameron and Martin, recounted the deaths of one of the boys, "Bob Oliver the youngest, was scarcely 16 years old at the time. When the shooting started, he ran to Mrs. Chilton’s house. The mob followed, promised not to shoot him if he would come out. Someone killed him with a Bowie knife. He ran back into the house before he died. Here he died under a bed. The blood stains can still be seen on the floor.”
Another citizen and local judge, Nathaniel Hart Davis, recorded the bloody event on page 33 of his journal, "McGrew-Oliver Killing of Dec. 28, 1868 - On the 28th of December in the forenoon four men , Wm McGrew Esq. County Atty. for the last two years and his two half-brothers, John and Bob Oliver of this town and "Charles Brown” of Cokesbury, S. Carolina alias "Texas Brown” of whom an account is given in Harper’s Monthly of Decr. 1868 were shot to death here (Montgomery) by some ten to 20 or thereabouts, men of this town and vicinity. If the people or society can be said to act in necessary self defense in the destruction of lawless desperados then I am of the option that this was such a case- a few others hereabouts may be nearly as bad as they-or some of them-one, May, made a narrow escape. McGrew for a young man was a moral disgrace to the legal profession as we as to the office he filled. I did not recommend him to the Police Court - the appointing tribunal. After I started for Miss. and Tenn. in Jany., I learned that he was in the crowd that took the Negro at court and that he and others had disguised themselves in the Post Office that night. On my return I found quite a change for the better in Montgomery. It is now rather an orderly quite place. And the general expression is that much good was done in the killing of Dec. 28. There may be some, for reasons best known to themselves who regret the death of McGrew. One white single female to whom he paid marked attention both before and since his marriage, manifests a fondness for his memory and a sorrow at his loss and continues to talk long after with a silly sentimentality-so says gossip. I heard not talk but believe it true - Miss E.A.”
The desperadoes were not buried in the consecrated ground of the old cemetery, but rather outside the gates in what would become Montgomery’s New Cemetery. There is a CSA marker on Lt. William McGrew/McGraw’s grave, but his young stepbrothers, buried near him lie unmarked. The only good thing said of William McGrew was recorded in the Houston Times, picked up by the Texas News, dateline January 23, 1869, "Tragic affair at Montgomery County. Death of William McGraw, county attorney. Mr. Brown of San Antonio and two brothers named Oliver.... William McGraw was in no way connected with the difficulty. He was trying to prevent the parties from using their pistols.”
______________________________________
1st LT
CO K
20 REGT
Texas Inf
Confederate
States Army
Excerpts from "A Tragic Affair in Old Montgomery, Texas" by Sue Moore:
"William J. McGrew might have been a hero, but unfortunately he turned out to be a scalawag. Born in 1844 in either Claiborne or Copiah County, Mississippi, his roots were Old Alabama, but his destiny was an early grave in unholy ground in Texas......
.......What caused the shootout in late December of 1868 is not recorded in the county records, but two old citizens of Montgomery County, Mrs. W.C. Cameron and Mr. Buck Martin recounted the following, according to Narcissa Boulware of the Montgomery County Times:
"When they (the gang) stole a fine horse from the Cartwrights and came into town to rob the stores and head out on ‘a scout’ for Mexico, a mob was formed at Bear Bend where the Gaffords, Cartwrights and others who came in after the men, lived.” According to Montgomery’s History, "Finally the citizenry had had enough, and led by the old family of Cartwrights from Bear Bend, they engaged in a bloody shootout with the outlaws in Montgomery which ranged over several blocks. At the end of the battle, all four desperadoes were dead and placed on Mrs. Oliver’s porch.” Sadly, Cameron and Martin, recounted the deaths of one of the boys, "Bob Oliver the youngest, was scarcely 16 years old at the time. When the shooting started, he ran to Mrs. Chilton’s house. The mob followed, promised not to shoot him if he would come out. Someone killed him with a Bowie knife. He ran back into the house before he died. Here he died under a bed. The blood stains can still be seen on the floor.”
Another citizen and local judge, Nathaniel Hart Davis, recorded the bloody event on page 33 of his journal, "McGrew-Oliver Killing of Dec. 28, 1868 - On the 28th of December in the forenoon four men , Wm McGrew Esq. County Atty. for the last two years and his two half-brothers, John and Bob Oliver of this town and "Charles Brown” of Cokesbury, S. Carolina alias "Texas Brown” of whom an account is given in Harper’s Monthly of Decr. 1868 were shot to death here (Montgomery) by some ten to 20 or thereabouts, men of this town and vicinity. If the people or society can be said to act in necessary self defense in the destruction of lawless desperados then I am of the option that this was such a case- a few others hereabouts may be nearly as bad as they-or some of them-one, May, made a narrow escape. McGrew for a young man was a moral disgrace to the legal profession as we as to the office he filled. I did not recommend him to the Police Court - the appointing tribunal. After I started for Miss. and Tenn. in Jany., I learned that he was in the crowd that took the Negro at court and that he and others had disguised themselves in the Post Office that night. On my return I found quite a change for the better in Montgomery. It is now rather an orderly quite place. And the general expression is that much good was done in the killing of Dec. 28. There may be some, for reasons best known to themselves who regret the death of McGrew. One white single female to whom he paid marked attention both before and since his marriage, manifests a fondness for his memory and a sorrow at his loss and continues to talk long after with a silly sentimentality-so says gossip. I heard not talk but believe it true - Miss E.A.”
The desperadoes were not buried in the consecrated ground of the old cemetery, but rather outside the gates in what would become Montgomery’s New Cemetery. There is a CSA marker on Lt. William McGrew/McGraw’s grave, but his young stepbrothers, buried near him lie unmarked. The only good thing said of William McGrew was recorded in the Houston Times, picked up by the Texas News, dateline January 23, 1869, "Tragic affair at Montgomery County. Death of William McGraw, county attorney. Mr. Brown of San Antonio and two brothers named Oliver.... William McGraw was in no way connected with the difficulty. He was trying to prevent the parties from using their pistols.”
______________________________________
1st LT
CO K
20 REGT
Texas Inf
Confederate
States Army
"William J. McGrew might have been a hero, but unfortunately he turned out to be a scalawag. Born in 1844 in either Claiborne or Copiah County, Mississippi, his roots were Old Alabama, but his destiny was an early grave in unholy ground in Texas......
.......What caused the shootout in late December of 1868 is not recorded in the county records, but two old citizens of Montgomery County, Mrs. W.C. Cameron and Mr. Buck Martin recounted the following, according to Narcissa Boulware of the Montgomery County Times:
"When they (the gang) stole a fine horse from the Cartwrights and came into town to rob the stores and head out on ‘a scout’ for Mexico, a mob was formed at Bear Bend where the Gaffords, Cartwrights and others who came in after the men, lived.” According to Montgomery’s History, "Finally the citizenry had had enough, and led by the old family of Cartwrights from Bear Bend, they engaged in a bloody shootout with the outlaws in Montgomery which ranged over several blocks. At the end of the battle, all four desperadoes were dead and placed on Mrs. Oliver’s porch.” Sadly, Cameron and Martin, recounted the deaths of one of the boys, "Bob Oliver the youngest, was scarcely 16 years old at the time. When the shooting started, he ran to Mrs. Chilton’s house. The mob followed, promised not to shoot him if he would come out. Someone killed him with a Bowie knife. He ran back into the house before he died. Here he died under a bed. The blood stains can still be seen on the floor.”
Another citizen and local judge, Nathaniel Hart Davis, recorded the bloody event on page 33 of his journal, "McGrew-Oliver Killing of Dec. 28, 1868 - On the 28th of December in the forenoon four men , Wm McGrew Esq. County Atty. for the last two years and his two half-brothers, John and Bob Oliver of this town and "Charles Brown” of Cokesbury, S. Carolina alias "Texas Brown” of whom an account is given in Harper’s Monthly of Decr. 1868 were shot to death here (Montgomery) by some ten to 20 or thereabouts, men of this town and vicinity. If the people or society can be said to act in necessary self defense in the destruction of lawless desperados then I am of the option that this was such a case- a few others hereabouts may be nearly as bad as they-or some of them-one, May, made a narrow escape. McGrew for a young man was a moral disgrace to the legal profession as we as to the office he filled. I did not recommend him to the Police Court - the appointing tribunal. After I started for Miss. and Tenn. in Jany., I learned that he was in the crowd that took the Negro at court and that he and others had disguised themselves in the Post Office that night. On my return I found quite a change for the better in Montgomery. It is now rather an orderly quite place. And the general expression is that much good was done in the killing of Dec. 28. There may be some, for reasons best known to themselves who regret the death of McGrew. One white single female to whom he paid marked attention both before and since his marriage, manifests a fondness for his memory and a sorrow at his loss and continues to talk long after with a silly sentimentality-so says gossip. I heard not talk but believe it true - Miss E.A.”
The desperadoes were not buried in the consecrated ground of the old cemetery, but rather outside the gates in what would become Montgomery’s New Cemetery. There is a CSA marker on Lt. William McGrew/McGraw’s grave, but his young stepbrothers, buried near him lie unmarked. The only good thing said of William McGrew was recorded in the Houston Times, picked up by the Texas News, dateline January 23, 1869, "Tragic affair at Montgomery County. Death of William McGraw, county attorney. Mr. Brown of San Antonio and two brothers named Oliver.... William McGraw was in no way connected with the difficulty. He was trying to prevent the parties from using their pistols.”
______________________________________
1st LT
CO K
20 REGT
Texas Inf
Confederate
States Army
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