Gainesville's Forgotten People

Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas

Gainesville's Forgotten People

The Families of the Great Hanging Victims

One has to wonder why a memorial has not been placed in Gainesville to remember the men who died in the Great Hanging of 1862.  In what some call "one of the worst atrocities of the Civil War" at least 40 men suspected of Union sympathies were hanged in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas.  For the last 150 years, Gainesville has tried to hide from the Hangings and sweep them under the rug.

It has been five years since this blog was started in 2008.  Since that time, quite a few families of the Great Hanging victims have been found through research and with descendants sharing their family stories.  But the reality is that wives, children, parents, and siblings for many men are still unknown.  It's as if history has forgotten them.  Each man who died in the hangings had parents, most probably had siblings, and the majority had wives and children.  Why has it been so hard to find them?

The main goal (mission statement) of the blog is:

Each family of a Gainesville Hanging victim has a story that needs to be told and shared.  Our goal is to remember all the men who died in the 'Great Hanging' and find their families – spouse, children, parents, siblings.

If you have a "Great Hanging" ancestor, or you are just interested in history, please help by sharing stories and research about the victims of the Great Hanging and their families.  There are many ways to share: write a book, start your own blog, post your family information on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org, leave a message on genealogy message boards, start a website, donate your stories to a historical society/library in Gainesville, post the information on this blog, and/or all of the above.

It is 2013 and 151 years since the Great Hangings.  The Great Hanging victims deserved to be remembered.

Note:
An update to this post titled, "Forgotten No More" can be found Here