tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3491881440588861540.post4218431970479379611..comments2024-03-22T12:20:51.577-06:00Comments on Gainesville, Texas 1862: WHERE ARE THEY BURIED??? Comment and Follow-upTexasRootshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660759079646051026noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3491881440588861540.post-31174602461214383452023-02-16T10:09:59.306-07:002023-02-16T10:09:59.306-07:00I have family members (Floyd & multiple Morris...I have family members (Floyd & multiple Morris families) who were hanged on this day! I appreciate the information included here which has given me lead for my own research. <br /><br />As an update, there have been monuments erected in the vicinity of the Creek which lists names of those men that were hanged on that day.<br /><br />'Tainted Breeze' and another book I'm not able to name about the women left behind. My Great Grandmother and Grandmother would have been two who were left to pick up their lives as best they could.<br /><br />I would be interested in any further leads.<br /><br />Thank you. Denise ThedfordDenise Thedfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09420654517107194040noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3491881440588861540.post-25208573625414667552019-10-30T16:12:33.226-06:002019-10-30T16:12:33.226-06:00I agree with the comment in the above post that st...I agree with the comment in the above post that states, "The mass burial should be located and the remains given a decent burial. I am surprised that the citizens of Gainesville have not done it in the 150 years since it happened. It might be a task for the archaeology department of a major university with expertise." <br />It would be nice if the actual burial site with the remains was located. Those men deserve a proper burial after all this time!<br />Wilber CharlesWilbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3491881440588861540.post-88533221699596690322012-08-14T14:06:20.854-06:002012-08-14T14:06:20.854-06:00I live in Gainesville. I work 2 blocks North of th...I live in Gainesville. I work 2 blocks North of the courthouse and drive by the general estimated area of where the tree andpossible gravesites may have existed. <br /><br />It is fascinating to me, that Gainesville was just voted "Most Patriotic Small Town in America", but what is bothering me even more, now, is this:<br /><br />Having read this post and especially them comment describing where the location should be, I realized that the entire area of Pecan Creek and southward is under heavy construction. They are widening the creek due to flooding. (A mobile home park slightly downstream was decimated in 2007 floods and a young child was killed.)<br /><br />If you can find the area on google maps - earthview, as I just did, you can see the huge amount of earth that is being unceremoniously removed and dumped somewhere. It is shameful.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3491881440588861540.post-37043313990770134452012-05-04T14:18:15.794-06:002012-05-04T14:18:15.794-06:00If I understand this right, the confederate militi...If I understand this right, the confederate militia hanged these innocent men and then let their bodies be desecrated by not giving them a decent burial and then did not preserve their burial place. It is hard to understand why the community let this happen.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3491881440588861540.post-70851973066620246552012-01-25T23:30:25.398-07:002012-01-25T23:30:25.398-07:00I agree wholeheartedly! The mass burial site needs...I agree wholeheartedly! The mass burial site needs to be found!! What does Cooke county say about never having done anything about any of this? It seems appropriate that a nice memorial be placed in memory of all of those who lost their lives in the hanging.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3491881440588861540.post-49937595513282679452012-01-25T14:26:24.505-07:002012-01-25T14:26:24.505-07:00According to an account, the "hanging tree&qu...According to an account, the "hanging tree" had been selected and discussed before the court convened. It is not known if the tree had been used for hangings prior to this episode. It was reportedly the scene of an Indian fight some years earlier. The hanging tree was described as a large Elm on the banks of Pecan Creek at the east end of town. This was verified by statements of the slave, Bob Scott, who was in charge of driving the wagon to the hanging tree from town. It was said to be located between Main street and California street about 1/2 miles east of town. In these days it was located outside of the town proper in the country, because the town only covered the original 40 acres at the time. Citizens apparently could not see the hanging tree from the town square according to Barrett who indicated that he did not see any of the prisoners hanged. He routinely sat on the front porch of the hotel on the town square to watch the hanging wagon with its militia escort and accompanying spectators make it way to the site with prisoners, and return. J L Clark described in his account "the scene of the hanging also held an attraction for many. The old historic tree that old Elm soon became an object of horrifying curiosity. By 1884 someone-reportedly a man by the name of Tom William-had cut down the tree and hauled the trunk to some unidentified place where Barrett thought of it lying dead like the men hanged from its limbs." An article in the Galveston Weekly News dated 6 May 1880 verifies that the tree was still standing when they recounted a modern hanging in the northeast section of town within view of the celebrated hanging tree." However, in this hanging, the tree was not used, as a Gallows had been built for that purpose. According to McCaslin, "curiosity about the Great Hanging endured [long after the war], and when a storm uprooted the hanging tree in the early 1880's, an enterprising individual" [who he does not name] carved the tree into walking sticks which "sold like hotcakes" because of their grim History." His information came from an manuscript dated [1892] in the George H Ragsdale papers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com