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Trails of Our Past The Bushwhacker Whether or not this murdered man was in fact The Great Bushwhacker, Bill Wilson, we may never know, but someone was murdered none the less and the name of Wilson, from Missouri, was given to the identity of the man. It is hard to imagine that such a great man could have been gunned down in this manner, however authorities in Missouri had often remarked that they could get Bill Wilson if only he would leave the hills. Perhaps leaving the hills was his fatal mistake. It is unknown what exactly happened to the body of this man. Some say the murderers buried him in a shallow grave near the trail (a quarter of a mile, according to the before mentioned article). Regardless of this, he was obviously not buried properly if the citizens of Mantua found him and created a search party. He was likely covered with brush and other debris to somewhat hide his remains. What the citizens did with his body it is not known. They could have buried him where he lay, or perhaps they took him back to Mantua and buried him in their city cemetery there. This cemetery is located at the northeast intersection of county roads 573 and 574, however there is little evidence of its existence.
There is a rumor that the body was buried by the murderers
near Highway 5 and Prong Creek, being north of Van Alstyne. Roy F. Hall wrote
an account of this historic event, however there are several errors with his
story. I have not been able to find any proof that the murder took place this
far north. According to some accounts, William C. McKinney was hunting and
heard the shots. McKinney’s land was near Mantua, almost due east of it near
the Grayson-Collin County line. The before mentioned newspaper accounts also
stated that the citizens of the community heard the shots…Mantua was too far
away to have heard the shots had it occurred north of present day, Van Alstyne.
It seems more likely that it had occurred south of present day Van Alstyne
between here and Mantua, but on the Grayson County side. A fiftieth anniversary
edition of, The Sherman Courier, on August 15, 1917 retails the account and
states that “the traveler left for the north and these men (Thompson and
Blackmore) followed him, overtaking and murdering him at night in Grayson
County, south of Van Alstyne.” It is also important to remember that in 1869,
neither Van Alstyne nor the Railroad were in existence. Prior to the
Interurban’s creation in the early 1900’s, highway 5 did not exist. When traveling
to Howe from Van Alstyne, one would have taken what is now called Old Bushwhacker Bill Wilson’s widow, Mary was remarried to John
Jackson in Missouri in 1884. The following is taken from the Rolla Herald in
1883 just prior to his marriage. It appears he had planned to marry Mrs.
Wilson, but wanted to ensure that she was in fact a widow. “Mr. John Jackson
returned last week from a trip to Texas. While at McKinney he learned the particulars
of the death of William Wilson, a brother of the late Napoleon Wilson, who went
to Texas soon after the war for the purpose of buying a home. Mr. Jackson
showed us a McKinney paper, dated January 30, 1869, in which an account is
given of a foul murder and robbery of a stranger from Missouri, and from the
description given Mr. Jackson is satisfied that the murdered man was William
Wilson. He had on his person at the time he was murdered about $3500. His widow
and relatives in the county, so we are informed, have never believed him to be
dead, but the description of the murdered man tallies exactly with that of
Wilson, and Mr. Jackson investigated the matter while there and is satisfied
beyond a doubt that William Wilson was murdered for his money and that the
person spoken of in the paper was no other than William Wilson.” Ironically in the movie, The Outlaw Josey Wales, at the end,
his alias name is given as, “Mr. Wilson.” Coincidence? It is also said that the
bar/saloon in which Josey Wales frequented in the movie and the place where his
alias was given to the authorities was styled after James “Jim Crow” Chiles’
saloon which was located in Sherman during the Civil War and where Quantrill’s
men were frequent customers. The names of Bob Lee and Simp Dixon were also
mentioned in the movie, both parties having been involved in the Pilot Grove
Difficulty, just east of Van Alstyne. Whether or not the character of Josey
Wales was in fact molded to reflect Bill Wilson may never truly be known as
parties argue from both sides of the matter, however, Josey Wales and Bill
Wilson lived very similar lives as most Bushwhackers did at the time. For many
in the Ozarks, Bill Wilson appeared to be somewhat of a hero who could never be
defeated…in the hills of Missouri that is. Even today many wonder if Bill Wilson was ever really killed. He never, in all his escapades, was injured by the authorities. Perhaps he took this as an advantage that a man was murdered and somehow placed his name to the corpse to give himself a new start. Many old time folks in Missouri say that they saw Bill Wilson long after this and that he lived to an old age taking an assumed name. A similar story like this exist in the case of Jesse James. With cases such as these, rumors seem to always spread that the dead are not really dead, perhaps it is a way to cope with the loss of a great hero who all thought could never be killed. Perhaps the Titanic is still afloat somewhere in the Atlantic? No matter, someone was murdered near Mantua and the two men convicted of the murder were the first two men to be legally hanged in Sherman in 1869. This story can be found in the next installment of, Trails of Our Past entitled, “To the Gallows.”  
Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
