Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, May 12, 1907

HOW THE YOUNG HORSE THIEF DIED

A Thrilling Episode in the Pioneer History of Denison -- The Lonely Grave at Oakwood.

About twenty five years ago a young man died from gunshot wounds on what was know as the Nelms place, 200 block, Crawford street. It was alleged that he was a horse thief. The officers had pursued him all the way from Jacksboro, and a running fight was kept up for two days. He had come from the lower country - Lampasas county. He belonged to one of the best families in that section of country. The young man was a hard rider and had passed most of his live on the range. The officers were out-ridden and the young man escaped to the suburbs of Denison, and rested about where the Ray yards now are.

He had been chased so hard that he did not have time to rest and appease his hunger. He made the mistake of sending a party to town after something to eat. The party hunted up the officers and told them that the man for whom they were looking was resting in the woods a short distance out of town. In the mean time the pursuing officers arrived, and in company with a deputy sheriff and the local force started for the haunt where the youthful horse theif was waiting. When they crawled through the brush they discovered the young man asleep on a log. His horse was standing at his side and within arm's length was his winchester.

The young man was startled, and when he looked up to discover the cause several pistol shots rang out. He struggled to his feet, badly wounded, on shot entering his breast.

No one called on him to surrender. It was a cowardly act. Even a horse theif should have a show for his life. The young man, a handsome and manly fellow, was loaded into a wagon and brought to town and given a room in the second story of the Nelms House. With a gahstly wound in his breast, it was ten days before his life ebbed away. The attending physician stated that he had attended many badly wounded me, but this mere boy had more grit, more vitality than any man who had come within the sphere of his practice. Never a groan nor a complaint escaped his lips.

We made it a practice to visit him almost daily, and on one or two occasions brought him flowers and papers to cheer up his
lonely hours. He was very thankful they had placed him in a room where the blessed sun could reach him. He said but little of his past life, only that there was a little girl whom he loved who would feel sorry to learn of his death, and he expressed the wish that she might be at his bedside and hold his hands when the end came.

He was growing very weak. The blood was suffusing his lungs and he breathed heavily. About the tenth day, at the midnight hour, he passed away, death coming very easily, for he was weak and so much of his life had passed away that the end was peaceful.

He was taken away and buried in a lonely out-of-the-way corner of Oakwood. There was no hearse, no friends, no mourners, no flowers - those tokens of love and remembrance for the dead. We do not believe there was even a minister to ask a blessing upon the erring boy.

Now this outcast had a brother - a prominent citizen of Denison - who came here long after his brother was dead. After a great deal of trouble and considerable expense the grave of his brother was at last located, and a suitable tablet now marks the spot. The brother still calls Denison his home and owns a great deal of property here.