Semi-Weekly Interior Journal
Stanford,
Kentucky
July 8, 1892
At
Pottsboro, Texas, M.M. Pierce shot and
killed his hired man, cut his
wife's throat and then committed
suicide. He suspected the two of
intimacy.
The Sunday
Gazette
Denison,
Texas
July 10,
1892
POTTSBORO TRAGEDY
Farmer Pierce and His Awful Work With Rifle
and Knife
Monday
morning, July 4, a farmer living four miles
west of Pottsboro, shot
and instantly killed his hired hand, Morgan
Pack, turning to his wife
almost severed her head from her body, and
then with the bloody
instrument repeated the operation on his own
throat. It was a
short story, yet the mind staggers and
revolts at its enormity and its
bitter brutality. It seems impossible
that a human being would be
capable of doing so heinous an act; yet it
is only on a plain with the
butcheries of defenseless women in this city
on the 18th of last May.
The fountains of hell were torn loose,
and the men who did the
work were heartless and devoid of
compassion. Every noble
and manly . . . had gone down before
the raging furies of a distorted
and diseased mind. Man in his normal
condition is incapable of
doing such cruel work.
M. M. Pierce,
together with his wife, the
wife's four children and a hired man by
the name of Morgan Pack,
resided on the Bill Shannon farm, about
four miles west of Pottsboro,
and immediately on the railway. In
fact, the road runs through
the farm. The Pierce family moved to
the farm sometime last fall
or winter, and were not very well
acquainted in the neighborhood.
The husband was known as a peaceable
and industrious man, while
the family were moderately neat and
intelligent. The oldest child
was a girl some 14 or 15 years
of age, while all the others were boys.
The lady had been married twice
before her union with Pierce.
Her parents live somewhere in
east Texas. Pierce is said to
be a native of north George, but of this
there is as yet no positive
evidence. The family, including
Pack, had decided to spend the
4th in Sherman, and on Sunday Mrs, Pierce,
assisted by the children,
cooked and stowed away in boxes,
provisions for a picnic dinner.
Last week, Pierce had purchased from
Mr. Potts, at Pottsboro, a
span of young mules, and early Monday
morning Pack went out to the lot
to harness them up. Pierce called to
him and requested to him to
catch one of the mules and work it with a
horse. Both the animals
had been caught, one of them was standing
near the wagon, while Pack
had lead the other down to the water
trough to water. Two of the
children were in the wagon, two in the
yard, and Mrs. Pierce was
sitting in the front door ...... one of
her shoes. Pierce, who
was in
the front yard, entered the building, took
the squirrel rifle from its
rack, and, passing out the rear door,
walked around to a point near the
well. Pack was standing with his
back to the house, when the
oldest child, who was in the wagon, saw
her stepfather raise his gun
and fire. She, with all the
children, began screaming and
running away as fast as they could.
They went in the direction of
the nearest neighbor, farmer Tanner. After
getting a quarter of a mile
away one of the little boys mustered up
courage and went back to the
house. The other children were too
frightened to accompany him,
and they continued on to Mr.
Tanner's. They did not know
the extent
of the tragedy. They had heard their
mother screaming,
and realized something terrible was
transpiring but were not aware of
their mother's death until their return
home with neighbors. The
little barefooted fellow, however, who
returned home tells the
following. On returning to the house, he
was afraid to go in from
the front. He entered from the rear,
and creeping up to the
window, peeped in. His stepfather was in
the room sitting on the
edge of the bed wiping the blood from his
neck. The man got up,
walked out into the yard
where the mother lay, and after turning
her
body over, lay down by its side. The
lad entered the room from
the rear and passed through
it to where his mother and father were
lying. He says his father kicked at
him and he got away. In
a very short time neighbors began
gathering in, and on the arrival of
the first the victims were all dead.
Pack sank dead in his
tracks, not knowing what killed him.
Blood
was still flowing from
the wounds of Mr. and Mrs. Pierce, and in
the room where the boy saw
his father sitting on the bed, blood was
scattered everywhere, and on
the floor were fresh barefooted tracks of
the boy where he had gone
through. When Pierce was certain he
had killed the hired man he
turned to his wife, but just how he made
way with her will never be
known, except that her head was almost
severed from her body with a
razor. It must have been full ten or
fifteen minutes after this
when he cut his own throat, for the little
boy had gone a quarter of a
mile and returned and, as stated above, at
that time Pierce was sitting
on the side of the bed. The horses
were standing at the wagon
just as they were when the children ran
away. Peck had not moved.
The ball entered the back of his
head from
the left side, tearing
away a portion of the skull. A
courier was dispatched to
Pottsboro and from there a telegraph
message was sent to Sheriff McAfee
at Sherman. Justice Odel, in company
with six or eight men from
Pottsboro went out as soon as possible.
The children were utterly
ignorant of any cause leading to the
tragedy, and a search of the house
began. In a trunk a number of
letters were found, and among them
those penned by Pierce. They read as
follows:
The next letter
in order was as follows:
GRAYSON
COUNTY, Texas, July 3 - My woman says she
will not be my friend any
longer and I can't stand for her to be some
one else's friend, as I
love her above all things on earth, and the
blessed little ones.
I love them and I have managed along
with them very well, but now
I am getting to where I could do better by
them all and think my dear
woman will go back on . . . It is
hard for I have spent a
good deal of money since I have been with
them, but I do not regret it
if she would but stick to me. So I
will close. M. M. Pierce
P.
S. - - - Well, I hate to depart from this
earth as I could be a useful
man, and I have got a sensible woman and a
beautiful one and could
be a
good one if she would. We have a good
crop coming on. I
want it to satisfy all my obligations.
The third and
last written letter was addressed to the
children as follows:
GRAYSON
COUNTY, TEXAS, July 3 - Advise to the dear
little children - . . .,
Laura, Jim and John: Be good children and
keep good company. Don't do
anything wrong. Of course the crop
and stock is good for all my
indebtedness, and of course it is more
than good, for
it is a . .
. . Dear children, I hate that I
can't be with you and your ma and
see pleasure. I hate that I ain't
. . . you all
better, but, dear children, take things
into consideration and I have
done mighty well. God bless you all
and God bless your dear
mother and God bless me. I pray to
God to pardon me of my sins.
I dearly love your mother. I
pray for God . . . .
Here it ended
without a signature.
Pierce
was a native of Georgia and about 40 years
old. He was rather
above the average height, and inclined to
be a little rawboned.
He had dark hair and mustache and
clear blue eyes. He was
rather . . . He was a honest,
hardworking man, but he was
addicted to drinking, and while he was
under the influence of liquor he
was rather overbearing and inclined to
think he was being imposed upon.
His
wife was quite a small woman, and more
than ordinarily good-looking,
and bore her 33 years quite lightly.
She was a widow with four
children when she was married to Pierce in
Upshur County, Texas, about
four years ago. A telegram from
Sheriff McAfee to an address
supposed to be that of her father in
Gilmer carried information of the
terrible affair. The surname of the
children could not be learned.
Of
Morgan E. Pack, the other victim, but
little is known except that he
once lived near Van Alstyne. He had
letters in his pockets
showing him to have had acquaintance in
Sherman, and to one of them,
Jack Rich, Sgt North Branch street, he had
an unposted card stating
that
he would like to meet him (Rich) at a
certain place, naming
Saturday as the date.
The remains
were interred Tuesday in the
graveyard at Old Georgetown, a short
distance north of Pottsboro.
The children will be cared for by
neighbors until word is
received from relatives of the family.
Galveston (TX) Daily News
July 7, 1892
p. 2
Sherman,
Tex., July 7 - Gradually the mist is being
cleared away and the cause
of the terrible tragedy and suicide in the
western part of the county
on Monday last is apparent. As has been
heretofore announced, a
telegram was sent by Sheriff McAfee to Mr.
Wearer of
Gilmer, Upshur
County, the father of Mrs. Pierce,
informing him of the terrible affair.
W. F. Robinson
of Beatty, Upshur County, answered the
telegram in person. He was seen by a News
reporter to-day, and in substance made the
following statement:
"I am a son-in-law of Mrs. Pierce. I
married her oldest daughter.
My mission to Grayson County is to take
the children down to Upshur
County, where they will find homes with
myself and their grandfather. I
will, of course, remain in Pottsboro for a
few days to close up the
affairs of Mr. Pierce, which I find to be
in a pretty fair shape."
"Do you know
any of the causes leading up to the
affair?," inquired the reporter.
"Of
course I do not know anything of the
disagreements at home, if there
were any. I noticed the letters he left
seemed to cast a shadow over
Mrs. Pierce. I am satisfied she was
guiltless of anything wrong as
intimated. I was raised in Gwinnett
County, Georgia with Pierce
and
have known him for many years."
"When he was
quite a young man
in an accident of some kind an injury was
inflicted on his head which
necessitated placing in a silver plate
and, at times, he was clear off,
especially was he had been drinking."
"Had he been
addicted to the use of intoxications ever
since you knew him?"
"No. Up to the
time he was grown he did not drink, but
after he came back from his first visit to
Texas he drank a great deal."
"Do you know
much of the history of Mrs. Pierce?"
"Well,
not fully. She, like myself and Pierce,
was a native of Georgia.
Neither Pierce nor myself ever saw her
there to my knowledge. She came
to east Texas with her parents when quite
a child. Pierce did not meet
her until he came to Texas to live, she
was about 35 years of age and
had been married three times. Her first
husband was George Graves, who
is the brother of my wife and father of
the eldest boy, Joe, who ray
away from near Pottsboro and came to my
house. Shortly after the
death of Geo. Graves, she married Robert
Logan and the four children
now at Pottsboro are by the second
marriage. She was married to Pierce
about four or five years ago near
Marshall. They lived in Rockwall then
came in north Texas. None of Mrs. Pierce's
relatives were ever informed
if there were any family troubles, and
they all seemed to be getting
along in peace unless perhaps it was that
the children during a visit
to the grandparents about two years ago
complained that Pierce made
them work too much. This was the cause Joe
gave for running away. I did
not know Morgan Pack."
The burial of
the three victims
took place in a quiet church near where
the tragedy took place. One
large, wide grave was dug and the coffins
containing the bodies of
Pierce and Pack were laid side by side. It
was contemplated to bury all
three victims in the same grave, but
to this the children
objected and a separate grave was dug for
her. Wooden signs erected
state that the graves are those of Morgan
E. Pack and Lucy Susan Pierce.
The is nothing
to tell the stranger that M. M. Pierce,
too, awaits the resurrection morn.
Elizabeth City North Carolinian
July 13, 1892
p. 1
Triple Tragedy in
Texas
M. M. Pierce, a
farmer living near Pottsboro in Grayson
County, Texas, suspected Morgan E. Pack, his
a farm hand, and Mrs. Pierce of being too
intimate. Pierce shot Pack dead with a rifle
and then cut his wife's throat. Then,
dragging his wife's body into the house, he
lay down by her side and cut his own throat.
Georgetown
Cemetery
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