United States Marshal Harrington Lee “Hal” Gosling

Marshal Hal Gosling was killed in an escape attempt aboard a train in Comal County on February 21, 1885. James Pitts and Charles Yeager were convicts who were in the process of being transported back to San Antonio and then on to Federal prison to serve their sentences. Gosling was the son of William Gosling (1812 – 1876) of England, and Lucinda Harrington Gosling (1825 – 1896). Hal was one of several siblings in the family. He was born to the couple on June 2, 1851 in Tennessee. William was listed as a manufacturer in the 1850 and 1860 census reports. The 1870 census referred to the cotton industry. William died in 1876 of unknown causes and Lucinda appears to have survived him for many years.

Marshal Gosling had married the former Nellie Mayes of Texas around 1880. The couple had two sons and were residing in San Antonio. Hal was not a career lawman and had only been a marshal for a few years when he was killed. The February 23, 1885 issue of the Galveston Daily News told more about his background. He was born in Shelbyville, Tennessee in 1853. Gosling was well educated, having graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Hal had earned a law degree while briefly living in Kansas. He had moved to Texas some seven years earlier, around 1878, initially locating in Castroville, where he practiced criminal law and began publishing the Castroville Quill, a publication that ran from 1881 to 1883. Hal was a founding member of the Texas Press Association. He also served as its second president and was the only person to serve more than one term in that office. He was elected president of the organization in 1881 and reelected in 1882.

In 1882 he sought an position as a United States Marshall and was appointed by President Chester A. Arthur in late May, 1882 to succeed Stillwell H. Russell (1846 – 1914) and serve the Western District of Texas. Russell had come under allegations of improprieties and had been removed or asked to resign from the marshal service earlier that year.

The May 27, 1882 issue of the San Antonio Light devoted a full column on page 2 listing favorable comments in honor of Gosling’s selection. Some are quoted below:

• “Gosling is a good lawyer and has edited the Quill with marked ability and we are glad to see him promoted.” – Bonham News
• “A better appointment could not have been made in the broad state of Texas.” – Morgan Sentinel
• “Hal Gosling’s appointment as United States Marshal, is the most popular act of Arthur’s administration, so far as Texas is concerned.” – Mineola Monitor
• “Mr. Gosling is a gentleman of a high order of intellect, a brilliant lawyer and an excellent man. He is deservedly popular, and will fill the office of marshal with credit.” – Beaumont Enterprise

On February 21, 1885, Marshal Gosling along with deputies John Manning and Fred Loring were tasked with taking prisoners Pitts and Yeager from Austin to San Antonio on the smoking car of a scheduled train. The trip should have taken less than two hours by rail. From San Antonio, the prisoners were to be transferred to a Federal prison in Illinois.

In local newspaper accounts, Yeager and Pitts were called highwaymen and post-office robbers. The two were handcuffed to one another. Several family members had been allowed to travel with the party including Mrs. E. A. Drown (Pitts’ grandmother), Rose Yeager (Yeager’s sister) and four other men. Later reports include many more individuals that were permitted to make the trip, including Pitts’ wife of four months, Laura Melissa Scott Pitts. The train left Austin at 4:30 PM. As the train neared New Braunfels, there was a sudden flurry of activity in which both prisoners quickly produced loaded pistols that could only have been provided by one or more of the other passengers. Shots rang out and Marshal Gosling was fatally wounded before he could draw his own weapon. An estimated total of fifty or more shots were fired in the few seconds that followed. Manning was shot in the neck and shoulder but was able to block the aisle and fire at the prisoners. Loring also returned fire. The prisoners, still handcuffed together, were able to reach the outside of the coach and jump from the train, still in full motion. The conductor, a man named Fowler, and an armed passenger referred to as Colonel Mayfield of Karnes County, both fired on the escapees and each of the prisoners received two or more gunshot wounds. Colonel Mayfield was not wounded but Conductor Fowler received a grazing head wound.

Among the passengers, Mrs. Drown was shot in the stomach and Rose Yeager was shot in the leg. An unnamed passenger in an adjoining coach was slightly wounded from a bullet which grazed her head. Some early newspaper reports stated that both Pitts and Yeager were found dead at the scene, near the tracks, but that was incorrect. Only Pitts’ body was found, and he had died from several gunshot wounds. In addition, he had other injuries from exiting the train including a broken arm. Yeager was apparently able to use a rock to free himself from Pitts and their handcuffs by bashing the cuffs with the rock.

After a short emergency stop, the train continued on to New Braunfels where those injured were treated. Mrs. Drown, the grandmother, died in the jail at about 3:00 AM that night. Several posses were organized and Yeager was recaptured the next day.

Sixteen other people, friends and family of the prisoners, were taken into custody. However, as far as we can tell, no one, not even Yeager, was ever tried for the murder of Marshal Gosling. Perhaps any case was thought to be difficult to prove, since due to the short time period and smoke from all the weapons, no complete account could be pieced together. However, some of the suspected accomplices, friends or family members of Yeager and Pitts later died violently or were arrested under charges unrelated to the Gosling murder.

Yeager was treated for his wounds and transferred to a Federal prison in Illinois under his initial conviction. Yeager served about eighteen years of his life sentence. The Austin American-Statesman issue of December 24, 1903 carried these comments under an Associated Press headline “Pardons Granted – President Released Four and Denied Thirteen Applications” that read as follows: “The sentence of Charles Yeager convicted in the western district of Texas of robbing a postmaster and sentenced in 1885 to imprisonment for life in the southern Illinois penitentiary, is commuted to expire December 24,” From all accounts, Yeager returned to San Antonio where he appears to have lived a law abiding life. He is believed to have died in San Antonio of natural causes in 1931.

James Buchanan Pitts and his grandmother Elizabeth Ann Arnold Drown were both buried in Comal Cemetery a short time after they died. Charles Yeager is thought to have been buried in San Fernando Cemetery #2 in San Antonio. Marshal Gosling was initially buried elsewhere but is interred at San Antonio’s Mission Burial Park South.

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