texas – Page 68 – Texas History Notebook

Bass Reeves, Lawman

Bass Reeves was a groundbreaking lawman in the West. Most people who know his name would be aware that he was born a slave and became a respected law officer mostly in the area that became Oklahoma, long before it became a state.

Reeves was born into slavery in 1838 in Crawford County, Arkansas on the property of former Arkansas state legislator, William Steele Reeves. Authoritative accounts say instead that he was born in Texas. His last name was that of the owner William Reeves and his first name is believed to have been in honor of a grandfather by the name of Bass Washington.

Fort Mason

Fort Mason was established and vacated before the Civil War. It was set up by Brevet Lt. Col. W. H. Harvey in the summer of 1851 and housed the Second Dragoons. It was named for Second Lt. George T. Mason of the Second Dragoons, killed during the early days of the Mexican-American War in South Texas in 1846. It has also been suggested that the fort could have been named for General Richard Barnes Mason who had died more recently, but most sources favor George T. Mason, a West Point graduate and native of Virginia.

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Law Officers Killed by the Barrow Gang: Henry D. Humphrey (Victim Number 5)

The fifth law officer to be killed by the Barrow Gang was Town Marshal Henry D. Humphrey on June 22, 1933. On July 30, 1933, the Sedalia (Missouri) Democrat and Capital ran an Associated Press article that began as follows, “Hubert Bleigh, 26, alias Herbert Blythe, of Tulsa, faced murder charges at Van Buren, Ark, five miles from here, tonight after he was brought to Van Buren by Sheriff Albert Maxey of Crawford County, from Oklahoma City. Bleigh waived extradition.” Bleigh was charged with the slaying of town marshal Henry G. Humphrey of Alma, Arkansas on the night of June 23, 1933.

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Frank Buck

frank_buck

(Image credit – findagrave.com)

Frank Howard Buck was born March 17, 1884 in Gainesville, Texas to Howard Dewitt and Ada J. Sites Buck. By the time Frank was a teenager, his parents had moved to Dallas, Texas. He attended school through the seventh grade and was not considered to be a particularly good student, perhaps because he had many other varied interests. As a young adult he held a number of different jobs, including working as a cowboy. He also is said to have traveled as a hobo for a while. Buck moved to Chicago and began working at a hotel around 1900. There he met and married his first wife, Lillie West, some 29 years his senior.

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Doc Goodnight and the Goodnight Gang

The Goodnight Gang was a name given to a group of outlaws operating in East and Central Texas headed up by William E. “Doc” Goodnight. Members of the group included Goodnight, Hugh Merrick, J. R. Willis and J. H. Johnson according to various newspaper accounts. They were by reputation robbers and the crimes mostly attributed to them involved the theft of cash from local individuals. There was a legend that William E. Goodnight was somehow related to rancher Charles Goodnight of North Texas, but we can find no obvious connection after looking into Charles Goodnight’s extended family. Perhaps coincidentally, Charles Goodnight had a number of relatives in Illinois and the State of Illinois appears to also figure into Doc Goodnight’s early history.