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One
of the most intriguing legends in East
Texas claims that William Clarke Quantrill, the guerrilla leader from the
Civil War and the mentor of the Younger and James brothers, is buried in Angelina
County.
Jake Lyons of Lufkin,
a devotee of regional history, helped us shed some light on the legend years ago.
Quantrill
was a farmer who drove cattle, taught school, and was considered an excellent
teacher. “He was very smart, had a hunger for knowledge, and memorized English
poetry,” said Lyons.
Following his exploits as a raider during the aftermath
of the Civil War, Quantrill suffered a lingering death in 1865 with a bullet in
his spine. He was buried in a Louisville, Kentucky, grave. His mother wasn’t able
to find the grave until December of 1867, when she had the grave opened and some
of the bones placed in a zinc-lined box and reburied in Dover, Kansas.
However,
William Walter Scott, a Dover newspaperman, kept Quantrill’s skull, carried it
to Mrs. Quantrill, and she confirmed it was her son by means of a chipped molar
in the lower jaw.
But Scott kept the skull and tried to sell it to a historical
society. Eventually, the skull fell into the hands of a college fraternity and
was eventually buried at a Confederate cemetery at Higginsville, Missouri.
What
about the Quantrill grave in Angelina County?
Lyons believes it may be
occupied by Quantrill’s young brother, Thomas, who often passed himself off as
William and said in 1890 that he was going to Texas,
where he was no stranger and had some friends.
Casper Androus Ricks of
Huntington, who died in 1937, often told his sons that Quantrill did not die in
Kentucky, as the record says, but came to Angelina County, adopted a new name,
and became a prominent businessman.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas
February 28, 2011 Column.
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers
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