Two Bad Men, Said Their Murderers
John Choate, 25 August 1818 - 3 August 1869
Crokett Choate, 1842 -3 August 1869
This tells of a grave by the dashing wave
A fond friends lip that did quiver
Of an eye that's hid by a leaden lid
And a voice now stilled forever.
John on the left. They were originally buried where they were killed but October of that year the Refugio Masons moved the bodies to Rockport. This was all part of the Sutton-Taylor feud, the Suttons were backed by the U. S. Government and of no particular righteousness, they were badge wearing murderers and bullies. The two story house with the porch running around the second floor in the left background belongs to my sister. A lovely house and the best behaved neighbors possible!
Photos by Steve Davis.
The man who killed them. Sheriff. Regulator. Murderer.
Captain Jack Helm was in turn killed by this man and Jim Taylor -
John Wesley Hardin. Held a shotgun on the crowd in Albuquerque, Texas while Jim Taylor gunned down Jack Helm in a blacksmithery in the town square, May 17, 1873. Hardin fired the shotgun into Helm as he allegedly advanced on Taylor with his knife, Taylor then shot him 5 times in the head. Helm was not heeled but had a Bowie knife on him.
Hardin had killed a DeWitt county deputy sheriff name of J. P. Morgan earlier that day, John Wesley liked to keep his hand in. Hardin had already killed a Special Policeman in that town name of Parramore Green. In 1871 Green and Private John Lackey attempted to arrest Hardin at the mercantile store, where Green was killed and Lackey seriously wounded. Helm was unarmed and working on a cotton worm destroyer he had invented when he was killed. He had left his guns in his boarding house, I guess he thought everyone in the world loved him.
Hardin had killed a DeWitt county deputy sheriff name of J. P. Morgan earlier that day, John Wesley liked to keep his hand in. Hardin had already killed a Special Policeman in that town name of Parramore Green. In 1871 Green and Private John Lackey attempted to arrest Hardin at the mercantile store, where Green was killed and Lackey seriously wounded. Helm was unarmed and working on a cotton worm destroyer he had invented when he was killed. He had left his guns in his boarding house, I guess he thought everyone in the world loved him.
Hardin killed for sure 27 men, and claimed 42. Soon after he was released from prison he shot at and killed a Mexican on a 5 dollar bet, the man died from falling off a soapbox he was sunning himself on.
Death of Captain Jack Helm, Jack Jackson.
Life in Texas has always been interesting.
Hardin's grave, Concordia Cemetery, El Paso. Hardin was born in Bonham. Bonham is near Plano, where I grew up.
The point of all this is that the Choates are buried right down the street from me in Rockport Cemetery.
Rockport Cemetery.
John Wesley Hardin...killed 27 men, you say? Does that include one for snoring too loudly?
ReplyDeleteYes, he didn't mean to but so what? How was he to know the guy was sitting up in bed? I'm sure that Johnny felt just awful about the whole thing!
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DeleteAnd then John Selman killed Hardin, and was in turn shot dead by George Scarborough, who later got shot in the leg and died after said leg was amputated. Like you said, life in Texas is interesting. And short.
DeleteI suspect those stones were either freestanding or at least level, the brick and cement box arrangement is one I have never seen anywhere else. Since this is just sand and loam settling would be a problem. The stones are elaborate for the time and place, I think the Taylor faction was pretty durn angry at the government backing up the Suttons. Why on Earth they were moved from Refugio to here is anyone's guess, both places are not exactly vast hubs of commerce.
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