Earlier this week, I was contacted by the director of a public library in Erath County, where the university I work at is located. She wanted to know if we had any local 1877 newspapers. Our Stephenville newspapers on microfilm only go back to 1882 (with many gaps in those early years), and the Dublin paper did not start until 1889.
However, I learned a trick from research I did on Francis Edward Garland, the editor of my town of Granbury's early newspaper, the Vidette, from 1872 to 1883. No copies of that newspaper survive, but I found plenty of references to Garland and the Vidette in other Texas newspapers (available at the Portal to Texas History) from that era.
I thought the same technique might work in this case - especially since the story involved the murder of the Erath County Sheriff, William James Mastin, and the researcher had an exact date for his death: June 25, 1877.
Sure enough, I found two references to the murder on the same page (two)1 of the July 5, 1877, issue of the Weekly Democratic Statesman, published in Austin, Texas, via the Portal to Texas History. I had searched for "mastin erath" (without the quotes) and limited the results to 1877. The first reference started at the bottom of column six and continued at the top of column 7. Sheriff Maston [sic] was killed by a cattle thief he intended to arrest:
Further on in column seven was a little more detail. This time Mastin's name was spelled correctly, and it gave the date of the murder, June 25. The name and a detailed description of the murderer, Bone Wilson, was also given, as well as the fact that a reward was being offered for his capture. This story also noted Mastin was going to arrest Wilson for stealing a horse (not cattle theft):
There’s more about Mastin on pages 15-16 of James Pylant’s 2009 book, Sins of the Pioneers4. He was elected sheriff on February 15, 1876, and had survived an earlier attempt on his life in November of that year "when Rufus C. Howie fired a six-shooter at him."
One of Pylant’s sources5 is an account of the killing of Mastin’s murderer, Bone Wilson, by one of the Texas Rangers participating, Noah Armstrong. Armstrong was interviewed sometime between 1936 and 1939, as part of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers’ Project, a New Deal jobs program that was part of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA). His account of the killing of Bone Wilson starts on the fourth page.
Sources:
1Weekly Democratic Statesman. (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 5, 1877, newspaper, July 5, 1877; Austin, Texas. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth277635/m1/2/?q=mastin+erath: accessed January 21, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; .
2The Galveston Daily News. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 161, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 27, 1877, newspaper, September 27, 1877; (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth464966/m1/4/?q=mastin%20erath: accessed January 21, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.
3 The Lampasas Dispatch (Lampasas, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 18, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 27, 1877, newspaper, September 27, 1877; (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth179077/m1/3/?q=sheriff%20erath: accessed January 21, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.
4Pylant, James. Sins of the pioneers: crimes & scandals in a small Texas town. Stephenville, TX: Jacobus Books, 2009.
5Doyle, Elizabeth, and Noah Armstrong. [Noah Armstrong]. Texas. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh002308/. (Accessed January 21, 2017.)
© Amanda Pape - 2017- click here to e-mail me.
However, I learned a trick from research I did on Francis Edward Garland, the editor of my town of Granbury's early newspaper, the Vidette, from 1872 to 1883. No copies of that newspaper survive, but I found plenty of references to Garland and the Vidette in other Texas newspapers (available at the Portal to Texas History) from that era.
I thought the same technique might work in this case - especially since the story involved the murder of the Erath County Sheriff, William James Mastin, and the researcher had an exact date for his death: June 25, 1877.
Sure enough, I found two references to the murder on the same page (two)1 of the July 5, 1877, issue of the Weekly Democratic Statesman, published in Austin, Texas, via the Portal to Texas History. I had searched for "mastin erath" (without the quotes) and limited the results to 1877. The first reference started at the bottom of column six and continued at the top of column 7. Sheriff Maston [sic] was killed by a cattle thief he intended to arrest:
Further on in column seven was a little more detail. This time Mastin's name was spelled correctly, and it gave the date of the murder, June 25. The name and a detailed description of the murderer, Bone Wilson, was also given, as well as the fact that a reward was being offered for his capture. This story also noted Mastin was going to arrest Wilson for stealing a horse (not cattle theft):
I found a follow-up story2 in the Galveston Daily News of September 27, 1877, on page 4. In a section with news from Erath County, the Stephenville Empire newspaper was quoted. (In the image below, I have blanked out a number of lines of news not relevant to this case.) Bone Wilson, alias Napoleon B. Wilson, was killed by Texas Rangers under the command of T. M. Sparks about 20 miles from Fort Chadbourne on September 15, 1877:
A little more detail3 about the murderer’s death comes from the Lampasas Dispatch of September 27, 1877, via the Brownwood Banner. This one was found by searching the Portal to Texas History for “sheriff erath” (no quotes in the search), as Mastin was sometimes spelled incorrectly. This article does not even refer to the sheriff by name, and some of the details of Wilson's killing are different. Both articles note that Wilson's body was taken to Coleman City (just established in 1876). which is about 60 miles east of the fort.
There’s more about Mastin on pages 15-16 of James Pylant’s 2009 book, Sins of the Pioneers4. He was elected sheriff on February 15, 1876, and had survived an earlier attempt on his life in November of that year "when Rufus C. Howie fired a six-shooter at him."
One of Pylant’s sources5 is an account of the killing of Mastin’s murderer, Bone Wilson, by one of the Texas Rangers participating, Noah Armstrong. Armstrong was interviewed sometime between 1936 and 1939, as part of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers’ Project, a New Deal jobs program that was part of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA). His account of the killing of Bone Wilson starts on the fourth page.
Sources:
1Weekly Democratic Statesman. (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 5, 1877, newspaper, July 5, 1877; Austin, Texas. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth277635/m1/2/?q=mastin+erath: accessed January 21, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; .
2The Galveston Daily News. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 161, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 27, 1877, newspaper, September 27, 1877; (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth464966/m1/4/?q=mastin%20erath: accessed January 21, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.
3 The Lampasas Dispatch (Lampasas, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 18, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 27, 1877, newspaper, September 27, 1877; (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth179077/m1/3/?q=sheriff%20erath: accessed January 21, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.
4Pylant, James. Sins of the pioneers: crimes & scandals in a small Texas town. Stephenville, TX: Jacobus Books, 2009.
5Doyle, Elizabeth, and Noah Armstrong. [Noah Armstrong]. Texas. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh002308/. (Accessed January 21, 2017.)
© Amanda Pape - 2017- click here to e-mail me.
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