John B. Armstrong, Texas Ranger and Pioneer Ranchman: Lawman and Rancher

Notes

Notes Preface 1. Haley, The XIT Ranch, 123–24. 2. Preece, Lone Star Man, 234. 3. Trachtman, The Gunfighters, 201. 4. Aten, “Six and One Half Years,” 100. 5. From an unidentified newspaper clipping, “Delegation from Dalhart Big Part of Gathering .” This article describes the first XIT reunion held in Fort Worth. Here Armstrong’s slayer is identified as Gene Elliston, not Ellison. Chapter 1 1. Smith, Armstrong Chronicle, 333. Dr. John Barkley Armstrong was born January 20, 1819, in Giles County, Tennessee, and was married to Maria Susannah Ready on May 23, 1842. Maria Ready’s father founded Readyville, Tennessee. The Armstrongs’ children were Thomas Temple, born February 7, 1843; Mary “Mollie” Ready, born November 18, 1844; William Francis, born September 12, 1846; Laura Maria, born September 16, 1847; John Barkley, born January 1, 1850; Lavanda “Van” Martin, born September 10, 1852; and Betavia “Beta” Jane, born November 13, 1854. All lived to adulthood except William Francis, who died October 3, 1846. Laura Maria died July 28, 1870. All the other children survived well into the twentieth century. Dr. Armstrong died December 18, 1875, in McMinnville. I determined Readyville as Ranger Armstrong ’s birthplace from his “Descriptive List,” which had to be carried for identification by all Rangers. 2. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census for Tennessee (hereafter Tennessee Census), Cannon County (free), enumerated October 28, 1850, 430. Dr. Armstrong owned only three slaves at this time (Tennessee Census), Cannon County (slave), enumerated October 9, 1850, 117. 3. Numerous references to Armstrong, including his official death certificate, spell his middle name “Barclay.” I use “Barkley” as that is the spelling found in the family bible, Tobin Armstrong Collection. 4. Tennessee Census, Warren County, enumerated August 30, 1860, 516. In December 1856 or January 1857, Dr. Armstrong moved his family and slaves to McMinnville (Smith, Armstrong Chronicle, 118). By 1860 Dr. Armstrong owned seven slaves (slave inhabitants in McMinnville, Warren County, Tennessee, Tennessee Census, enumerated August 24, 1860, 422). 5. Undated interview with Tobin Armstrong at the Armstrong ranch; Smith, Armstrong Chronicle, 119–20. 6. Smith, Armstrong Chronicle, 120–21. 7. Ibid., 121. Smith states that Armstrong “presented himself to Austin” on January 1, 1873, with but $2.50 in his pocket. 8. In the early 1870s Mather was with the Reed & Mather furniture business, located on the corner of Congress Avenue and Ash Street (now 9th Street). 9. Albert S. Roberts became a successful wholesale and retail grocer in Austin after serving as a member of the Tom Green Rifles, 4th Texas Infantry, Hood’s Texas Brigade during the Civil War. By 1870 he had been commissioned a lieutenant in the Texas National Guard and in that capacity was in command of the Austin Company of the Travis Rifles. His company took over the capitol during the conflict between the defeated governor E. J. Davis and newly elected governor Richard Coke, January 15–16, 1873. He retired on July 1, 1895, with the rank of major general. In civil life he served as a postal inspector. He died in Austin on January 11, 1927 (Gilman, “Albert Samuel Roberts,” in Tyler, New Handbook, vol. 3, 607; Austin American, January 12, 1927). Andrew S. Donnan operated A. S. Donnan & Co. Claim and Land Agents on Congress Avenue in the early 1870s (Mercantile, 45). Charles H. Webb was a member of the A. S. Donnan & Co. Claim and Land Agents firm (Mercantile, 111). In 1870 William B. Brush was a nineteen-year-old “Cook Keeper” working for his father, S. B. Brush, a merchant in general merchandise in Austin. Both were natives of New Jersey (Texas Census, Travis County, June 1870, 276; Mercantile, 34). Swisher’s father was a clerk for the Auditorial Board, Treasury Building. His son, a Travis Rifleman, clerked in the Department of Education in Austin in the early 1870s (Mercantile, 104). T. M. Miller clerked in the firm of Stuart & Mair (Mercantile, 78; Daily Democratic Statesman, June 8 and 14, 1873; Brown, “Annals of Travis County, 1873,” 15). 10. Daily Democratic Statesman, August 20, 1873. 11. Henry B. Barnhart’s name is frequently seen spelled as Barnhardt. I use Barnhart as that is how it is spelled in the Austin city directories as well as on his headstone in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin. In 1877–78 he worked as an attorney and notary public, with an office on the northwest corner of Congress Avenue and Hickory Street (present-day...