Freestone County, Texas
Reflections




[SPECIAL THANKS to Linda Mullen for transcribing and Margaret Tolar for locating.]



Diary of Mrs. Frances “Fannie or Frankie” (Noland) Anderson
(Fannie was born in 1850.  She married Judge Asa Green Anderson on May 14, 1868 
 in Freestone County. )
 
Freestone—Past & Present By J.R. “Sonny” Sessions
The Teague Chronicle; 2004:  Mrs. Anderson Ledger #7 

This story deals with the first legal execution in Freestone Co. in the 1850’s

“SCHOOL BOY”
  My brother Harry H. Noland when he came to Texas brought his racer School Boy.  
Now I don’t know that he was a thoroughbred, he was not often entered in a race 
though loved by many.  One night a Negro prisoner broke Jail, stole him out of 
his stable and rode him into Navarro Co.  Of course when the officers overtook 
and caught him School Boy was ruined for a racer.
  Brother gave him good care and still drove him to the buggy.  After brother 
passed away and I was old enough to ride I would put Mother’s side saddle on and 
pace all around town.  When I was about fourteen my brother W.L. gave me a riding 
pony.  School Boy was getting up in years and a friend of Father, Mr. P.L. 
Stubbs put School Boy in his pasture where it had feed and branch water the rest 
of his life.  The Negro who stole him history tells us was the first legal 
execution in Freestone Co., hung for killing an overseer, also paid the penalty 
for stealing School Boy.