Early Days in Hopkins Co. TX. - S. A. Jones Submitted by: June E. Tuck ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** From the historical files of June E. Tuck, who does not validate or dispute any historical facts in the article (Has been edited) Col. S. A. Jones Tells Of Early Days In Hopkins Sulphur Springs, Texas October 10, 1930 The Daily New-Telegram: As per my promise, I will try to get to you today a little story about the capture of one Parse Akers, the last of Texas frontier desperadoes after the civil war, and the passing of the Carpet Bag, so called reconstruction days, that ruled in the South. As I remember, it was in October, 1869, a bunch of men was sent out by Captain Weaver, then sheriff of Hopkins county, and under the direction of Jack Bridges, then deputy sheriff. We got on his trail about 20 miles south of Sulphur Springs, chased him for about three days, now and then getting sight of him. We camped one night about ten miles northeast of what was then known as Black Jack Grove. We camped near a branch at the foot of High Ball Ridge, then called Loam Ball. The writer, not being much of a sleeper, was awakened about 4:00 o^Òclock in the morning, and saw what seemed to be a light of long distance away on the prairie and thought it strange there should be a light at that hour, with nobody living in that country. The writer quietly saddled his horse and set out to see about that light. I thought I might get something good to eat if it was a hunting camp. I found it was a cabin, and the light was a fire, about gone out, where cooking had been done. Daylight was near and I saw two horses lariated beyond the light and cabin. I quietly circled the cabin, saw it had only one door and one window on the same side, the door shut and window open; there was no sash. I had seen by the saddles lying on the ground near the door that they were armed men. I rode quietly up to the window, covering it with my Winchester and got closes enough for the muzzle of my gun to stand inside the window. As I had already discovered two people lying on a bed a few feet in front of the window - one woman, over behind from the window, and her head lying on the man^Òs shoulder, both sound asleep. I had never seen Akers, but we had his description and I knew it was him. I said, "Wake up, pards, I want you." His pistols were in their hostlers on the belt hanging by his head. As he awoke he reached for his pistols. I said "Don^Òt try that, as your life will be snuffed out." He had gotten wide enough awake then to see that I had the drop on him. The girl had awakened and was reaching for her gun. I said, "Don^Òt do that, sister. If you do, I^Òll snuff his light and spare you if I can." I said to the sister, " Roll out towards the foot of your side of that bed and don^Òt put your hand towards that gun." She studied a bit. She said, "What are you going to do if I don^Òt mind you pretty boy, I^Òm not dressed." I said, "Pretty sister, I am stone blind when ladies are not dressed." So she did as I said. She was a very pretty woman with long dark hair. I loosened my lariat from my saddle, gave it a drop to the ground, made her pick it up and told her to go back in the cabin and first tie his hands behind him, by making him turn on his side facing me. Then I made her tie his feet together, loose enough for I was in five feet of them, for him to come out hobbled. I sent her and had her bring his horse, which she did. I had the lariat of his horse also fastened to my saddle. I then made her tie both his feet with a lariat under the horse^Òs belly. Then I told her I would go my way and she was to go hers. She said, "If you hurt my bud I^Òll kill you if I have to hunt the world over to find you. I told her I wasn^Òt in the killing business, only to save my own life. So I led him into camp for breakfast. The men were all getting excited as to what had become of me. We brought him to Sulphur Springs and put him in jail. Court was in session, as it happened, and he was indicted at once and put on trial. On the fourth night, by some aid never learned, a two-inch auger had gotten into his cell, and jail floor was three thicknesses of 6x8 timber. He bore through those timbers. There was a man in the cell with him and they pulled enough sand out to permit them to crawl out and escape. The court deputy was guarding him during the trial. The morning before the night he escaped, he said to me, "I think I^Òll fix you within the next few days." That was the last time we talked. Some of the amusing things happened those days in court. All the old citizens as far back as 1868, will remember General Sam Makey. He had a partnership office in Sulphur Springs, his main office in Paris. There was an old drinking Judge Johnson (not Uncle Luke) but an old drunkard carpet bag judge, holding court in Paris. General Makey had a fight, and the lawyer got the General down on the table and bit out about half of one of his ears. The writer was there. This old drunken judge ordered the sheriff to put those lawyers in jail, in the same cell, and let them fight it out. No d____ lawyers could bloody up his court, he said, or other unmentionable words. Years afterwards when I was living in Florida, General Makey was sent to Congress from Texas. He was a very game and loveable man and went by the name of "The Cooper-eared Congressman from the Lone Star State." But they never put the Texas cattle brand on him. Another court incident happened in Sulphur Springs. A young man from Charleston, N.C., came here and was taken in as partner in the law office in which I was reading law with General Green and Whitmore. He was appointed district attorney. There was a case he was trying against a man for climbing, at night, through a window into a ladies^Ò room, and when Norriss was making his speech to the jury, depicting the violence of the man, who was a middle-aged man, his son sprang from a seat outside of the bar rail, drawing a long-bladed knife. I happened to be looking at the man when he rose from his seat, drawing his knife. I rose and lifted the chair, and he made the lunge at Norriss. I knocked him down with the chair, as he would have cut Norriss about half in to with that enormous knife. After that trial, Norriss resigned. He had to carry a guard with him at two other courts. He was a very powerful and strong prosecutor. He returned to his home in North Carolina. I will not give the names of the parties, because there were some good people in that family, and maybe there are some children in the country yet. S. A. Jones.