Stephens County, TX - Obituaries - L.G. Collins

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The White Man 
Weatherford, Parker County, Texas 
Saturday, Sept. 15, 1860


To the People: 
Buchanan Co., Aug. 2, 1860 [changed to Stephens County in 1861]

The undersigned citizens learn with regret that L.G. Collins, latterly murdered
by a party of citizens and Rangers at his residence on Clear Fork of Brazos, is
reported to have been a notorious horse thief, and that for this reason he was
killed. We feel it due to the memory of Collins, and to justice, to say that
such a report has no foundation in truth, is basely false, and was manufactured
and circulated by the men who murdered Collins to give plausibility to a murder,
that for malice, and cold-blooded design has no par. We deny positively that
Collins ever, to our knowledge, did any act that would create suspicion. He was
a brave fearless man - a bold defender of the frontier, and a bitter enemy to
the Indians, and their friends. This was his greatest fault. Another reason for
his murder was that he had near five thousand dollars in cash, besides notes and
drafts, to the amount of over three thousand dollars. The cash, with the
exception of $65 and some cents, has disappeared, and no one but the murderers
themselves know what disposition has been made of it. There was also a note of
hand for $2,000, with $400 credit on it. If Collins was what he was represented,
we challenge the proof of it, but we deny to those who murdered him, the right
of first murdering a man, and then proving his guilt by themselves. We demand
the arrest and trial of these men and until they establish their innocence and
his guilt, they stand before the world as murderers, and robbers, and deserve
the scorn and contempt of all just men. G.W. Hagler Joseph V. Howell J.W. Curtis
Wm. R. Hill John Snyder Gaddis E. Miller, Sr. Gaddis E. Miller, Jr. John B.
Dawson W.L. Browning Wm. Hitson Geo. Greer Jo. Matthews