For our Witheringtons, (and Stuckeys, & Duboses - FYI) A Tragic story - life/death was tougher then, or now??? Doris, Do you happen to know the name of the case or where the legal records of the case are? If you can send whatever info you have to me, I'll wait for someone to contact us, and, if a followup is done, we might like to see the records. This story will be placed into my "More" notes of Laney Witherington. Thank you Doris. Barry PS: Do the Stuckeys & Duboses (the Lists) have this story? I'll sub & send. Doris Sanders wrote: > Penelope Jane DuBose b. ca. 1791 m. abt. 1805 Stephen Stuckey s/o Edmund > and Edith Howell Stuckey. They received from her parents Peter and Laney > Witherington Dubose a "plantation". In 1825 when Penelope returned from > caring for her grandmother (paternal or maternal?) she went to the separate > kitchen to see that her children were fed. After "words" with the kitchen > slave girl, Penelope went into the main house to nurse her youngest child. > The slave girl picked up a butcher knife and followed her. Some time later, > the older children said, the girl returned with something wrapped in her apron > which she removed and stuck behind the door. When the older children went > into the house they found their mother still holding the infant, but with her > throat cut and blood over the infant. It isn't clear from the old newspaper > article if the child was dead or alive, but Penelope was definitely dead. The > girl was hanged the next morning without benefit of trial, I believe. Some time later, Peter DuBose threatened Stephen accusing him of being an accessory. We think it was after he "took up" or married Temperance ??. The threat must have been serious enough that Stephen deeded the land to his brother William and headed for St. Louis changing his name to Stephen Smith. (There is the oral tradition that he and the slave girl had a relationship). Stephen was in the Republic of Texas by 1831 acquiring vast amounts of land. He died Jan 1 1839 and his children with Penelope tried to inherit, but Texas was a foreign country at the time. There are many legal records on this case. Stephen sold whiskey and other supplies from his general store in Gonzales, Gonzales Co., Tx to men going to the Alamo to battle Mexico. > Please pass this story on to any interested parties. Doris