My great great grandfather Rev. Joshiah Blanton (1808-1876) married Sarah L.Westbrook of Fannin County Texas, had a son named Elijah H. that was killed in Gonzales Texas during the Sutton-Taylor Feud. .He is memorialized on Rev.J. Blanton's monument in the Porter Cemetery in Fannin County. The inscription reads: " Son Eli Blanton, 1845-1867, Died in in Gonzales, Texas. A Soldier in Christ". Whatever than means. Was Eli a lay-preacher with a gun? Reverend Joshiah Blanton and Reverend J.G. Hardin were Methodist circuit rider preachers in Fannin County when John Wesley Hardin was born. Rev. Blanton's daugther, Nancy, was John W. Hardin's nanny until they Hardin family left the county and moved to Moscow, Texas. Colonel John Henry Damron married Nancy Blanton in Sept.12, 1872 and migrated to the Turkey Peak area in Brown County, which was about 10 miles southwest of Comanche, Texas. Nancy's brother, Zacariah T. "Zack" Blanton (1849-1943) also migrated from Fannin County to the Blanket Texas community, 10 miles west of Comanche, Texas in 1872. Is it thought that John W.Hardin stopped overnight at either the Damron or the Blanton home to rest his horse when the posse was pursuing him after the Webb killing in July, 1874. Hardin resumed his flight after a gun battle the next morning through the Williams Ranch Community near present day Mullin, Texas and south through Austin, San Antonio to Gonzales, Texas. Jerry Coffee -----Original Message----- From: Jim <coach@Hillsboro.net> To: Southern-Trails-L@rootsweb.com <Southern-Trails-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Monday, May 21, 2001 10:44 AM Subject: [SouthernTrails] John Wesley Hardin >John Wesley Hardin was also a school teacher in the Pisga Ridge area of >Navarro Co, Texas immediately after the Civil War. He was involved in >the Polk-Bowman fued that was taking place in the southwestern part of >the county from Pisga Ridge to the Spring Hill area close to Dawson. >Many Pisga Ridge settlers, including many of my Gleghorn family, >migrated on to Gonzales, Texas about this time. > Jim > >------------------------------------ > >> The 1870 - 1880 cattle drives on the Western and Texas Trails were full of >> gunfighters and lawlessness was common. The earlier cattle drives to the >> east were before the Civil War and did not have the gunfighters that came >> from the from the aftermath of the Civil War. According to his biography, >> the notorious gunfighter John Wesley Hardin joined a cattle drive in >> Gonzales, Texas and went to Dodge City Kansas along the Western Trail. The >> Indians in Oklahoma would charge a "cattle-toll" to the cattlemen in order >> to let them cross their lands. John Wesley Hardin killed his share of >> "Injuns" that were trying to charge a "unauthorized" cattle toll. He later >> backed down Wild Bill Hickok in Dodge City when Wild Bill told him to turn >> in his guns. I do not agree with some historians that called Hardin a >> pathological killer. John Wesley Hardin was a merely product of the times >> after the Civil War. Lawlessness and feuds were rampant in Texas after the >> conflict. Amazingly, I can still detect some animosity to this day when I >> talk to people in the areas involved in the feuds. >> >> Hardin and his brother were involved in illegal cattle operations in Brown >> and Comanche Counties after John Wesley's trip to Kansas. Hardin's family >> and some of his cousins moved to Comanche, Texas in 1873. His brother and >> his cousins are buried there. Deputy Sheriff Charley Webb was killed by >> J.W. Hardin in a gunbattle in Comanche in 1874 and is buried in Green Leaf >> Cemetery in Brownwood Texas. Hardin eventually served 15 years of a 25 year >> sentence in the Texas State Prison in Huntsville for the killing of Webb. >> The gunfight between Webb and Hardin was to really to settle a old score >> arising from the Sutton-Taylor Feud in Gonzales, Texas. Deputy Sheriff Webb >> was from Brown County and had no authority in Comanche County. >> >> Jerry Coffee > > >============================== >Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the #1 >Source for Family History Online. Go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrial1y.asp?sourcecode=F11HB >