In reference to Linda Noel's inquiry. Elizabeth Fletcher Roe was one of my early ancestors. She lived in Azle, TX and her husband was a Texas Ranger in 1873. She gave this story of events during that time. "I married Montgomery Roe in 1873, and a short time after we were married he enlisted in the Texas Rangers and served under Capt. Willis Hunter. The company's headquarters were at Silver Creek. After my husband enlisted, I again lived in fear. (Indian raids were before this) I knew the danger his work incurred. The rangers had to contend with cattle rustlers, fights between cattlemen and between ranchers and sheepmen, and with desperadoes. Those days the Rangers were called upon to do considerable burying. When some person's body was found, who had been shot or hanged, the rangers were generally notified, and they buried the body. I saw my husband and a couple of fellow Rangers bury the Cantrell women, who were sometimes called by the name of Hill. The Cantrell women were the leaders of a gang of cattle rustlers, and the rumor was that they were among the most troublesome rustlers in the state. The folks interested in the cattle business decided to stop these two women and hanged them to a tree near Springtown. The Rangers would generally receive word that somebody discovered a person hanging to a limb of a tree or one that had been shot. As a rule, the report would be received a day or two after the incident happened. However, in the case of the Cantrell women, the report did not reach the Rangers until a couple of weeks or more after the hanging. When my husband's party went to get the bodies, they found the bodies on the ground, but their heads were still held by the noose of the rope. These bodies had remained until decay had caused the bodies to separate from the heads. The Cantrell women were buried in a cemetery at Springtown. The graves were under a tree, and Rangers tied the rope, with which the women were hanged, to a limb over the graves, as a marker for a rustler's grave. My husband was mustered out of the Ranger service in 1875. We then made our livelihood by farming in the Ash Creek vicinity near what is now call Azle, Texas." ---------- > From: TXPARKER-D-request@rootsweb.com > To: TXPARKER-D@rootsweb.com > Subject: TXPARKER-D Digest V99 #81 > Date: Saturday, July 31, 1999 2:20 PM >