Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2026 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== USGenNet Data Repository Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ============================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ============================================================================= Texas Coastal Pioneers of Chambers County As Compliled in 1952 by Varuna Hartmann Lawrence Royal Pub. Co., Dallas, TX The Gulf Coast Pioneers of Texas Authentic Reports Gathered from Many Reliable Sources. (Many things cannot be verified as the old Record Book burned in the fire that destroyed the old Court House at Wallisville, then County seat of Chambers county 1875 or '76) Have talked with many of those who had lived in these bygone days, and in whose word there was no question, concerning the things given here. Varua Hartmann (Mrs. A. B.) Lawrence ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p. 88-92] THE GOODNIGHT SCRAPE Down in the Coastland in Chambers County the old man JEREMIAH FISHER ar his wife "AUNT SARAH" lived alone in their old home on the bay shore. They had reared their 10 children there and all had married and gone to homes of their own. As they were getting well along in years and were considered wealthy with a large stock of cattle on the Ranges, they could afford and did have a hired man to do the hardest of the work. As was usual in that part of the country they had hired a young man, son of a distant relative who worked their farm, fed the horses, milked the cows, and lived in their home like a son, and was treated as such. This young man’s name was JOSEPH WILBURN, and he had no home, his parents were both dead and he had only one sister living. He went to live at "UNCLE JERRY'S" and work there. JOE was liked by the FISHER family, especially by the two younger boys. One day two men came up the steep thirty foot bluff from the beach below the house, and asked for something to eat. They said their boat was aground, and they were trying to get it off again. Of course they were given whatever they needed, and they left, going back down to the bay shore. Next afternoon when the old man FISHER had ridden off to drive in the cows for the milking time that evening, these men came again and asked for cotton to caulk their boat. AUNT SARAH told JOE to get the cotton for them, which was kept in a shed room on one of the galleries. He was slow for he did not like their looks nor ways, and AUNT SARAH went to see what was keeping him. One of the men followed her and when she went in the room he shut the door! AUNT SARAH turned and was pushing the door open when the man hit her across the head with a pistol, and she fell to the floor. Oh said JOE, you’ve killed AUNT SARAH! Yes, said the man and I’ll kill you too if you don’t keep back. Then he fastened the door on them and joined his companion, who was breaking open the two trunks in the old couple’s bedroom. After working a bit on the slats on the little window that let light in the cotton room, JOE got it open far enough to squeeze’ himself out, and ran to the barn to get a horse to run for help. He saw the two men coming out of a thicket on horses while he was saddling up. In the meantime AUNT SARAH had come to, got to work on the door, and got it open. She went through the hall and stopped and looked in is see those men tearing up everything in the trunks, and putting the money they collected in their pockets, and in a bag they carried. As much of the money was gold in those days, they had saddle bags to carry it in. As AUNT SARAH looked in at the backs of the robbers, she wished for a gun to shoot them down. When the men saw JOE out, they began to urge their horses to get away faster. He mounted and pursued them for several miles. They kicked and used their whips on their horses, and tried to make JOE believe that their horses were tired out. (Later they confessed they were trying to get JOE to come near enough, to kill him with a pistol shot.) When it became to dark to see the men who had gone into a point of trees jutting out on the prairie, JOE rode to a settlement at Barber’s Hill, a few miles on and reported the robbery. A lot of the men there armed themselves, and off they went to try to find the robbers. The news spread like wild-fire, everyone was afraid that the robbers would come to their house. The families of the robber hunters were too scared to stay alone, so took their children and hurried to stay through the night at a neighbors. The armed men searched the woods where the robbers were last seen, but owing to the darkness could not pick up the trail of the two horses. With daylight it was discovered that two horse tracks lead across the prairie to another timbered strip along a river about five miles away. Investigation revealed that the robbers came to a man’s house, and he and his wife had fed them, even before the robbery. It was said that these people had told of the FISHER’S having their money, locked in the two trunks in their front bedroom. Also that the robbers paid them for their information. This couple told of the robbers returning after they had robbed the old FISHER couple of their savings. The County Officers formed a posse and pursued the robbers to Dayton, a railroad town some twenty miles distant. They wired authorities on all points to hold the men, and found them on a train near the little town of Palestine. When they went to take them, they found a woman had the money in a belt around the body. The woman was the wife of the older, stouter one of the robbers. His name was GOODNIGHT. He resisted arrest and tried to jump from the train, but an officer shot him in the head as he leaped. He died a few days later in a hospital. His wife gave up all the money she had in her belt, but the younger and more slender robber got away with some money, for a time, but the officers trailed him closely and soon had him in jail where he was sentenced for a number of years in the penitentiary. The old FISHERS got their money back and AUNT SARAH who had never been fifty miles from home in her life, was one of the main witnesses against him in court. Wearing a very nice dress for the occasion, she glared at the man MERRITT during the trial. AUNT SARAH had the dress material of black silk alpaca on hand for some years. UNCLE JERRY had bought it for her in Galveston. But when she had to go to court to testify against the thief on trial, her daughters made up this very up to date material for her trip to the county seat. They said she looked very nice in the new dress and a plain black hat when she appeared in court. She was proud of the fact she had hidden six hundred dollars in lid of one trunk, and the robbers did not find it. JOE WILBURN, of course, was an important witness also. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Any or all of the above story was printed in the Galveston Weekly News at the time of the robbery, about 1877 or a few years later. ===============================================================================