OLD WEST LEGENDS

A Tragic Affair in Old Montgomery, TX

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William J. McGrew might have been a hero, but unfortunately he turned out to be a scalawag. Born in 1844 in either Claiborne or  Copiah County, Mississippi, his roots were Old Alabama, but his destiny was an early grave in unholy ground in Texas.

He joined the Porter’s Guards, Co. H of the 4^th Texas Infantry C.S.A., at the beginning of the Civil War in Montgomery, Texas, but was discharged in 1861 as being disabled. He was only seventeen at the time. He returned home to Montgomery in Montgomery County, Texas, to eventually become a lieutenant of the home guard, Co. K, 20^th Texas Regiment, basically assigned to duty in Texas and the Indian Territory.

Texas Confederate Troops, appeared in Harper's Weekly, June, 1861, courtesy Library of Congress.

But during court he was seen several times in this vicinity, and one night went to the house of our sheriff and called him up, but would not let him approach near enough to arrest him. Yesterday, while most of our citizens were at dinner, he rode into the square, galloped about it, and then rode off again, in defiance to all. He was pursued by the sheriff and several citizens but eluded the pursuit, and last night just at dark came into town again, threatening, as I am informed, to burn the jail. In attempting to arrest him for the purpose of recommitting him, he refused to surrender, and while in the act, as was supposed from his action (it was dark) of shooting upon those gathered around him, he was shot down, fell from his horse and died immediately. Who committed the deed, can never be known, as there was several shots fired at the same time. Thus perished a man, who, by his reckless and lawless course of life has been a horror to some, and respected by but few. May the memory of his many errors be buried with him. He has left a wife and two small children who have been compelled to flee from him, and seek protection under the roof of strangers.” 

To make matters worse, William’s real father had been an outlaw in his own right. William “Red Bill” McGrew and his cousin William “Black Bill” McGrew, in their early twenties, had killed two teenage boys in Sumter County, Alabama in 1835. In May, Alabama Governor John Gayle put out an $800 bounty for their apprehension. From the Commercial Register of Mobile:

“Wanted - A Proclamation - On or about the first day of April of the present year [1835], William McGrew and William P. McGrew, in the county of Sumter [Alabama] murdered a couple of boys in the foulest manner, and under the most shocking and aggravated circumstances. The oldest of the lads was 16 or 17 years of age, and his little brother about 11 or 12. Their name was Kemp. They were peaceably at work, earning a subsistence for the indigent family to which they belonged, having given no offence or provocation whatsoever, when they were cruelly shot down at the same time, in a very wantonness of deliberate and cold blooded murder.”

Notices of the reward appeared in Mobile, New Orleans, and even in Texas. Soon another reward of three thousand dollars was raised by the citizens of Sumter and Marengo. Published in Mobile, New Orleans and in the Brazoria, Texas Republican 24 October 1835 was this descriptions of culprits:

“William P. McGrew (“Black Bill”) is about twenty four years of age, hair a little dark, fair skin and blue eyes; mild, and retiring look when sober; six feet high. William McGrew, (“Red Bill”) the cousin of the other, is about 21 years old, red hair, fair skin, eyes between gray and blue, six feet high, down look and forbidding countenance. Both addicted to intemperance.”

“Black Bill” McGrew fled to Texas, to a place “about 125 miles from Nacogdoches” where bounty hunters from Alabama “ handed a letter, perhaps from some authority in Texas, to a man there by the name of Bowie with the expectation of getting his assistance in the taking of McGrew; but he being the friend of McGrew showed him the letter. The party in pursuit of McGrew immediately became alarmed and fled,” according to the Voice of Sumter paper, Nov. 6, 1837. Eventually McGrew was betrayed by a man posing as a friend and turned over to the three bounty hunters. He was returned to Alabama where he escaped from the Mobile jail and was subsequently recaptured by the sheriff in Little Rock, Arkansas. As he was being returned to Alabama, he created such a commotion on board the steamboat trying to escape that the Captain was obliged to put him and the sheriff off at Vicksburg. He was then shackled and the sheriff and a contingent of men delivered him for trial in Sumter County. Tried for murder, he received a $500 fine and one year for manslaughter since evidence proved the Kemp boys had readied guns in an ambush position. In addition, the Kemp boys’ mother, who was the only eyewitness, told at least three different stories to different people, and did not fare well under cross-examination. Yet within the year, “Black Bill” died from his prison experience.

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