My Blog Note on the Morris Men, Hanged at Gainesville, Texas, in 1862

My note is at the end. I am very happy to see descendants of the hanged men going online in sites such as this one.

Gainesville, Texas 1862

Great Hanging at Gainesville, Cooke County, TX during the Civil War - October, 1862

Friday, March 25, 2011

Who's Who? The Morris Men

According to some accounts of the Great Hanging, there were four Morris Men who lost their lives in the hanging. Most accounts give only initials for the given names, such as W. W. Morris, M. W. Morris, John W. Morris, I. W. Morris, John A. Morris, etc.  It can be a little tricky trying to figure out just who is who.

McCaslin in his book "Tainted Breeze, The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas 1862," lists four men who were hanged with the surname of Morris.
Diamond’s account of the Great Hanging only identifies three men with the surname of Morris that were brought to trial before the Citizen's Court.
James Lemuel Clark has three Morris men on his list of men who were hanged.

Hershel Parker said...

I am a cousin of Aaron Hill, the Clerk of Cooke County in 1862. I have posted a review of McCaslin's THE GREAT HANGING on Amazon. My postscript there mentions a history of the hangings I have found--the first defense I have seen (1863). The writer--"P"--says that a reliable friend of his told him that Hesley [a misprint for Wesley] and Washington Morris, brothers, told him that they said they deserved death, that they and others from the timbers (the wooded area where Lincolnites had settled) had pre-selected the flat-land farm near Gainesville that they were going to seize after they had killed the inhabitants. Now, I vouch for nothing except for the writer's knowing some astonishingly verifiable details about some people involved. This was the Hanging Crew's history in 1863. Don't blame me for anything Cousin Aaron did but please do let me know if you have encountered anything about him that is not published in the obvious places!