Comanche National Bank Robbed!
Of course we never think that it could happen; the people of Comanche, Texas and most especially those working in the Comanche National Bank at 11:25 a.m. on December 12, 1968, didn’t think it could...
View ArticleHazel Dell, Texas Was A Rough, Rough Place!
As the T-shirt says, “Nice people rarely make history,” and unfortunately, this is usually true. Thus it is with the history of Hazel Dell, Texas; the stories that have survived and that have pricked...
View ArticleTexas Counties Plagued With Outlaws After Civil War
The Civil War did much more than divide families over political issues. The war itself and Reconstruction which followed bred a type of man who was bitter and often willing to become the vilest type...
View ArticleMob Violence In Brown, Comanche, Erath, Hamilton Counties
Hangings On The Texas Frontier By the early 1870s, some settlers had been living on the Texas frontier for almost twenty years, and they were tired. They had seen drought and famine; they had buried...
View ArticleHanging The Fraley Brothers In Hazel Dell, Texas
The following are the memories of Tom Conaway, long-time Hazel Dell resident, as related to Billy Bob Lightfoot in 1949 (who went on to become Dr. Lightfoot), and I have to tell you that I hate this...
View ArticleM.R. “Boss” Greene Chases Outlaw Joe Horner
After the Civil War, M.R. “Boss” Greene went on to become a Deputy U.S. Marshall who lived in Comanche, Texas. In 1876 a wanted criminal by the name of Joe Horner rode into town and robbed the banking...
View ArticleDeputy U.S. Marshal M.R. Boss Greene Is Murdered
True historians struggle on a daily basis to write the facts; they also try extremely hard not to rewrite history. However, since none of us has a time warp to transport us back into the past, there...
View ArticleComanche’s William Stephens Murdered in 1880
The town of Comanche, Texas was rocked by yet another murder of one of its citizens in 1880; however, the deed didn’t happen in Central Texas, but rather in Kansas. Apparently, the west wasn’t terribly...
View ArticleWire Cutting In Comanche County In The 1880s
F.H. Oberthier was an early resident of Comanche County. He was born in about 1868, and he married Amanda Holmsley in January of 1894 in Comanche. By 1944, Obertheir lived in Herford, Texas, and he...
View ArticleYou Won’t Steal OUR Horses Again!!
I hate the thought of anything to do with a mob or mob mentality, and our part of Texas has seen a lot of it throughout history. From my corner of the couch and with my laptop literally in my… This...
View ArticleThe Santa Clause Bank Robbery
Santa Claus A Bank Robber?* It was December 23, 1927, and all across Texas people were preparing for Christmas as they struggled to find that last minute gift or, even more so, as they struggled to put...
View ArticleBank Robbery In Proctor, Texas!
This week I have borrowed from a “Wagon Wheels” article published in the Comanche Chief in 1987. It caught my eye because my grandparents’ Proctor home was featured on the same page and because John...
View ArticleThe Government Wants Its Guns Back
Some Things Never Change! The following was printed in Comanche, Texas in the Comanche Chief on May 22, 1879, and it is especially interesting to me since I have spent years researching John Wesley...
View ArticleMurder Spree In Comanche County, Texas
As I’ve said before, Comanche, Texas just couldn’t get past being a rough, rough frontier town. This fact was never more clear than it was in the summer of 1880. (I can’t guarantee my spelling of...
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