The Batson Gang

My grand father told me stories about meeting Bonnie and Clyde and their gang on a few occasions. He told me Bonnie was butt ugly, and Clyde never asked, but told how things would be.

He also told me how he taught one of the gang members how to use a cutting torch. (Was told, not asked by Clyde.)

Back in the 60's as a kid, I was fascinated with stories and Outlaw movies. Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Jesse James and such.

I always wondered if I was related to any outlaws.

Little did I know our family had a dirty secrete!

I call that secrete "The Batson Gang"

They may have not been famous, or well known outside of 

Cleaburne Tx, but the name Batson was a name you did not want to have in Johnson County Texas back in the 1930's. Even up to the 1970's "Batson" stories could still be told, but not in our family! Most I have found in newspaper clippings, and a couple of family members, who heard stories whispered late nights.

The Batson brothers like so many others growing up in the early 1900's had it hard. Their father was a sharecropper most of their childhood. 

There were 4 brothers all together. One died at age 3, another died when he was nine years old.

One had part of his hand blown off at 12 years playing with a stick of dynamite, and the other was blinded in one eye. (Same dynamite.)

I remember meeting one of the Batson gang a few times as a kid.

He was always smiling, and seemed to be a happy go lucky, type of person.

The Batson brothers were my great uncles, on my mother's side of the family.

In the 1930's the two Batson brothers knew every speakeasy from central to north Texas. If there was an illegal card game they knew when and where it was.

One day in 1935 their father was murdered on Main Street in Cleaburne Tx by a Mr. William Scarbrough. (That is another story.)

A few days later one of  the Batson brothers robbed a speakeasy.

He was sent to Huntsville state prison for 10 yrs. Which is what the clipping I started this story with.

A little history of Gov. "Ma" Ferguson.

 Her husband was also the Gov. of Texas at one time. He was caught for taking bribes and sent to prison. He was well liked at the time, so his wife Ma, ran for Gov. and won. She lost the following election, and won it again after. Now while her husband was in prison she pardon over 400 prisoners.

It seemed that if her husband liked a fellow inmate, or was paid a bribe, she would pardon those.

I don't know if someone paid for Odell Batson to be pardon, or if her husband liked him!

A few years later Odell and his brother were at it again with the law.

   

The Baton gang served their time.

Odell died from Swamp fever, which he caught in prison.

Fred died in 1967 from a knife blade that that had broke off in his skull in a bar fight 30 years earlier that was never removed.  It became dislodged and went into his brain. 

My family never talked about the two brothers.

Well they did, but it was in a good way. They told about how much they were loved, and cared for. The good memories before they turned to crime. Those were the stories I heard. Fred was the one I knew, always smiling and Happy go lucky.

GHOST PHOTOS

I am sure we all have those old family photos passed down from generation to generation.

Photos of our ancestors, that we have no clue about. No dates, names, or locations.

I have about one hundred pictures that belonged to my father.

About 30 years ago my father and I went though them, he knew the names of most of them. 

Some on his fathers side, others on his mothers.

He did go though and labeled those that he knew, but as with family pictures of old some he did not know.

The picture above was taken in the early 1900's. If I was to guess, it would be around 1925 or earlier. Since he did not have that many male relatives it helped to narrow it down.

Pictures like this and others I call "Ghost Photos".

It is a shame that the identity of these photos are lost in time.

I can be safe in guessing that these pictures were taken in Columbus Ohio since that is where my fathers family came from.

It would be nice if in the world of genealogy if there were a data base that we could place these Ghost Photos so others may search within dates and places. 

For now I will just have to keep moving on, trying to piece  these photos together by what information that my father told me, and with what I know from researching my family tree.

Maybe one day a distant cousin will happen to see this post, and recognize  one of these Ghost Photos as one that they have stored away.

Until then I will just enjoy these Ghost Photos and wonder what part of history they played in my life.

Without a Past

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. —George
Santayana

I was watching a video called  Pension Digitization Project at the National Archives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWV9ObQUDRc

  It is amazing how much History is still being found on the U.S. Civil War.

 I guess we all have are favorite periods of history.

As a small 10 year old I could not get enough of anything that dealt with Abraham Lincoln. Growing older my eyes were opened up to WWII. Staying up late on weekends watching old WWII movies with my dad, him explaining  about the different weapons, and the generals who commanded the troops. As a teen, I experience the making of history by living the Vietnam War though the eyes of Walter Cronkite. 

Today you can ask a youth about the attack on Pearl Harbor and most will not know, but ask about 9/11 and they will know. History changes for each generation. It is sad that our schools pick out bits of history to teach our children.

Not to long ago while researching my family history, I found a whole generation of my family who led Militia's during the Revolutionary War. Others that help in founding one of the Original Colonies of America. One of my distant grandfather was the author that drafted the revolt that started the Boston Tea Party in which Thomas Jefferson used parts of in the Declaration of Independence.

It is things like this that brings History alive to me!

We are all a part of History. Each day history is being made.

Don't let History past you and your children by.

Search out your families, help history come alive in your eyes, and the eyes of your children.

Tobe Batson was my Great grandfather. I had always knew that he was murdered in 1935, but never knew who did it.  One simple post on a genealogy forum and within one hour I was mailed this clipping.
I have noticed that in the world of Genealogy all a person has to do is ask! Now days with programs such as "Who Do You Think You Are" and "Finding Your Roots", Genealogy is a growing hobby. Or as in my case a passion! My Great grandmother (Tobe's wife) would always tell me stories of when she was growing up. When I was about 9 years old she told me that when she was a little girl, she saw a man get hanged. She said it was the worst thing she ever saw. Just listening to her tell it made me feel sick.
I have been doing my family research for about 30 years now.
Every week I find something new.
Now that I was sent this clipping, and told where she got it (GenealogyBank.com) I wasted no time in starting my own search!
I found a clipping that told of the trial of William Scarbro.
Tobe Batson's sons had a few headlines also.  "Delirious Cleburne Man bought here......" , another "Boy Gets Hand Blown up with Stick of Dynamite"  
I found several other articles. I think a book could be wrote about the Batsons in the early 1930's, that would make Bonnie and Clyde look tamed! 
 Maybe you don't know of anyone in your family who has made headlines, but you will never know till you start searching! 
Join some Genealogy forums, ask questions I am sure you will get a lot of help!

Just an Old Photo

Just an old Photo, well it is a photo of my Great Aunt Dana Kindred. taken about 1896.
I guess this photo would be one the oldest things I own. To you it would not mean anything, but to me it is a part of who I am. 
I always am thinking why I do certain things, why I am a proud American, what is the reason that I tried to teach my children the things I did.
As parents we try to raise our kids with values, morals, common sense  and quite a few other things.
Some of the things they learn, some they don't, but we give it our best shot.
There are generic things passed down from generation to generation. The color of our eyes, our hair.
I have blue eyes, my maternal grandfather had blue eyes, his father had blue eyes. My grand daughter is left handed, as is my daughter, so am I. My father was left handed and his father was.
Now back to the photo of my great aunt.
I really do not know much about her. My father told me how much he loved her, how sweet she was.
I do know she was buried at Los Alamos, National Cemetery.
One thing I  know is that some of those same morals, values, and common sense that she was taught, were things that her mother and father taught her, as they did her brother, who is my grandfather, who passed them on to my dad who passed them on to me, which I passed to my children, and I hope they passed on to theirs.
Even not ever meeting my Aunt Dana I know we are connected by more than blood. 
Genealogy is more than tracing our ancestors, It is our history of  what made us who we are not only as a person, but how we think, act, and respond the way we do.
You ever think " I am turning into my mom, or my dad!"  So when you think of your Family Genealogy there is more to it than a bunch of old family members. Pass on your family values. Pass on your family stories. 
Most of all Pass them on.