Campbell Longley was born September 30, 1817 in Sevier Co. Tennessee to Joseph and Precilla Patterson Longley.
About the year 1828 they moved to McMinn Co., soon after Joseph died making Campbell the bread winner, he being the oldest of nine children. In 1836 , he joined a company of volunteers to go to Texas and fight in the war against Mexico. He served in the Army of the Republic of Texas from June 12, until September 13, 1836. He was in Sam Houston's camp when they brought Santa Anta in as a prisoner. His intentions were to return to McMinn Co., he caught a ship back home and got away from shore and ran into a storm and was shipwrecked near Matagordo Island when rescued he and his fellow travelers were starving and had the only clothing they wearing, he sold his discharge (which would have entitled him to some land) to buy clothing. Having no funds to return to Tennessee he stayed in Texas and Married Sarah Ann Henry, in 1838 he settled on a farm and raised ten children.
The sixth being William Preston (Bill) or "Wild Bill" as he was often referred to. His crime spree started when he was about fifteen years of age, when he shot and killed a black man whom he claimed was cursing his father. There are other versions this story, one was when he and some other boys rode into a "colored circus" and shot the place up and killed on of them. His killing went on till his father, who was an honest God fearing man, finally told him not to come around him anymore. He ran from the law for about twelve years. It ended in June of 1877 when Sheriff Milton Mast and deputy Bill Barrows crossed the Louisiana state line into Keatchie where Longley working for W. T. Gamble under the assumed name of "Bill Jackson, and arrested him for the murder of Wilson Anderson, who Longley had been led to believe, killed his nephew "Little" Caleb Longley. While he was in jail he wrote many letters mostly, he bragged about the number of people he had killed, by his account was 32, but according to Rick Miller who wrote "Bloody Bill Longley" in 1996 disputes Longley's claim and says there is no proof of that and, he also said Longley was one of the biggest liars in Texas, and puts the number at fourteen or fifteen. Miller was at the time Bell County Attorney and past president of an organization dedicated to separating fact from fiction, National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History, Inc. Friday, October 11, 1878 was a murky morning with a threat of rain, the road to Giddings, Texas was lined with wagons and carriages, along with horsemen, all compelled to witness the passing of the noted desperado. At 2:15 Longley climbed the stairs up the gallows, Judge Ezekiel B. Turner gave Sheriff Jim Brown the order to hang Longley until he was "dead dead dead". He was buried on the outskirts of Giddings on the Bastrop Road.
One of Longley's first cousin's was Francis Marion Longley, son of John C. and Hanna Ray Longley, settled in Lagrange, Georgia and elected Mayor, appointed Judge of The Coweta District and elected to both houses of the Georgia Legislature, he was also the great, great grandfather Ben Longley, who served in both houses of the Tennessee Legislature and represented Bradley, McMinn and Polk Counties.
P.S. My connection to this family is through Jonathan Longley, whose son, Reuben, used the original spelling LANGLEY. Jonathan was a brother to Joseph and John C., can you imagine anybody naming two of their sons John?
There was a short lived T. V. series about Longley, in the 1960s a typical Hollywood production, "The Texan" starring Rory Calhoun, they had him on the other side of the law.
There is much more to write about Longley, but there is also just so much space. I have put a copy of Rick Miller's book in the Historical Room in the Court House.
Kenneth Langley