CHAPTER LII.

Burning of Court House-Killing of Turner, Hunter and Pidcoke-Trials of the Accused-Rebuilding of the Court House, etc-Jails.

During the period of which we are now writing (1873 to 5) high crimes and misdemeanors seem to have marked our past record with many dark pages. Some reckless and daring characters became prominent in the citizenship of the county. Their business seemed to be, to thrive by any methods howsoever dishonest. The criminal dockets were replete with charges of cattle stealing and other offenses of like character. Forgeries in land titles were strongly suspected, and charged in some instances, and on the night of March 5, 1875, the citizens of Granbury were aroused from their slumbers by the alarm of "fire!" to see the first great display of flames and sparks in the history of the town, as the consuming element was fast destroying the court couse [sic], with all the county's records, including numbers of private deeds and papers, deposited there for record. The loss of the building was incomparably small to the great loss, inconvenience and expense resulting to private interests, felt severely in all the intervening years down to the present day, and which will probably continue for many years hence. The fire was evidently the work of incendiarism, by whom, or for just what motive, was never developed, but criminating and recriminating charges were made on the streets, bitterness, discontent and fear seemed to forebode a coming crisis in the affairs of men hitherto more or less prominent. Shortly after the court house burning, Dr. D.K. Turner and James Counts, both desperate men, meeting upon the square, a quarrel ensued, and instantly the Doctor's pistol was leveled on Counts, who, being thus put to disadvantage, was backed at the point of the weapon across the square, while curses and personal abuse were heaped upon him without stint, until the Doctor of his own volition ceased to follow up and abuse his apparently helpless and cowering foe. Was this the end of it? Those who had long known Counts, said no, and so it proved; for on the night of May 5, 1875, just two months from the burning of the court house, Turner, while seated in his own home with his family, was shot and mortally wounded by the contents of a shot gun, through his window, over which a blanket hung to shield the inmates from outside view, a precaution the Doctor had practiced since the affair with Counts. Dr. Turner died after a few days of suffering, lamented by his friends. James Counts remained in Granbury attending to his affairs as usual, no clue other than mere suspicion pointing to him as concerned in the perpetration of the crime; while a cousin of his, Nick Counts, fled the county on the same night, hiding himself for some days in the rough portions of Erath county, where, to men in whom he confided, he confessed himself the principal in the murder, and left the state. After an absence and immunity for more than ten years, his confessions were brought to light, and indictment found, his whereabouts ascertained, arrest and trial, with conviction and life sentence to the penitentiary following at the fall term of our district court in 1886. Meanwhile James Counts had lived in the county unmolested for this offense, still, because of other crimes of less grade he had suffered sentence and imprisonment, and escaping, permanently vanished.

On April 29, 1875, just a few days prior to the killing of Turner, and in no manner connected with it, another man of reputed desperate character by the name of Sam Hunter, was killed as he was passing the residence of W.H. McClatchey near deCordova bend on the Brazos river. This affair was wrapped about in so much mystery, and taking into consideration the violent character borne by Hunter and the mental state of McClatchey, who was charged with the killing, that after several trials, including an appeal to the higher court, McClatchey was acquitted. Hunter, who had lived in the neighborhood but a few years, though in other respects bearing a good character, had by his disposition to boast of his personal prowess, and his habit of always going heavily armed, made a number of enemies.

It was perhaps some time prior to the foregoing homicides that the death of J.E. Pidcoke, a prominent citizen of Granbury, occurred, evidently from poisoning; and the circumstances attending it caused the arrest of his wife and James Counts, and the most sensational trial of these parties under accusations of murder, upon a change of venue to Johnson County, which ever grew out of an affair origination upon our soil. The evidence being wholly circumstantial, the parties were finally acquitted.

Let us now drop these annals of crime, which have blackened our pages, and turn to the more pleasing themes of a peaceful career, which now dawned upon our history, and during which our little county developed from its people characters who have become prominent, not only locally, but in the affairs of the state.

Very soon after the burning of the courthouse the police court took steps for rebuilding, which were perhaps accelerated by a proposition from Capt. Milliken to remove the county site to Thorp Spring, accompanied by some agitation tending to so disturb the friends and property owners of Granbury as to be met by them with the proposition to rebuild the court house at Granbury without cost to the county. The contract was let in the spring of 1875 to Evans, Strain & Haney, they rebuilding upon the foundation and part of the burnt walls of the old building. By Nov. 6th the house was presented to, and accepted by the court, ready for occupancy. Not long afterwards its walls cracked and had to be supported by iron cross ties, and was always a menace till its demolition in 1890, when it was supplanted by the present building at a cost of $40,000, completed in 1891.

A wooden jail had been built about as early as 1873. This building, converted into a residence, is still standing, and answered the county's uses till 1886, when the present jail took its place at a cost of $9,500. The county's bonds were of course issued for these costly buildings and are still largely outstanding.

2000 HOOD COUNTY TEXAS HISTORICAL DOCUMENT TRANSCRIPTION TEAM