The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 368

368

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Stone,37 whose appointment were then unanimously endorsed by
the meeting.
This com. retired and after consultation, recommended as the
Jury of twelve the following names:"8 Samuel A. Doss, John W.
Hamill," Reason Jones," Ben Scanland," J. P. Long,'2 W. J.
Simpson,'" Wiley Jones," Thomas Barrett," Danl Montague, J. A.
listed in the 1850 Census, Grayson County, Texas, family no. 159, but moved,
apparently, to Cooke County the same year, being elected district clerk of Cooke
County in 1850. Smith, First zoo Years in Cooke County, 31; Seymour V. Connor,
The Peters Colony of Texas (Austin, 1959), 282; U. S. Seventh Census, 185o
(Returns of Schedule 1, Free Inhabitants, for Cooke County, Texas, microfilm,
Dallas Public Library), family no. 159; U. S. Eighth Census, 186o (Returns of Sched-
ule 1, Free Inhabitants, for Cooke County, Texas, microfilm, Dallas Public Library).
87J. B. Stone was born in Virginia in 1823. He was a practicing physician in
Gainesville at the time of the Great Hanging in 1862. Ibid.
"8Reference to each of the twelve jurors is made below by the author under his
heading of "Character of Court."
"8John W. Hamill was one of the two ministers named to serve on the "Citizens
Court."
"Reason Jones was born in Tennessee in 1813 and settled in Cooke County as a
farmer in the 1850's. U. S. Eighth Census, 186o (Returns of Schedule 1, Free
Inhabitants, for Cooke County, Texas, microfilm, Dallas Public Library).
"Ben Scanland was born in Tennessee in 1818. He settled in Cooke County after
1850, taking up land to farm. He was named a member of the first grand jury
empanelled in Cooke County (1858). Ibid.; Smith, First zoo Years in Cooke
County, 25.
42J. Pope Long, a land owner in the Sivil's Bend area in Cooke County, was one
of two physicians appointed on the "Citizens Court." He later moved to the Coesfield
community of Cooke County. Ibid.
'W. J. Simpson was born in Tennessee in 1812. He moved to Texas after 1850,
taking up land in Cooke County to farm. U. S. Eighth Census, 186o (Returns of
Schedule 1, Free Inhabitants, for Cooke County, Texas, microfilm, Dallas Public
Library) .
"Wiley Jones, a fifty-six-year-old farmer in 186o, was born in North Carolina.
He was a member of the commissioners court of Cooke County in 1861. Ibid.; Smith,
First zoo Years in Cooke County, 243-
'"Thomas Barrett, physician and minister, was born in Anson County, North
Carolina, on June 21, 18og. After residing in Missouri for a number of years, he
moved with his family to Hopkins County, Texas, in 1848. He moved to Gainesville,
Cooke County, in 186o. He began the practice of medicine in 1838 and was ordained
later as a minister in the Disciples of Christ.
Barrett's account of the events narrated by Diamond, The Great Hanging at
Gainesville, was the only known summary of those events from a contemporary
observer, or participant, until George W. Diamond's chronicle in manuscript form
came to light in 1962. (Publication of the Diamond account is made possible by the
interest in Texas history of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Harlan of Dallas, Texas. Mrs.
Harlan is a granddaughter of George W. Diamond.)
The Reverend Thomas Barret wrote in 1885 that he was opposed to the hangings