The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 483
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Bonfoey Case at Marshall
still due the government was in doubt, and the doubt was
attributed by the Senate committee to the defalcations of the
deputy collectors under Bonfoey. The department later per-
mitted the sureties, against whom a judgment for $113,885.43
had been obtained, to settle the indebtedness for $5,500.00.58
This settlement led to charges of fraud and bribery on the part
of the sureties, but the matter was never pressed, and the
statute of limitations put an end to it.
The Committee on Claims, in view of the difficulties con-
fronting it with regard to the amount of the defalcations, etc.,
recommended that the sum of $13,000, the personal funds of
Mrs. Emily Bonfoey, be paid to her heirs. The committee dis-
approved a claim for interest on this money, although it had
been removed from the Bonfoey home by William Hawley,
who was undoubtedly aware of the ownership, and although
it had lain in the Treasury for about twenty-five years before
the committee made its report.59
VII
The murder of Mrs. Bonfoey profoundly affected and depressed
the people of Marshall and of East Texas. The political alliance
and official capacity of Bonfoey were such as to preclude, in
the popular mind, Mrs. Bonfoey's death at the hands of the
Federal military. Such an event was, therefore, bewildering
and deeply shocking, an outrage tending to overwhelm the
populace with fear.0 It was generally felt that if the wife of
a United States official could be so brutally slain without any-
one's being put in jeopardy for the crime, then, so far as the
average Southern ex-soldier and his family were concerned,
there was no safety or protection to be expected from the
military rulers. This feeling persisted during all the ensuing
years of the so-called Reconstruction period. A newcomer to
Marshall in 1877, ten years after the brutal murder, can recall
that the Bonfoey case was still a frequent topic of conver-
sation.6
5slbid., 10.
59 Ibid., 13.
6oGregg Family Reminiscences.
61Homer Price to H. T. D.483
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/551/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.