True Grit

 

Article from The Gainesville Daily Hesperian

Richard Robert Creech

Richard left Sylvan Grove, Alabama, near Dothan, headed for Texas when he was only twenty-three. His father, David, had moved his family to Alabama from Georgia when Richard was a five-year-old and had settled into farming before being elected to the state legislature, and ultimately serving on the state’s secession committee, helping to form the Confederacy. David died during the Civil War in 1863, when Richard was still a young teenager. Richard’s eldest brother, Joshua, was killed the next year in the battle of Chickamauga, a conflict second only to Gettysburg in the number of casualties. Another older brother, Kenneth also served in the Confederate Army. Richard was too young for war.

So, in 1873, like his father before him, Richard determined to move westward. He settled in Wilson County, Texas, south of San Antonio, taking up, like his father, both farming and public service. Within a year after settling down in Texas, Richard married Emma M. Cocke, and they began their family. They would have ten children over the next twenty years, losing two of them as infants. At one point Richard and Emma owned four-hundred fifty acres of farmland in the county.

Emma M. Cocke Creech

Richard left farming to turn to merchandizing in the settlement called Union Valley, about twenty-two miles northeast of Floresville. In 1885 he was appointed Sheriff of Wilson County. He would be elected again in 1888 and 1890 and would serve several terms as Tax Assessor as well. In 1887 the county built a new jailhouse next to the courthouse and the Sheriff and his family took up residence on the first floor of the new facility. 

Snow on Wilson County Jailhouse 1926

This was life in the still wild west, as the incidents that follow will illustrate.
On May 30, 1889, Mrs. Lou Bryan, the wife of one of Richard’s deputies, claimed that a black man had assaulted and attempted to rape her at about 9:00 that evening. Investigation showed tracks leading to the home of Monroe Toodles, about 300 yards away. Toodles had already experienced some conflicts with the law in his past. Mrs. Bryan identified Toodles as her assailant and he was arrested.

A crowd of infuriated citizens gathered as word spread about what had taken place that night. A lynching was imminent. The Sheriff closely guarded the prisoner, and then, accompanied by a “strong guard of men armed and prepared to resist the would-be lynchers,” he whisked him off to the depot on horseback at full gallop when the train bound for San Antonio arrived. Toodles was rushed onboard the train with his armed guards. Passengers were frightened and thought they were about to be robbed in broad daylight. But Toodle's life was saved from the mob. For now.

Toodles was scheduled to appear before a grand jury in Floresville on June 17, 1889. When the Sheriff arrived at the depot with the accused, a threatening crowd met them. A large posse was required to escort the prisoner to the courthouse. While the hearing was taking place, the crowd grew “larger, more threatening, and angry.” They prepared to take Toodles away from the officers and hang him.

Meanwhile, a train arrived from Galveston, bound for San Antonio. Aboard were members of the Belknap and Maverick Rifles, returning from the Interstate Drill, where they had scored the highest scores ever made in competition. The Sheriff pressed these young militiamen into service to keep the mob at bay until Toodles could be taken back to the depot and transported to San Antonio for safety. After the grand jury’s indictment, the venue of the trial was moved to Galveston, and the trial was set for January 1890.

That very night the racial tension in the town grew even more. Dr. W. Watkins and Dr. H. B. Rabensberg (some accounts have Rosenberg) determined to ride out to the “colored colony” and seek vengeance on a black man, Abe Jefferson, with whom Watkins had a dispute. When they rode into the colony, Watkins spotted a man on horseback he believed to have been Jefferson, thinking he recognized the man’s horse. Watkins shot and killed the man, leaving his body in the street. As it turned out, he did not kill Jefferson, but Dr. Fouts, his own partner, who had been out on a medical call and was returning home.

Early the next morning, the Sheriff was informed of Fout’s murder and went to investigate. The doctor’s body had been lying in the street in the black community for several hours. Many immediately assumed that he had been killed by blacks in retaliation for the attempted lynching of Monroe Toodles, and Charles Whipper, a black man, was arrested on suspicion of the crime.

By mid-day an angry crowd of more than two-hundred armed men assembled in Floresville, ready to avenge the doctor’s death. Newspaper reports indicate that the crowd was from all portions of the county and included some of its best citizens. Strenuous efforts were required to persuade this mob to wait for the results of an investigation.

The Sheriff found Justice Jennings and a secret inquest was begun at noon and continued until 2:00 PM the next day. Charles Whipper was released and Drs. W. Watkins and H. Rabensberg were made to answer for the crime.

Not everyone was pleased with the decision, but according to reports, those who were able to hear the evidence were persuaded that the Justice made the right call. 

On January 15, 1890, in Galveston, Texas, Toodles’ trial was held. He pled not guilty. Mrs. Lou Bryan testified of her experience. By the end of the day, the trial was in the hands of the jury, who deliberated for five days before returning a verdict of guilty. Reports were that the panel was split 9-3 in favor of a guilty verdict for several days. Toodles was sentenced to serve two years in the state penitentiary. He died in the prison before completing his sentence. The cause of death is not known.

The 39-year-old Sheriff who faced down mobs of people who had elected him to serve, and who would eventually elect him to another term and to four terms as their Tax Assessor, who protected the rights of a black man accused of assaulting the wife of one of his own deputies, was Richard Robert Creech. He was my great-grandfather. 

Details about the incident described are taken from accounts in the Galveston Daily News and the Gainesville Daily Hesperian.

Wilson County Jailhouse Museum, Floresville, TX