Horse Thieves

My wife's ancestor John W. Longacre survived the Florida Indian Wars and the Civil War but after moving to Texas was on the wrong side of an encounter with some Texas horse thieves.

John Longacre enlisted on Sept. 8, 1836 in Claysville, AL and served 18 months in the Florida Indian Wars.

He later served in Company G of the 7th Alabama Infantry during the Civil War, enlisting at age 46 on April 1, 1861. He moved to Texas before the war ended where he met and married Lieu Hamby Caraway in Erath County.

I met several relatives who were researching John Longacre and we knew he died in 1872 but didn't know anything about his death. One day while searching some online reference books I found the following entry about him.

"Alabama Records, Vol. 162, Jackson County" complied by Pauline Jones Gandrud pg. 75

Sep 20 1872 - John Longacre, formerly of Jackson County died recently in Texas from a pistol shot received while attempting to arrest two horse thieves. Mr. L. was a soldier of the Florida War and was well known in Jackson.

John Longacre died three months before his last child and my wife's ancestor, Benjamin Franklin Longacre was born.

Lou Caraway Longacre remarried two years after John's death having six small children and no husband. Her second husband was George Colett McDermott and she had four more children with him. They are both buried in the Aycock Cemetery in rural Erath County Texas.