T arleton's body remained on the college campus until 1928. In that year, Dean. J. Thomas Davis, chief administrator of the school, decided to build a Fine Arts Auditorium next to McIIhaney Street and had to move Tarleton's body before beginning construction. Davis evidently realized that disturbing Tarleton's grave might provoke some controversy in the Stephenville and college community, so he arranged to have the body moved at night to its current location. Despite his precautions, a large crowd showed up the night workmen arrived to disenter the body.
T wo interesting, but slightly divergent, accounts exist regarding what happened next.
According to Dr. Richard Thompson, whose father witnessed the exhumation, the bottom of Tarleton's coffin cracked open as the workmen raised it from the earth, spilling his remains on the ground. The workmen then scooped Tarleton's scattered bones into the box and moved it to the Washington and Lillian site. A slightly different version of this story has been provided by Mr. Barkley Thompson, Dr. Thompson's younger brother and an eight year old eyewitness to the event. According to him, Tarleton's coffin did not fall apart as it was raised from the ground. One of the men then retrieved the small wooden box and the workmen shoveled what was left of Tarleton's body into it so that it could be relocated.