The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1869-03-27
History of Cullen Baker, the Terror of
Three states.

tnree states.
From the Memphis Avalanche, January %.
Many persons of North Mississippi
aud West Tennessee are familiar with
the name and deeds of William Cullen
Baker, the notorious desperate and un-
serupulous murderer of Eastern Texas,
who was killed on the 10th of January
In Lafayette county, Arkansas, by his
father-ln-law and brother-in- n-law, as de-
tailed a few days ago in the Aualanche
Baker was certainly one of the worst
characters of this age, and brief sketch
of his career is worthy of record as a
part of the history of the great South
west. His life, taken as whole, dem
onstrates with peculiar force the weak
ness of "frail humanity" and the tenacity
with which events shape mans destiny.
Cullen Baker, the almost beardless lad
who, by his daring demeanor and insa-
table thirst for human blood, has been
for months the terror of the citizens, as
well as the military authorities, was the
son Of an eminent divine of Texas, aud
his character from boyEood to the fatal
hour when grim visaged war stalked into
our land, had been unexeeptionable.
Few young men started life with
brighter prospects, and certainly not one
ever enjoyed in more eminent degree
the confidence and esteem of his friends
and neighbors. When the shrill trum-
pet sounded to arms the braves of the
South, Cullen Baker, fred by true,
patriotic devotion to the land of his birth,
forsook the pursuits of his civil life and
promptly shouldered his musket in the
hyyc fh bo
who had grown up to manhood with him
The volcano that had been smothered in
his breast soon sent forth its lava, and
before the roll of his company had been
called for a twelvemonth, Cullen Baker
had been marked as the sterrible rife
man." The unmistakable attributes of
a desperate soon developed themselves
in his character, and 'blue-jacket dew
ils," as he was wont to denominate the
soldiers of the Federal army, were forced
to kiss the dust before his unerring aim.
When that branch of the Confederate
army to which he was attached grounded
arms and surrendered to the Federal
Government, Cullen Baker declined to
accept the terms or abide the conditions,
and mounting his fiery .horse-one of the
swiftest since the days of Claude DuvaPs
bonnie Black Bessie rode away to the
wilds of East Texas, proclaiming him
self the last survivor of the Lost Cause,
who would never surrender until the
Confederacy was fully established-its
authority recognized by all the Powers
of the earth. True TO his rash VOW, he
soon achieved considerable notoriety in
Harrison, Marion and Davis counties, in
Texas, for his intense animosity against
everything savoring of "Yankeeism."
During the year he committed several
murders, his victims invariably being
either negroes, Federal soldiers or noisy
1Union men,"
In the fall of 1865, a reward of 81 900
was offered by the Federal military
authorities of Texas for his head.
Scouting parties were sent out in all
sections OF the country to try to catch
him. He warned the citizens that if
any Of them dared to intimate to those
who sought to capture him, anything in
reference to his movements, he would
visit upon them the most terrible pun.
ishment. So well they knew the man
that no citizen could be found with suf.
ficient knowledge of the stopping places
of Cullen Baker to enable them to tell,
with any degree Of accuracy, where Gull
len Baker could be found
So terrible did he become that the
military authorities raised the reward Of
fered for his head from 81, 900 to $10,-
600. While riding along the road on
one occasion, he observed the procla-
nation offering $4,000 for his head
sticking to a tree, He read it, and,