The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1877-09-16
The Death ~ tho Green Boys.

Gatesville Sun; About midnight on
the night of the 9th ultimo the house
was surrounded by n number of armed
men, variously estimated at from one
hundred to two hundred, who woke up
the Greens and said they were in search
OF horse thief named Pruitt, whom
they had traced from Brown county
that they believed he was secreted in
the house. and they wanted to search
for him. The Greens knew this was a
ruse to get them out, and refused to
allow any search. The leaders of the
mob then informed them that unless
the search was allowed they would
burn the house, The house was two
stories, and some renters who lived il
the lower story were told to move
out" as there was no desire to harm
them Some one or two of the mol
proposed killing them, but leader
said No. They may be the worse horse
thieves in TeNas but we don't know it
Let them alone. We have not come
for them A younger brother of tho
Greens, named Joe aged thirteen
showed desire to fight, but he wa,
promptly seized, carried oil and guard,
ed. Straw was then scattered arounC
the house and set on fire, but Mrs
Green, the mother of Bill and Jim
came from her own house, some hun
dred yards distant, and began moving
the straw away from the house. Two
OF the mob then wont OFT, got car
OF kerosene, split it open, threw it over
everything and set it on fire The
Ilames were soon beyond control In
the meantime Bill was coolly making
preparations for death. lie told his
wife what debts he owed, who was ow>
ing him, and what disposition to make
Of his property He then took his sis
ter by the hand and said Come, Belle
let us kneel down and pray like we
used to when we were children. They
'knelt down, and Bill prayed lie then
got up took his gun and stepped to the
door, when he fired and instantly kill,
ed one of the attacking party named
Nichols, and in another instant fell
himself riddled with bullets. In the
meantime Jim had done u good deal
Of shooting, but installing some bed
ding which lay in the yard for some
of the attacking party, he failed to
do much execution. BY this
time the flames had full pos
session of the house and the heat be,
came mbearable lie too started out
of the door only to fall beside his broth>
er, The roof being about to fall in, the
women seized them and dlow them out
to keep their bodies from being con,
sumed by the burning building. No
sooner had they done this than the mob
thrust them aside, and shot into the
bodies until certain that life was OK.
tinct, Their work being completed,
they then left 1t is rumored that four
or five Of them were wounded. Albert
Green, the father of these boys, was Il
gallant soldier and u good citizen
General Tom Green famous in Texas
history, was kinsman of theirs They
were closely related to some of the best
citizens in this county. But wrightful
ly or wrongtully the citizens believed
them to be thieves, and to this they
doubtless owe their death. An old
soldier, man who is one of the best
citizens we know of, told us that he
went there the next morning and saw
the scene of grief, of ruin and of death,
and that he would rather go through
SIX battles than to see it again