A Tragic Affair in Old Montgomery, Texas
The annals of history are often etched with tales of heroism and villainy, of fortunes made and lost, and of lives intertwined in the complex tapestry of human existence. Such is the story that unfolds in Old Montgomery, Texas, a narrative steeped in the tumultuous era following the Civil War, a period of Reconstruction and raw, untamed justice. At the heart of this tragic affair lies William J. McGrew, a man whose life was a paradox of Confederate service, alleged criminality, and a violent end.
Born in 1844, William J. McGrew’s early life was rooted in the states of Mississippi and Alabama. However, fate would lead him to Texas, where his story would become irrevocably linked with the small town of Montgomery. Initially, he embraced the Confederate cause, enlisting in Porter’s Guards, Company H of the 4th Texas Infantry, at the dawn of the Civil War. His military service, however, was short-lived, as he received a discharge in 1861 due to a disability at the young age of seventeen. Returning to Montgomery, McGrew eventually found a position as a lieutenant in the home guard, Company K of the 20th Texas Regiment, tasked with duties within Texas and the Indian Territory.
While McGrew served, the Cartwright brothers, also of Montgomery’s Bear Bend and fellow members of Porter’s Guards, were shipped to Virginia. One of the Cartwright brothers, E.W. "Ras" Cartwright, met an unfortunate end. While at a stop in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Ras, in an attempt to impress the gathered ladies, fell beneath the moving train, resulting in his death. The Cartwrights’ misfortune continued, with James Cartwright killed in the Wilderness Campaign and Lemuel Cartwright losing an arm. Of the 143 men of Porter’s Guards, only nine remained to surrender with Lee in April of 1865.
Following the close of the war in 1867, McGrew’s trajectory took an unexpected turn when he was appointed county attorney during the Reconstruction era. This appointment, however, did little to solidify his standing among the townspeople. His reputation became tarnished by accusations of being a Republican appointee by day and a Ku Klux Klan member by night, with horse thievery filling the spaces in between. Adding fuel to the fire were the actions of his younger half-brothers, John P. and Robert O. Oliver, teenagers whose behavior further agitated the community. The Oliver brothers were accused of riding their horses into businesses, shooting up the town, robbing, and stealing. This brew of perceived lawlessness and questionable allegiance would ultimately seal McGrew’s fate in Old Montgomery, Texas.
The Oliver brothers carried a dark legacy. Their father, Egbert O. "Eg" Oliver, McGrew’s stepfather, was shot in 1853 in old Montgomery. The Autauga Citizen reported that Oliver was shot after breaking out of jail and returning to town. In an attempt to arrest him, Oliver refused to surrender and appeared to be shooting at the citizens gathered around him, and was shot in the process.
William McGrew’s origins are further muddied by the fact that his real father, William "Red Bill" McGrew, was also an outlaw. William "Red Bill" McGrew and his cousin William "Black Bill" McGrew killed two teenage boys in Sumter County, Alabama, in 1835. Alabama Governor John Gayle issued an $800 bounty for their apprehension. The Commercial Register of Mobile described the crime as two boys murdered in the foulest manner and under the most shocking and aggravated circumstances. A $3,000 reward was raised by citizens of Sumter and Marengo counties.
"Black Bill" McGrew fled to Texas but was turned in by a man posing as a friend. He was eventually captured and tried for murder. He received a $500 fine and one year for manslaughter since the evidence proved the Kemp boys had readied guns in an ambush position. The Kemp boys’ mother also gave different stories and didn’t fare well under cross-examination. "Black Bill" McGrew died from his prison experience within the year.
Ironically, his name "William" was once honorable, passed down from "Black Bill’s" father, William McGrew, Territorial Representative, Colonel and commandant of the 15th Regiment Militia, Clarke County, Alabama, and a hero of the Creek War, killed by Indians at Bashi Creek in Alabama in 1813. "Bill" was only two years old when his father was ambushed, and his mother, Nancy Hainsworth McGrew Phillips, was later denounced as a "Jezebel" for harboring mixed Indians and borderers among her clan and for aiding and abetting the Kemp-McGrew feud.
"Red Bill" McGrew was arrested in St. Stephens, Washington County, Alabama, in June of 1836. He pled not guilty but was never tried. By the early 1840s, the cotton market was in shambles, and Caroline McGrew, "Red Bill’s" mother, moved her family to Claiborne County, Mississippi, after seeing her once-fine plantation sold for taxes.
McGrew cousins in old Milam, Sabine County, Texas, told a story of two men arriving sometime in the mid-to-late 1840s at their home. One was a McGrew cousin they called "Red," and he was wounded. The men had saddlebags full of gold, which they were taken to Mississippi. During the night, "Red" crept out, buried the gold, and returned to bed to die before morning. His mother’s estate papers in 1853 in Claiborne County, Mississippi, revealed that Bill was dead in Texas, survived by several children, including a son William – William J. McGrew.
The Cartwrights and McGrews knew each other back in old Washington County, Alabama. Thomas Peter Cartwright, the patriarch of the family, served on juries with the McGrews. Old John McGrew and his sons John Flood McGrew and Colonel William McGrew were judges and representatives of that area to the Mississippi Territorial Legislature. When they moved to Texas, the Cartwrights also became influential in county government.
About this time, Jesse James had camped at McGraw’s crossing of the San Jacinto River for a few weeks. When the gang departed, they left behind Charles "Tex" Brown, a Yankee sympathizer. "Tex," also believed to be a murderer and deserter from Wheeler’s Cavalry, then fell in with the McGrew-Oliver clan.
The event that triggered the tragic climax in Old Montgomery, Texas, is shrouded in some mystery. The county records offer little insight into the specific incident that ignited the violence. However, accounts passed down through generations paint a picture of escalating tensions and a community pushed to its breaking point.
According to Narcissa Boulware of the Montgomery County Times, Mrs. W.C. Cameron and Mr. Buck Martin recounted the gang stealing a fine horse from the Cartwrights and robbing the stores. This led to a mob forming at Bear Bend where the Gaffords, Cartwrights, and others lived. In Montgomery’s History, it is said that "Finally the citizenry had had enough, and led by the old family of Cartwrights from Bear Bend, they engaged in a bloody shootout with the outlaws in Montgomery which ranged over several blocks. At the end of the battle, all four desperadoes were dead and placed on Mrs. Oliver’s porch."
Cameron and Martin also recounted the deaths of one of the boys, "Bob Oliver, the youngest, was scarcely 16 years old at the time. When the shooting started, he ran to Mrs. Chilton’s house. The mob followed, promising not to shoot him if he would come out. Someone killed him with a Bowie knife. He ran back into the house before he died. Here, he died under a bed. The bloodstains can still be seen on the floor."
Judge Nathaniel Hart Davis recorded the bloody event on page 33 of his journal, "McGrew-Oliver Killing of December 28, 1868 – On December 28 in the forenoon, four men, William McGrew Esq. County Attorney for the last two years and his two half-brothers, John and Bob Oliver of this town and ‘Charles Brown’ of Cokesbury, South Carolina, alias ‘Texas Brown’ of whom an account is given in Harper’s Monthly of December 1868 were shot to death here (Montgomery) by some ten to 20 or thereabouts, men of this town and vicinity."
Davis continued, "McGrew, for a young man, was a moral disgrace to the legal profession as he was to the office he filled…On my return, I found quite a change for the better in Montgomery. It is now rather an orderly, quiet place. And the general expression is that much good was done in the killing of December 28."
The tragic end of William McGrew and his associates serves as a stark reminder of the volatile times in Old Montgomery, Texas. The slain men were denied burial within the consecrated grounds of the town’s original cemetery. Instead, they were interred just outside the gates, in what would later become known as Montgomery’s New Cemetery. Today, a Confederate States of America marker stands above the grave of Lieutenant William McGrew, but his younger stepbrothers, who lie buried beside him, remain unmarked and largely forgotten.
The only favorable remark about William McGrew came from the Houston Times, picked up by the Texas News, which said, "Mr. Brown of San Antonio and two brothers named Oliver and William McGraw were in no way connected with the difficulty. He was trying to prevent the parties from using their pistols."