If you've read my blog posts, you know I’m participating in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52Weeks challenge. The writing prompt for Week 4 is Witness to History. I could think of several ancestors to write about, but one really stood out for this challenge. Her name was Catherine (Petell) Teel.
First, let's take a look at the background of the people and places leading up to The Great Hangings.
Catherine (Petell) Teel (1853-1929)
My 3rd great-grandmother, Catherine (Petell) Teel, experienced the horrors of an event in Texas history that isn’t well known to a lot of people. Whether Catherine was there in person or at home, this event must have had a profound impact on her life.
Catherine (a/k/a “Kate” or “Kathleen”) and her siblings were all born in Texas, according to records. Her siblings were Malinda (1854-1928), Manuel (1856-1870), and John Hoosier F. Petell (1860-1930). Stories passed down by her descendants – families that had not been in touch for many years - relate that their parents were killed by Native American Indians, and the Cockrum family that raised them were “no kin”. DNA testing, however, shows the Petell children are related to their “guardian” (Henry and Elizabeth Cockrum) family.
Henry Cockrum (1832-1862)
Henry Cockrum was probably born in Illinois (where his parents lived at the time of his birth, according to records). He married Elizabeth Jones on 19 May 1849 in Fannin County, Texas. Elizabeth Lackey (1822-1906) had been married twice prior – to John Petell and a Jones. By 1858, Henry had moved his family to Cooke County, Texas.
By 1862, Henry had moved his large family back to Cooke County, Texas, and evidently (my assumption, no proof) he must have been part of (or associated with) the people that formed a group called the Union League. Members joined for varying reasons – to avoid the draft, to provide protection against the Indians, etc. For whatever reason, the Union League grew in numbers. Evidently it was too large a number (up to 1,700) of members and had the Confederates concerned.
Henry’s association with the Union League, or having friends or family who were members, led to him being a part of the “The Great Hanging”, and Catherine’s being a witness or in close proximity to that horrible event.
Reports and stories vary as to exactly how this event occurred. There are many sources for the story online, including McCurley Museum - The Great Hanging at Gainesville and Mass Hanging at Gainesville, Texas – Legends of America.
The Gainesville Hangings or The Great Hanging
* The Gainesville hangings took place in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas, on October 12, 1862.
* This event was a mass hanging of 41 men and women, who were suspected Union sympathizers during the Civil War.
* The hanging was ordered by Confederate authorities in response to perceived Unionist sentiment in the region. The Confederates had captured between 150 to 200 men in Cooke County (or nearby towns and counties).
* Many of the suspects were tried by a “Citizens Court”. 7 of the 12 men on the jury were enslavers. At the time, the households that enslaved people were 11% in Cooke County.
* The victims were accused of supporting the Union or aiding Union soldiers and charged with insurrection and treason.
* 14 of the victims were lynched without a trial within 2 days of the trial on October 12 and 13, 1862.
* Henry Cockrum was one of the men hung on October 13, 1862. Stories passed down in the families of Amanda (Cockrum) Meler, Henry and Elizabeth’s daughter, state that Amanda said she watched her father hang. I know that hangings were a public event "back in the day". Can you imagine? I can't. The crowds were probably packed around the ‘hanging tree’. Was my own Catherine, age 9, there? Were Malinda, who had turned 8 a couple of months before, Manuel, around 6 years old, and 2 year old John Hoosier F. Petell there to watch their father-figure hang? I have a sick feeling they were there with Elizabeth and her children, including Amanda, crying out for their daddy.
* Mob pressure prevailed, and another 19 men who had been acquitted were brought back into court, convicted with no new evidence, and hung on October 16, 1862.
* Three other men were shot to death.
* The exact details and circumstances surrounding the hanging vary in historical accounts.
* It remains a tragic and controversial event in Texas history, highlighting the tensions of the Civil War era.
According to some reports, 42 widows and about 300 children were left without their husbands and fathers, and at least 2 families lost men and their wives. Elizabeth (Lackey) Petell Jones Cockrum now had to fend for her own 4 children and the 4 Petell children who had been in her and Henry’s care since October 1860.
I put myself back into time on those days in October 1862. I can hear Catherine, Elizabeth and the children crying, along with the children of the other men who were hung that day. It breaks my heart.
I wondered about the bodies. What happened to them? Some reports say they were thrown into a mass grave. Some say family members were able to get possession of their family members after paying a fee. What happened to Henry Cockrum's body? The Lackey-Cockrum researchers say he was buried in the mass grave.
I talked with some of the older members in my family years ago. No one, including ones who had known Catherine's husband, T.A. Teel, had ever heard of Catherine’s story of Henry Cockrum and The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas.
Even if Catherine was not a witness to the hangings, she knew about it. Those days in October 1862 changed the Cockrum family forever, as well as their friends, neighbors and other family members.
I truly hope she wasn’t there in person.
- Revis
What an incredible story of heartache, sadness and malice. I never heard this story before. A true genealogy find that brought this to light. How horrible it must have been for the family. Prayers that our good Lord has brought forgiveness to all involved.
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