Biography - Thomas Wesson

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txnavarr/biographies/collections/sheriffs.htm is this statement in the paragraph on Sheriff Ewing E. DUNN: "Sheriff Dunn stated he had disposed of the outlaws Frank Cloud, John Polk, Jesse Reese, and Tom Wesson, although he did not specify how he disposed of them."

I was researching my WESSON and BURT connections in Navarro Co. when I came across the 1880 census entry for Ewing DUNN, which includes not only his family but also the inmates in the Navarro County Jail as of 3 Jun 1880, the census date: see http://www.rootsweb.com/~txnavarr/census/1880/493c.tif. Included among those sixteen prisoners were Thomas WESSON (line 18) and John POLK (line 25), so Sheriff DUNN had by that date disposed by incarceration at least two of the four men mentioned in his profile.

An interesting side note: this Thomas WESSON, b abt 1854 in TX (either Smith Co., where his parents m in 1852, or Polk Co., where they lived in 1860), was the son of Thomas E. WESSON and Sarah BURT, who had earlier been married to John A. STAPLER. Sarah's eldest child, Elizabeth STAPLER, earlier married to H. Dempsey COOK, became the fourth wife of Jesse Simeon WALTON, once sheriff of Navarro Co. (and profiled on the same page as the other sheriffs, including Ewing DUNN and Jesse's own son, James Lanier WALTON). So, Elizabeth STAPLER COOK WALTON had a half-brother, Tom WESSON, who was jailed by one of Sheriff WALTON's successors in Navarro Co.!

Seems Jesse S. WALTON was a productive lawman and father: he married four times, fathering nine children with his first wife, none with his second wife, seven (and perhaps as many as ten) with his third wife, and five with his fourth, the last born when Jesse was age 70 (or 71).

I am descended from Elizabeth STAPLER through her eldest child, dau Matilda Catherine COOK, a woman known from childhood by the name Kate Walton, although to our knowledge Jesse S. WALTON never legally adopted her. Kate m Willis W. CURLEE of Falls Co., their union producing my paternal gfather, Bert CURLEE.

Notes:

Submitted by: Robert R. "Bob" Curlee