Rube Burrow, king of outlaws, and his band of train robbers

by George W. Agee

Memphis, Tenn., December, 1890.

CONTENTS.

Chapter I.
	PAGE
Lamar County, Alabama—The Home of the Burrow Family—Biographical Sketch of Rube Burrow’s Ancestors	[1]
Chapter II.
Rube Leaves Lamar County, Alabama—His Early Life in the Lone Star State—His Brother Jim Joins Him—The Bellevue, Gordon and Ben Brook, Texas, Train Robberies	[8]
Chapter III.
The Genoa, Ark., Robbery, December 9, 1887—Arrest of William Brock—His Confession	[19]
Chapter IV.
The Pinkertons After Rube and Jim Burrow in Lamar County—Their Narrow Escape	[27]
Chapter V.
Rube and Jim Board an L. & N. Railway Train at Brock’s Gap—Their Arrest and the Subsequent Escape of Rube	[31]
Chapter VI.
Rube Burrow Returns to Lamar County—Joe Jackson Joins Him in March, 1888—Their Trip into Baldwin County, Alabama	[38]
Chapter VII.
The Ride into Arkansas to Liberate Jim Burrow—Failure and Return to Mississippi	[42]
Chapter VIII.
Rube Burrow and Joe Jackson Leave Arkansas—They Turn up as Cotton Pickers in Tate County, Mississippi	[45]
Chapter IX.
Jim Burrow Arraigned—Trial Postponed—His Return to Little Rock Prison—Letters Home—His Death in Prison	[49]
Chapter X.
The Duck Hill, Miss., Robbery—The Killing of Passenger Chester Hughes	[52]
Chapter XI.
The Cold-blooded Murder of Moses Graves, the Postmaster of Jewell, Alabama	[61]
Chapter XII.
Smith Joins Rube Burrow and Joe Jackson—The Buckatunna Robbery	[68]
Chapter XIII.
The Capture of Rube Smith and James McClung at Amory, Miss.—McClung’s Confession—A Plan to Rob the Train Falls Through—A Safe Robbery Nipped in the Bud	[82]
Chapter XIV.
A False Alarm—The Ox-cart Trip to Florida—The Separation—Rube Located at Broxton Ferry—His Escape	[91]
Chapter XV.
Capture of Joe Jackson	[104]
Chapter XVI.
Confession of Leonard Calvert Brock, alias Joe Jackson, made at Memphis, Tenn., July 19, 1890, and Corrected and Amended at Jackson, Miss., October 16, 1890	[107]
Chapter XVII.
Rube Smith’s Plot to Escape from Prison—His Plans Discovered—The Tell-tale Letters	[136]
Chapter XVIII.
Rube Burrow Harbored in Santa Rosa—The Flomaton Robbery	[142]
Chapter XIX.
Rube Routed from Florida—The Chase into Marengo County, Ala.—His Capture	[151]
Chapter XX.
Rube’s Last Desperate Act—Escape from Jail—The Deadly Duel on the Streets of Linden—The Outlaw Killed	[164]
Chapter XXI.
Tragic Suicide of L. C. Brock, alias Joe Jackson—He Leaps from the Fourth Story of the Prison into the Open Court, Sixty Feet Below, Causing Instant Death—His Last Statement	[176]
Chapter XXII.
Rube Smith’s Trial for the Buckatunna Mail Robbery—An Unsuccessful Alibi—Perjured Witnesses—Masterly Speeches—Conviction and Sentence	[185]
Chapter XXIII.
Conclusion	[191]

RUBE BURROW.

CHAPTER I.
LAMAR COUNTY, ALABAMA—THE HOME OF THE BURROW FAMILY—BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF RUBE BURROW’S ANCESTORS.

Lamar County, Alabama, the home of the Burrow family, has become historic as the lair of a robber band whose deeds of daring have had no parallel in modern times, and the halo of romance with which that locality has been invested has converted its rugged hills into mountain fastnesses, its quiet vales into dark caverns, and the humble abodes of its inhabitants into turreted fortresses and robber castles. The county of Lamar, divested of the drapery of sensationalism, is one of the “hill counties” of northern Alabama, and takes high rank in the list of rich agricultural counties of the State. It possesses a charming landscape of undulating hill and dale, watered by limpid streams, and amid fertile valleys and on the crests of its picturesque uplands are found the peaceful and prosperous homes of many good and law-abiding people, thus proving that good people are indigenous to every clime and land where the hand of civilization has left its kindly touch. “It does not abound in grand and sublime prospects, but rather in little home scenes of rural repose and sheltered quiet.”

Lamar County was formed in 1868 from the most fertile portions of Fayette and Marion Counties, and has changed its name three times; first it was called Jones, then Sanford, and, finally, it was named Lamar, in honor of the distinguished statesman and jurist who now adorns the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. This section of the State, though not until the last decade possessed of the advantages of development which more fortunate sections have long enjoyed, has always had an excellent citizenship. Here, in the olden time, were found ardent followers of the political faith of the founders of the Republic, and while the bonfires of the zealous pioneers of that day and time lighted the hill tops, the valleys of that section of northern Alabama reverberated with the campaign songs of their enthusiastic compatriots. From this section, no less renowned in war than in peace, a large company of soldiers was sent to the Creek war, and a full quota of gallant men went forth to the Confederate army, three companies of which were in the Twenty-sixth Alabama Infantry, one of the most superb regiments in the Army of Northern Virginia.

This much, in truth and justice, should be said in behalf of Lamar County, which has gained an unenviable notoriety as the birthplace of Rube Burrow, and later as the rendezvous of his confreres in crime. When metropolitan places, with well-equipped police powers, give birth to such social organizations as the anarchists in Chicago and the Italian Mafia in New Orleans, and become asylums for organized assassins, the good people of these cities are no more responsible for the resultant evils than are the law-abiding people of Lamar County, Alabama, for the deeds of outlawry of which one of her citizens, by the accident of birthplace, was the chief exponent. The Burrow family, however, were among the earliest settlers of Fayette County, Alabama, from which Lamar was taken, and from their prolific stock descended a numerous progeny, who, by the natural ties of consanguinity, formed a clan amongst whom the bold outlaws found ready refuge when fleeing from the hot pursuit organized in the more populous localities which were the scenes of their daring crimes. Chief among Rube’s partisans and protectors was James A. Cash, a brother-in-law.

Allen H. Burrow, the father of Rube, was born in Maury County, Tenn., May 21, 1825, his parents moving to Franklin County, Ala., in 1826, and who, in 1828, settled within the vicinity of his present home in Lamar County, Ala. In August, 1849, Allen Burrow married Martha Caroline Terry, a native of Lamar County, who was born in 1830. From this union were born ten children—five boys and five girls. John T. Burrow, the oldest child, lives near Vernon, the county seat of Lamar. Apart from harboring his brother Rube, while an outlaw, he has always borne a fair reputation. He is of a rollicking disposition, possesses a keen sense of the ridiculous, is a fine mimic and recounts an anecdote inimitably, and, though crude of speech and manner, having little education, is a man of more than average intelligence. Jasper Burrow, the second son, is a quiet, taciturn man; he lives with his father, and is reputed to be of unsound mind. Four of the daughters married citizens of Lamar County. The youngest, who bears the prosaic name of Ann Eliza, is a tall blonde of twenty summers, and is yet unmarried. She is of a defiant nature, has a comely and attractive face, and is a favorite with many a rustic youth in the vicinage of the Burrow homestead. She was devoted to Rube, afforded a constant medium of communication between the parental home and the hiding place of the outlaws, and was the courier through whom Rube Smith was added to the robber band while in rendezvous in Lamar County.

Reuben Houston Burrow, the outlaw, was born in Lamar County, December 11, 1854. His early life in Lamar was an uneventful one. He was known as an active, sprightly boy, apt in all athletic pursuits, a swift runner, an ardent huntsman and a natural woodsman. He possessed a fearless spirit, was of a merry and humorous turn, a characteristic of the Burrow family, but he developed none of those traits which might have foreshadowed the unenviable fame acquired in after-life.