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Savages Kill Stockton in Stephens County

Michael has a BA in History & American Studies and an MSc in American History from the University of Edinburgh. He comes from a proud military family and has spent most of his career as an educator in the Middle East and Asia. His passion is travel, and he seizes any opportunity to share his experiences in the most immersive way possible, whether at sea or on the land.

Stephens County, Texas

    During May of 1873, Stockton, a young man from the East, had been batching alone for a few days on the Joe and Jim Browning Ranch, on the Clear Fork, about fifteen miles north and west of Breckenridge. According to indications, he went out early one morning to round up the calves and horses, and was killed by Indians near an old-fashioned rail fence, not a great distance from the lot. Reports differ as to the group of persons that first found him. But he had been dead two or three days before the ranchmen of Stephens County knew he had been killed.

    Note: Author interviewed: J.R. Browning, a brother of Joe Browning; and J.M. Lynch, who loaned Stockton a yoke of steers the Sunday before he was killed.

The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell.

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