DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the source here, and this one's worth every word it takes to tell it right. Now, Charles Goodnight was not a man who handed out compliments the way some folks hand out handshakes. So when Goodnight called his brother-in-law Alfred Lane a splendid brave man, you can believe he meant every syllable.
Lane was a Tennessee native who came to Texas with his family in 1836 and put down roots in Robertson's colony on the Brazos River. Texas was young and rough-edged, and the Brazos country was no place for the timid. Lane fit right in.
He moved again in 1856, following his marriage to Elizabeth Goodnight, this time out to the Black Springs area of Palo Pinto County. Out there on the open range, he raised horses. It was the kind of life that asked everything of a man — hard ground, long days, and a horizon that didn't apologize for how far away it was.
When the Civil War came, Lane wasn't the type to sit it out. He scouted with the Texas Rangers, riding country that didn't always want to be ridden. And then came the drive.
He helped Goodnight push cattle west of Fort Belknap — two men who trusted each other the way you have to trust somebody when the stakes are that high. The job got done. But Alfred Lane never made it home.
As he returned from that drive, he was killed by Indians. The man Charles Goodnight called splendid and brave is buried nearby, in Crawford Cemetery, two miles northeast of where this marker stands. Some eulogies get carved in stone.
Some get spoken by the people who knew you best. Goodnight gave Lane both.
What the marker says
Called "A splendid brave man" by his brother-in-law, cattleman Charles Goodnight, Tennessee native Alfred Lane moved to Texas with his family in 1836 and settled in Robertson's colony on the Brazos River. He moved to the Black Springs area of Palo Pinto County in 1856, following his marriage to Elizabeth Goodnight, and raised horses on the open range. He scouted with the Texas Rangers during the Civil War. After helping Goodnight drive cattle west of Ft. Belknap, Lane was killed by Indians as he returned home. He is buried nearby in Crawford Cemetery (2 miles northeast). (1997)