Alfred Madison Hightower

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Now, Alfred M. Hightower came to Smithfield from Illinois with his family in 1858.

A rancher from the start, and a man who didn't shy away from havin' an opinion. When the debate over secession started buildin' steam across Texas, Hightower made his position clear: he opposed it. That took a certain kind of nerve in those years, in those parts.

But then the Civil War began, and somethin' shifted. Hightower sided with the South. Whatever he felt about secession, when the lines were drawn, he made his choice and he stood behind it.

He joined the Confederate Army as a mounted rifleman, a man on horseback, rifle in hand, riding into some of the worst the war had to offer west of the Mississippi. And that is not a figure of speech. Hightower fought at Elkhorn Tavern (also known as Pea Ridge), up in Arkansas.

One of the biggest battles west of the Mississippi River. He fought in many battles, but that one, Pea Ridge, had a scale to it that most men in that theater of the war never forgot. He survived it.

He survived all of it. After the war, Hightower didn't stay put. During the 1870s he relocated to Kansas.

Maybe the land called to him, maybe he needed some distance; the marker doesn't say, and I won't guess. But by 1880 he came back. Back to Smithfield, back to ranching, and he kept at it right up until his death.

Nearby Hightower Street is named in his honor. A man who opposed secession, fought for the Confederacy, survived Pea Ridge, ranched in two states, and left his name on a street in Tarrant County. History doesn't always run in a straight line; sometimes it runs just like Alfred Hightower did: complicated, stubborn, and all the way back home.

What the marker says

Alfred M. Hightower came to Smithfield from Illinois with his family in 1858 and became a rancher. When the debate over secession arose, Hightower opposed it, but when the Civil War began, he sided with the South. As a mounted rifleman in the Confederate Army, Hightower fought in many battles, including Elkhorn Tavern (Pea Ridge) in Arkansas, one of the biggest battles west of the Mississippi. After the War, he relocated to Kansas during the 1870s, but returned here in 1880 and continued ranching until his death. Nearby Hightower Street is named in his honor. (1991)