DUANE
Duane's take
This one comes straight from the official marker — it's my job to carry it to you true. October 1886. Throckmorton County, Texas.
Tom Farrar was nineteen years old, one of several African American cowboys working on ranches in the area. He was on his way to the Buchanan Ranch when he stopped at a sheepherder's dugout. The next day, the bodies of a father and daughter were discovered there.
Deputy Tom McCarver came to the scene. And there in the dirt, he recognized something — a unique horseshoe print. That print led straight to Tom Farrar.
Farrar was arrested and brought to the calaboose. There, he confessed to the killings. He sent a note to his family.
Whatever he was thinking in that cell, in those hours, the marker doesn't say. But he knew something was coming. During the night, a mob of dozens of men broke into the jail.
They put a rope around Tom Farrar's neck. They dragged him behind a horse. Then they hung his body from an elm tree on the creek near this very site.
That's not frontier justice. That's a mob with a rope and a tree. The marker uses the word vigilantism, and it doesn't let that word sit quietly.
It says this act affected generations. African Americans virtually disappeared from Throckmorton County in the wake of what happened here. Entire communities.
Gone. Not by chance — by the weight of that night. Tom Farrar was nineteen years old.
He was on his way to the Buchanan Ranch. And this county carried what was done here for generations after. That elm tree on the creek is gone now, but the marker stands.
And now you know.
What the marker says
In October 1886, 19-year-old Tom Farrar was one of several African American cowboys working on area ranches. On his way to the Buchanan Ranch, he stopped at a sheepherder’s dugout. The bodies of a father and daughter were discovered there the next day. Deputy Tom McCarver recognized a unique horseshoe print at the crime scene. Farrar was arrested and brought to the calaboose, where he confessed to the killings and sent a note to his family. During the night, a mob of dozens of men broke into the jail, put a rope around Farrar’s neck, dragged him behind a horse, then hung his body from an elm tree on the creek near this site. This act of vigilantism affected generations, with African Americans virtually disappearing from Throckmorton County. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011