DUANE
Duane's take
The marker's the one doing the talking here, and I'm just the voice it borrowed for the road. Now, if you've spent any time in Texas, you've heard the name Sam Bass — and if you haven't, well, buckle up, because this stretch of Williamson County road is about to fix that. Sam Bass didn't start with much.
An uneducated orphan out of Indiana who drifted to Texas as a youth, he was not exactly the kind of man you'd expect history to remember. But Texas has a way of making legends out of unlikely material. He found his first taste of fame not at gunpoint, but at the racetrack — or whatever passed for one in those days.
His swift Denton Mare, as she was known, made him a name among gamblers and thrill-seekers. Racing, gambling, the easy life. For a while, that was enough.
It wasn't enough for long. Bass turned to robbing trains, and somewhere up in Nebraska he and his outfit hit what you'd have to call a rich haul. And here's where the story gets its particular Texas flavor — because Sam Bass didn't hunker down and sit quiet on that money.
No. He spent it. Recklessly.
Joyfully. He was known to shower gold on the people who fed him, who harbored him, who helped him slip through the fingers of the law officers closing in around him. Months of that.
Like the whole enterprise was one long party he was throwing for anyone generous enough to look the other way. Law enforcement, as you might imagine, did not find this charming. By July of 1878, the net was drawing tight.
Bass rode into Round Rock — right here in Williamson County — to rob a bank. The Texas Rangers were waiting. He was shot.
Now here is the part the balladeers grabbed hold of and never let go. Wounded, caught, cornered — Sam Bass refused. Refused to name a single guilty partner.
Gallant to the last, the marker says, and that word gallant carries some weight. In the 19th century, that kind of loyalty, even in a criminal, was the stuff of legend. The songs came fast and they came plentiful.
Sam Bass is buried in old Round Rock Cemetery, his grave celebrated to this day. An Indiana orphan who drifted into Texas and never quite drifted back out. Some places have a way of keeping you.
What the marker says
An uneducated Indiana orphan who drifted to Texas as a youth, Sam Bass won fame racing his swift "Denton Mare," gambling, and robbing trains. A rich haul in Nebraska was followed by months of reckless spending. Bass liked to shower gold on people who fed or harbored him while he eluded law officers. In July 1878 he came to Round Rock to rob a bank, and was shot by Texas Rangers. Gallant to the last, refusing to name guilty partners, he became a hero to 19th century balladeers. His celebrated grave is situated in old Round Rock Cemetery.