|
The
Yokum Gang was
a group of
reputed
thieves and
murderers who
operated in
the Neutral
Groundqv
between
Louisiana and
Spanish Texas
in the early
1820s. Susan
Callier
(Collier),
daughter of
Robert
Callier, who
settled east
of San
Augustine in
1822, favored
as a suitor,
Matthew Yokum,
a member of
the gang; but
her father
ordered Yokum
never to
return to the
Callier home
and persuaded
his daughter
to marry
Charles
Chandler.
Susan's uncle,
James Callier,
married a
Yokum sister
and became a
member of the
gang. James
Callier and
Matthew Yokum
then killed
Robert Callier
and started to
San Augustine
to murder
Charles
Chandler, but
Chandler,
aided by a
slave who was
killed in the
encounter,
killed both
his
assailants.
Other members
of the gang
then murdered
a Louisiana
citizen and
seized his
African-American
wife and
mulatto
children to
sell as slaves
in Texas, but
David Renfro
and his
neighbors
drove the gang
out of the
country and
returned the
woman and her
children to
Louisiana. The
gang fled to
Pine Island
Bayou in the
area of
present
Jefferson
County and
resumed their
practices of
robbery and
murder until
neighboring
citizens hung
Thomas Yokum
and dispersed
the remainder
of the group.
Robert
Bruce Blake
-
Handbook of
Texas Online,
s.v. ","
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/YY/jey1.html (accessed
March 3,
2008).
(NOTE: "s.v."
stands for sub
verbo, "under
the word.")
|
