A few of the members of the Harkey Family of Big Uncle Cemetery in Richland Springs, San Saba, Tx. a tragic story about a very early family who moved to the area around 1854. In 1869 the father of this family, Daniel Riley Harkey, died within 15 days of his wife’s death, leaving 13 children under 17 years of age to survive on their own. One of these children was Dee Harkey who wrote Mean As Hell about his life. His sister, Sarah Harkey Hall, also wrote a book, Surviving On the Texas Frontier, which tells of the hardships the 13 children faced living by themselves after their parents died and tells how she handled the tragic deaths of her three brothers who were killed in gun fights. These three brothers, a sister, her parents, and three of her children are buried in Big Uncle Cemetery as well as other Harkey and Hall family members. These three Harkey brothers and another young man who is buried in Big Uncle Cemetery each died at the age of 21 in gun fights. John, one of the Harkey brothers, was killed in a gun fight near his home in 1878. A copy of The San Saba News dated Jan. 12, 1878, tells of a terrible tragedy (that) occurred at the store of S.E. Hayes on Richland Creek, when John Harkey and Augustus Stephenson had a ‘personal difficulty’ and shot and killed each other. Both men are buried near each other in Big Uncle Cemetery. Another brother, Jim, was killed in a shoot-out in the Texas Panhandle in 1880; and Mose, a third brother, was also killed in a gun fight in 1888 in the Texas Panhandle....findagrave
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 01:51:49 +0000
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