Fanny JUNGE°RIVERS°°RAYNOR*

Fannies Mann Charly Rivrers wurde in einem Streit um Land zum Mörder an seinem Nachbarn. Er floh und wurde nie wieder gesehen.

Ihren 2. Mann Thomas K. Raynor heiratete sie 1897.

Charley Rivers murdered a man over a land dispute; he fled, and was never heard from again.

From "A Texas Sheriff", pp 65-67:

"Many years ago Tom Moore and Charlie Rivers were farmers and neighbors living in what is now the old Decoy locality, on the line of the Houston East and West Texas Railway, about eight miles south of Nacogdoches. The trouble that ended in murder started over the running of a line between the two farmers in the course of which a small strip of land claimed by both was won in court by Tom Moore.

Later and following closely on the heels of the land trouble, one of the trains on the railroad above mentioned, ran over a cow belonging to Rivers and brought suit for damages in court at Nacogdoches. In spite of the testimony of Tom Moore, whose evidence tended to show that the cow was not worth as much as the price for damages named in the suit, Rivers won the case and the money was paid to him. Then, it was said that instead of going home with the money when it was paid to him, he got into a poker game and lost it.

This made him sore.

The next morning while Tom Moore was clearing land almost in sight of his house, somebody fired fourteen bullets through his body, killing him instantly. The bullets were fired from a shotgun.

There were no telephones in those days and it was several hours before Sheriff Spradley received word at Nacogdoches. He sprang on his horse and galloped every foot of the way to the place where Moore had been killed, and then went to the home of Charlie Rivers. The only person at the Rivers home was his mother-in-law, the old lady Junge. Mr. Spradley rode hastily up to the house and calling to the old lady said, 'Tell Charlie that they have sent after the bloodhounds, and that he had better come right in and give up, before the dogs get him.

'He gone,' answered the old lady, who could not speak English plainly. 'He gone,' she repeated pointing to the woods.

Later, Sheriff Spradley learned beyond doubt that the blunt statement of the old lady was correct, and that Mrs. Rivers had cooked up provisions enough to last several days. Rivers was German and stated on various occasions that he came to Texas from Pennsylvania, and he had a brother, who was a doctor, living in the Keystone State. But where did Dr. Rivers live - what was his post-office address?

Mr. Spradley tells the balance of the story in his own words.

'I examined an atlas and found a town in Pennsylvania, by the name of Greensboro, and that it was in Greene County. I did not know the name or initials of Dr. Rivers and so I put it as A. T. Rivers, and then had some envelopes and letterheads printed at Nacogdoches with the name of Dr. A. T. Rivers on both, and Greensboro, Pennsylvania, as the post office.

'I wanted to know beyond any kind of doubt that the statement made by the old lady in regard to the flight of Rivers was a true statement and believed in by the family. I must get a statement to this effect from Mrs. Rivers herself, for I figured that if she had gone to the trouble of cooking up enough provisions to last her husband five days, she evidently knew where he was going. All right. I then wrote a letter as if it was written in Greensboro, Pennsylvania, to Mrs. Rivers at Nacogdoches, Texas, stating that the undersigned A. T. Rivers was a brother of Charles Rivers and he had learned from the newspapers that his brother Charles had killed a man, and that he desired very much to get in touch with him as he might need financial help to fight the case. I also made the request that if Charles Rivers had not been arrested to please write me at once where he was so I could get in touch with him. I signed the name of Dr. A. T. Rivers to this letter, and then mailed it to the postmaster at Greensboro, Pennsylvania, accompanied by a letter of explanation, and my position as an officer of the law. I asked the postmaster to mail my fake letter back to the address given on it which was Mrs. Charles Rivers, Nacogdoches, Texas, and if she answered it to let me have the answer.

The plan worked just right. The letter came to Nacogdoches, and fell into proper hands, and was promptly answered and this letter was sent back to me by the postmaster at Greensboro. The answer bore out the statement made by the old lady.

Rivers had planned the killing for a week ahead and had made all arrangements for escape. He had provisions cooked for four or five or six days, and then secured a skiff and tied it up in the overflow or backwater of the Angelina River, the letter said and when he left home, he made straight for the skiff, where he probably lay up till night and then silently passed down the river.

He probably laid up during the day and traveled only at night, and thus made his way to Galveston or New Orleans where he boarded a ship and went back to his old trade, that of a sailor.

Thus Charlie Rivers disappeared as completely as if the earth had opened and swallowed him. Not a trace of him was ever heard by any officer or member of his family. The theory is that he got employment on a tramp ship and spent his remaining years on the ocean. There is something pathetic in this story. There were two neighbors - both good men, who fell out over and about practically nothing.

Instead of making friends and compromising their differences they took up the hatchet and wrote a chapter in blood, which broke up both families to a large extent and resulting in one of the men getting killed. Tom Moore had married a splendid girl and had a splendid family. Charlie Rivers had done likewise - married into a fine family and had a wife and several children. All of these and his home, he left and never saw again, nor did any member of his family ever hear from him again.

Charlie Rivers was the only man who committed murder in Nacogdoches County during the official career of Sheriff A. J. Spradley and succeeded in making his complete and permanent get-away.' "

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