Charlie Webb and John Wesley Hardin

Hardin, born in Bonham in 1853 to a Methodist preacher, had a long record before Comanche. In 1871 he went up the Chisholm Trail as a cowboy and reportedly backed down Wild Bill Hickok in Abilene, Kansas. Texas Rangers captured him in Pensacola, Florida, on July 23, 1877, and on September 28, 1878, he was sentenced at Comanche to twenty-five years for Webb's murder. In prison he tried repeatedly to escape, read theology and ran the prison Sunday school. He was pardoned on March 16, 1894, and his autobiography appeared in 1896.

What the plaque says

John Wesley Hardin was one of the most notorious outlaws of the Old West and Charlie Webb was a Brown County Sheriff's Deputy who was shot and killed by Hardin. Charlie Webb was a Texas Ranger and served Brown and San Saba Counties. In 1874 Webb had been appointed deputy sheriff in Brown County with instructions to go after the Hardin-Taylor Gang who operated in the southern portions of Comanche and Brown Counties. John Wesley Hardin was an outlaw who was aligned with Jim Taylor and his anti-reconstruction faction. Hardin fled De Witt and Gonzales counties after killing Sheriff Jack Helm. Taylor and Hardin went on a cattle drive to Brown and Comanche Counties where the Hardin Gang had a reputation for lawlessness. On May 26, 1874, Charlie Webb and John Wesley Hardin were both in Comanche. Having a good day and winning money, cattle, wagons and horses, Hardin was celebrating in local saloons. Outside of Jack Wright's saloon, Hardin shot and killed Webb. Witnesses stated that Hardin was the first to draw. Hardin fled Texas with his wife and child and was on the run for three years. Texas Rangers and the Pinkerton men captured Hardin in Florida and he was extradited back to Texas to stand trial. Hardin was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to twenty-five years in the state penitentiary in Huntsville. While in prison Hardin studied law and when released after fifteen years began a law practice in El Paso. Hardin was killed on August 19, 1895 in the El Paso Acme Saloon and is buried in Concordia Cemetery. Charlie webb is buried in Brownwood's Greenleaf Cemetery in the Masonic section. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Brownwood State Park — 11 mi
  A CCC park on a reservoir that filled in a single flood before its dam was done, with stone cabins, a hilltop dance pavilion and a grand staircase climbed by dancers arriving by boat.

More markers nearby

• Robert E. Howard — 0.3 mi
• The Rev. Noah Turner Byars — 1.1 mi
• Dr. Mollie W. Armstrong — 1.2 mi
• Daniel Baker College — 1.2 mi