Sam Bass & Gang in Stephens County

Bass came to Texas from Indiana, where he was born near Mitchell on July 21, 1851, and was orphaned before he was thirteen. He reached Denton in 1870, worked for Sheriff William F. Egan, and left in 1874 to race a fast horse known as the Denton Mare. In 1876 he and Joel Collins trailed a herd north for its owners and gambled away the $8,000 it brought. On September 18, 1877, their band robbed a Union Pacific train at Big Springs, Nebraska, of $60,000 in new twenty-dollar gold pieces.

What the plaque says

Sam Bass & Gang in Stephens County In 1878, the hills of eastern Stephens County became the setting for confrontations between lawmen, citizens and members of a gang led by outlaw Sam Bass (1851-1878). With Texas Rangers on their trail, the gang took refuge near the town of Caddo, resupplying from local stores and relying on family members and friends to protect their identities. The gang's former leader, Joel Collins, was killed in Kansas in 1877 as they fled a successful robbery, and Sam Bass took over leadership, utilizing Collins' sister, Annie Collins Taylor, to hide out and restock. Annie and her husband, Perry King Taylor, owned the P.K. Taylor Store in Caddo, the location of verified sightings of the Sam Bass Gang. Sightings of Bass gang members in southeastern Stephens County were frequent in May of 1878, as documented by local attorney William C. Veale (1833-1899). Sheriff Berry B. Meaders (1833-1895) of Breckenridge was informed of the gang being in the area and quickly organized a posse. At the same time, local citizens formed their own groups to bring the gang to justice. One such group was captured by the Sam Bass Gang and taken to the P.K. Taylor Store as hostages. They were treated to alcohol and stories of the gang's crimes and wealth. With the sheriff's posse in close pursuit, they retreated, split up and continued to elude law enforcement. The gang's brief foray into Stephens County did not give them the long-term sanctuary they were seeking and the gang was forced to reverse course. In July 1878, the Bass Gang was spotted planning a bank robbery in Round Rock. Sam Bass was shot and captured, and died on July 21, 1878, ending the gang's criminal career. (2020)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 24 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.

More markers nearby

• Picketville — 11 mi
• Walter Prescott Webb's Formative Years — 11 mi
• Stephens County Courthouse — 11 mi
• Camp Breckenridge, C.S.A. — 11 mi