Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
Milam Pioneer’s Life of Adventure
by Jeanne Williams - Temple Daily Telegram
March 28, 2011
SAN GABRIEL - Sam Locklin was hardly a stereotypical pioneer in Central Texas.
Locklin’s family was among the first to settle in Milam County. Old West outlaws Bill
Longley and Ben Wheeler were not just legendary characters but people Locklin knew
personally. Locklin also was well-acquainted with James Madison Brown, the famous
sheriff from Lee County who presided at Longley’s hanging.
Samuel Griffith Locklin was born Oct. 26, 1855, in the San Gabriel community of Milam
County to Alteman Livingston and Mary Elizabeth Fokes Locklin. He married Sara Frances
Large, daughter of Adam William Large and Nancy Miller Large, on June 26, 1873, in
Milam County.
At age 77, Locklin wrote about the early history of the county, and included some of
his own remarkable experiences.
The handwritten manuscript filled three paper tablets. Locklin lived to see two of
these tablets published by The San Patricio County News in only two 39-page books
titled “The Story of Milam County.” The third tablet was not published.
As Locklin wrote about Milam County’s early Indian fighters and heroes of Texas’
independence, most of his history pertained to rustlers, robbers and murderers.
A student of Old West history, Locklin kept up with news of the James Gang, Sam Bass
and John Wesley Hardin, but some famous characters were closer to home. Locklin became
acquainted with Bill Longley from the days when the outlaw hid out in Milam County.
Locklin also was familiar with a member of the Dalton Gang named Bill Smith who spent
some time in the area.
In 1879, when Sheriff James Brown was trying to capture the Robinson Gang, he enlisted
the help of Samuel Locklin to introduce him to the various gang members prior to their
arrest.
Several pages of the book were devoted to this group of horse thieves and store robbers
who were led by Locklin’s neighbor, William Robinson, alias Ben Wheeler. Locklin
considered Brown to be the best sheriff Texas ever had.
Locklin’s “The Story of Milam County” tells of his grandmother’s arrival at Nashville
on the Brazos in 1835; the death of Texas patriot Peter Mercer, who was killed by
Indians in 1844 on the bank of the San Gabriel River; the Locklin lineage; and of his
father, Alteman Locklin, a Texas Ranger. Locklin also described how log cabins were
built.
“People of today,” Locklin wrote, “do not know what hardships are and what the people
had to go through in those days but you never heard them complain … Pioneers cut logs
from the San Gabriel River bottom. Large burr oak trees 2 to 4 feet through were cut in
2-feet lengths and split to make boards to cover the houses. They made dirt-and-stick
chimneys.”
Neighbors would come and bring their axes, notching logs for walls. Floors were made of
split logs.
The history mentions families who settled in the San Gabriel community and the cattle
industry, but Locklin apparently was fascinated with those who rode the outlaw trail
and wrote about the Dalton Gang’s Smith — who lived in Milam County - “whom I knew
well.”
Smith was sent to the state penitentiary for stealing cattle. After his release, Smith
told Locklin in a letter that he would be returning to Milam County sometime soon and
was “going to cut a wide swath through this part of the country.”
When Locklin was in his 80s, a newspaper carried a brief article about him, calling him
a typical Texas pioneer who has been “visiting friends and relatives the past few days,
and in the meantime attended Pioneer Day in Temple. One of the older pioneers of
Central Texas, he recalls many interesting experiences of the days when Texas was young
and so was he.”
The article said that Locklin descended from one of Milam County’s first two families,
and was the fourth white child to be born in that section of the state; his father
helped drive Indians out of Texas; and built the first school in the community, known
as Locklin School, near the San Gabriel River.
Locklin recalled “that one of the teachers who taught in the school his father built
wore his six-shooter in his boot while he taught his classes as a matter of
protection.”
In the early day Mr. Locklin acted as private detective in the drive to rid the
community of horse thieves, newspaper articles reported.
Samuel died in Williamson County on Oct. 20, 1942, and was buried in the Locklin
Cemetery overlooking the San Gabriel River valley. About 35 feet away is the grave of
Peter Mercer, a relative of the Locklin family.
jwilliams@tdtnews.com
All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram
This simple grave marker belies the adventurous life of Samuel G. Locklin
Photo by Shirley Williams
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