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Clay County TXGenWeb Project and Cleo Frances CHANDLER [1865-1955]. He was married in January 1906 to Ola TURNER. Harry was a farmer and rented a farm near Vashti and Buffalo Springs Road in Clay Co., Texas, where, in 1910, he and his wife and little daughter, Essie, were living. [1910 Census, Precinct 6, Clay Co., Texas, e.d. 37, sheet 6B (p. 95B), Lines 51-53] On Thursday, 18 January 1912, the “Wichita Daily Times” out of Wichita Falls, Texas, carried the following front-page news article about the apparent demise of Harry Bridgewater: FARMER MISSING - FOUL PLAY FEARED —— HARRY BRIDGEWATER IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN MURDERED. —— COAT IS SHOT RIDDLED —— Wagon From Which Team of Horses Had Been Loosened Found in Thicket Off Main Road.Bowie, -- Jan. 17. – On Monday last, Harry Bridgewater, a young farmer, 28 years old, came to Bowie and bought a load of flour and other goodsand started home the same evening. About four miles out he stopped at a Mr. Stomaugh’s, a farmer neighbor and a friend. Bridgewater stopped and phoned home that he had lost his money and would go back and hunt it. He came back and phoned his wife that he had found his money and would be home Tuesday morning. Bridgewater hitched up his team and started home Tuesday morning. This morning his team came home and his family phoned the officers here who went out and tracked the wagon into and out of the road and across a wire fence into a brush thicket and found the wagon. The flour was still in the wagon but everything else was missing. His old clothes were lying near the wagon. The coat was full of shot holes and one front wheel of the wagon had several shot lodged in it. No trace of him has been found and the officers feel sure he has been foully dealt with. Submitted by Vern Paul , Dublin, Ireland |