It’s In The Blood

I started to do some background research on the Merritt family. Only so much can be gleaned from looking at pictures on Facebook or my own collection. Pictures really don’t tell a thousand words I’m afraid. It’s a fallacy. Would it surprise anyone that Chase had upwards of 12 siblings? His Grandfather had 9 siblings and Great Grandfather had 13. Busy people.

Bennet Davis Merritt, Chase’s Grandfather

 

I am a huge American history buff. So when I came across this nugget, I had to pass it along. This about Chase Merritt’s Great Grandfather, James Wesley Merritt.

 

James Merritt & Susan Cartwright Family

An entire, fast-paced book could be written about the lives of James Wesley Merritt and his wife Susan Cartwright. In fact a master’s thesis has been written about a part of his life. James was only one year old when his father was accidentally killed at a Whig political rally in the fall of 1840 in Jones County, Georgia. Twenty years later he enlisted as a private in the First Georgia Regulars with the Confederacy. His unit left to join the War in Richmond, Virginia.

While in Richmond James was admitted to the Chimborazo Hospital #2. After discharge he enlisted with the Thirty-fourth Battalion Virginia Cavalry – with which he served until the end of the War, eventually being elected as a lieutenant. His two brothers also served as lieutenants – one with the Forrest Escort and the other with the Georgia Sixty-fifth Infantry.

None of the men of the Thirty-fourth Battalion were slaveholders, but they fought valiantly for the South. They were the tip of the spear for Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania. With JEB Stuart they laid siege to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – the northernmost penetration of a major Confederate force during the War Between the States. They fell back to join Lee’s forces for the third day of the battle at Gettysburg.

James surrendered his detachment near Durham Station, North Carolina, when General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered in April 1865. The Yankee force that took James’ surrender forced him to put his hand against a tree and they shot a minié ball through it for having raised arms against the Union – maiming him for life. He then walked back to Trenton, Georgia – a distance of 450 miles. Eight months later he married his sweetheart, Susan Cartwright.

After another year James and Susan left Georgia for Texas, as many did, to escape Reconstruction. When they left he was counseled that if they ran into any difficulties to tell people that Orrin Beck of Tippah County, Mississippi, was his uncle and that Bedford Forrest was his cousin. Orrin’s sister was Miriam – the mother of Bedford. James and Susan were the parents of ten children – eight of whom left a posterity.

James was convicted of killing his wife’s cousin (husband of the eldest daughter of Preston Ford Southern) Joel F. Brown in Millsap, Texas, in 1897 just a week shy of James’ 58th birthday. It was a premeditated murder, but with extenuating circumstances*. The man he killed was the head of the Parker County KKK. James was received at Huntsville in 1889 to serve a four year term. He was #17719. After serving two years Governor Joseph D. Sayers gave him a full pardon in 1901.

*Preston Ford Southern died in 1878, nearly nineteen years before Joel F. Brown’s murder. In his will Preston states that his son-in-law had created a scandal for him. Whether the scandal was the same one that led to Joel’s murder is unknown. If not, it may have been for a similar reason. There is a complete trial transcript available at the court house in Weatherford, Texas. It describes how Joel had a sexual interest in his cousin Susan Cartwright Merritt. As the head of the Parker County KKK, he involved the Klan in trying to run Merritt off. They delivered threatening “white cap” notices to him. Joel even tried to turn Merritt’s own sons against him and there is an account of them stoning their father at his instigation. The bottom line is that the murder was premeditated, but the jury probably felt Joel deserved what he got. Instead of murder Merritt was convicted of manslaughter, served half of a four-year term and was given a total pardon by the governor.

James died in 1928, and his wife died in 1930. They are both buried in Sturdivant Cemetery in Palo Pinto County, Texas – the same cemetery in which Joel F. Brown and his wife Lucinda Jane Southern are buried. Lucinda died in 1917. Joel also served the Confederacy in a Texas Cavalry unit.

https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/11001471

Impressive. Gettysburg was considered to be the most significant battle in American history. James Wesley Merritt may have not been a war hero but to me all those men went to battle with absolute valor. 7550 men lost their lives over 3 days. It was a bloody end to a very tumultuous war.

But I wonder, did James Merritt’s killing in the war between the states harden him, enough to kill again? Was it easier to murder Joel Brown?

Did Chase Merritt kill before the McStay family murders? Was it easier to bludgeon children?