My trip to Uvalde and the Heartbreaking find about Hagar
For whatever reason, and whatever bee got in my bonnet, I decided to travel to Uvalde, Texas and search for some graves and documents and maybe a museum. I did find Jane Heart Griffin and her daughter Cherrie Ann (when I first saw these names, I had palpations, but the dates do not add up and this Cherrie Ann could not have been Horace's sister, born in or about 1853. This was his first wife, Jane and his first daughter, Cherri Ann. The naming of his daughter after his long lost baby sister was a tender moment for me. Sadly both died of small pox epidemic that swept through Texas.
I found some documents for WSB Owens, his name on over 12 documents, mostly buying of property. The best thing I was directed to was a lovely lady named Belia Romo, a historian extraordinaire. She directed me to several books, but actually pulled a file of narratives and documents that the library had researched over the years at the request of a local judge. In these documents, I found more narratives about the killing of the sheriff (which I think initially sparked the judges' interest as did mine), some narratives about the true reason Robert was killed, and the most heartbreaking paragraph about Hagar. It basically said that in the preparation to move to Uvalde, WSB Owens signed a hand written contract in Karnes County with a Warren Cass. The two men agreed that WSB Owens would purchase an ox cart and three yoke of oxen (6?) for $242.50 to be paid before November 21, 1857 for the security of the payment "a certain negro girl named Hager aged about ten years." Cass would be required to feed and clothe her at his expense and if said "negro shall die before redelivering the money then and that case this obligation be considered null and void". I sat in the truck reading this and let it hit me. He sold her. She was only 10 or 11 years old. Sold to a perfect stranger in Karnes County. Not where he lived, not where he was going to live. Of course you know I immediately started looking for a Warren Cass during that era and found a german man from Fredericksburg area who was drug out of his house and hanged for Sedition against the Confederacy by the Der Hangdebrande. I could not prove that this was Hagar's temporary master. Laying in bed, and finally closing my laptop, I thought about Hagar and that fateful day. Two years prior, she was taken from her mother and the life she knew, then for oxen and cart, taken away from her two brothers. Did Horace truly just sit there and not cry when he saw his sister roll off into the distance. How did he continue to serve this master? The mother in me wonders what her days and nights consisted of. Was she brutalized? Raped? Beaten? Starved? Who would protect her, only the sensibilities of the Cass man? I am sickened and realize that no matter how hardened one is by war and death, the victimization of a small girl cannot be justified in a man's heart. As she pleaded not to go, was he not touched in some way? Was it really as if he sold a horse or a dog? Surely he had some sense of right and wrong to know that in that moment he negotiated the deal, WSB Owens had sinned against God and humanity. Not George, Horace or Buck Owens would ever be the same...nor would my view of him.
I found some documents for WSB Owens, his name on over 12 documents, mostly buying of property. The best thing I was directed to was a lovely lady named Belia Romo, a historian extraordinaire. She directed me to several books, but actually pulled a file of narratives and documents that the library had researched over the years at the request of a local judge. In these documents, I found more narratives about the killing of the sheriff (which I think initially sparked the judges' interest as did mine), some narratives about the true reason Robert was killed, and the most heartbreaking paragraph about Hagar. It basically said that in the preparation to move to Uvalde, WSB Owens signed a hand written contract in Karnes County with a Warren Cass. The two men agreed that WSB Owens would purchase an ox cart and three yoke of oxen (6?) for $242.50 to be paid before November 21, 1857 for the security of the payment "a certain negro girl named Hager aged about ten years." Cass would be required to feed and clothe her at his expense and if said "negro shall die before redelivering the money then and that case this obligation be considered null and void". I sat in the truck reading this and let it hit me. He sold her. She was only 10 or 11 years old. Sold to a perfect stranger in Karnes County. Not where he lived, not where he was going to live. Of course you know I immediately started looking for a Warren Cass during that era and found a german man from Fredericksburg area who was drug out of his house and hanged for Sedition against the Confederacy by the Der Hangdebrande. I could not prove that this was Hagar's temporary master. Laying in bed, and finally closing my laptop, I thought about Hagar and that fateful day. Two years prior, she was taken from her mother and the life she knew, then for oxen and cart, taken away from her two brothers. Did Horace truly just sit there and not cry when he saw his sister roll off into the distance. How did he continue to serve this master? The mother in me wonders what her days and nights consisted of. Was she brutalized? Raped? Beaten? Starved? Who would protect her, only the sensibilities of the Cass man? I am sickened and realize that no matter how hardened one is by war and death, the victimization of a small girl cannot be justified in a man's heart. As she pleaded not to go, was he not touched in some way? Was it really as if he sold a horse or a dog? Surely he had some sense of right and wrong to know that in that moment he negotiated the deal, WSB Owens had sinned against God and humanity. Not George, Horace or Buck Owens would ever be the same...nor would my view of him. 
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