The Real “Bad Bob” (Part 2)

In the early 1890s Bob Barnett ordered lumber from a sawmill in Longview and had it sent to Lone Oak to build his house. It was probably sent by rail along the Texas and Pacific Railroad from Longview to Mineola then transferred to the newly built leg of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad that ran from Mineola to Greenville with a stop in the brand-new town of Lone Oak that was incorporated in 1890. Barnett chose a spot along Campbell Road (now FM 513) about two miles north of Lone Oak and a quarter mile north of his father’s majestic home. There is little left of the elder Barnett’s home except what is left of the kitchen which was attached to the home via a breezeway. There is also a root or storm cellar still visible. As far as anyone knows, Bob’s father was a decent man with little hint that he shared the inclination to violence and larceny that became hallmarks of his son’s life.

Barnett was only 18 years old when he completed his grand farmhouse on the prairie north of Lone Oak just a couple of miles north of the Sabine River. Thought the date of the house’s completion is in question, the Hunt County Appraisal District lists it as 1892, so that is the date I will go with. A couple of years after completing the house, Bob married Bonnie and they had four kids: Bessie, Padgett, Jimmie and Laura. Some of the pieces of the story came from Bob’s daughter Bessie who would come back home from Houston and stay in the house with friends who would later own it.

Rumors of skullduggery probably started early on. Along with the house, Barnett owned a good bit of farmland, much of which was worked by sharecroppers. Locals say that when harvest time came around sharecroppers would often disappear. They would speculate that at best they were driven off with threats, but many fear their fate was worse. Maybe someday this farm will reveal those secrets.

I have talked to an amateur treasure hunter that plans to search for clues to the unknown history of this place in the near future. The standard deal is that, if he finds anything of value, we get to keep half. However, to me, just uncovering the mystery of long-missing sharecroppers would be a proverbial “Holy Grail” of Texas History in our little part of Hunt County and worth more than anything.

Bob had a reputation for claiming any livestock that wandered off of a neighboring farm. To him, a loose mule, pig, sheep, chicken, goose or turkey was fair game and he would claim it for himself. I thought it was funny that I haven’t heard any speculation that he “acquired” cattle or horses and imagine the reason for that is that in the late nineteenth century the penalty for those crimes was pretty specific and final…..hanging.

If there were whispers of mistreatment of sharecroppers, people didn’t have to speculate in hushed tones anymore after March 14, 1912. The events of that day would forever be known as “The Swine Slaying”. On that day, “Bad Bob” became “Backshooter Bob” when he confronted Price Thomas, an African American man who was working as a sharecropper on Barnett’s farm. This time the confrontation didn’t happen under the cover of darkness; it didn’t happen behind the barn or out in the field. It happened in broad daylight during lunch on the town square of Lone Oak, Texas in front of multiple witnesses, including three high school boys on their lunchbreak from the nearby Lone Oak School. It is a story you won’t want to miss…..next week.