William Becknell – pioneer entrepreneur and criminal defendant

On Christmas Day 1843, somebody beat the tar out of Henry Wagner. Not satisfied with doing bodily harm to the Red River County man, the assailants then threw Wagner out of Texas, presumably casting him onto the north side of the Red River, then the border between the Republic of Texas and the Choctaw Nation, United States of America.

Those days, near the end of the Republic, Texas was becoming a bit more civilized than it had been during the days when big government was in Mexico City. Possibly taken up in civilized manners, Wagner did not take pistolero justice. Instead, he did what most modern-day Texans do – he sued.

On Feb. 23, 1844, apparently recovered from injuries and having returned to Texas, Wagner filed suit in Sixth District Court.

In Wagner vs. Becknell and Guest, Wagner’s attorneys Martin and White alleged that “on the twenty-fifth day of December eighteen hundred and forty-three defendants did with force and arms commit trespass upon the person of your petitioner by beating wounding and otherwise misusing him and then and there with force of arms to wit sticks staves and fists beat bruise wound and greatly abuse said petitioner and afterwards to wit on the day and year last aforesaid the said defendants did falsely imprison tie and confine and carry beyond the limits of this Republic your said petitioner with other wrongs to him then and there done whereby your petitioner was greatly injured and hindered in his business contrary to the laws of said Republic …”

(Almost all writers of 170 and more years ago were not yet aware of the invention of the comma.)

Wagner considered his injuries serious, which comes as no surprise, “to the damages of your petitioner five thousand dollars …”

The men Wagner sued, though, were two of the most influential people in Red River County. Becknell was so well known, he had a prairie named after him – Becknell’s Prairie west of Clarksville, county seat. In 1936 the State of Texas put up a monument near the Becknell burial grounds, a few miles west of Clarksville and south of U.S. Highway 82, at the edge of a clump of trees.

The Encyclopedia Britannica 13th edition has this to say in its article on the Santa Fe Trail: “The earliest successful commercial expedition was that of William Becknell, who in 1821 made a profitable journey with $300 worth of goods on pack animals and returned the next year to open the trail with wagons.”

The Santa Fe Trail then ran from Independence, Mo., in almost a straight line for 800 miles. Becknell was the first trader to take wagons the entire length of the trail, and in so doing amassed a considerable amount of money, measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Guest, while not as well known as Becknell, was of local fame and later became county sheriff.

Wagner would have been better off had be been beaten by lesser-known men. Be that as it may, he filed suit for $5,000 damages, and law officers were bound to carry through.

Maybe not pressing too much, though.

With suit filed, District Court Clerk W.H. Vining on Feb 26, 1844, wrote summonses on Becknell and Guest. County Sheriff Edward West got the paperwork the same day. West did his duty, at least to a degree. Written on the back of the summonses is: “Traveled twice to Becknell and Guest residence neither found.”

The case came up for trial on March 19, 1844, but District Judge John T. Mills, ruling the accused had not received notification, ordered trial continued until the fall session.

It might seem strange that Becknell and Guest, as well known as they were, knew nothing about Wagner’s suit, nor did Sheriff West know of the accused’s whereabouts between Feb. 26 and the beginning of court.

Sometime between spring and fall court sessions, clerk Vining received an undated note.

“Capt. Vining,” the note begins. “This is to inform you that I stand no longer as security for Mr. Wagoner (sic) for the (unreadable) of a suit he entered against Becknell and others. Respectfully yours J.G. Faucett.”

In the end, Wagner did not get any kind of damage money. On Sept. 28, 1844, court records show, “upon agreement it is ordered by the court that the case be dismissed.”

Wagner paid court costs.

http://williambecknell.com/?page_id=202

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbe17