Robert Lee Abercrombie

b. 21 June 1863, d. 23 March 1901
  • Robert Lee Abercrombie was born on 21 June 1863 in Alabama.
  • He was known as Lee.
  • Penny Francis Patterson appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1870 in Wetumpka PO, Elmore County, Alabama. Other members of the household included Robert Lee Abercrombie, Albert Galiton Abercrombie, Abner Abercrombie, Greenwood Abercrombie, Sarah E. Abercrombie, James Alford Abercrombie and Dora B. Abercrombie.
  • Greenwood Abercrombie appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in Austin County, Texas, living next to brother Albert.. Other members of the household included Robert Lee Abercrombie, James Alford Abercrombie, Penny Francis Patterson and Sarah E. Abercrombie.
  • He was a farm laborer (unemployed for twelve months), according to the 1880 census.
  • Robert Lee Abercrombie died on 23 March 1901 at age 37 in Rains County, Texas, near Emory.
  • The following appeared on 25 March 1901 in The Dallas Morning News: (Emory, March 24) Mistake That Cost a Life. Mistaken for a wire cutter, for whom he was lying in wait, Lee Abercrombie, a member of one of the most prominent families in Rains County, was shot and instantly killed last night.
         H. A. [Abner] Abercrombie, a brother of the man who was killed, had been making a wire fence. He had been warned that if he did not desist a party of men would cut the fence last night. In anticipation of this visit, H. A. Abercrombie, after dark, armed himself, and taking a position so as to command the road over which he expected the wire cutters would come, waited for them. He had not long to wait, for about 10 o'clock he heard the click of the wire nippers & fired toward the sound, being unable to see any one. The fire was returned and perhaps a dozen shots were exchanged, after which the men galloped off.
         Believing that the wire cutters would return, Abercrombie came to this city to noitfy Sheriff Osborn. Meantime a son [John] of H. A. Abercrombie had gone to the home of his Uncle, Lee Abercrombie, to tell him what had happened. Lee Abercrombie, dressing, armed himself and accompanied his nephew to a clump of brushes near the fence and lay in wait, thinking that perhaps the wire cutters might resume their depredations before his brother's return.
         Abercrombie's farm is only three and a half miles northwest of this place, and in less than an hour H. A. Abercrombie, accompanied by Sheriff Osborn and another officer, was approaching the fence. When they came within fifty yards of the fence the officers dismounted and continued slowly afoot. They had gone only a few yards when Sheriff Osborn saw a figure rise in the dark and he called on the man to throw up his hands. The only response was the click of a rifle being cocked. Immediately Sheriff Osborn fired. Then running forward the men found Lee Abercrombie's body prone on the ground, while his nephew was crouched in a clump of bushes. The boy explained that his uncle had mistaken the officers for wire cutters, whereas the Sheriff has mistaken Abercrombie for the wire cutter.
         With as little delay as possible search for the real wire cutters, whose depredations had occasioned the tragedy, was begun. Three officers from Wood County, Apell, Crutchburg and Nixon, have gone to the scene with bloodhounds.
         Two arrests have already been made, and others, it is thought, soon will be made.
  • Last Edited: 21 May 2013