Thomas Columbus Collins 
      Sex: M
Individual Information 
     Birth Date: 19 Mar 1850 - Tennessee (Rhea Co, )
    Christening: 
          Death: 20 May 1878 - Washington Co., Ar 2
         Burial: in Echo Dell Cem., Elm Springs, Washington Co., Arkansas
 Cause of Death:
Parents 
         Father: Joshua Collins (1825-1913)
         Mother: Elizabeth "Betsy" Mirah Essex (1830-Bef 1900)
Spouses and Children 
1. *Mary Jane McCurdy (2 Aug 1855 - 23 Jan 1942) 3 
       Marriage: 19 Mar 1871 - Washington Co., Arkansas 4 5
       Children:
                1. George Oliver Collins (1872-1964)
                2. Ira Neal Collins (1875-1928)
                3. Thomas C. Collins (1878-1952)
Notes
General:
CENSUS:

In 1880 his widow Mary Collins is living in the household of her mother Juda McCurdy in Denton Co., Texas.

DEATH:

On page 27 in Unbroken Circle Mary Jane begins to describe the murder of her husband:

"On April 21, 1878, I gave birth to my third boy, Tom. We had moved back to our own house and let some people by the name of Richardson move into Pa's place to look after the farm. There was a big orchard besides the wheat and oats. At the time the Richardsons moved in, the fences was all up and they were supposed to keep the horses and other stock out of the wheat. Instead, they let the fences go and everything else around the place. It was pitiful and it made me feel like cryin' every time I saw it. One day when Tom was about a month old, Columbus come by Pa's and saw that the fences were down and the stock had been in the grain. It made him so furious that he planned to go and see the Richardsons the next morning. He left our house right after breakfast and told me he'd be back about noon. He stopped and fixed the fence before he went on to the Richardsons'. When he finished with the fence, he went on to the house to talk with the men. As he walked into the yard, there was the old man, his son-in-law and two boys standing there by the wagon near the door. He told them if they let the horses in the wheat any more they would have to leave. I think it was about that time that the old man stepped out and picked up the breast-yoke of the wagon. He slipped up behind Columbus and hit him just behind the left ear. I was putting dinner on the table when he got home. He just turned his head and said, "Look there." The blood was running out of his ear. I cried out, "Oh my goodness, have you been in a fight?" He never made me an answer but went over and sat down in a chair and told me the story. He turned sick at his stomach and was dizzy. I led him outside and he vomited; then I took him back in the house and put him to bed. He died that night about eight.
His mother and father was with me and there was so many neighbors, law! They couldn't get in the house. When Columbus was on the way home after he had been hit, he met a friend and told him what had happened and had asked him to go by and tell his mother. She come right away and sent for the doctor by the same man who had brought her the news. When the doctor came he made an examination and stayed an hour or two before Columbus died. We waited two days before we buried him. He was buried on the day our baby, Tom, was five weeks old.
The day after the funeral I had to go to court. I was so grief-stricken that the memory is almost a blank. On the witness stand I told how he come home and what happened before he died. As soon as Columbus had died, there was men who went to the house where Richarson lived to arrest him, but he was not there. All the time we were working over Columbus, the Richardson boys was skulking out in the brush where they would be out of sight but where they could hear what was going on. As soon as they know my husbnad was dead, they hid the old man until he could get away. By daylight the next day he was out of the country and could not be found by the dozens of men who were hunting him. Right around home, the neighbors offered a five-hundred dollar reward for the capture of the old man Richardson but nothing was heard of him.
At that time Columbus had a brother, Jeff, who was only twelve year old. He was so heart-broken over the death of my husbnad that he vowed he would find his brother's murderer and kill him if it took the rest of his life. When Jeff was grown, he straddled a horse and struck out North. We knew where the Richarsons come from and that was where he made for. Weeks later, Jeff rode into Minnesota territory; he met a man who directed him to where Richardson lived. He rode up on the old man out in the woods. When he saw Jeff, he just threw up his hands and said, "Hello, Jeff! For God's sake, have mercy!" Jeff said, "I'm goin' show you the same mercy you showed my brother." He had a lariat all fixed on his saddle and he just pulled that out and roped the old man around the waist. He turned his horse and rode off, this jerked the old feller down and Jeff drug him about a hundred and fifty yards until he come to a lake. He rode out into the lake of water until he came to the center; then he untied his rope from the saddle horn and rode away. Jeff Collins had kept his vow!"

Based on the above narrative we can calculate the death date of Thomas Columbus Collins. Their son Tom was born April 21, 1878 and was five weeks old on May 26, the day his father was buried. He was murdered two days earlier on May 24. However, his tombstone says that he died May 20, 1878.
picture

Sources

1 Mary Jane Weaver, Unbroken Circle, 1985, pgs 18, 27-28.

2 "Find-a-Grave," Memorial # 41683857.

3 Mary Jane Weaver, Unbroken Circle, 1985, pgs 1, 106.

4 Lois N. Miller, "Washington County, Arkansas Marriage Books A-C, 1845-71," 1982, Repository: Clayton Library, Houston, Texas.

5 Mary Jane Weaver, Unbroken Circle, 1985, pg 18.

6 H. Neal Parker, Visit to Cemetery, Claude, Texas, 1999, 2007.

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