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Will Barger was the first person buried in the Tap "Red Mud Cemetery", this land was homesteaded by him about one year prior to his death. He was shot by his neighbor, Jess Addamson in April of 1886 in a dispute over a stud horse. Since Dickens County had not been organized at the time, and there was no official law enforcement other than frontier justice, it is believed that Addamson was never tried for the act. After Addamson shot Barger, Addamson dug 26 buckshot out of the victim.
According to published accounts, there was no lumber to make a coffin, so the sideboards from a wagon were pressed into service and when it came time to lower the coffin into the ground, some of the women had to assist as there were not that many men present.
Will Barger´s wife, Annie McCorkle Barger, died in June of 1886 of tuberculosis and in 1884, his first wife, Frances McCorkle Barger, a sister to Annie, also died of tuberculosis.
From these two marriages, Will Barger left six children; the youngest being three months. The rest of the family was notified of Mr. Barger´s death and they later came from East Texas to claim the children.
©The Texas Spur, 1995, Newspaper article
Book: Tap, Texas by Mrs. Donnie Pace
© Dickens County Historical Commission 1997-2022
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