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Armed robbers hit state treasury
On this day in 1865, an estimated fifty desperadoes broke into the state
treasury in Austin, one of the boldest crimes in Texas history. The
robbery occurred during the chaotic period immediately after the downfall
of the Confederacy in the spring of 1865. Gen. Nathan G. Shelley informed
George R. Freeman, a Confederate veteran and leader of a small company of
volunteer militia, that the robbery was imminent. By the time Freeman and
about twenty of his troops arrived at the treasury, the robbers were in
the building. A brief gunfight erupted in which one of the robbers was
mortally wounded; all the other robbers fled toward Mount Bonnell, west of
Austin, carrying with them about $17,000 in specie, more than half of the
gold and silver in the state treasury. None was ever captured. The loot
was never recovered, although some of the money was found strewn between
the treasury building and Mount Bonnell. Freeman and his company of
volunteers were later recognized by the state for their service in
defending the public treasury, but the resolution providing a reward for
their services never passed the legislature.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- TREASURY ROBBERY
- FREEMAN, GEORGE R.
- SHELLEY, NATHAN GEORGE
- CIVIL WAR
- MURRAH, PENDLETON
- MOUNT BONNELL
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
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- Pioneer public-health doctor dies (1991)
- Luling philanthropist celebrates oil deal with huge barbecue (1926)
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