Person:Henry Stout (7)

     
Capt. Henry B. Stout
m. 30 May 1799
  1. Capt. Henry B. Stout1798 - 1890
  2. William B. StoutAbt 1807 - Abt 1867
m. 1818 (?)
  1. James Selen Stout1818 - 1897
  2. Elizabeth Stout1826 - 1897
  3. Benjamin Franklin Stout1829 - 1875
m. Abt 1850
  1. Henry H. Stout1845 - 1881
  2. Sam Houston StoutAbt 1846 -
m. Abt 1853
  1. Thomas J. Rusk Stout1854 -
  2. Martha S. Stout1858 -
  3. Amanda M. StoutAbt 1870 -
Facts and Events
Name[1][2] Capt. Henry B. Stout
Gender Male
Birth[2][3][4][10] Jun 1798 Washington, Tennessee, United States
Marriage 1818 (?) Hempstead County, Arkansasto Sarah Mary Talbot
Census[10] 1850 Van Zandt, Texas, United States
Marriage Abt 1850 Nacogdoches County?, Texas(his 2nd wife, her 2nd husband; cohabited for several years until Henry's 1st wife divorced him; her 1st husband's name was "Smith")
to Susan J. Unknown
Divorce Bef 1852 Wood County?, Texasfrom Sarah Mary Talbot
Marriage Abt 1853 Wood County?, Texas(his 3rd wife)
to Martha Unknown
Census[7] 1860 Wood, Texas, United States
Military[2] 25 May 1862 Elected 2d Lieut of Co. B, 10th Texas Cavalry. Discharged for age & disability.
Census[8] 1870 Wood, Texas, United States
Divorce Bet 1872 and 1879 Wood County, Texasfrom Martha Unknown
Census[9] 1880 Wood, Texas, United States
Death[2] 2 Dec 1890 Wood, Texas, United States (according to his obituary)
Alt Death[4] 1892 (according to his grave marker)
Burial[2][4][13] Stout Cemetery, Wood, Texas, United States
Questionable information identified by WeRelate automation
To check:Born before parents' marriage

Many publications name Weakley County, Tennessee, as the birthplace of Henry Stout. However, the first families settled there in 1819, and there is no mention of Stout's there at that early date. Weakley county was formed in 1823, nearly 25 years after his birth. The 1850 census incorrectly gives Washington county, Tennessee, as his birthplace.


He migrated to Illinois c.1816 (reportedly to get away from his father, who was something of a tyrant), where he remained only briefly before moving on to Arkansas. In 1819, he moved with his family from Hempstead County, Arkansas, to Pecan Point on the north side of the Red River. Shortly thereafter, he crossed the river and settled at the James Burkham Settlement, on the later site of Jonesboro.[2]

He apparently traveled by himself to Nacogdoches in 1819, where he got caught up in the collapse of the Long Expedition and was briefly detained by Spanish authorities. After his release, he returned to his family on the Red River.[2]

In 1823, he relocated at present site of Clarksville, where there was a spring near Delaware Creek. Henry Stout and Gabriel Martin already were there. "He had certificates of land under the Mexican Republic, but traded them to Henry Stout, and the land later was patented under Stout's name, though the starting of the town was due to the initiative of James Clark, and it was properly named in his honor."[1][2]

In 1826, he made a trip west to trade with Indians. The party of 14 (or possibly 20) included James E. Hopkins, James Clark, Henry Stout, Charles Burkham, and Charles Humphreys.[1]

In March 1838, he testified before the commissioners of the land office as to his date of arrival in Texas, and that he was therefore entitled to a league and a labor of land, which he received. He conveyed his land certificate (for the site of Clarksville, almost 3,700 acres) to Mrs. Isabella H. Clark. She then began donating town lots to settlers, merchants, and churches to promote development. She soon became a leading political, financial, and social leader in the community.[5]

From 1836 to 1843, he served as a captain in the Texas Rangers (as did his brother, William) and took part in several expeditions against the Indians.[2]

In May 1841, he accompanied John B. Denton on an Indian scouting expedition, on which occasion Denton was killed.[1]

He appears to have moved from Red River County to Wood County early in 1850. (He is mentioned as a judge in January 1850 but has not been found in the 1850 census there. And he is recorded as having served a term as Sheriff of Wood County, 1850-52.) In 1855, he was elected to the 6th Texas legislature from Dist. 18 (Wood & Van Zandt Counties). He enlisted at the outbreak of the Civil War and was elected 2d Lieut. for Co. B, 10th Texas Cavalry, but quickly received a medical discharge on grounds of age and disability.[2]


Van Zandt County, Texas, 1850 census:[10]

Stout, Henry 50 yrs Farmer b. Tenn Washington Co.
      S.J. 48 yrs b. KY Pulasky Co. [Pulaski]
      Henry H. 5 yrs b. Texas Upshier Co. [Upshur]
      Wm Smith 13 yrs b. LA Natc P [Natchitoches Parish]
      S.C. Smith Female 9 yrs b. Texas Harrison Co.
      John Bayed 22 yrs Dayly laborer b. Texas

Precinct 4, Wood County, Texas, 1860 census:[7] Post Office: Holley Springs

Stout, Henry 61 yrs [no occupation] b. Virginia
      Martha 27 yrs b. Alabama
      Sam H. 14 yrs b. Texas
      Thos. J. R. 6 yrs b. Texas
      Martha S. 2 yrs b. Texas
Massy, Jackson 8 yrs b. Texas

Precinct 4, Wood County, Texas, 1870 census:[8] Post Office: Quitman

Stout, Henry 71 yrs Farmer (real estate = $1,600; personal estate = $900) b. Virginia
      Martha 38 yrs Keeping House b. Alabama
      Thomas R. 15 yrs At school b. Texas
      Martha S. 11 yrs At school b. Texas

Wood County, Texas, 1880 census:[9]

Stout, Henry 81 yrs (Div.) Farmer b. Virginia (parents, b. Virginia)
      Martha S. 21 yrs Dau Works on farm b. Texas (parents, b. Virginia/Alabama)
      Amanda M. 10 yrs Dau At school b. Texas (parents, b. Virginia/Alabama)

Dallas Morning News, 31 Dec 1890:[3]

Landmarks Gone.
Capt. Henry Stout.
Quitman, Wood Co., Tex., Dec. 31---Capt. Henry Stout, the oldest of the Texas veterans and a prominent figure in their reunions, died at home in this county on Saturday, Dec. 2 of heart failure, at the age of 92 years and 6 months. Capt. Stout came to Texas seventy-three years ago at the age of 19 and at once took an active part in the defense of the settlers against the Indians, and later in all the struggles with Mexico, which finally resulted in the independence of Texas and its annexation to the United States. He was brave and adventurous, and his life was replete with thrilling adventures, desperate encounters, and narrow escapes. Capt. Stout was the first sheriff of Wood county and remained an honored and respected citizen of the county until his death.

CAPTAIN HENRY STOUT by Pat Benjamin Clark

Formerly I spoke of that great old character, Henry Stout. Here I desire to relate an incident in his life’s career that proved his ability as a scout or guide. John B. Denton, for whom the beautiful City of Denton and Denton County, Texas, were named, at the time of this happening, lived in the City of Clarksville. Mr. Denton was out on the western frontier, together with Henry Stout and others from this section of the state, on a scouting expedition, and they were ambushed by the Comanche Indians and Mr. Denton was killed. The same volley that killed Mr. Denton also shot the flint lock off of Henry Stout’s rifle. This was in 1841.

Some thirty years later, to prove the knowledge Henry Stout had of this part of Texas, he boarded the train at Clarksville, went out to Denton County, and was finally able to locate the grave of Mr. Denton which was positively identified by some things they had purposely buried with the body. Old Uncle Henry Stout, as he was affectionately called, told me himself of this happening, and stated that his greatest trouble in locating the grave of Mr. Denton was the fact that the railroad was there, which to him marred the whole beauty of the country.

Another time while on a scouting expedition this faithful old guide, Henry Stout, came near meeting his death at the hands of the Comanche savages by being shot late one evening out on the headwater of the northern prong of the Trinity River. An Indian had hidden in a small thicket of dogwood bushes and as Henry Stout rode up the Indian rose and shot his arrow. Stout wheeled off his horse, but the arrow with a flint-rock head went through his buckskin trousers and embedded itself in the thigh of his left leg so deeply that with all his strength he was unable to pull it out. He was afraid to cut it out with his knife for fear he would sever a blood vessel and bleed to death. He cut the arrow down close to his leg to keep down the vibration which would aggravate the wound. He then mounted his horse and turned toward Ft. Towson, a distance of approximately 180 miles and procured there the services of an army surgeon, who cut the arrow head out of his leg. I marvel at this man’s stamina, and wonder if we have men of this same type in the present age. I saw the scar on his leg from which the arrow had been removed.

One interesting story of a bear hunt participated in by the early settlers is related by old Uncle Henry Stout. Stout, James Burkham, Isaiah D. Lawson, Sr., L. Hopkins, John Stiles, and perhaps a few others, went to Red River on a bear hunt. After camping on the river for a few days, they decided to move several miles down the stream. Lawson, Stiles and Hopkins were to take all the horses around through the trails in the forest while Burkham and Stout would go down the river in a skiff. It was a very cold, drizzly evening in winter. While Burkham was directing the skiff, Stout watched on the banks for signs of game. At the root of a large tree that had been washed down the river and lodged against the bank Stout saw a large bear. Taking careful aim, he fired but the bullet merely grazed the head of the bear which looked all around and, seeing the men in the skiff, made a lunge for them. Before Stout could reload his gun, the beast had reached the skiff and was climbing in. Stout, a powerful man physically, struck the bear a terrific blow with the barrel of his rifle but instead of killing the bear, the wooden stock of his gun broke and the barrel fell to the bottom of the stream. The blow, however, kept the bear from entering the skiff.

Jumping into the water on the side opposite that of the bear, Stout pulled his bowie knife and, standing in the water shoulder deep, reached over the skiff and struck at the bear with such force that the knife missed the mark. His wrist struck the sharp edge of the skiff and his arm was temporarily paralyzed, the knife dropping into the water. Paying no attention to Burkham who was in the skiff with nothing but a paddle, the beast climbed over the boat after Stout. It was then up to Stout to do some very rapid thinking, so while the bear was climbing over the skiff, he dived under it, staying under the water as long as he could, swimming under it, swimming upstream. In this manner he gained some little advantage of the bear. The bear had to then come upstream in approaching him. Stout could stand on the bottom; the bear having to swim against the current. Having lost both his rifle and bowie knife, Stout had nothing with which to defend himself except a pocketknife with only one blade, and it was broken. By this time the dogs which were with the party on land heard the calls of Stout and Burkham and came to their rescue. As the bear would come in reach, Stout would strike the side of his throat with the broken knife and, at the same time, the dogs would grab him in the ribs. The bear would have to turn and fight the dogs. These operations were repeated for a few times when the men who had heard the noise had arrived and Hopkins shot the bear with his rifle.

Stout then set to work to find the pieces of his broken rifle, which he succeeded in doing, finding the stock had broken in such a way that it left the hammer and trigger intact. Stout, having a wonderful grip, could use the rifle as a man would use a pistol and with this broken gun, he afterwards killed two bears. As Stout often told Dr. Pat B. Clark, while this fight was in progress, the wind changed to the north and came with such force that he thought he would freeze in his wet clothes before he could start a fire.

In the early days, as hereinbefore related, the settlers depended largely upon the bear for fats to be used for cooking purposes. Stout told me, the writer, that he often killed bears that would render up thirty or forty gallons of bear fat.

He also told me of another bear hunt which took place in the canebrake on Red River at Ward’s Lake, above what is now Riverview and below Bryarly. The cane then was so rank and dense that a man could not ride through it on a horse; however, the bears had made trails through the cane and there were quite a number in there. Stout came home after a trip and, being out of ammunition, powder, and lead, and the neighborhood being out of meat, he took his bear dogs and his hunting knife and went to this canebrake for the purpose of killing a bear. He started his bear dogs and then secreted himself behind a large tree by which the bear trail passed, and waited for the bear. One soon came by and, knowing well the nature of the animal, he reached with his knife over the bear’s back and stabbed it to the heart on the side farthest from him. The bear struck, as he knew it would, on the side from which it was wounded. Stout stepped back behind the tree and his game soon bled to death in the trail. As he told of this bear hunt in my presence he turned and looked at me, I then being a small boy, and said, "Now Pat, don’t you try this trick on a bear for you could not do it".


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References
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Clark, Pat B. The History of Clarksville and Old Red River County. (Dallas: Mathis, Van Nort & Co., 1937)
    pp. xiii-xiv, 3, 24-25, 35.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Handbook of Texas Online
    "Stout, Henry B.".
  3. 3.0 3.1 Dallas Morning News. (Dallas, Texas)
    3 Jan 1891.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Grave marker, Stout Cemetery, Wood, Texas, United States.
  5. Clark, Pat B. The History of Clarksville and Old Red River County. (Dallas: Mathis, Van Nort & Co., 1937)
    p. 71.
  6.   Clark, Pat B. The History of Clarksville and Old Red River County. (Dallas: Mathis, Van Nort & Co., 1937)
    pp. 72-73.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Wood, Texas, United States. Wood, Texas, United States. 1860 U.S. Census Population Schedule
    p. 368, dwelling/family 337/329.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Wood, Texas, United States. Wood, Texas, United States. 1870 U.S. Census Population Schedule
    p. 582, dwelling/family 421/421.
  9. 9.0 9.1 Wood, Texas, United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule
    ED 127, p. 354, dwelling/family 455/497.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 United States. 1850 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432)
    p. 223A, dwelling/family 124/124.
  11.   Paris (Texas) Times
    2 Feb 1889.

    A Big Land Suit.

    On Saturday last the talk about the defective titles of persons owning land on the McClennan survey near Boxton took definite form in shape of a suit by Henry Stout and his descendants for all the land embraced in that survey. Stout is an old Texas veteran and the land in question was patented to him as the assignee of A. McClennan. We are informed that no deed or deeds from him on any part of said land are on record and that he claimes [sic] never to have transferred any of it. Still it has been occupied for many years, some of it before the war, most of it is improved and its aggregate value is probably not less than $100,000. Henry Stout and several of the other plaintiffs live in Wood county and the old man is said to be very poor. The suit will furnish some fat pickings and will probably be decided within twenty years.

  12.   Dallas Morning News. (Dallas, Texas)
    26 Feb 1909.

    Stories of Henry Stout.

    Specially written for the Magazine Section of the News.

    Henry Stout of Illinois, a pioneer in the Red River country in 1824-25, was a man whose peculiar worth and unusual characteristics have brought forward many stories that have been carried down to today.

    It appears that he was so strong a man that it was current belief where he was known that he could not be killed. One story relates that away back in the early days while he was hunting, an Indian concealed in a bunch of bluestem grass drew his bow and his arrow struck Stout squarely in the hip, the point penetrating the bone.

    The old hunter gritting his teeth with pain layi quietly in the grass until the Indian appeared to see his victim, when he carefully took aim at the crested head and put a bullet through it. He ten tried to pull out the arrow, but the point was deep in the bone, and he could do nothing without assistance.

    He knew that Fort Towson in the Indian Territory was the nearest human habitation, and three or four days' journey from where he was, but he set out to reach it. He labored through the woods day by day, crossed Red River and the Washita, and finally appeared at the fort. An Army surgeon marvelling greatly that he was alive opened the wound and with mighty effort got out the head of the arrow, and to the amazement of everyone the old hunter in a few days was walking around, apparently in the best of health. The surgeons at that time said the wound and what followed would have killed ninety-nine out of 100 men, but that Stout was evidently the hundredth.

    Another story told of Stout is that one day while hunting he found where someone had been cutting poles in the woods, indicating the proximity of white men.

    He finally found a clearing with a cabin in it, and in the cabin door was a woman screaming at the top of her lungs.

    Stout shook her into some degree of intelligence and gathered the fact that her husband was away, and that during the night a wild cat had entered the cabin, seized her baby, and on her screaming had dropped it in the door and disappeared. She then relapsed into hysterics and began screaming again.

    The old hunter scratched his head. Plainly something must be done and at once.

    "Here," he said, "show me the baby." The woman calmed herself sufficiently to show it.

    "Well," said Stout deliberately, "I've seen a good many cats and a good many babies, and I never knew a cat to drop one before, but that baby's so blamed ugly if I were a cat I'd a' dropped it sooner than that one did." Whereupon the woman's reason returned so thoroughly that she tried to scratch out his eyes, and the old man, fleeing, found her husband and explained, and all was well.

  13. Henry Stout military footstone