Two Sheriffs of Mason County
Mason, Mason County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A native of Kentucky, Thomas S. Milligan (1810-1860) moved to this area in 1855 and operated a change station for the stage line. He was also a rancher and supplied beef to the soldiers at Fort Mason. Shortly after Mason County was organized in 1858 he became the first elected sheriff. Two years later he was killed by hostile Indians near his home (1.6 mi. NW). His grandson Allen Thomas Murray (1880-1929) became county sheriff in 1924 and like his grandfather died in the line of duty. He was killed by a bootlegger near this site in 1929. (1980)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This marker remembers two Mason County lawmen from the same family, separated by nearly seventy years. Kentucky-born Thomas Milligan ran a stage station and supplied beef to Fort Mason before becoming the county's first elected sheriff in 1858; two years later he was killed near his home. His grandson, Allen Thomas Murray, took up the same office in 1924 and likewise died in the line of duty, shot by a bootlegger in 1929.
Why it matters
Their intertwined fates trace the long arc of the Texas frontier from Indian-war dangers to Prohibition-era violence, showing how the burden of keeping order passed down through generations.
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Related people
- · Thomas S. Milligan
- · Allen Thomas Murray
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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