You are standing approximately where the infamous gambler/gunfighter Luke Short would have stood when he attended the funeral of his brother William in April, 1890.
Luke’s parents, Josiah Washington (J.W.) and Hettie Brumley Short, married in 1846 in Arkansas. They moved to Montague County, Texas in 1860 then to Grayson County, Texas where they farmed. Having grown tired of farming, the Short family moved in 1884 near Ben Ficklin in Tom Green County where they ranched cattle.
J. W. and Hettie had ten children: Martha, John, Josiah (Joe), Young, Luke, Mary, Henry, George, Nannie and William. The family was known to have good standing in the San Angelo community. Henry ran a grocery business in San Angelo until he retired in 1902.
The Short patriarch, J. W., died of natural causes (old age) on February 8, 1890. Soon thereafter his son, William, died March 29, 1890. William was tending cattle on the Tankersley Ranch. The cattle stampeded and William’s horse fully galloped into a barbed wire fence throwing him to his death.
Jda Short, wife of George, died in 1893 at age 19. There appears to be an unoccupied grave site next to Jda that might have been intended for George. However, George subsequently moved to Lawton, Oklahoma and remarried. George is buried in Highland Cemetery in Lawton.
The Short matriarch, Hettie, died in 1908 and is buried here beside her husband. Three of the Short family children: Martha, Joe and Henry, are buried in Fairmount Cemetery in San Angelo.
Luke Short, the gunslinger and associate of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, is buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Fort Worth.