Erasmus Gorillas Tilley, 18531910 (aged 56 years)

Name
Erasmus Gorillas /Tilley/
Given names
Erasmus Gorillas
Surname
Tilley
Birth
Type: Birth of Tilley, Erasmus Gorillas
7 October 1853
Prairie Lea, Caldwell, Texas, United States of America
Latitude: 29.732448 Longitude: -97.753612
State: Texas
Country: United States of America
MARRIAGE OF TILLEY, ERASMUS GORILLAS AND HARR, CASSANDRA GERTRUDE
4 April 1878 (aged 24 years)
Devine, Medina, Texas, United States of America
Latitude: 29.139963 Longitude: -98.905306
State: Texas
Country: United States of America
Death
Type: Death of Tilley, Erasmus Gorillas
26 May 1910 (aged 56 years)
Devine, Medina, Texas, United States of America
Latitude: 29.139963 Longitude: -98.905306
State: Texas
Country: United States of America
Family with parents
father
mother
himself
18531910
Birth: 7 October 1853 Prairie Lea, Caldwell, Texas, United States of America
Death: 26 May 1910Devine, Medina, Texas, United States of America
Family with Cassandra Gertrude Harr
himself
18531910
Birth: 7 October 1853 Prairie Lea, Caldwell, Texas, United States of America
Death: 26 May 1910Devine, Medina, Texas, United States of America
wife
18611951
Birth: 14 August 1861 31 28 Castroville, Medina, Texas, United States of America
Death: 29 December 1951Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, United States of America
MARRIAGE OF TILLEY, ERASMUS GORILLAS AND HARR, CASSANDRA GERTRUDE MARRIAGE OF TILLEY, ERASMUS GORILLAS AND HARR, CASSANDRA GERTRUDE4 April 1878Devine, Medina, Texas, United States of America
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Following all comes from http://lincecum.i-found-it.net/familyhistory/famf0368.html

Buried: 1910, Evergreen Cemetery, Devine, Medina County, Texas
Census: 1860, Precint 4, Medina County, Texas
Census: 1910, District 84, Justice Precint 5, Medina County, Texas
Occupation: 1886, Cattle Herder
Occupation: 1910, Department Store Salesman

Notes:

  • Erasmus was a member of the "Woodmen of the World" and has a WOW memorial gravestone.

  • His grandchildren called him "Papa Grande."

  • The following information is from the genealogy files of Cassie Motes Fahrenthold, E.G.'s g-granddaughter:

ERASMUS GORILLAS -- Came to Texas Medina County with his parents in 1857. Died May 26, 1910 in Devine, Texas. Buried Evergreen Cemetery, Devine, Texas. He was a member of “Woodsmen of the World” and has a Woodsmen gravestone. He signed his name E.G. Tilley but was known as Bee Tilley to his friends. His grandchildren called him Papa Grande. His occupations included farming, digging wells by hand, cleaning out wells for $2.50, hauling wood for $.75 a load, also public weighter at Devine for a time.

Cassie Gertrude Harr’s parents died when she was young and she lived with Sally Moore Ketchum, who is the sister of Mary Zelda Moore Tilley. Cassie said she graduated from school the day the teacher sent young Pete Ketchum home from school. While Pete was getting on his horse to go home, Cassie jumped out the window of the school house, got on her horse and rode off with Pete. Neither of them ever went back to school. Sally’s husband Pete Ketchum was killed by Indians and she later married Dan Patterson.

Among the frontiersmen, who have figured in Indian History on the Hondo, Black Creek and other points near Devine, and in Medina County, is Bee Tilley. While not participating in many Indian Battles, Bee Tilley was an actor in connection with one of those distressing frontier tragedies in which the bloody hand of the savage had brought mourning to many people. The following was told by his son, Joy Langdon Tilley and also written of by A.J. Sewell:

Early on the morning of April 22, 1877, a young man named Joe Wilton, 18 years of age, started from the ranch of Dan Patterson, about one mile East of Devine, to go to the store in Hondo, West of the Patterson ranch. When Joe Wilton did not return home at the proper time, his mother (a widow) became uneasy and a search was instituted. On this same day a religious service was being held at the home of Rev. C.B. Huskill. Bee Tilley, one of the searcher for the absence Joe Wilton, went to the meeting house, thinking the boy had likely gone there but no one had seen him. It was now near night. Rev. Huskill, who had not been on the frontier very long, told Bee Tilley that their horses had been carried off that day by men, who had tin pans on their arms. “Indians” said Tilley. What Huskill took for tin pans on their arms were shields. Bee Tilley was almost certain that the Indians had killed Joe, and set out in the night to the ranch of Lon Moore, who lived on the Hondo below the crossing, to see if Joe had been there. On the way, Bee saw the horse of the unfortunate Joe Wilton, but did not recognize it in the uncertain light. The horse had been wounded but was still standing. Coming to the Moore Ranch and wakening Lon, Bee could get no news of the missing Joe Wilton, but as yet no one had gone to the store. After leaving Lon Moore’s place Bee Tilley, with the company of Rufus Ketchum, went back to the Patterson place, arriving about daybreak. But still no tidings of Joe. A crowd of 10 to 12 men now gathered to make a thorough search and to fight the Indians, if they came into contact with them. There was no doubt Indians were in the country. Among those gathered for the search were:
Bee Tilley Cull Moore (Brother to Mary Zelda Moore Tilley, Uncle of Bee Tilley)
Napoleon & Charlie Harr (Brothers to Cassie Harr Tilley)
Frank Jackson (friend of family)
Hay and Lon Moore (Nephews to Mary Zelda Moore Tilley, Cousins to Bee
Rube Ketchum (Nephew to Mary Zelda Moore Tilley, Cousin to Bee Tilley)
Dan Patterson ( brother-in-law to Mary Zelda Moore Tilley, Uncle to Bee Tilley)
John Tilley (Possibly the son of Elija Tilley then being a cousin to Bee Tilley)

These men scattered out in different directions - when near Black Creek, They heard Napoleon Harr yell and they went to him. Napoleon had found Joe Wilton’s horse, which had been wounded and soon died. The men commenced with renewed energy to find the body. The men found a trail where a chase had occurred and followed fast. Apparently, Wilton had run a trail with Indians on both sides of him. About 500 yards down the trail, Hay Moore, found the body of Joe Wilton, lying under a Live Oak tree with white chaparral bushes around it. The boy had run under the tree, after leaving his wounded horse, and was there killed, stripped, and mutilated. Joe Wilton’s body had one bullet hole in the lower part of his neck, between the shoulders, up high. One arrow, in the left nipple, that went through the body and pushed the skin out on the opposite side. This arrow was in so deep that it was hard to extract, so Charlie Harr held the body down while Bee Tilley pulled it out. Besides these wounds there was a lance wound through the right breast and another gun shot wound in the head and one in the hip. The men left Charlie Harr and Cull Moore with the body and the rest went back to the settlement to carry the news. Bee Tilley went back with a wagon and brought the body in. Joe Wilton is buried one mile East of Devine. A tombstone with Joe’s name, date of death and cause of death inscribed on it now marks the spot.

Cassie Gertrude Harr was 16 when she married Erasmus (Bee) Gorillas Tilley. <Source - http://www.hal-pc.org/~berrys/html2/pafg51.htm>

  • "Bee Tilley was well known and respected. He was noted for his sterling honesty. He reared eleven children by the sweat of his brow. He never held a major public office. He never sought publicity, in fact, he avoided it. He was a strong supporter of public schools -- at one time he gave a month's work toward a school improvement project. He did his part and more toward any civi improvement project, but hsi name does not appear on any of these records. I think this instance marks the esteem of his fellows. At his death, business and professional men and associates dug his grave. They would allow no hired hand touch it." <Source: Writings of Joy Langdon Tilley>
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Eleven children listed at http://lincecum.i-found-it.net/familyhistory/famf0368.html