Jo G. Hardin and Cousins

Jo G. Hardin, born in 1850, came to Comanche in 1872 around the same time his father, Preacher Hardin, moved there. He married Belle Adams, bought block 8 of the original town survey at the southeast corner of the square, and built a home where he lived with Belle, Dora, and Jo G. Jr. A lawyer, he joined the Masonic Lodge and was appointed postmaster and county treasurer, but his reputation was soon damaged by bogus ownership in land titles, confirmed when Sheriff Carnes found 11 seals used in the forgeries between the mattresses of Belle's sick bed. On May 27th, 1874, Jo G., his brother Tom, and Bud Dixon were jailed across the street, supposedly for their own protection after their brother John Wesley had killed Deputy Webb of Brownwood. On May 31st, 1874, a mob from Brownwood took them from the jail and hanged them 2 miles south of town. Their bodies were later taken to Preacher Hardin's home northwest of town and buried there until 1909, when the Barnes family bought the land; Mrs. Barnes ordered the bodies removed, and at night they were placed in an unmarked grave in Oakwood Cemetery.

Comanche, Texas · United States