The homemade tombstone of D. C. White, who, according to the tombstone was executed by hanging in Canton TX on 3 Feb 1882. The tombstone was made by R. A. Murphrey on 27 Jan 1966 and installed to mark White's grave in Hillcrest Cemetery soon thereafter.
From the Ancestry.com website comes this article: (
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"CANTON HERALD, January 29, 1932
"A short time ago this paper carried a news item concerning the birthday dinner tendered J.H. (Uncle Josh) Waldron, a few miles south of Canton, who is nearing his ninetieth year, still active and able to go to market. Mr. Waldron was one of the court figures in the district court at Canton a long time ago when D.C. White was tried and convicted fro killing an itinerant peddler by the name of George Conquest. The defendant was given the death penalty, and was publicly hanged at Canton on the 3rd day of February, 1882. Mr. Waldron served on the jury, and is no doubt the only member of that jury living today. The late Capt. J.T. Hamm was sheriff, and the execution took place under the brow of the hill a few hundred yards east of the court house in Canton, on what is known as Mill Creek, which was on a rampage at the time, the water reaching from ‘hill to hill.' Several thousand people, for many miles around, saw the hanging. (For more on this bit of Canton history, see the original article.)" [end]
This hanging was regional news, since a death notice also appeared in newspapers in Fort Worth TX, about 95 miles west of Canton:
From the Rootsweb page for the Tarrant County TXGenWeb 1881-83 Death Notices in the Fort Worth Democrat-Advance & Fort Worth Gazette
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"D. C. WHITE of Louisiana was hung yesterday in Canton for murder of George CONQUEST
Pg 4, Col. 4, Sat. 4 Feb 1882" [end]
Finally, more details of this case comes from the website for Canton's First Monday Trade Days: (
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"For more than a century, the colorful stories surrounding First Monday Trade Days have been passed along to generations of Van Zandt County residents. One of the most common is the story of a man convicted and hung for killing George Conquest, an Englishman from Louisiana who made a living peddling goods from a wagon. Records show his partner, D.C. White, shot and killed Conquest in the Owlet Green neighborhood in Van Zandt County where the two had camped for the night. White then stole the wagon full of goods and made his way back to Louisiana where he was later apprehended and returned to Canton. He was hung in February 1882 and buried facing south (not east) in Hillcrest Cemetery near the First Monday Park. It was the last of only two legal executions in the history of Van Zandt County." [end]
Mr. White's grave (and homemade tombstone) are just a few yards from the sheds on the First Mondays Trade Days grounds in Canton.
The relationship of the tombstone maker R. A. Murphrey to Mr. White and the circumstances surrounding the marking of White's grave 84 years later are still a mystery.