A. B. Smith - Oakwood Cemetery - Fort Worth, TX
N 32° 46.231 W 097° 20.913
14S E 654678 N 3627052
This elaborate broken column memorial towers over the flat tombstones of A. B. Smith and several family members at Oakwood Cemetery, giving no hint of the lurid scandals that swirled around his life, and continued for years after his death.
Waymark Code: WMFWZJ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/10/2012
Views: 5
The broken column tombstone of A. B. Smith in Fort Worth's historic Oakwood Cemetery is a beautiful monument, giving no hint of the lurid scandals that tinged the last few years of his life.
Albert Benjamin Smith was the cashier at the Merchant's National Bank on the second floor of the Hirschfield Building at 7th and Houston streets in downtown Fort Worth. He also served as a director of the bank.
Col. R. M. Page was one of the vice-presidents of Merchant's National Bank. Page was a very wealthy and politically influential man both in Fort Worth and in the state of Texas. He had made a fortune in the lumber industry in East Texas. His brother was a state Senator from Crockett TX.
The Merchant's National Bank of Fort Worth had a short and tumultuous history. It was was closed by regulators and then reopened after an infusion of cash in 1891. It finally collapsed in mid-1893. Within months the bank's assets were in the process of being liquidated.
Col. Page and Smith were among several bank directors named as defendants in an 1893 lawsuit. They (and other directors) were accused of conspiring to use the bank and its assets to enrich themselves to the detriment of bank stockholders and lenders. In other words, they would stay employed by the bank and control the assets (ensuring that the money went to all the defendants), while creditors and stockholders would take nothing in the bank's liquidation.
Tensions between Page and Smith built over several years, and led to an incident on 7 July 1893, where the two exchanged gunshots at the bank. Page was grazed by a bullet, but Smith was unhurt. Both men were arrested, posted bonds, and were released. Neither had anything to say about the incident, so the criminal case essentially went nowhere.
However, both men claimed afterwards to be fearful for their lives from the intentions of the other, and both were usually armed.
On 12 Mar 1894 a meeting of the Merchant's National Bank was called in the bank's offices. They would be discussing the liquidation of the bank's assets and other matters related to the bank's failure. Page, a former Vice-President and director of the bank, decided to attend. He walked into Smith's office just before the meeting was scheduled to start.
Suddenly, shots rang out. Smith fell to the floor, mortally wounded. He had been shot twice in the body and once in the head. Witnesses at the scene saw Page with a smoking revolver exclaiming, 'I have killed the ----"
Col. R. M. Page was immediately arrested. A few months later he was tried for murder in Fort Worth's trial of the century.
Page claimed he was justified in shooting Smith because he had done it in self-defense. After a sensational murder trial that captivated readers across the state, Col. Page was acquitted of murder. He left the courthouse a free man, but not free of A. B. Smith or his heirs.
Shortly after his acquittal, Page was served with a civil suit for damages for causing the death of A. B. Smith. This suit was winding its way through the courts a year later, when Col. Page fell ill.
R. M. Page died on 17 Sep 1895 in Fort Worth, touching off EVEN MORE lurid scandal. Page, although a very wealthy and handsome man, had never married. After he died, Page's long-time housekeeper Mrs. Harris came forward and claimed to have been his secret wife and mistress. Folks in Fort Worth had already been gossiping about the housekeeper's 6-year-old daughter, who lived in the Page home with the housekeeper and was the "spitting image" of Page.
Several unexecuted deeds for his properties were found in his desk drawer made out to the housekeeper. Harris claimed this was evidence that Page was providing for her as she was his wife. Page's heirs-at-law claimed that these deeds were invalid, as they had never been executed. Smith's heirs-at-law suspected that these unexecuted transfers were a future plot by Page to place his assets out of their reach.
Once Page's heirs evicted Harris from Page's estate, she filed suit, setting off the next round of lurid scandal. Once the free-for-all for all of Page's marbles began, The Dallas Morning News set a reporter up at a hotel in Fort Worth with instructions to report every tidbit, giving their readers a front-row seat to the salaciousness.
Among her many allegations, Harris testified that Page would frequently send her to St. Louis with $400 to live on while she waited out several pregnancies that were the natural result of sex in an age before contraception.
Once the child was delivered, Harris would leave it with an orphanage Page had chosen, and she would return to Fort Worth. Several checks for that exact amount were found in Page's ledgers, corresponding with train tickets purchased by Harris to St. Louis.
Later, according to Harris, Page got tired of sending her away, so he compelled her to have multiple abortions.
The case played out over 5 days. The Dallas Morning News satisfied its readers' appetite for the scandal with comprehensive (for 1894) coverage of all the most salacious and lurid testimony. The trial was known in the daily press as "The Page Sensation." It merited at least 1/2 page of coverage every day -- a large amount in the papers of the time, reserved for only the events of the highest public interest. The President of the United States got less coverage than the Page Sensation in the Dallas Morning News. REALLY.
Despite all the breathless drooling trial coverage, the verdict in the case merited 4 lines in the "Fort Worth Budget" miscellanous items section: Mrs. Harris lost her case. The judge ruled that she and Page were not husband and wife, and she was not entitled to a share of the estate. Col. Page's brother was named estate administrator.
We have not been able to find out how the suit by Smith's heirs turned out.
We did discover one last fact about Page: Ironically, R. M. Page, one of the richest, most famous, and most well-connected figures in early Fort Worth is buried in an unmarked grave at Oakwood Cemetery in block 21, lot 50, not too far from the grave of his victim, A. B. Smith in block 22, lot 28.
UPDATE 02 October: Thanks to QuarellaDeVil for better coordinates :) We typoed :(
Headstone/Monument Text:
A, B. Smith
A precious one from us has gone
A voice we loved is stilled,
A place is vacant in our home
Which never can be filled.
God in his wisdom has recalled
The one His love has given,
And though the body slumbers here
The soul is safe in heaven
Website with More Information: Not listed
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