TWAS A STORMY NIGHT
by Roberta Richards Peeples
When I was a little girl coming to the Thomas Family Reunions, I remember standing at Oak Knoll Cemetery near Amador City, California and hearing about Joseph Thomas, Jr. He was shot off his horse and killed, it was said, on a stormy night. Now this all sounded pretty exciting to a little girl, but no one seemed to know more.
When I grew up and started doing family research, I looked for the shooting in the early California newspapers. There it was in print! The newspaper articles sparked the memory of my Aunt Edith Biggs and she was able to give more of the family story. What I found was a story both exciting and tragic-- truly a tale of the "wild west."
Joseph Henry Thomas, Jr. and Kate Peyton were married the 17th of November, 1895 in Amador City, California. He was 21 and she was 15-1/2 years old. Their marriage was not a happy one and Kate had gone home to her family once or twice, but had been induced to return to her husband.
Yet on Saturday night, November 21, 1896, Joey was feeling depressed and forlorn. Kate had left him again and he was drinking quite heavily that night. It was only four days past his first wedding anniversary, mind you, and he felt there was no hope for the marriage.
He was thinking of leaving town. At 4:30 in the morning, he went to his father's barn where he met Constable Riley who boarded his horse there. The constable was trying to groom his horse with one hand and held a lantern with the other. So Joey held the lantern and while doing so, began to express his sadness. He said he loved his wife, but she didn't love him. Riley told him, never mind, there were plenty of other women.
Riley left the barn and Joey apparently saddled his own horse to ride to the Peyton Ranch, two or three miles out of town. Around 5:30 a.m., before dawn, Kate's brothers Edward and William heard a noise in the yard and coming out of the house, saw Joe on his horse. Joe asked to see Kate-- "I am going to leave the county and I want to settle with her." William Peyton responded, "This is no time to see her, you can't see her." Joe, upset and having been drinking, pulled out his revolver and shot at the brothers, hitting William in the shoulder. The brothers ran into the house; William grabbed his rifle, and shot out the door at Joe twice in the darkness.
The brothers did not venture outside until light. Around 7 a.m. they found Joe, Jr. lying dead in their barn, his horse standing nearby. It was determined later that the place of the shooting was actually 170 yards from the barn. At 11 a.m., William Peyton turned himself in to Constable Riley in Amador City and had his flesh wound taken care of.
Joey's mother heard the news in town that Sunday and hurried up to the Peyton Ranch. There she found her son lying face up in the mud, uncovered. She took the shawl from around her own shoulders and placed it over her young son.
William Peyton was acquitted of murder, the court judging the shooting as "self-defense."
Both families continued to live in the area, but there must have been a lot of bitterness and controversy. After all, the only witnesses to the actual shooting were the Peyton brothers themselves, and it did take them four hours to report the shooting after they found Joe's body.
Besides, you see, Joseph Henry Thomas, Jr. was shot in the back.
Copyright ©1996-2000, Roger & Roberta Peeples