[basham.ged]
Roy B. Rhodes email 3/2001 <rhodes@@detnet.com>
Story related in July 1999 by Margaret Merrick of Jacksonville, Arkans
as s tates that James had quite of bit of gold at the end of the Civil W
ar a nd had told Emaline he was going out to
bury it. Upon his return a group of men rode up to the house and ca
me i n. One of the riders remained outside in the shadows and did not ent
er t he home. The story goes that Emaline
was tied up, James was killed and the tongue of their negro was c
ut ou t. Emaline suspicioned that the unknown rider was a son of Jam
es by a pre vious marriage.
Thomas Jefferson Rhodes (Emaline's brother) was Margaret's great grandfa
th er and was the source of this information. After the death of Margar
et 's mother in 1933 when she was 5
years old and her sister Helen was 3, they were taken in at the ho
me of Th omas Jefferson and his daughter, Lutie Rhodes Carlisle and rais
ed ther e. Many evenings were spent by the
fireplace as Tom told tales of his life as an ox-team teamster on the Te
nn essee River in Morgan County, Alabama, and of the days after he and h
is br other, James, came to Conway
County, Arkansas by ox-drawn wagons in 1880.
Another brother, Benaja Alexander Rhodes, went to Ellis County, Tex
as fr om Alabama in 1895, where his last daughter, Mable, was born Septemb
er 2 3, 1902. Emaline likely named her
son, James Alexander Basham after James Hogan and this brother. Mable
's f ather had told the identical story about James' murder to his fami
ly accor ding to Mable in July 1999 at her
home in Waxahachie, Texas. Mable passed away January 7, 2000 at t
he a ge of 97 years, three months and 15 days.