Mitchell Bend Cemetery
N 32° 19.067 W 097° 41.651
14S E 622918 N 3576410
Texas Historical Marker at the Mitchell Bend Cemetery in southeast Hood County, very close to the Hood-Somervell County line, noting this as a burial ground for early settlers, with a teaser as to the fate of the cemetery's namesake.
Waymark Code: WMY9ZA
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/17/2018
Views: 2
Nelson Mitchell's nickname was "Cooney", for reasons unknown, and while he wasn't necessarily a choir boy, he was innocent of the crime for which he was
hanged. Of course, money was at the center of the problem, in which Mr. Mitchell helped out his neighbors, the Truetts, by carrying the note for their property. Things turned ugly when Mitchell sued Mr. Truett over the money, and after one day in court in Granbury, one of the Mitchell boys shot three of Truett's sons, killing two of them, as they all returned to Mitchell Bend. Mr. Mitchell and his son-in-law had lagged behind, so they weren't present. Bill Mitchell, the trigger man, fled, leaving his father to be convicted and sentenced to hang, while his brother-in-law was sentenced to life in prison (but was pardoned after five years).
While in the Hood County jail, Jeff Mitchell tried to sneak a gun and some poison to his father: The gun to be used in an escape attempt, and the poison to be used to escape the hangman if the escape failed. A jail guard spotted young Mitchell and shot and killed him. At the gallows, Cooney Mitchell said his peace and exhorted his children to avenge him, which Bill Mitchell did some years later, murdering Mr. Truett in front of his family in East Texas.
Cooney Mitchell and his son, Jeff, are buried side-by-side here at Mitchell Bend Cemetery, and while their original grave markers are worn, they still indicate the respective fate of both men. Descendants placed newer headstones here in 1990.