Columns & Opinions

In a quiet cemetery in Round Rock, a tombstone used to read, “A brave man reposes in death here. Why was he not true?” The tombstone was whittled away by time and curiosity- seekers. The epitaph was placed by one of the sisters of the deceased, Sam Bass. He lay dead at the end of a crime spree that lasted only a couple of years but was remembered for generations. In the Old West when the population was still small and the emptiness of the wide-open frontiers was filled by larger-than-life personalities, Sam Bass stood out.

Ben Milam was an average man who traveled the early frontier. But the course of events would place him in the middle of the fight for Texas independence and into legend. Milam’s decisive actions made him one of the early heroes of the Texas Revolution.

Seven Texas counties have been approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for grants for emergency work and replacement of disaster-damaged public infrastructure, after severe weather and flooding struck much of Deep East Texas, Gov. Gregg Abbott’s office reported. Counties eligible for FEMA’s Public Assistance program include Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity and Walker.