Page 359 - Foy

going to tell you “The Rest of The Story”, as PAUL HARVEY says. They did indeed
live for a time as outlaws.

While doing research on the FOYs one of the problems I had believing the outlaw story
was MISSOURI and her family kept showing up in the U.S. census every ten years.
They were established citizens in Texas and were home every time the census takers
came by. That’s unusual for outlaws.

MISSOURI was born in Jackson Parish, Louisiana in 1852. Her parents were
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FOY and ELIZABETH WHITE. Two brothers, JOHN
ELON FOY (the patriarch of the CISCO CLAN) and JAMES W. FOY, were also born
later in Louisiana. The BENJAMIN FOY family moved from Louisiana to Arkansas

following ELIZABETH WHITE’s death and there BENJAMIN married MARY
ELIZABETH JACKS PAYNE who had a daughter, EMILY VIRGINIA
JACKS, by a previous marriage. In 1867 the BENJAMIN FOYs moved to Limestone
County, Texas. We know MISSOURI came to Texas with the rest of the family but
three years later in the 1870 census of Limestone County, TX. there is no mention of
MISSOURI living with the rest of the BENJAMIN FOY family. There is an
explanation.

“ MEAN AS HELL”

“Jim Miller and Bill White and the three RENFRO brothers were a hard gang, and
they were making a rough house of the town. Joe, sometime before, had brought one
of the RENFROs back from Magdalena, New Mexico for stealing a cow in San Saba
County, and the jury found RENFRO guilty.”

When I read those words in a book titled MEAN AS HELL by Dee Harkey I thought

I had found the answer to all the stories about MISSOURI’s family being outlaws.

Dee (Daniel R.) Harkey was a New Mexico rancher and lawman in the late 1800s. He
claimed he had “been shot at more times than any man in the world not engaged in war”.

Harkey spent his youth in San Saba County, Texas where his brother, Joe Harkey, was
the sheriff. Dee Harkey became a deputy sheriff under his brother in 1882. One of the
things Joe Harkey taught Dee in his training as a law man was “be damned sure you don’t

BROTHERS & SISTERS OF JOHN ELON FOY 4