Black Sheep Sunday: Thurman W Balding

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 17:15:52 GMT

I was messing around earlier this morning with some of my Baldings. A whole slew of them lived in Morgan Co., OH, and I was making good progress in finding their graves.

And then, I ran across Thurman W Balding, one of the sons of William Balding and Elizabeth Hummel.

Thurman was born on New Year's Day in 1867 in Morgan County. He's my third cousin, three times removed. (Kind of like the familial relationship I have with another family misfit, Charles E Chapin.)

Apparently, Thurman was an honest-to-goodness outlaw.

He was a member of the Bill Cook gang, and it seems he spent a lot of time robbing stagecoaches and banks.

Thurman had aliases, including "Skeeter" (because he was tall and lanky) and "Tull." He also went by the surname Baldwin, which may have relieved his family to no end. No telling what his 7 brothers and sisters thought of him...

He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his unlawfulness, and had his sentence commuted by President Roosevelt in 1903.

Thurman died on 2 Mar 1936 in Sun City, Barber Co., KS, and was buried in Sunnyside Cemetery in Sun City, where two brothers and a sister were also laid to rest.

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Black Sheep Sunday: Thurman W Balding