James Rollins Bingham was a hardworking, published author that found a life in Thurber, Texas. The weigh master of the No. 6 mine found a place to stay with the Yie family who ran a small boarding house. He started in Thurber as a rock breaker but worked his way up to weigh master, then eventually bookkeeper. He was a published author, finding his work published in papers across the United States. James Bingham was a bit reclusive, no one really knew his history, and for good reason. James Bingham had a secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
James Rollins Bingham formerly known as Rollins Bingham, was born in September of 1861 in Missouri to General George Caleb Bingham and his second wife Eliza Thomas. He was the only child of the couple. General Bingham was Missouri\u2019s Adjutant General, and a painter known for his paintings of frontier life. Rollins Bingham grew up wanting for nothing, but that wasn\u2019t enough for him. General Bingham died on July 7th<\/sup>, 1879, leaving behind his third wife Martha A. Lykins. Rollins was told by his father to take care of his stepmother, and she continued to live with him for a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What Rollins did next shocked everyone, he forged deeds of property left by his father to his stepmother. He took out liens in his stepmother’s name against properties now hers by stealing the legal stamps of his law practice partners. The total amount of his theft resides between $20,000 and $25,000 dollars, today equaling over half a million dollars. Luckily for Rollins\u2019 stepmother, she discovered his actions before her death, and disinherited him and his sister Clara. The money that remained she left to her niece and nephew. Leaving only a few paintings to Rollins and Clara, but due to Rollins’ theft they were liquidated to pay back the liens, leaving him penniless. Then he went into hiding for twelve years. While a few friends knew where he resided, they refused to give up his location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rollins found his way to Thurber, likely by way of his sister and brother-in-law who lived in Stephenville. He stopped going by Rollins and became known as James Bingham. James became known in the community for being quiet but well liked. He stayed in the same boarding house as W. K. Gordon. Many boarders lived in the Yie household, allowing for friendships and business relationships to blossom. Many of these names were printed alongside Bingham\u2019s when the newspaper reported on local social events. Bingham was a writer before he came to Thurber, and he didn\u2019t stop writing while there. Many people were unaware of his artistic talents until his work began being published in the \u201cTexas Mining and Trade Journal\u201d for others to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n James\u2019s nephew is listed as visiting often enough that it is possible he found a residence among Thurber for a short time. The \u201cTexas Mining and Trade Journal\u201d also featured ads for James\u2019 brother-in-laws’ and nephews’ real estate business. Unfortunately, James\u2019s sister passed away in 1900, and James\u2019 health saw a rapid decline. Due to this James had to move into a hospital in Fort Worth. After spending six months in the hospital, James Bingham picked up his full name again and wrote to the judge of Kansas City, Missouri and the prosecuting attorney, \u201cI have worked hard and honestly, but of recent years my health has not been good, and I have been able to save nothing. What I desire is to come back to Kansas City, plead guilty and take my punishment.\u201d James Rollins Bingham then surrendered himself to the Dallas Police Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether it was Bingham\u2019s sad state, slick tongue or the kindness of others, he walked from his trial a free man. No one brought forth a case against him. With his stepmother long gone, and the liens covered, he continued his life as a free man. He worked as a writer for the Kansas City Star until his death from pneumonia in 1910. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Shala Scarlato James Rollins Bingham was a hardworking, published author that found a life in Thurber, Texas. The weigh master of the No. 6 mine found a place to stay with the Yie family who ran a small boarding house. He started in Thurber as a rock breaker but worked his way up to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":4476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-of-thurber","category-thurber"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"lhart","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/author\/lhart-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/308\/2024\/06\/Over-the-Range-Rollins-Writing-300x221.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["People of Thurber<\/a>","Thurber<\/a>"],"unlinked":["People of Thurber<\/span>","Thurber<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 1 year ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on June 1, 2024","modified":"Updated on February 6, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on June 1, 2024 5:00 pm","modified":"Updated on February 6, 2025 4:57 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Vintage newspaper excerpt titled \"Over the Range\" from May 23, 1897.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4548,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4468\/revisions\/4548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sketch](\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/the-industrious-historian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/308\/2024\/06\/TheKansasCityStar.Feb_.02.1902.Pic1_.Pg2_-925x1024.jpg\")
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