The Saga of the Bloody Brixie Boys - Tennessee

The Saga of the Bloody Brixie Boys
COFFEE COUNTY  TENNESSEE? I?m certain the Brixie Boys had every intention of being as big as the James-Younger outfit or the Wild Bunch, but, for whatever reason, history overlooked them. In only one instance is the Brixie gang mentioned during the post-Civil War South, and that is in connection to this treasure legend.
The pioneering Wenten family is reported to have been among the first farmers to settle in southeast Coffee County at the southwest end of the Cumberland Plateau. Located in a region incompatible to farming, at a time when their presence was regarded as a trespass onto Indian lands, this vanguard family with a few others planted their crops, made a profit and raised their children.
Early settlements like nearby Hillsboro were sparsely populated early on and offered few services. Pioneer settlers commonly kept the family?s money buried somewhere on the farm for safekeeping.
In 1864, the Brixie gang heard of a prosperous farmer near Hillsboro named Wenten who had a reputation for being a miser.
The outlaws proceeded to Hillsboro to take the Wenten farm. Under the cover of darkness, and without warning, the gang forced entry into the family?s home and caught everyone by surprise.
At gunpoint they seized Cephus while his three children hid inside the home and Mrs. Wenten escaped into the nearby woods.
The bad guys beat Cephus, demanding he surrender the family fortune, but he refused. He was then hauled outdoors to the base of a nearby oak tree and pistol whipped, but still said nothing.
A noose was then placed around Cephus? neck and the other end tossed over a sturdy limb of the oak. Three men then hoisted Cephus off the ground and watched for a full minute as he fought for his life.
They dropped Cephus to the ground and, with a pistol to his hea,d demanded his money. Again he refused and was hanged.
Next, Mrs. Wenten was dragged from the woods to the base of the oak where her husband?s lifeless body dangled. Pleading for their lives, she explained that her husband was the only one who knew where the money was buried. Tortured and beaten, she could tell them nothing; a bullet to the brain took her life.
All three children were then seized and questioned. Like their mother, they knew not where their father had hidden his fortune and were murdered.
The killers spent the night in the farmhouse. The next day was spent digging for the hoard, but when they failed to find it they moved on.
Sixty-years later, in 1924, a local man stumbled onto what appeared to be a small, wooden barrel sticking up from the ground behind the abandoned and sagging Wenten farmhouse.
He unearthed the old nail keg and discovered it full of gold and silver coins. He became paranoid and said later he felt as if someone was watching him. He quickly reburied the keg, covered it over and returned home.
The man never returned to the old Wenten place, but years later confided in his friend, Peter Cunningham, as to what he?d found there.
For a year Cunningham kept silent about the treasure. He then decided to dig up the hoard for himself, but the day before he would?ve made the trip he died from a stroke.
Many believe the treasure is cursed and the ghosts of Cephus and his family still stand guard over the hoard.
For those who intend to research the Wenten family history and the site of their Hillsboro farm, I?ll save you some time. Records for Coffee County show no family named Wenten.
This likely indicates a misspelling of the surname. I recommend using alternative spellings of this name, Wenton, Winten, etc., for research purposes.
Sources:
Keating, J.M, "History of the City of Memphis Tennessee, 1888," Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co., Publishers, p. 157-159
Casey Tim, ?Messenger of the Devil,? January, 1995, Treasure Cache, p. 35
Memphis-History.com, The Murrell Clan,

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Kirk, Lowell, John A. Murrell ? An Early Tennessee ?Terrorist,?

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Howard, John, ?Lost Tennessee Hoard,? June 1971, True Treasure magazine, p. 26
Jameson, W.C., Buried Treasures of the South, 1992, Little Rock, Arkansas, August House, Inc., p. 190 ? 193.


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