Mrs. McLaurin, Early Dallas Resident, Dies

Death Saturday after an illness of more than two years claimed Mrs. Kate Gano McLaurin, 81, widow of Dr. Hugh L. McLaurin, Sr., Dallas physician, and daughter of a Confederate General.

She was born at Grapevine, where her father, Major Gen. Richard M. Gano, fighting chaplain and pioneer Dallas County physician who earned fame in the Civil War with John H. Morgan's raiders, settled on a league of land in 1857, as well as owning the town site. Her birth occurred two months after her father organized two companies of Texas cavalry in 1862, and with Gano's squadron marched to join Albert Sidney Johnson, an old friend.

Joins Morgan's Raiders -
He reached Shiloh several days after General Johnson's death, then joined Morgan's famous raiders.

She was married to Dr. McLaurin on April 23, 1890, at the old First Christian Church her father organized here. The wedding was a big Dallas social event. At that time the Gano family lived in the home of the General, built at 4107 Gaston Avenue in 1880, which was one of the showplaces of Dallas for many years.

With its five acres of ground and the stables in the rear, it was typical of the finer homes built by leading Dallasites during that period. The home was later sold to Judge Joseph E. Cockrell.

General Gano, at the time of his death in 1913, had survived all Confederate officers of equal or higher rank. He had a colorful and romantic life, came to Texas from Bourbon County, Kentucky in 1857.

Defense Against Indians -
He had to defend his home in Tarrant County against marauding Comanche Indians.

In the Civil War he was Morgan's righthand man, commanding the Second Brigade in numerous battles, having no less than five horses shot out from under him.

At Cabin Creek, in Indian Territory, he captured a Federal supply train valued at $1,000,000. It was at Cabin Creek that an Indian he approached in the belief that he was friendly, shot him in the elbow. Two weeks before the fall of Richmond he was commissioned a Major General by Jefferson Davis.

General Gano returned to Grapevine to recover from his wound and when able to travel, moved his family back to Bourbon County, Kentucky, where they lived until Mrs. McLaurin was 21year of age. The family then moved to Dallas, where the General became a minister. He had practiced medicine until the Civil War, was the son of a prominent Kentucky Christian preacher and earned for himself the sobriquet of Fighting Chaplain in the war.

Daughter of Confederacy -
Mrs. McLaurin, one of twelve children, was graduated from Hamilton College at Lexington, Ky. she was the last of the Gano children.

She was a member of East Dallas Christian Church, Dallas Woman's Club, Southern Memorial Association, Daughters of the Confederacy, Daughters of 1812, and Daughters of the American Revolution.

Funeral services are pending the arrival of the son from California. Burial will be in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery.

Dallas News
Transcribed by Carol Moore
01-09-1944
Dallas, Texas
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CEMETERY RECORD:

Kate Gano MCLAURIN
Date Born: 20 Jan 1862
Date Died: 08 Jan 1944
Cemetery: Oakland
Stone Type: Single
Spouse: [Dr. Hugh L. McLaurin, Sr.]
Date Buried: 12 Jan 1944
Age: [81]
Section: 3
Subsection: Lot
Subsection Number: 60
Part of Lot:
Grave #: 04
Lot Part:
Lot Owner: Gano, J.
Funeral Home: Ed. C. Smith FH