Wild West Lawman. After serving as a Texas Ranger, he became a deputy sheriff, and was killed in a gunfight with the Sam Bass gang on July 19, 1878. It is difficult to fathom why on that Friday afternoon, Ahijah A. Grimes challenged the three strangers who were approaching the general store. Ostensibly, it was due to the deputy sheriff that he was with having told him he thought he had seen a pistol on one of the three, and since carrying such a weapon was illegal in Round Rock, Grimes was going to question them. Yet not too many hours before, he had been told by two other lawmen that the Sam Bass gang was planning to rob the local bank, and that a contingent of Texas Rangers was on the way from San Saba. "Don't start anything," the two had told him, "help is on the way." So why would a former Texas Ranger and current deputy sheriff of Williamson County challenge three strangers under such conditions? Perhaps he felt he was in no real danger. Perhaps the heroism of his ancestors came to the front. His uncle Alfred [AKA Albert] Grimes had fallen at the Alamo. Shortly thereafter, his grandfather Jessie Grimes, a judge, had signed the Declaration of Independence of Texas. Perhaps, momentarily, he had even forgotten about his wife, Charlotte A. "Lottie" Lyman, and their three children. We will never know. He asked one of them about the gun. "Yes," replied one of them, "of course I have one," and the three of them pulled their guns and in a hail of bullets mortally shot Grimes down. He was buried at the Round Rock Cemetery, not too far from where two of his three killers were buried, Sam Bass and Seaborne Barnes. The townspeople raised almost $200 for Grimes' family, and gave his widow one of the outlaws' horses for compensation. On his headstone the ironically bitter words "Gone But Not Forgotten" were chiseled, but for almost 125 years he was forgotten. Songs were written about the outlaw Sam Bass. The road by the cemetery was named after Sam Bass. Baseball leagues in Round Rock were named after Sam Bass. For several decades in Round Rock, they have held a recreation of that gunfight, with more emphasis on Bass than on Grimes. Still, sometimes time has a way of correcting the errors and omissions of the past. On August 24, 2000, the City of Round Rock passed a resolution changing the name of Arterial "B" to A.W. Grimes Boulevard. And placed next to his grave is a metal cross, indicating he had been a Texas Ranger. On April 10, 2015, a new headstone was dedicated by the Williamson County Sheriff's Department. His original headstone is located in the Williamson County Museum. There is an upright foot marker, which is inscribed with a summary of his fatal day.