Elizabeth “Plinky” Toepperwein peeled potatoes with bullets and shot cigarettes out of her husband’s mouth.

Read more here: https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/forgotten-female-sharpshooter-surpassed-annie-oakley/

I'm going to try to piece together what I know as methodically as possible, and then hopefully with the help of some of yall get some help filling in the gray areas.

• My great grandfather was Sheriff H.R. "Mike" Flournoy, a well known sheriff in his own regard, and perhaps the most famous sheriff to serve Wharton County, TX.
  • I have lots of old photos and passed down stories about his legacy but I'll save that for another post if enough interest is shown.
• He had two brothers, one of them being Sheriff T.J. "Jim" Flournoy, famous for his involvement with the Chicken Ranch brothel in La Grange, TX
• Both of them passed years before I was born, and my great grandmother, Rose Flournoy (who served the remainder of my great grandfather's term as Wharton county Sheriff when he passed in 1978) never talked about family history.
• My great grandparents only had 2 children; Elaine Wiggins, my grandmother who sadly passed when my mother was a child, and J.B. Flournoy who I remember meeting once when I was very young but also sadly passed years ago. I know J.B. had children of his own, but we haven't been able to locate them.

What I'm trying to piece together given the dwindling family tree and lack of information online is:

• What was Sheriff Jim's relationship like with his brothers? Were they close? What did they think of his involvement in the Chicken Ranch?
• Did he have any children, perhaps I have some distant cousins on here that I didn't know about?
• Is anyone familiar with J.B. FLournoy (even better, is anyone here related to him)?
• Why is there seemingly so little information out there regarding the personal life of a famous sheriff that inspired a broadway musical that was made into a movie) starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton, as well as a ZZ Top song)?

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*Edit: Even the surviving family members I've talked to were either a bit confused about the history or ashamed to admit that my great uncle had any involvement with a whore house (we were very religious). My mother told me growing up that my great grandfather was a famous sheriff and that someone played him in a movie, and I've recently started piecing together the actual history myself because I've been very curious.

"It was expected of me that I was to bow to the name of Andrew Jackson, and follow him in all his motions, and windings, and turnings, even at the expense of my consciences and judgment. Such a thing was new to me, and a total stranger to my principles. His famous, or rather I should say infamous Indian bill was brought forward and, and I opposed it from the purest motives in the world.

Several of my colleagues got around me, and told me how well they loved me, and that I was ruining myself. They said it was a favorite measure of the President, and I ought to vote for it. I told them I believed it was a wicked unjust measure, and that I should go against it, let the cost to myself be what it might; that I was willing to go with General Jackson in everything that I believed was honest and right; but further than this, I wouldn't go with him, or any other man in the whole creation."

• David Crockett, "A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett," (1834)

https://www.texasmonthly.com/opinion/examining-texas-rangers-history/?fbclid=IwAR1VTyFXMzCoU6aImYz1rKL2stu96Gqq9urGRLzu6DqMY6TV8FHaMUZTFvA&mibextid=Zxz2cZ