Fredericksburg Standard in Fredericksburg, Texas

Ben Thompson's Tombstone Gambles for Marbles and Mayhem

In Austin a notorious frontier figure Ben Thompson clashed with Colonel Cardwell in a pistol duel after an editorial attack. Thompson then won a marble tombstone in a high stakes poker game from tombstone peddler Luke Watts. The slab later vanished when an old Iron Front saloon was torn down. Thompson later died in San Antonio, buried in Austin, his grave unmarked.