Tom McCabe's Genealogy 2025

From A HISTORY Of COOPER COUNTY, Missouri From the first visit by White Men, in February, 1804, to The 5th day of July, 1876 BY HENRY C. LEVENS AND NATHANIEL M. DRAKE

"John Gabriel was also from Kentucky. Settled at Richland, at a place two and a half miles east of Florence. He moved there at a very early period in 1819 or 1820. He had a still house, made whisky and sold it to the Indians. He was a rough, miserly character, but honest in his dealings. He was murdered for his money, in his horse lot, on his own plantation. He was killed by a negro man belonging to Reuben B. Harris. The negro was condemned and hung at Boonville. Before his execution, this negro confessed that he had killed Gabriel, but declared that he had been employed to commit the murder by Gabriel's own son-in-law, a man named Abner Weaver. This villain escaped punishment for the reason that the negro's testimony was then, by the laws of the United States, excluded as inadmissible. Justice, however, overtook him at last. His crime did not stop at the instigation of Gabriel's murder. He was afterwards found in possession of four stolen horses somewhere in Texas. In endeavoring to make his escape, he was shot from one of these horses, and thus ended his villainy.

and from E. J. Melton’s History of Cooper County, Missouri

John Gabriel, Kentuckian who settled in 1819, two and one-half miles east of Florence, now in Morgan County, was the first man murdered by an individual not an Indian in what was then Cooper County. Gabriel operated a still, and sold whisky to Indians. He was rough and miserly but honest. He made money and acquired a large plantation. A slave belonging to Reuben B. Harris killed Gabriel. At his execution in Boonville, the slave declared he had been hired as an assassin by Gabriel's son-in-law, Abner Weaver. As the law excluded such a confession as inadmissible evidence, Weaver was never held. Later he stole four horses in Texas, and, in attempting to escape arrest, was shot dead from one of the horses.

From the Cooper County Coroner's Inquest Book 1824-1929

Gabriel, John 1830 Struck with axe Clear Creek Township, his yard near milk house