Famous Skaggs: "Brother Skaggs" the Gambler

A few years ago I wrote a post about two Skaggs brothers from Western Kentucky who made a living gambling along with other pursuits.  One of the brothers, E. H., was evidently quite famous and wealthy from Faro gambling.  From the book Sucker’s Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America by Herbert Asbury:

His name was Elijah Skaggs, but he was better known as "Brother Skaggs, the preaching Faro dealer" because of his costume, which never varied throughout his professional life regardless of climate or weather - frock coat and trousers of black broadcloth, black silk vest, white shirt with high-standing collar, white cravat of the choker type wound several times around his scrawny neck, black stove-pipe hat and black patent-leather gaiters.

Famous Skaggs: Katherine Anne Porter

Though she was not a Skaggs herself, the Pulitzer Prize winning writer Katherine Anne Porter was a Skaggs descendant.  Her paternal grandmother was Catherine Ann Skaggs, daughter of Abraham Moredock Skaggs and granddaughter of the James Scaggs who married Susanna.

Famous Skaggs: Skaggs...Texas Ranger

A long-lost Skaggs played a role in the Texas Revolution and the beginning of the Republic of Texas.  He was involved in the initial defeat of Mexico by the Army of Texas and later joined the Texas Rangers to patrol the frontiers of the new Republic of Texas and fight the Mexicans at the Battle of San Jacinto.