December 11, 1854, Rube Burrow was born in Lamar County, Alabama. In 1872 he rode into Erath County and worked as a cowboy near Stephenville. He married in 1876, but his wife died in 1880 leaving him with two children. He remarried in 1884 and settled on a farm near Alexander where he gained local fame as a marksman. Burrow became a train robber on December 1, 1886.

Dan Young, Erath History Calendar, 1987.