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TEXAS LEGENDS
The Lawless Horrell
Boys of Lampasas |
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Among the
early settlers of Lampasas County,
Texas were the Horrell and Higgins families. First settling here from Georgia in 1848 was the Higgins family. Their son,
John Calhoun Pinkney "Pink” Higgins was just a baby, who would grow up to become
a hard-working rancher and one of the main "players” in the bloody feud that was
to come.
Some
time later, in 1857, the Horrell family from Arkansas would settle near the
Higgins property. The families were friendly neighbors until the 1870s, when
tensions began to build between them. When the Horrell sons – Mart, Tom,
Merritt, Ben and Sam grew up, they were a rowdy bunch and in 1873 had their
first run in with the law.
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Lampasas,
Texas about 1882. |
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At this time, Lampasas,
Texas
was a wild frontier town and right in the middle of the fray were the Horrell
brothers, who some called "fun-loving cowboys,” but others were getting fed up
with, as they regularly "shot up the town” and were quick to find all sorts of
trouble.
Gunfight at the Lampasas Saloon
In January, 1873 when Lampasas
County Sheriff, Shadrick T. Denson, tried to arrest two brothers by the names of
Wash and Mark Short, the sheriff was stopped by the Horrell brothers who shot
the sheriff and turned around the posse. Shadrick would later die from the
gunshot.
With the lawlessness seemingly
out of control in Lampasas, the county judge appealed to
Texas Governor Edmund
J. Davis for help. On February 10, 1873, Governor Davis issued a proclamation
prohibiting the carrying of side arms in Lampasas. The following month, the
seven members of the
Texas State Police arrived to enforce the Governor's
proclamation. On March 19th, they arrested
Bill Bowen, the Horrell’s
brother-in-law, for carrying a firearm. They then made the mistake of entering
Jerry Scott's Saloon, with
Bowen in tow. Inside the saloon were the Horrell
brothers and their friends. Upon seeing the officers with their brother-in-law
arrested, they immediately confronted the officers. In no time, shots began to
blast through the saloon, leaving four of the officers dead, including Captain
Thomas Williams.
As would be expected, more
state police, along with the Lampasas Sheriff, and the Burnet County Minute Men,
were all searching for the lawless Horrell brothers.
Mart Horrell and three other
men were later arrested and taken to the Georgetown,
Texas jail. However; on May
2, 1873, Mart’s brothers and some 30 other cowboys stormed the jail and freed
Mart and his friends.
The Horrell War in Lincoln
County, New Mexico
The brothers remained in
Texas for a couple of
months, rounding up and selling their cattle. They then took off for
New Mexico,
where they landed in lawless Lincoln County, near the present day village of
Hondo on the Rio
Ruidoso.
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Lincoln,
New Mexico,
late 1800's.
This image available for
photographic prints
and downloads
HERE! |
Keeping up their
rowdy ways, Ben Horrell, former Lincoln County Sheriff
Jack Gylam,
and a man named Dave Warner rode
into
Lincoln
on December 1, 1873 and after carousing a number of saloons and brothels,
the drunken men began to shoot off their guns.
When Constable Juan Martinez demanded that they surrender their weapons they compliantly
handed them over. However, they soon procured more weapons and were shooting
up another brothel. When confronted again by Constable Martinez and four other
officers, Dave Warner, who had a long standing grudge with Martinez, pulled
his pistol and shot and killed
the constable. The lawmen returned the fire, killing Warner, but Ben Horrell and
Jack Gylam fled.
The lawmen aggressively
pursued the pair and when they caught up with the two hell-raisers, they pumped their bullets into them, shooting Horrell nine times
and
Gylam 13 times. |
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The remaining Horrells quickly
retaliated, killing two prominent Hispanic citizens. Sheriff Alexander Hamilton
Mills soon rounded up a posse to arrest them, but after a stand-off at the
Horrell ranch, they retreated.
On December 20th,
the Horrells returned to
Lincoln,
where they stormed a Hispanic celebration where they killed four men and wounded
a woman. Efforts were again made to arrest the Horrells but the lawmen were
unsuccessful. Warrants were issued for their arrest as more clashes occurred
between the Horrells and Hispanic citizens.
In early 1874, the brothers and some of their friends began to
head back to
Texas, continuing to harass Hispanics along the way. One Horrell
associate, Edward "Little” Hart murdered Deputy Sheriff Joseph Haskins at
Picacho,
New Mexico
because he was married to a Hispanic woman. About 15 miles west of Roswell, when
the Texans encountered five Hispanic freighters, they killed every man.
All in all, at least 13 Hispanic citizens
were killed in the Horrells and their friends.
Texas Horrell-Higgins Feud
Later, when they made their
way back to Lampasas, they found themselves no longer perceived to be
"fun-loving cowboys,” rather they were treated like pariahs, with some citizens
taking potshots at them, though no one was killed.
In
1876, the surviving Horrell brothers stood trial for the murder of Captain
Thomas Williams, but they were acquitted. That same year, tensions between
themselves and
John Calhoun Pinkney "Pink” Higgins came to a head when
Higgins
began accusing the Horrell brothers of stealing his cattle.
In May,
Pink filed an official
complaint accusing Merritt Horrell of taking one of his calves. Though the case
went to trial, Merritt was found not guilty, and Higgins promised Horrell that
he would settle the matter later with his gun. Pink's
threat was not an idle one.
On January 22, 1877
Pink
Higgins shot and killed Merritt
Horrell in Wiley and Toland's Gem Saloon in Lampasas. The three remaining
Horrell brothers vowed revenge on
Pink
Higgins; his brother-in-law, Bob
Mitchell; and his friend, Bill Wren.
On
March 26, as Tom and Mart Horrell were ambushed four miles east of Lampasas by
the Higgins party. Though both brothers were injured, but they were not killed.
When
a warrant for the arrests of
Pink
Higgins and Bob Mitchell was issued, the pair
surrendered to
Captain John Sparks of the
Texas Rangers
for their part in the murder of Merritt Horrell. After each posted a $10,000 bond, they were released. Interestingly;
however, the Lampasas courthouse was burglarized on June 4th and
district court records disappeared, among them the bonds of Higgins and
Mitchell.
Lampasas Square
Shoot Out
A short time later,
on June 14, 1877,
Pink
Higgins, along with Bob Mitchell, Bill
Wren, and
Pink's brother-in-law, Ben Terry, rode into Lampasas. Already there,
were the Horrell brothers and some of their friends, gathered in the square. |
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Though it is unknown who fired the first shot, an all out gun battle began
to take place right in the middle of town. Before the citizens would
persuade the clans to stop firing, Bill Wren was wounded, and Frank
Mitchell, Bob's brother and cousin of Pink Higgins's wife, was killed. Buck Waldrup, a newcomer to the Horrell Gang, as well as a man named Carson
Graham, were also dead. When the smoke cleared, both factions left town.
The
Texas Rangers
had to be called in to keep the clans from continuing the
"war.” A detachment of Rangers soon surprised the Horrells in their beds and
persuaded them to submit to arrest. Major John B. Jones then negotiated with
the two sides to agree to stop the fighting. Early in August, each side of
the faction signed documents to let the feud be over.
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Lampasas County Courthouse. |
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Though officially over, the following year, Tom and Mart Horrell were suspects
in a robbery/murder of a country storekeeper in the southwestern part of Bosque
County. While confined in the Meridian,
Texas
jail, it was stormed by a
vigilante mob and the two were shot to death. Though this might have simply been
the work of vigilante justice, many believed the Higgins faction had manipulated
the event.
The only remaining
brother, Sam Horrell, moved his family to
Oregon in 1882. He died in
California
in 1936.
Pink moved his family to the Spur area in the 1890s, where he
worked as a range detective for the Spur Ranch. He died of a heart attack at his
home in 1914.
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated March, 2010.
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From the Rocky Mountain General Store
Old
West Books -
Legends of America and
the
Rocky Mountain General Store has collected a number of
Old West
books for our frontier enthusiasts. For many of these, we have
only one available. To see this varied collection, click
HERE!
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