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John Calhoun Pinckney "Pink"
Higgens (1848-1914) - Pink was born in Georgia but moved with his family
to
Texas when he was just a boy. They first settled near Austin before establishing a ranch in Lampasas County in 1857. When he grew up, he worked at
a variety of occupations including owning a meat market and saloon. During this
time he also honed his shooting skills fighting Indians and was briefly an
officer in the Ku Klux Klan. By the early 1870s he was driving herds of cattle
to the
Kansas railheads and on at least one occasion, combined his herd with
that of the Horrell brothers, who ranched nearby. In March, 1873 the Horrells
were involved in a saloon shootout with
Texas State police in Lampasas, in which
three law officers were killed. Also killed was Pink's son-in-law and soon a
vicious feud between the two families erupted, referred to as the
Horrell-Higgins
Feud. Over a several year period, several shooting scrapes occurred,
finally culminating in a shoot-out in the Lampasas town square on June 14, 1877
in which several men were killed. A few more skirmishes occurred before the feud
was said and done. Around the turn of the century, Higgins moved his ranch south
of Spur,
Texas . He continued his gunfighting ways and was said to have killed
between 14-18 men during his lifetime. He died at his ranch of a heart attack on
December 18, 1914.
Tuck Hoover (18??-1894?) - A South
Texas
rancher, Hoover obviously was difficult to get along with as he was in and out
of trouble over the years. One of his first recorded gunfights occurred in 1878
when he was with one of his best friends, gunfighter and lawman,
Dallas Stoudenmire.
When the pair and several of their friends encountered a party of rival
cattlemen near Alleytown,
Texas,
a small village near Eagle Lake, an argument erupted. The rival party, led by
the Sparks brothers of Eagle Lake, were disputing the ownership of a herd of
cattle. The argument soon led to gunfire and two members of the Sparks faction
were killed and another wounded.
Some years later, Hoover got into an argument with
saloon owner, Jake Burtshell. On April 30, 1894, Hoover confronted him inside
the saloon with a cocked pistol, at which point Burtshell went for his gun and
Hoover shot him. When the smoke cleared, the saloon owner was dead. Hoover
surrendered to the sheriff in Eagle Lake, was tried for murder, convicted and
given a 20 year prison sentence. However, the sentence was overturned and Hoover
was released pending a retrial. However, before Hoover would be retried, he was
approached by a local hard case by the name of Jim Coleman, who drew a gun and
shot Hoover to death.
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Tom Horn, aka: James
Hicks (1861-1903) - Born in Memphis,
Missouri
on November 21, 1861,
Horn's father was a strict disciplinarian and Tom ran away at the
age of 14, heading west. By the time he was 15 he was an army
scout and involved in many campaigns for more than a decade, including
Geronimo's
surrender in 1886. He then wandered through the gold fields and became
a ranch hand. In 1890, he joined the
Pinkerton
Agency and using his gun with lethal effectiveness tracked down
dozens of
outlaws and killed 17 men. In 1894, he had made his way to
Wyoming
as was working as a cattle detective for the beef barons, who were
engulfed in what is known as the
Johnson County War. It was at this
time that he began to offer out his services as a hired gunslinger. For each cattle rustler he shot, he charged $500-$600 and quickly
proved to be a methodical man hunter and ruthless killer. Changing
tracks in 1898, he joined the cavalry in support of the
Spanish-American War, where he was in charge of Teddy Roosevelt's pack
trains.
Afterwards, Horn returned to his murdering ways and when he was hired
to kill a sheepherder, he killed his 14-year old son instead. This time,
Horn didn't get away with it -- he was arrested and hanged on November
20, 1903.
Benjamin Horrell (18??-1873) - A gunman and one of five
rowdy
Horrell brothers
of Lampasas
County, Texas, Ben and his brothers worked as cowboys on their ranch,
but were also known for being a rowdy bunch that were quick to find
trouble and prone to shooting up the town during their drinking
escapades. The first gunfight Ben was known to have been involved in was
in March, 1873 after his brother Mart had been arrested for his
participation in the
Lampasas Saloon Gunfight. Jailed in Georgetown, Texas,
Benjamin and his brothers stormed the jail, fought fiercely with local
citizens and got Mart and his friends out of jail. The Horrell brothers
then fled to Lincoln County, New Mexico, where they continued their
rowdy ways.
On December 1, 1873, Ben Horrell,
along with former Lincoln County Sheriff
Jack Gylam,
and a man named Dave Warner rode
into
Lincoln 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.
Ben's brothers soon retaliated, killing some 13 Hispanic citizens in what
has become known as the
Horrell War
of Lincoln County.
Martin
"Mart” Horrell (18??-1878) - Cattleman and gunman, Mart was one of the five violent Horrell brothers
who created
chaos in Texas
and
New Mexico. During the Civil War, he
served in Terry's Texas Rangers, afterwards returning to the family ranch in
Lampasas, Texas. On March 19, 1873, he was involved in the
Lampasas
Saloon Gunfight, in which four Texas State police officers were killed
and Mart was wounded. He was soon arrested and held in the Georgetown, Texas
jail. However, he and his friends were busted out of jail by his brothers
and they soon fled to Lincoln County, New Mexico. After brother Benjamin was
killed on December 1, 1873 while resisting arrest, the brothers realitated
in what has become known as
Horrell War
of Lincoln County. Mart and his remaining brothers returned to Texas in
early 1874 where they became embroiled in the
Horrell-Higgins Feud
in 1877. The following year, he and his brother, Tom,
were jailed
in
Meridian,
Texas
as suspects for a robbery/murder. On December 15, 1878, the jail was besieged by a vigilante
mob who shot and killed both brothers.
Merritt Horrell (18??-1877) - Yet
another of the five violent
Horrell brothers,
Merritt was present at the
Lampasas
Saloon Gunfight and
when they broke brother Mart out of jail in Georgetown, Texas. With his
other brothers, he fled to Lincoln County, New Mexico, where he was also
involved in the
Horrell War.
After the brothers return to Texas,
Pink Higgins filed an official
complaint in May, 1876, accusing Merritt of taking one of his calves. Though the case
went to trial, Merritt was found not guilty, and Higgins promised Merritt
that he would settle the matter later with his gun. Pink's
threat was not an idle one. On January 22, 1877, while Merritt was in a
Lampasas saloon, Higgins slipped in through a back door and shot Merritt,
who fell to the floor. Though wounded, Merritt stood up, and Higgins shot
him again. Once more on the floor, Higgens pumped two more shots into the
dying man.
Samuel
"Sam” Horrell (18??-1836) - Another of the five rowdy Horrell brothers,
Sam was a farmer and not as disposed to violence as his other brothers.
H served in Terry's Texas Rangers during the Civil War. Though he was
not present at the
Lampasas Saloon Gunfight, he did help to bust is brother out of jail
and accompanied the rest of them to Lincoln County, New Mexico. When the
clan returned to Texas, he was involved in the Horrell-Higgins Feud
and was present on June 14, 1877 during the
Lampasas Square
Shoot Out.
He was
the only brother to
survive. He moved his family to
Oregon in 1882 and died in
California in 1936.
Thomas
W. Horrell (18??-1878) - One of the five violent Horrell brothers,
Tom was involved in virtually every conflict of the rowdy clan. After
serving with brothers Sam and Mart in Terry's Texas Rangers during the
Civil War he returned to Lampasas. He got into his first dispute with
Pink Higgens during a joint cattle drive to Abilene in 1872. In Abilene,
the pair got into a dispute that very nearly erupted in gunfire.
He was present at the
Lampasas Saloon Gunfight and
when they broke brother Mart out of jail in Georgetown, Texas. With his
other brothers, he fled to Lincoln County, New Mexico, where he was also
involved in the
Horrell War. After returning the Lampasas, he was actively involved
in the
Horrell-Higgins Feud
and the
Lampasas Square
Shoot Out.
In 1878,
he and brother,
Mart,
were jailed in
Meridian, Texas as suspects for a robbery/murder. The jail was besieged
by a vigilante mob who shot and killed both brothers.
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