Legends of the Old West - TEXAS RANGERS Ep. 4 | “Family Feuds”

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

In the early 1870s, the Horrell brothers were involved in the murder of a sheriff, the murders of State Police officers, a jailbreak, and a bloody episode known as the Horrell War in New Mexico before the infamous Lincoln County War. In 1877, they become embroiled in a deadly feud with the Higgins clan until Major John B. Jones dreams up a creative solution. Meanwhile, during the early stages of the problems with the Horrell brothers, a former captain of the State Police, Leander McNelly, creates a militia unit to try to stop the notoriously bloody Sutton-Taylor feud in South Texas.   SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY “The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900” by Mike Cox “The Ranger Ideal, Vol. 1&2” by Darren L. Ivey “Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers” by Robert M. Utley “The Texas Rangers” by Walter Prescott Webb “Captain L.H. McNelly: Texas Ranger” by Chuck Parsons & Marianne E. Hall Little “Taming the Nueces Strip” by George Durham “Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers” by Doug J. Swanson “Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman” by J. Evetts Haley “Comanches: A History of a People” by T.R. Fehrenbach “The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West” by Peter Cozzens   Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial.   On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage.   For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In March of 1877, Major John B. Jones, commanding officer of the Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers, issued Special Order No. 15, which gave the Rangers a new directive. Henceforth, their primary job was law enforcement, and their secondary job was fighting Native American raiding parties. By that time, many of the Rangers were equipped with the famous Winchester 1873 model repeating rifle, the gun that won the West, and they would need them. Crime was rampant in Texas long before the Comanche and Kiowa began to decline with the Red River War in 1874 and the surrender of Quanah Parker in 1875.

With new counties forming up and down the hill country west of Austin and San Antonio, With new counties forming up and down the hill country west of Austin and San Antonio, and cattle ranches growing at a torrid pace, the lawlessness grew worse. A letter to a publication called The Victorian put it bluntly and comically, The whole state is lawless, armed to the teeth. Robbers robbed 15 men on the way to Dallas. Cattle thieves are the worst ever. Crime runs riot over the land. It is about time for Gabriel to blow his wind instrument.

But God help him if he lays it down, for someone in Texas will surely steal it. Richard Maxwell Brown's book from 1975 called Strain of Violence, Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism lists 27 documented instances, in appendix number three, of vigilante activity or mob activity in 38 counties in Texas during the Old West era. And Brown estimates that the true number is much higher. And that list only counts things like the Mason County War, also known as the Hoodoo War. It doesn't count feuds between warring groups like the Horrell-Higgins Feud and the Sutton-Taylor Feud,

both of which the Texas Rangers would have to deal with in the mid-1870s. For Major Jones, as soon as he was done with the Kimball County cleanup in April 1877, he had to go northeast to Lampasas County to deal with the Ornery Horrell brothers and their foes, the Higgins family. The two sides had battled each other for six months to begin the year 1877, but that was only the second half of the story of the troublemaking Horrell clan. And then there was the feud that has been called the longest and bloodiest in Texas history, the Sutton-Taylor feud, which played out in a quadrant between Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi. A new Ranger story would start with that feud, before the story moved

down to the Rio Grande. That story is of Leander McNelly, who lived in the tiny community of Burton, Texas, right up the road from where this podcast began in Brenham, Texas. In Lampasas, Major Jones dreamed up a creative solution to the Horrell-Higgins feud. In Southeast Texas, McNelly would need the help of two other famous Rangers to eventually bring the Sutton-Taylor feud to an end. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're returning to the stories of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're returning to the stories of the Texas Rangers. This season will follow the Rangers through the Civil War,

to their final years as frontier fighters, and then to their beginnings as lawmen. This is Episode 4, Family Feuds. Like Bob Marley's immortal song, it began with the shooting of a sheriff. There were five brothers in the Horrell family, but none of them shot the sheriff, which will all make sense in a second. The brothers were supported by a cast of ne'er-do-wells that numbered 12 to 15, and it was one of those supporting cast members who shot the sheriff. They all lived in Lampasas County, about an hour northwest of Austin. Lampasas was one of the counties that was organized in the 1850s as white settlements expanded north, south, and west from cities like Austin and San Antonio.

As a frontier county, Lampasas was a hotspot for Comanche and Kiowa raids during and after the Civil War. To properly set the stage, it's important to do a very generalized recap of the Rangers and statewide law enforcement in the early 1870s. In the summer of 1870, Governor Edmund Davis signed two major bills. One reconstituted the Texas Rangers for the first time since before the Civil War. The other created the state police. The Rangers were dedicated to fighting Native American raids up and down the western frontier. The state police were dedicated to fighting crime. Funding for the Rangers ran out after just one year, and they disbanded in the summer of 1871.

But there was still a dire need for frontier protection, so the governor signed a new bill as a kind of stopgap. The bill in the summer of 1871 authorized what were called Minutemen companies, with the label borrowed from the earliest days of the American Revolution. Minutemen companies were state-supported militias of local volunteers. So, for one year, from 1870 to 1871, the Texas Rangers and the state police operated at the same time. Then funding for the Rangers ran out, and frontier protection fell on the Minutemen companies for the next two years. and frontier protection fell on the Minutemen companies for the next two years. And that was the situation in 1873 when a member of the Horrell crew shot the sheriff.

The Texas Rangers were gone, the Lampasas Minutemen were helping protect the frontier, and the state police were investigating crime. The Adjutant General oversaw all militia and law enforcement groups in Texas. Frank Britton was the acting Adjutant General in 1873, and he doubled as the Chief of the State Police for the final year of the force's existence. In a report to the governor, he listed 16 men by name, quote, whose occupation was the branding, killing, and skinning of other people's cattle. That group, which was often called a gang but shouldn't be confused with an outlaw gang like the James Younger gang or the Dalton gang, included four of the five Horrell brothers,

plus 12 more. According to the New Mexico Historical Review, it was one of the 12, According to the New Mexico Historical Review, it was one of the 12, G.W. Short, who shot the sheriff. It happened January 14, 1873, at a saloon in Lampasas. George Washington Short, who went by G.W. or Wash, and several others of the Horrell crew, were drinking in the saloon when County Sheriff Shadrach Denson entered and attempted to arrest GW for disturbing the peace. GW's brother Mark tried to stop the arrest. Mark stepped in and started grappling with the sheriff. While they tussled, GW shot Sheriff Denson. Denson didn't die, but the bullet lodged in his side and stayed there until he passed away 20 years later. A local judge heard about the incident and sent several men to the saloon to arrest the assailants.

When the newcomers walked in, the friends of Mark and G.W. Short, including three Horrell brothers, drew their guns and warned the men of the posse to stay away. Then the whole crew, the Short brothers, the Horrell brothers, and the rest men of the posse to stay away. Then the whole crew, the Short Brothers, the Horrell brothers, and the rest, rode out of town. The near-murder of the sheriff was the most egregious incident that had happened recently, but by no means the only. The Horrells and their supporters were fond of classic cowboy shenanigans like shooting up the town just for fun. The problem grew so bad after they shot the sheriff that Adjutant General Frank Britton decided to dispatch state policemen to solve the problem. The officers rode into Lampasas on March 14, 1873,

and hitched their horses in front of Jerry Scott's Matador Saloon. Jerry Scott was a horal partisan, and in his saloon were 10 to 15 men of the Horal Party. Walking through the door at that moment was another one, Bill Bowen. Four officers, led by Captain Tom Williams, followed Bowen into the saloon. Captain Williams demanded Bowen's gun and told him he was under arrest. When Williams tried to take Bowen's gun by force, the shooting started. The Horal Party shot all

four officers, and three of the four died on the spot, including Captain Williams. As the fourth man lay mortally wounded on the floor, the Horrell party took the fight outside. The men opened fire on the three officers who had remained in the street. The officers wounded two of the Horrell brothers, but they couldn't sustain the fight. They were badly outgunned, and they rode back to Austin to report the killings to Adjutant General Frank Britton. Three days later, Britton himself rode to Lampasas with an escort of 12 state policemen. He pledged to bring down the Horrell gang, and he recruited a huge posse of Minutemen companies, state policemen, and local volunteers to do the job. The posse swept through five counties and

arrested five members of the gang. Two of the five who were arrested were Martin Horrell and Jerry Scott, the saloon owner. By early May 1873, they were in jail in Georgetown, north of Austin. On May 2nd, one of the Horrell brothers led a group of 35 men to Georgetown. They exchanged fire with the five jailhouse guards until the guards ran out of ammo. Then the mobs stormed the jail, broke out Martin and Jerry, and fled the town. When the Horrell brothers were reunited in Lampasas, they spent a couple months rounding up their cattle, and then they moved their whole operation to Lincoln County, New Mexico.

As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch. And organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits, Shopify helps you sell everywhere. They have an all-in-one e-commerce platform and in-person POS system. So wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With the internet's best converting checkout, 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms, Shopify helps you turn

browsers into buyers. Shopify has allowed us to share something tangible with the podcast community we've built here, selling our beanies, sweatshirts, and mugs to fans of our shows without taking up too much time from all the other work we do to bring you even more great content. And it's not just us. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. Shopify is also the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. countries. Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash realm, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash r-e-a-l-m now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. shopify.com slash realm. dot com slash realm.

The five Horrell brothers and their families landed in Lincoln County, New Mexico sometime in the summer or fall of 1873. The brothers started causing chaos almost immediately, and their short stay in New Mexico would later be called the Horrell War. The violence erupted in December 1873, and it's been reported that at least 17 people died during the fighting. That included one of the five brothers, Ben Horrell. It became so bad that all the families packed up and returned to Lampasas County in February 1874. packed up and returned to Lampasas County in February 1874. The Horrell War in Lincoln County, New Mexico is now viewed by many as the first phase of the overall Lincoln County War. A year and a half later, in 1876, three of the Horrell brothers stood trial for the murders of the state policemen, and all three were acquitted. It was soon after that that the trouble started

between the Horrell brothers and John Higgins. Higgins believed that the Horrell brothers were rustling his cattle. And author David Johnson claimed that one of the brothers, Merritt,

was having an affair with Higgins' wife. Whether it was the rustling or the affair or both, Higgins was boiling mad by January 1877. On January 22nd, he marched into the Gem Saloon in Lampasas and shot Merritt Horrell four times. Merritt was unarmed and he died immediately. The Horrell brothers were now down to three, and they vowed vengeance against John Higgins.

Horrell brothers were now down to three, and they vowed vengeance against John Higgins. But Higgins was no dummy. He knew he had stirred up a hornet's nest, so he stayed on the offensive. Two months after murdering Merritt Horrell, John Higgins and two of his brothers-in-law ambushed and injured Tom Horrell and Martin Horrell. Arrest warrants were sworn out for John Higgins and his brother-in-law Bob Mitchell. Company C of the Texas Rangers scoured the area for the two fugitives but couldn't find them until Higgins and Mitchell walked into the Rangers' camp a month later. Higgins and Mitchell surrendered, went to court, posted bond, and then were free to go. There was a blessed lull in the drama throughout May of 1877, and a few optimistic people believed that the feud might be done.

But it was just the calm before the storm. On June 4th, unknown persons broke into the Lampasas County Courthouse and stole the legal documents that proved that Higgins and Mitchell had put up bonds to stay out of jail. Three days later, on June 7th, John Higgins, Bob Mitchell, and four of their supporters rode into the town of Lampasas in Lampasas County to see what to do about the problem. As the Higgins group walked their horses toward the courthouse, they noticed the three Horrell brothers and four of their allies lounging in the town square. Without hesitation, 13 men opened fire on each other with rifles and pistols. Bullets struck stores and windows, but mercifully no bystanders. Frank Mitchell, Bob's younger brother,

mortally wounded Jim Waldrop, a Horrell ally. Then Martin Horrell shot and killed Frank Mitchell. Three local lawmen quickly deputized four volunteers, and they were able to end the shootout before anyone else got killed. A blazing shootout in the middle of town prompted Major John B. Jones to handle the matter personally. One week after the shootout, Jones arrived in Lampasas with 15 Rangers and he hatched a creative plan to solve the problem. But he had to find all the parties first. Six weeks later, Bob Mitchell of the Higgins faction told the Rangers where they could find the Horrell clan. Major Jones ordered seven men to ride with Mitchell and bring in the brothers. Late at night, Mitchell guided the seven Rangers toward the Horrell camp.

Along the way, they learned the brothers had moved to the home of Martin Horrell. At 5 a.m. on July 28th, the Rangers approached the house during a heavy rainstorm. They sneaked inside with their Winchesters and surprised the 11 people who were sleeping in the cabin. They captured all three Horrell brothers and took them to town. Major Jones put his plan into action. He wrote a long letter from the Horrell brothers to the Higgins faction that acted as one half of a peace treaty. The three brothers signed the document, and then Jones personally arrested John Higgins, Bob Mitchell, and a third member of the Higgins group. Jones wrote a letter on their behalf that accepted the terms of peace in the Horrell letter. Higgins and the others signed their half of the peace treaty.

A week later, on August 9, 1877, Major Jones submitted the two letters to the Lampasas Dispatch newspaper to publish as witness that the Horrell-Higgins feud was officially over. that the Horrell-Higgins feud was officially over. During the first four years of the resurrected Rangers, 1874 to 1877, while the commanding officer of the Frontier Battalion, Major John B. Jones, was working the Northwest Frontier, other officers and Ranger companies and Minutemen companies were working South Texas. The officer who became the most prominent, and at least mildly controversial, was Leander McNally. He was originally from an area that is now West Virginia,

but he moved to Texas with his brother Pete and Pete's family in the fall of 1860. They settled in Washington County, northwest of Houston, and even then, at 16 years old, McNally was showing signs of tuberculosis, which would plague him for the rest of his life. He took work on the sheep ranch of the Burton family, who had found the town of Burton in 1862. Within six or seven months of McNally's arrival in Washington County, the Civil War began, and he exaggerated his age by a year so he could join the Confederate Army. While most volunteers from Texas went east to fight in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, McNally went west. His company, the Fifth Texas Mounted Volunteers, was assigned to General Henry Sibley's

self-styled Army of New Mexico. McNally was part of General Sibley's personal escort for the heart of the campaign in New Mexico from January to July 1862. It started well with a victory at the Battle of Valverde and the capture of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but the campaign fell apart with a loss at the Battle of Glorieta Pass. After the defeat, Sibley's ragged army slowly retreated to Texas, and it was in El Paso by July 1862. The next year, McNally went east and overlapped with two men who would become prominent in Texas ten years later. In January 1863, McNally was part of the Confederate force that retook Galveston from the Union Army. For the rest of the year, he saw heavy fighting in Louisiana.

There was action in March and April, and then the big one in September. That was the Battle of Sterling's Plantation, which also featured Captain Richard Koch and Captain John B. Jones. During the battle, McNally helped lead a charge through withering fire and was singled out for bravery just like Jones. Ten years later, Richard Koch would be governor of Texas, and his friend John B. Jones would be the commander of the new Ranger Battalion. For the rest of the war, after Sterling's plantation, McNally excelled as a scout. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana in April 1864, but he continued his scouting duties when he recovered,

in April 1864, but he continued his scouting duties when he recovered, until the fall of 1864 when he was assigned to hunt down Confederate deserters in Texas and Louisiana. He did that job for the second half of 1864 and the first half of 1865, until the war in Texas ended in May 1865. in Texas ended in May 1865. That month, McNally was back home on his farm near Brenham. He lived the quiet life for five years. He got married after the war, and he and his wife Carrie had a son and a daughter, and then Governor Edmund Davis created the state police on July 1st, 1870. The move was controversial for a number of reasons, right from the beginning. The state police, often in conjunction with U.S. Army soldiers, were tasked with enforcing Reconstruction-era laws, which Texans hated anyway. The state police were integrated, which wasn't popular either, and the state police could search homes and make arrests

without warrants. Many state policemen were genuinely good lawmen, like McNally, but many others were not. Twelve days after the state police were created, McNally became a captain, and he had an action-packed four years of service with the force. He chased fugitives, investigated crimes, and arrested suspects of all kinds. He broke up gambling houses in Houston and Galveston, and he broke up the notorious Pierce Gang, which was led by brothers John and Ed Pierce. He survived a gunfight with two suspected killers who shot their way out of a courthouse to avoid jail.

McNally dealt with the first strike of railroad workers in Texas, and he made his first trip to the Rio Grande Valley in pursuit of bandits and cattle rustlers. And he made his most exotic trip of his time as a state policeman to New York to arrest his own boss. The Adjutant General, James Davidson, had been stealing money from the state. His theft was discovered when he traveled to New York on a fundraising mission. His fill-in, the acting Adjutant General, Frank Britton, noticed the discrepancies in the accounts and told the governor. They sent Captain McNally to New York to arrest Davidson, but Davidson had already fled to Canada. As far as anyone knows,

Davidson never set foot in Texas or America again. And that was how Frank Britton became Adjutant General during the last year of the state police experiment, the year that he sent seven officers to land passes to arrest the Horrell brothers. The largely reviled state police only lasted a few more months after that. In November 1873, Richard Koch was elected governor of Texas. He brought in William Steele to be adjutant general. Steele appointed John B. Jones to the rank of major and made him the commander of the New Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers. the commander of the new Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers. At that time, Captain McNally simply changed uniforms, so to speak. Major Jones and the official Ranger companies deployed to the Frontier, where, on July 12, 1874, Jones and most of his detachment survived the Lost Valley fight

with Kiowa warriors. Two days later, Leander McNally became captain of a Minuteman company. He was authorized to form and command Company A, Washington County Volunteer Militia. They were needed in DeWitt County, southeast of San Antonio, where the Sutton family, the Taylor family, and their supporters had been killing each other

for 15 years. The story of the Sutton-Taylor feud, or the Taylor-Sutton feud, however you want to say it, is long and complicated. A dizzying number of people were involved in it, up and down East Texas, and depending on how you want to define its timeline, you could say it lasted for 30 years. The Taylor clan was huge, similar to the Horrell family up in Lampasas. The Taylors were packed with brothers and cousins and uncles and fathers, and they had lots of supporters. The Sutton family had similar numbers and supporters, The Sutton family had similar numbers and supporters, and the feud kicked off after the war. By the time the Civil War ended, the Taylor family was well known in their corner of Texas, southeast of San Antonio.

They were spread throughout several counties, but concentrated heavily in DeWitt County. The family was anchored by two brothers, Creed and Pitkin Taylor. Creed, for one, seemed to fight in every major engagement in and around Texas for 30 years. He fought in the Texas Revolution in the 1830s, and then with the Rangers in the early 1840s, and then in the Mexican-American War in the late 1840s, and then in limited service late in the Civil War under former Texas Ranger Rip Ford. According to accounts of the time, Creed Taylor was also a Hellraiser, as were many of his family members. William Taylor, known as Buck, was accused of killing a black soldier in 1866. The same year, Hayes Taylor was accused of killing a Black soldier. The next year,

Hayes Taylor and Dobie Taylor were accused of killing two more Union soldiers. That year, 1867, Creed Taylor and his supporters were labeled a gang that needed to be destroyed. Five months after those killings came the first case of Sutton-Taylor violence. In March 1868, William Sutton, the deputy sheriff of DeWitt County, led a posse in pursuit of horse thieves. He and his posse found the suspected thieves 65 miles north in the town of Bastrop. found the suspected thieves 65 miles north in the town of Bastrop. The posse shot and killed one of the suspects, Charlie Taylor. They caught another one and started to take him to jail,

but they shot him and killed him along the way. The explanation was the most common at the time. The arrested man was shot while he was trying to escape. Nine months later, on Christmas Eve 1868, Buck Taylor, who had killed the black soldier two years earlier, and some others, confronted Deputy Sheriff William Sutton. Buck Taylor accused William Sutton of stealing horses. The argument led to a gunfight, and Buck Taylor and his friend Richard Chisholm died in the shootout. Six months later, it got worse when Jack Helm entered the fray. Jack Helm was a notorious character who did a lot of damage to the state police. He was a Confederate deserter who allegedly

participated in the vigilante lynching of five Union sympathizers during the Civil War. in the vigilante lynching of five Union sympathizers during the Civil War. In June 1869, he became a, quote, special officer with a detachment that was charged with bringing the Taylors to justice. Instead, so it appears, he and his group rampaged through South Texas. They may have killed upwards of 20 people, while only arresting 10. They may have killed upwards of 20 people, while only arresting 10. Late in August that summer, Helm and a posse attacked a Taylor ranch. They killed Hayes Taylor and wounded Dobie Taylor, the two Taylors who were believed to have murdered Union soldiers two years earlier.

Helm was elected sheriff of DeWitt County, home of the Taylors, in December of that year, 1869. The following summer of 1870, he was appointed a captain of the state police. While McNally was a captain in East Texas, Helm was a captain in South Texas. As both a county sheriff and a captain of the state police, Helm had enormous power. He had William Sutton as a deputy sheriff and a small army of supporters on the Sutton side, and he helped the Suttons go after the Taylors. At the end of August 1870, less than two months into Helm's role as state police captain, Helm and a posse, including Deputy Sutton, arrested Will and Henry Kelly, two members of the Taylor faction. The charge was that the brothers had been firing their guns at some sort of event. One account says it was a circus, another says it

was a camp meeting. Whatever it was, the charge acted as an excuse for an arrest. And then the posse shot and killed the two Kelly brothers while using the same old explanation that the brothers were trying to escape. But this time, the murders happened in front of witnesses. Women of the Kelly family saw the killings and raised holy hell, and two of the women who were obviously furious were the wives of Will and Henry. The wives of Will and furious were the wives of Will and Henry. The wives of Will and Henry were the daughters of Pitkin Taylor, one of the two old leaders of the Taylor family.

Two Taylor sisters had married two Kelly brothers. Now the brothers had been murdered by a Sutton posse. By October 1870, Governor Edmund Davis was forced to act. Jack Helm was suspended from the state police, and by the end of the year, he had been permanently dismissed from service. But Helm was still sheriff of DeWitt County, with William Sutton as his deputy. A year and a half later, on a night in August 1872, a group of Sutton supporters lured old man Pitkin Taylor out of his cabin by ringing a cowbell in his cornfield. When Taylor emerged from his home, the Bushwhackers

opened fire. Pitkin Taylor was shot several times, but the old man held on for six months before he died. He passed away at the end of 1872. At that time, his son, Jim Taylor, vowed revenge, and Jim brought in his buddy, John Wesley Harden, to help. Jim Taylor's primary target was Deputy Sheriff William Sutton. Jim and some of the other Taylors tried to kill Sutton twice between April and June 1873, but they only succeeded in wounding him. Jim and the Taylor faction succeeded in killing Jim Cox, a Sutton supporter, sometime between June and July. And

then Jim and his friend John Wesley Harden cornered Jack Helm. By the spring of 1873, Jack Helm was living in the village of Albuquerque. The town no longer exists, but at the time, Helm had a blacksmith shop where he spent long hours working on an invention that would destroy cotton worms during the picking process. On July 18th, Jim Taylor and John Wesley Harden found Jack Helm at his shop. There were multiple versions of the fight that happened next, but they all agree that Harden shot Helm with a shotgun and Taylor shot Helm with a pistol. Within minutes, the hated Jack Helm was dead. Ten months later, in March 1874,

Jim and one of his cousins learned that Deputy Sheriff William Sutton was going to flee South Texas. He was done with the feud, and he had booked passage on a steamer out of Indianola on the Gulf Coast. When Sutton and one of his friends arrived at the dock to board the ship, the Taylor cousins opened fire and killed both men. The brazen murders of Sutton and his friend were big news and timely. The next month, April 1874, the new governor, Richard Koch, signed the legislation that created the Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers. The sprawling package also gave the governor

authority to create Minutemen companies to supplement the Rangers. On May 2, 1874, John B. Jones was appointed Major of the Battalion. Three weeks later, Jim Taylor and John Wesley Hardin killed a deputy sheriff. and John Wesley Harden killed a deputy sheriff. Harden and Taylor were in Comanche County, where Harden's parents lived. It was May 26th, Harden's 21st birthday. Harden and Taylor spent the evening celebrating in a saloon. When they left, Harden was confronted by Brown County Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb. Harden and Taylor ended up killing Webb in a gunfight, and that was the event that sent Harden on the run to Florida.

Six weeks later, in July 1874, the governor authorized the formation of a Minutemen company under the command of former State Police Captain Leander McNally. company under the command of former State Police Captain Leander McNally. McNally recruited volunteers from his home area of Washington County for his new unit, Company A, Washington County Volunteer Militia. Officially, their orders were to ride 90 miles south to DeWitt County, report to the county sheriff, help him make arrests, facilitate matters of the court, and generally bring peace to a region that was in bad shape. Unofficially, that meant stop the feud. McNally and his unit arrived August 1st, 1874, and this was how he described the scene in a report to Adjutant General Steele. A perfect reign of terror existed in this and adjoining counties. Armed bands of men were making predatory excursions through the country, overawing

the law-abiding citizens while the civil authorities were unable or unwilling to enforce the laws framed for their protection. Less than a week after McNally's unit arrived, a detachment of his men exchanged gunfire with a group of Sutton supporters. McNally's men were escorting a tailor man to court to testify in some murder cases. The Sutton group opened fire and wounded one of the militiamen. No one was killed, and the Suttons later claimed that they thought the militiamen were all Taylor enemies, though it was also surmised that they were actually trying to kill the Taylor witness before he could testify. After that early scrap, McNally and his men spent the next four months patrolling the region. They succeeded in pausing the feud, but not stopping it. They were not able to arrest John Wesley Harden, who had fled east to Alabama and then Florida,

and they couldn't find Jim Taylor. But by the end of the year, McNally felt they had done enough to calm the waters. At that point, after several months with little or no bloodshed for the first time in a long time, the powers that be decided McNally was needed elsewhere. The banditry and cattle rustling in the Rio Grande Valley was as bad as it had ever been. McNally and his state police unit had made a brief excursion to the Rio Grande two years earlier, but now he would spend the rest of his career along the border. He would certainly make a name for himself, though the politicians

would not be thrilled with his methods. Next time on Legends of the Old West, McNally spends the better part of two years in a campaign along the southern border of Texas. He fights bandits on the Palo Alto Prairie and creates controversy with his decisions during the events known as the Las Cuevas War. And then, two of his protégés put the finishing touches on the Sutton-Taylor feud. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials. And they also receive exclusive bonus episodes.

Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships are just $5 per month. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your writer, host, and producer, Chris Wimmer. Thanks for listening.