Cattle
rustling and gunfights were a common thing.... It seems as if bad men flourished in these parts and cattle rustling was a frequent occurrence. The outlaws seemed to be running “roughshod”
over the local citizens until a man by the name of J.A. Jamieson was hired, in 1877, as town marshal and constable.
Jamieson came with some evil credentials that made him perfect for
the job. He had rode with Quantrell’s guerillas, in Missouri,
during the Civil War and this bunch were known to have pulled off
many murderous raids back then. They weren’t highly thought of
by most folks but they had a formidable reputation. The
local paper described Jamieson as a quiet individual with steel
gray eyes, who knew no fear and handled the toughest bad men with
such ease and fearlessness that his name struck terror into the
hearts of the lawless. Jamieson supposedly “cleaned up”
Hallettsville during the years 1877 and 1878. He must have been
pretty good at his job, because he went on to serve as a lawman in
the communities of Schulenburg, Flatonia, Luling, Gonzales, and
Yoakum. He died of pneumonia while living in Yoakum in February of
1906. According
to the Tribune, cattle rustling was common in the early
days of Lavaca County. The paper reported that, “range law and
justice were enforced frequently and invoked when a rustler was
caught ‘red-handed,’ and often a gun duel decided ownership of
a beef with a blotched brand.” Besides
the rustling there were ongoing range wars between the
fence-cutters and the homesteaders. Back then, there was a state
law prohibiting fence cutting – but even though the local peace
officers enforced the law; the practice continued for some time.
In August of 1887, Sheriff Smothers and his deputies arrested a
band of fence-cutters who had troubled cattlemen in the southern
part of the county, and their speedy trial ended the war. The
old newspaper reported that the last revolt by a cowboy against
the coming of civilization occurred when he shot out the electric
streetlights in downtown Hallettsville. The lights had just been
placed in the city when the wrangler decided to do away with them. Lavaca
County had its share of bad men – none of them more notorious
than Jim Buckley. It seems that this individual had little regard
for the numerous city ordinances. According to the newspaper, “
he broke them with impunity.” Around town he was known as “Bad
Man Buckley” and he did his best to live up to the name. In 1880
he had a dispute with a fellow in one of the local saloons on the
square; Buckley promptly killed the cattleman named Ragsdale. Buckley
was indicted for the murder, and shortly afterwards made a daring
attempt to steal the indictment by shooting the district clerk
while he was working on the court records late one night.
Unbelievably, Buckley was acquitted for the act and this only led
to fuel his disregard for the law. He became quite cocky and one
day showed his loathing for the local lawmen by spitting in the
face of Marshal Dan
Merrit. The paper reported that “Bad Man Buckley” paid for
that insult with his life. When
the 1890’s rolled around, many lawmen didn’t feel the need to
always be armed. After all, by this time Lavaca County had become
civilized and the area was fairly quiet, for the most part. Sheriff
J.W. Bennett had been serving some papers one day in the early
1890’s and was returning to the district clerk’s office when
he was told that a fellow by the name of Ben Stoner was looking
for him – the word was that Stoner intended to shoot it out with
the sheriff. Although Bennett was unarmed, he borrowed a pistol
from the clerk. Just
as the sheriff walked out of the north door of the courthouse, he
saw Stoner waiting for him. Stoner, who was mounted, had already
drawn his gun and was holding it by his side away from Bennett. As
the sheriff walked towards him, Stoner brought his gun across the
saddle and fired; his shot struck Bennett above the right ear but
inflicted only a slight wound. Bennett’s quick draw probably
saved his life – his first shot disabled Stoner who fled towards
a store on the east side of the square. Stoner never made it to
the store; instead he toppled off his horse and was dead before he
hit the ground. We
see a lot of bad things reported today via the newspaper and
television but we can feel fairly comfortable that we can go
downtown without seeing a murder or gunfight – this wasn’t the
case in the days of early Texas, and Lavaca County certainly had
its share of those unruly times.
|
