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The Masons in Texas'  Bloodiest Feud

by Joseph E. Bennett, MPS

Texans certainly did not invent feud-
ing, but they elevated it to a fine art form
in the last half of the nineteenth century.
Perhaps the Civil War had something to
do with it, followed as it was with politi-
cal upheaval and grinding depression on
the heels of four years of bitter conflict.
The corrupt Reconstruction govern-
ment in Texas, installed by Washington
and enforced by the U.S. Army, was
obviously a factor. Other provocations,
however, are generally obscured by the
passage of time. Invariably, the right or
wrong of the matter is subject to the
interpretation of the faction telling the
story.

The most famous of the Texas feuds -
the longest and bloodiest - was the Sut-
ton-Taylor trouble in DeWitt County. It
began before the Civil War between two
members of the same Masonic Lodge in
Yorktown, Texas. Among the dubious
distinctions resulting from the long con-
flict was the emergence of John Wesley
Hardin as the premier gunfighter in all
of Texas. The original contestants were
Creed Taylor and Joseph Tumlinson,
both heroes of the struggle for indepen-
dence from Mexico, and both renowned
Indian Fighters with the Texas Rangers.
They were present as members of John
J. Tumlinson's company at the battle of
San Jacinto when Texas overwhelmed
Santa Anna under the flag of General
Sam Houston.

Joe Tumlinson was married to Creed
Taylor's sister, Johanna. Conversely,
Creed's brother, William Riley Taylor,
was married to Tumlinson's sister, Eliz-
abeth. For years, they lived on neighbor-
ing homesteads and were close friends.
Harmony evaporated, according to
Creed, when "elements feeling them-
selves above the law" formed a vigilante
committee, and commenced meting out
their particular version of Iynch-law jus-
tice. The Taylors have always consid-
ered the vigilante leaders to be Joe
Tumlinson, Captain Jim Cox, John Lit-
tleton, and William E. Sutton. How-
ever, Sutton was only a young boy when
the trouble began in the 1850's.

Three members of the quartet named
were killed during the feud, with Joe
Tumlinson alone dying of natural
causes.

Creed Taylor was raised in Coleto
Lodge No. 124, in Yorktown, DeWitt
County, on December 19, 1853 . DeWitt
County is situated about half way be-
tween San Antonio and the Gulf coast.
Joe Tumlinson was raised in Victoria
Lodge No. 40, in Victoria, Texas, on
May 14, 1849, but affiliated with Coleto
Lodge in 1852. After serving as both
junior and senior warden, he was elected
Worshipful Master in 1869. Both men
were active in the Lodge during the
1850's, but Creed was suspended for
non-payment of dues in 1861, and never
reinstated. Coleto Lodge demised in
1871 .

Regardless of the fact that both men
were Lodge brothers, they became in-
volved in a bloody feud that eventually
engulfed most of the population of De-
Witt County. The feuding became such
a concern to the Masons of the area that
a peace talk was proposed. The Masonic
hall in Helena, over the line in Karnes
County, was selected as a neutral site.
The role of arbiter was thrust upon Al-
emita Lodge No. 200 in Helena, with
both the Taylor and Tumlinson factions
heavily represented at the meeting. A
truce was adopted which endured until
the end of the Civil War.

Creed Taylor always had a preference
for life on the fringe of civilization. That
desire for solitude prompted him to fol-
low his sons, Hays and Phillip (nick-
named Doboy), to Mason County,
where he established a second homestead
on the extreme outer limit of the Texas
frontier. Creed retained his original
homestead in Karnes County on Ecleto
Creek. In November, 1867, Hays and
Doboy were in the town of Mason when
the stage was set for a renewal of the old
feud. The boys had been in town racing
horses with local sportsmen, and were
celebrating a victorious day at a general
store on the square, owned by J. E.
Ranck. Some drunken soldiers from
nearby Fort Mason started an argument
with Hays which soon developed into a
gunfight. When the smoke cleared, two
soldiers were dead, along with a Major
Thompson, who had the misfortune to
intervene. Even though the Taylor
brothers had not provoked the argu-
ment, they became fugitives. When the
Mason County area became unhealthy
for the Taylor family, they returned to
the family homestead on Ecleto Creek.
The boys were hunted criminals now,
forced to sleep outdoors in order that
they might not be surprised and cap-
tured. On Christmas Eve, 1868, an
event occurred that brought the name of
William Sutton prominently to the fore
in the escalating feud between the Tay-
lor-Tumlinson factions. The Tumlinson
people by now had aligned with the "law
enforcement" element.

William Riley Taylor, Creed's
brother, had a son, William, called
"Buck" by all who knew him. In 1868,
Bill Sutton was a young, part-time law-
man living in Clinton, the DeWitt
County seat. Clinton was directly across
the Guadalupe River from the town of
Cuero. On the evening in question, Sut-
ton shot and killed Buck Taylor in Clin-
ton. In the confusion of the ambush, an
innocent bystander was killed when he
got in the line of fire . Sutton and Tumlin-
son were close friends and fellow mem-
bers of the State Militia, charged with
the task of bringing in Hays and Doboy
Taylor for the Mason County shootings.
Tumlinsonwas, andcontinuedtobe, the
acknowledged leader of the faction fight-
ing the Taylor clan, but it became known
from that time forward as the Sutton-
Taylor feud.

During the spring of 1869, two unsa-
vory characters, C. S. Bell and Jack
Helm, arrived from Austin to head the
State Militia in DeWitt and neighboring
counties. A blood bath followed their
arrival, claiming at least 21 lives within
a few weeks. Hays Taylor was one of the
casualties. He was killed in a bloody
attempt to rescue his father. Creed Tay-
lor had been taken prisoner by the militia
and was being held at the family home
on Ecleto Creek. In the same melee,
Doboy was wounded, but managed to
escape to the town of Kerrville, in Kerr
County. He died there in a gunfight in
1871, following an argument over a mat-
ter unrelated to the feud. The Taylor
clan found itself without field leadership
temporarily. New leaders emerged in
1872 .

The year of 1872 brought a turning point
in the Sutton-Taylor troubles. That
summer Bill Sutton and four cohorts fa-
tally wounded Creed's brother, Pitkin,
during a raid on his home near Cuero.
When Pitkin died six months later, his
sons, Bill and Jim, became leaders of the
Taylor clan, vowing vengeance on their
father's killers. On April 1, 1873, they
made good their threat by walking into a
Cuero saloon and gunning down Bill
Sutton. He survived, by some miracle.
After a two-month convalescence, Sut-
ton moved to the Gulf coast town of
Victoria, and a more peaceful neighbor-
hood. The old State Militia had been
replaced in 1870 by the State Police, a
much-despised unit created by Recon-
struction Governor Edmund J. Davis. In
April, 1873, their first free post-war elec-
tion was held in November. Even though
the State Police were just a memory, Jack
Helm remained - as Sheriff of DeWitt
County.

During May, 1873, John Wesley
Hardin had entered the Sutton-Taylor
arena as an active participant. He was
related to the Taylors by marriage, inas-
much as his cousin, Jeff Hardin, was
married to Creed's daughter. Wes was
born on May 26, 1853, in Bonham
Texas. He was the son of James G.
Hardin, a God-fearing circuit preacher
who named him after the famed Meth-
odist minister, John Wesley. Further
similarity to the renowned clergyman
ended with the name. Young Hardin
was not yet sixteen when he killed his first
victim, a Negro bully he met on a road
near his home. This was the beginning
of a long list of shooting victims attrib-
uted to Wes. By the time he was twenty-
four, the score was reputed to be between
35 and 40. Hardin's shooting prowess
spread throughout Texas, and made him
the most-feared gunfighter in the west.

Hardin was not a Freemason, but his
father, James, and his older brother,
Joe. G., were members of Comanche
Lodge No. 316, which demised in 1876.
Joe G. Hardin, an attorney, was Iynched
in the town of Comanche on June 5,
1874. He was executed because of his
family relationship to the infamous killer
when a frustrated mob vented their
wrath over the shooting of one Charley
Webb on the streets of the town. Wes
killed Webb on the occasion of his 21st
birthday, May 26, 1874. We are, how-
ever, a little ahead of our story.

By the first of May, 1873, Jack Helm
had decided to vacate the office of Sheriff
of DeWitt County. He had relocated to
a blacksmith shop at Albuquerque, in
Wilson County, where he was reported
to be working on an invention. That's
where Wes Hardin and Jim Taylor
(Pitkin's son) caught up with him.

Helm did his best to defend himself
with a knife when confronted by Wes and
Jim, to no avail. Hardin was carrying a
shotgun, thus the struggle was brief. All
the old Taylor scores with Jack Helm
were settled with a blast of buckshot.
Shortly thereafter, Captain Jim Cox,
Jake Christman, and Joe Tumlinson,
were returning to Yorktown, not far
from Cuero. Wily old Joe smelled dan-
ger and took an alternate road. Cox and
Christman continued into an ambush
and died instantly in a hail of gunfire.
Popular opinion credited Hardin with
participation in the murders.

Wes stayed around DeWitt County for
a year before drifting north into Com-
anche County where his father and
brother, Joe G., lived. Jim Taylor ac-
companied Wes to Comanche. They
surrounded themselves with a gang and
began to rustle great numbers of cattle in
both Comanche and neighboring Brown
County, according to local historians.
They became familiar sights in the towns
of Comanche and Brownwood, spending
money freely and terrorizing the citizens
with their rowdiness . Sheriff J . H . Gid-
eon of Brown County assigned a young
local, C.W. "Charley" Webb, to keep
Hardin and his associates under surveil-
lance. Wes had run Webb off the Wil-
liams Ranch in April, 1874, where he
and his gang had hung a hapless Mexi-
can, calling him a meddler and warning
the deputy to stay out of Comanche
County .

On May 26, 1874, Webb decided to
visit his sweetheart in the town of Com-
anche. Unfortunately, he ran across
John Wesley Hardin. When the smoke
cleared, Webb was dead, with a bullet in
his heart. Charley was buried in the old
Greenleaf Cemetery in Brownwood
under an enormous live oak tree. On his
fading grave marker, a Masonic emblem
is still prominent. The annual return of
Brownwood Lodge No . 279 to the Grand
Lodge of Texas for the year 1874, listed
Webb as an Entered Apprentice, and
noted his death. Hardin was indicted for
murder over the shooting and was even-
tually tried, following his capture at Pen-
sacola, Florida, on August 23, 1877.

Wes Hardin entered the Texas Peni-
tentiary at Huntsville on October 5,
1877, to begin serving a 25- year sentence
for second degree murder. There was
insufficient evidence to sustain a convic-
tion of murder in the first degree, thus
his life was spared. During his long con-
finement, Wes undertook the study of
law, and became superintendent of the
prison Sunday school. It was his ambi-
tion to pass the bar examination upon his
release and qualify for the practice of
law. Wes was pardoned by Governor
J.S. Hoggon March 16,1894, after serv-
ing 16 years of his sentence. His wife
passed away a few months before his
release, denying Wes the happy reunion
he had longed for so many years. He left
prison with high hopes for the future,
and appeared to be completely rehabili-
tated.

For a time, Hardin tried to be a worth-
while citizen. He practiced law briefly in
Gonzales County, and completed an au-
tobiography started in prison. By 1895,
he was living in El Paso, where he rented
an office and opened a law practice. Be-
fore long, however, he resumed the bad
habits of his wild days, drinking and
gambling. He took up with a prostitute,
Helen Beulah Morose, the wife of a petty
rustler and thief. She sought Hardin's
legal assistance on behalf of her husband,
Martin Morose, hiding in the Mexican
city of Juarez, across the Rio Grande
from El Paso. The winsome Helen soon
forgot her husband, and became
Hardin's paramour and drinking part-
ner.

Morose was enticed across the Rio
Grande to El Paso by stories of his wife's
indiscretions with Wes Hardin. He was
riddled by gunfire as he stepped off the
bridge on the American side. Rumor
tied Wes to the scheme. Morose was
known to be carrying $4,000.00 on his
person, but it was missing when the body
was recovered. Hardin's sudden pros-
perity did not escape the notice of the
sporting crowd in El Paso. The money
was never recovered, nor was Wes tried
for complicity in the matter.

The saga of John Wesley Hardin ended
on August 19, 1895, when John Selman,
a local constable, stepped into the Acme
Saloon in El Paso and shot him in the
back of the head. The fabled gunman
was rolling dice on the bar and was never
aware of the presence of his killer. Sel-
man was known to have a grievance
against Hardin, but he was acquitted of
any wrongdoing in the shooting. The
court disregarded Selman's personal re-
cord as a notorious outlaw with a long
record of criminal activity. Hardin was
42 years of age when he died, a mere
caricature of the legendary gunman of
his Sutton-Taylor days.

Back in DeWitt County in 1874, the
feud raged on. In March of that year
Jim and Bill Taylor (Pitkin's sons),
caught up with Bill Sutton as he boarded
the steamer "Clinton" at the Texas gulf
of Indianola. While Sutton and a com-
panion, Gabriel Slaughter, stood at the
rail prior to departure, the Taylor broth-
ers shot both men from the dock. Only
Tumlinson of the four blamed by the
Taylors for starting the feud still lived.
Worshipful Brother Joe was to die in
November, 1874 of natural causes. after
embracing the church and renouncing
his past sins. Sadly, even his passing did
not terminate the feud.

Jim Taylor fled to Comanche County
with Wes Hardin, as previously stated.
Bill Taylor was arrested in April, 1874,
at Cuero by the town marshal, Reuben
Brown. Marshal Brown was sympathetic
to the Sutton cause, and prudently con-
cluded that he should take Bill to another
jail or risk his rescue by the Taylor clan.
Bill was taken to Galveston for safekeep-
ing. When a mob from Brownwood trav-
eled to Comanche and Iynched two
members of Wes Hardin's gang, includ-
ing Wes' brother, Joe G., Jim Taylor
was not among the victims. The Dixon
brothers died without a murmur at the
hands of the Iynch mob. The hangmen
ignored Joe G. Hardin's protest that he
was not involved in his brother's activi-
ties, reasoning that he was a lawyer and
would probably defend Wes in court.
That was justification for the hanging, in
their minds.

Back in DeWitt County, a great outcry
from the citizens prompted the governor
of Texas to order a company of Rangers
into the area, under the command of the
famous Captain L.H. McNelly, a mem-
ber of McClellan Lodge No. 159, in Bur-
ton, Texas. Law enforcement in the
county was non-existent, and large rov-
ing bands of both Sutton and Taylor
followers recognized no authority except
the law of the gun and their own leaders.
Being hopelessly outnumbered by the
feudists, the Rangers could do little to
improve conditions. Bill Taylor's im-
pending trial for the Sutton shooting,
scheduled to begin in August, 1874, was
deferred. Taylor was returned to Galves-
ton from Indianola, and would be there
a year before the trial was rescheduled.
Meanwhile, Bill languished in jail.

Nature took a hand with events on Sep-
tember 15, 1875, as Bill Taylor sat in his
Indianola cell awaiting the beginning of
the long-delayed trial. The Gulf coast
was struck by one of the most savage
storms in memory. The port of Indianola
was inundated by hurricane-force winds
and severe flooding by incoming tides.
As the storm increased in intensity, the
citizens of the town took refuge in their
new courthouse. It was a concrete struc-
ture, situated on the highest ground in
the area, and offered the only protection.
The prisoners were released from the jail
in order that they, too, could flee to
safety. Among them was Bill Taylor.
With total disregard for his own safety,
Bill labored for many hours heroically
rescuing victims from the raging waters.
When the storm abated, he had vanished
on a horse commandeered from a local
Negro.

On November 17,1875, Marshal Reu-
ben Brown of Cuero was playing cards
in the Exchange Saloon. Five silent fig-
ures stepped through the door and
opened fire, killing Brown instantly.
Rube Brown had paid the price for his
role in arresting and jailing Bill Taylor.
About a month after the Brown killing
Bill appeared at Clinton, the county seat.
Taylor historians say he came in to give
himself up for trial. The Sutton faction
claimed that his intention was to burn
the courthouse and destroy all the accu-
mulated testimony against the Taylor
clan. Bill's sudden appearance alarmed
the citizens of Clinton.

Sheriff Weisegar called for additional
support from Deputy Dick Hudson
across the river in Cuero. Hudson re-
sponded promptly, with plenty of help.
Taylor and two companions had left
their horses in care of a livery stable in
Clinton. When the lawmen began to
gather, Bill and his men decided to flee,
and attempted to reclaim their mounts.
The horses had been intentionally locked
away, and escape was impossible.
Forced into a battle against overwhelm-
ing odds, Bill Taylor and his two com-
panions died in a withering hail of lead
from Hudson and his posse.

Prominent among the lawmen in
Hudson's posse, was young Willie Cox,
son of Captain Cox slain earlier by the
Taylor forces. Following the episode,
Hudson and his posse were tried for
murder, but exonerated on the grounds
that they were responding to a lawful
order. Once more the Taylor family was
without young leadership.

Bill's brother, Jim, who was involved
with him in the Sutton shooting at In-
dianola, was still a fugitive. He was even-
tually captured in Coleman, Texas, and
tried for his criminal activities. He was
acquitted and never returned to DeWitt
County .

The feud smoldered for years, but with-
out the large bands of supporters who
roamed DeWitt County in the early
days. Still, the killings continued sporad-
ically until the turn of the century. Willie
Cox was implicated in the murder of a
Dr. Brassell, along with two compan-
ions. Cox and his henchmen were tried
and convicted of murder in April, 1878.
The paperwork in the case mysteriously
disappeared, and the entire matter had
to be reopened. The final judgement was
that the indictment was flawed and the
defendants were admitted to bail. Cox
fled to New Mexico. Years later, he be-
came prominent as W. W. Cox, a
wealthy rancher in the Tularosa area,
north of Las Cruces - a veritable pillar of
the community. Litigation in the Bras-
sell murder case ended in 1899, with the
last defendant, Dave Augustine, escap-
ing punishment in the matter. The long
Sutton-Taylor feud was ended at last.

Creed Taylor outlived most of the feud-
ists. He survived to the age of 86, passing
away in Kimble County in 1906, with
little but bitter memories to provide com-
fort. Today, the historic port of In-
dianola is just a memory. It never recov-
ered from the storm of 1875, but hung on
until the second - and even more destruc-
tive tempest - finished off the town in
1886. When the railroad came to Cuero
instead of Clinton, it struck a death blow
to the county seat. The same storms that
pummeled the Gulf coast raked Clinton,
too. Today, nothing remains of Clinton
except the cemetery, half covered by the
silt of those storms of yesteryear. Prom-
inent among the discernible grave mark-
ers are several Masonic emblems en-
graved upon the erroding surfaces.

Today, the town of Cuero itself appears
to be in the backwater of the economy.
Little business activity is evident on the
quiet streets, and signs of the oil boom of
the 1970's have vanished. The Chamber
of Commerce brochures proclaim Cuero
to be "the turkey capital of the world,"
and signs at the city limits chronicle the
same message. Nowhere in the litany of
the promotional material does one find a
solitary mention of their most famous
historic event, the Sutton-Taylor feud. A
strange coolness greets most inquiries
about the altercation. Most people dis-
claim any knowledge of it, or sometimes,
one is referred to a person labeled as the
"local expert," without much success
for the effort. Even the locations of the
several Taylor family cemeteries are dif-
ficult to ascertain, and more difficult to
ViSit .

The strange frigidity concerning past
feuds is not confined to DeWitt County.
In the town of Mason, which had a
bloody feud of its own in 1875, one finds
a similar passive resistance to inquiry.
Even the Lodge in Mason declines to
discuss any of the members who took
part in their "Hoodoo War" - and there
were several.

Scores of Texas citizens died as a result
of the Sutton-Taylor troubles. Both sides
fervently believed their cause to be right,
and many died defending that point of
view, with nothing much gained. The
bonds of Masonic fellowship between
Creed Taylor and Joseph Tumlinson
proved insufficient to quench the fires of
hatred. Both were old comrades-in-arms
during the fight for independence and
distinguished Texas Rangers. Descen-
dants of both men served valiantly in the
Ranger service until it was integrated
into the Department of Public Safety in
1935. Nor were the ties of marriage be-
tween the families strong enough to stay
the deadly feud that filled so many graves
in DeWitt County. It was a bloody and
deplorable era, in which primarily young
men paid the supreme cost.

The feuds of Texas have fascinated re-
searchers for years, and much informa-
tion has been unearthed concerning that
unique facet of the state's history .
Today, when one stands in one of those
old neglected DeWitt County cemeter-
ies, and listens to the wind moan through
the branches of the twisted live oaks, it
seems as if the sound of many long-dead
voices are faintly audible. Somehow, the
faded Masonic emblems on the markers
seem strangely out of place.

References and Source Material

John Wesley Hardin, The Lifc of John Weslcy Hardin,
As Written By Himself, University of Oklahoma
Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1961.

T.R. Havens, Something About Brown, A History of
Brown County, Banner Printing Company, Brown-
wood, Texas, 1958.

D.E. Kilgore, A Ranger Legacy, Madrona Press,
Inc., Austin, Texas, 1973.

Leon Clare Metz, Thc Shooters, Mangan Books, El
Paso, Texas, 1976; John Selman, Gunfighter, Has-
tings House, New York, 1966, U. of Oklahoma
Press, 1961.

Pete Normand, The Texas Masons, the Fraternity of
Free and Acceptcd Masons in the History of Texas, Brazos
Valley Masonic Library and Museum, College
Station, Texas, 1986.

Charles L . Sonnichsen, I 'll Dic Bcforc I 'll Run, Thc
Story of thc Fcuds of Tcxas, Devin-Adair Co., New
York, 1951, 1952.

A.J. Sowell, Texas Indian Fightas, State House
Press, Austin, Texas, 1986.

Ruth Griffin Spence, Thc Nice and Nasty In Brown
County, Banner Printing Company, Brownwood
Texas, 1988.

Transactions Of Thc Texas Lodge Of Rcscarch, A.F.&
A.M., June 18, 1977 - March 18, 1978, Volume
III, Waco, Texas.

Walter Prescott Webb, The Texas Rangas, River-
side Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1935.

Archivcs of thc Grand Lodge of Texas, A.F &A.M.,
Waco, Texas.

Field trips to DeWitt, Mason, Kimble, Karnes,
and Brown Counties.
