Blood Feuds

In my upcoming novel, A Hundred Miles to Water, a blood feud between Texas ranching families serves as the catalyst for all of the book's conflict. And fittingly, both protagonist and antagonist families arrive in Texas from Kentucky.

Kentucky is well recognized as the home to some of the bloodiest feuds in the United States. One of the better-known feuds, the Hatfields and McCoys, began when Floyd Hatfield penned a number of wild hogs he captured in the forest. Sometime later, Randolph McCoy passed the pen and claimed the hogs as his. Other well known feuds in the state were the Tolliver-Martin-Logan vendetta, the French-Eversole war, the Howard-Turner feud, and Bloody Breathitt, which included the Little-Strong and the Hargis-Marcum feuds. (Photo- The Hatfields circa 1897)

Clay County, Kentucky, is located in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains. In late 1775, the county’s first settler, James Collins, tracked game to a large salt lick located on Goose Creek, a tributary of the south fork of the Kentucky River. The value of salt in frontier America soon became apparent as settlers who followed Collins into the area began to sink salt wells up and down "Goose Creek".

One of the longest running feuds in Clay County began in 1844 when Abner Baker, a man thought to have suffered from mental illness, shot his friend, Daniel Bates in the back. Baker and his wife, Susan (White) Baker lived in the Bates home. It is thought that Abner believed his wife and Bates were engaged in an affair.

Before he died, Bates dictated his last will and testament, in which he instructed his son to take revenge on his killer. A local magistrate, T.T. Garrard, joined sides when he refused to turn over the unstable Baker to the sheriff or the Bates.

Enraged, both the Whites and the Bates joined forces and persuaded the Commonwealth to indict Baker for murder. A jury found Baker guilty. He was hanged in 1845. Baker’s hanging caused lines to be drawn among the families with the Bates and Whites on one side and the Bakers and Garrards on the other.

The feud lasted fifty-plus years and by some estimates took over one hundred lives.

Some well known Texas feuds were: The Horrell-Higgins feud in Lampasas County in 1877, the Hoodoo War or Mason County War of 1875, and the Jaybird-Woodpecker War of 1889 in Fort Bend County.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

The Kwahadi and The Battle of Adobe Walls

In the spring of 1874, A.C. "Charlie" Myers packed up his mercantile business in Kansas and followed buffalo hunters, such as Josiah Wright Mooar, Billy Dixon and William Barclay "Bat" Masterson to the Texas Panhandle. The move was one of financial necessity as there were few buffalo remaining in Kansas by late 1873. A seasoned businessman, Myers understood the need for a supply post that could solve the hunter's problems of traversing the 150 mile trek between Texas and Kansas to re-supply their camps and also dispose of their hides. Myers built one of four "soddies" that eventually comprised Adobe Walls. (A soddie was a line of timber logs placed upright in a trench and then packed with sod.)

The "new" Adobe Walls was located about a mile from the Adobe Wall's ruins where Kit Carson and three hundred men battled a thousand Indians in 1864.

The June 1874 battle of Adobe Walls was a motivating factor in General Phillip H. Sheridan's July 27, 1874 "solution" sent to President Ulysses Simpson Grant. Sheridan's plan gave the Southern Plains bands seven days to enroll at their respective agencies, declare themselves friendly, and answer unannounced roll calls. Any members who did not present themselves to the agencies by August 3, 1874 would be considered as hostile and hunted down and killed.

The Kwahadi, "Antelopes," were also known by kwah-heeher kennuh, Kwahada, Quahadi, and by other bands as "Sun-shades-on-their-backs" for their habit of using buffalo-hide parasols when riding on the staked plains. The Kwahadi were the most remote and fierce of the Comanche bands. The Kwahadi avoided many of the epidemic disasters that befell other bands simply by their remoteness and refusal to have any dealings with whites.

Parra-O-Coom, "Bull Bear," was a Kwahadi leader of great celebrity. Parra-O-Coom was best known for never signing a treaty with whites and is said to have repeatedly proclaimed he would never do so until the horse soldiers came to the Staked Plains and "whooped him." Parra-O-Coom contracted pneumonia during the planning of the 1874 Battle of Adobe Walls. Due to the illness, Quanah Parker was then chosen to lead the war party on the buffalo hunters. Parra-O-Coom died while the fighting raged and was buried on the banks of Elk Creek in 1874.

Kobay, "Wild Horse," succeeded Parra-O-Coom as "token" head chief of the Kwahadi. Kobay was killed during the second charge on the buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls in 1874.

By 1874, the Kwahadi shaman, Esa-tai, "Coyote Droppings" or "Hind End of a Wolf," had become a much needed messiah figure to the oppressed Comanche. Esa-tai was also known as the Wolf Prophet. His keen observation skills allowed him to predict weather patterns and other solar occurrences. After he correctly predicted the occurrence of an 1873 comet that would appear in the skies for five days and then be followed by a drought, the bands began to believe his power would deliver them from their white enemies. Esa-tai assembled all of the bands in early June 1874 to perform the Sun Dance. This sacred ritual of the Kiowa and Cheyenne had never been performed by the Comanche in their entire history as a people. Esa-tai used the Sun Dance to proclaim that a "great spirit" had instructed him to attack the hide hunters at Adobe Walls. The Wolf Prophet proclaimed that the hide hunters would all be killed in their sleep and no Cheyenne, Kiowa, Arapaho or Comanche warrior would be harmed because he would furnish them with magic paint that would deflect the copper bullets of the whites. After fifteen warriors were killed during the second charge, the assembled warriors realized that Esa-tai's "puha" was flawed. Wilbur Nye wrote in his book, Carbine and Lance, that sixty years after the battle, Esa-tai was simply known by the Comanche as "that comical fellow."

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2010

Women of the Texas Frontier

Women of the Texas frontier, collectively portrayed by Sarah Kensing in my upcoming novel, The Taken, were unsung stalwarts of the new and expanding civilization.

It is typical of most warrior-based societies to portray women members as one-dimensional contributors to the band, tribe or family. A woman's contribution is invariably characterized in writing, song, and stories as that of "mother." This depiction was of course valued on the frontier as settlers were desirous of children, especially male children. It is, however, important to note that a woman's societal dictates went far beyond just producing children. Texas women were required to possess a multitude of desirable qualities that could be called upon and acted out no matter the circumstance.

As a result, a frontier woman was expected to not only be a mother, but also a pioneer, a homemaker, a warrior, a protector, a teacher, a preacher, a wife, a lover, a doctor, and a patriot. Therefore, the frontier woman had to at all times display the virtuous characteristics of strength, consideration, tolerance, forbearance, love, courage and faith.

In short, Texas women such as Margaret "Peggy" McCormick, Pamelia Mann, Francisca Panchita Alavez, Parmelia Parchman King, Susannah Wilkerson Dickinson, and Louis Cottle Jackson were just a few of many, who along with their frontier male companions, struggled mightily to afford future generations the luxury of an independent existence.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

Juan Nepomuceno Seguín

Only one company of Houston's assembled troops at San Jacinto were composed of native Texians (Tejanos). These men were under the command of thirty-year-old, Captain Juan Seguín.

Seguín’s company participated in the ouster of General Cos from San Antonio in December 1835 and entered the Alamo with Travis and others in February 1836. Seguin left the Alamo as a courier on February 25 escaping the fate of seven of his men. ( Image - Juan Nepomuceno Seguín)

After the battle, it fell to Seguin to inter the ashes of the heroes of the Alamo.

At San Jacinto, Seguín and his company were attached to Sidney Sherman's Second Regiment and wore white pasteboard in their hats to distinguish themselves from enemy combatants during the battle.

Seguín served in the Second, Third, and Fourth Congress of the new republic as a senator, he was the only Tejano Texian in the legislature. In 1841, Seguin was elected Mayor of San Antonio. The city of Seguin in Guadalupe County, Texas is named after Juan Nepomuceno Seguín.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

Enrique Esparza

In the late afternoon of February 23, 1836, José María ‘Gregorio’ Esparza, a tejano soldier in the Plácido Benavides’ company, brought his wife, Ana Salazar Esparza, his step-daughter, María de Jesús Castro Esparza, his oldest son, Enrique, and two younger sons, Francisco and Manuel, to the Alamo for protection. Enrique was eight-years-old at the time of the siege. Sixty-six years later, as the only remaining living survivor of the Alamo, Enrique’s recollections were told for the first time in the San Antonio Light after being interviewed by Adina de Zavala, granddaughter of the first vice-president of the Republic of Texas, Lorenzo de Zavala. (Illustration -Mack White - Austin, Texas)

Enrique spent most of his time during the thirteen day siege in the church with his mother and siblings. One of Enrique’s recollections involved a young Anglo boy, about his age, that awoke during the storming of the church. As the boy rose to his feet, he gathered a blanket around his shoulders and was immediately shot and killed by advancing Mexican soldiers.

Enrique’s father, Gregorio, was killed during the battle. His uncle, Francisco, fought on the Centralist side. In the battle’s aftermath, Francisco obtained permission from Santa Anna to bury Gregorio’s body in the local cemetery, San Fernando Campo Santo. Gregorio was the only defender at the Alamo to avoid cremation in the funeral pyres that burned on either side of the Alameda.

Later, Enrique, Francisco, and Manuel moved to Atascosa County to farm and ranch on the land grant given the family for Gregorio’s service to the Republic. The brothers were responsible for the construction of the church in San Augustine, Texas.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

The Cowboy Code

The cowboy "code" is a mixture of principle and honor that can be found in literature dating from medieval times. The “code” is a descendent of the chivalry practiced by the Knights of the Round Table which still stands as a standard for good behavior.

During the cattle drive period in American history, the “code” was a necessary and guiding rule for cowboys. These were men who more often than not worked in isolated and dangerous conditions. The “code” guaranteed help and protection to any cowboy riding for a brand who was of a need. Unfortunately, during the rise of the cowboy and those early cattle towns, the “code” also protected bad behavior. A cowboy’s first obligation was to his fellow cowboy, no matter that cowboy’s disposition to his own desires and no matter the rules of conventional society.

In 2005, authors, James P. Owen and David R. Stoecklein wrote, Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West. Some of the “code” rules to live by listed in the book are: (1) Be tough, but fair. (2) Ride for the brand. And (3) Do what has to be done.

Today, many ranches in the West still practice the “code”. Code cowboys of the twenty-first century still work cattle as their predecessors did in the nineteenth century, from rounding up cattle on horseback, to the use of lariats and branding irons in the field.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

Nancy Hill's Hanging

The Texas frontier, distantly removed from most societal institutions, became a refuge for people of 'suspect character'. As lawlessness grew on the frontier, secret groups formed with the express purpose of ridding their communities of these unwanted types. Lord Acton's words, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." rang true in his time, and certainly spoke true of most vigilante groups who more often than not degenerated over time to administering self-serving vengeance. In some Texas communities, counter-vigilante groups emerged to watch over the vigilance committees.

In 1873, a vigilante group operating in Parker County pursued and hanged horse thief, Nancy Hill in Montague County. Hill is notable as the only woman ever hanged in Montague County. After Hill's demise, vigilantes grabbed Nancy's sisters, Katherine and Martha and hung both three miles south of Springtown. The vigilantes then proceeded to burn the Hill farm and pursue the remaining family members. Nancy's mother, Dusky, and sisters, Adeline and Eliza, were captured, shot, and killed.

Due to the violence shown the Hill family, most historians believe their murders were the result of prejudices that labeled the family as "Yankee Sympathizers." Father, Allen Hill, was killed ten years earlier over the considered prejudices and eldest brother, Jack Hill, was killed in early 1873 after an argument with Aaron Bloomer.

Only the two youngest Hill children, Belle, (12) and Allen Jr. (11) were spared the mob's wrath. Belle and Allen Jr. were turned over to "Good Samaritan" citizens in Springtown, Texas. After that, both Belle and Allen Jr. become lost in history.

None of the murdered Hill women were buried as citizens feared the vigilante mobs who had hanged or shot the family. Sometime later, it was reported that former Texas Rangers, Al Thompson and Dock Maupin defied the watchmen and buried the decaying bodies of the women in Springtown.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010