Sutton–Taylor feud

The Sutton–Taylor feud arose from a growing animosity between the Texas Taylor family—headed by Pitkin Taylor, the brother of Creed Taylor (a Texas Ranger)—and local lawman William E. Sutton, who moved to DeWitt when his mother remarried William Mcdonald. Sutton had been elected deputy sheriff in Clinton, Texas, before the feud's began.[1] The feud lasted almost a decade and has been called the "longest and bloodiest in Texas history".[2]

On April 23, 1866, William P. "Buck" Taylor shot a black soldier, Sergeant John O'Brien, who had come to a dance. That same month, John Hays Taylor killed a black soldier, Sergeant Josiah Ripley, in an Indianola saloon.[3][4][5]

On November 14, 1867, Major John A. Thompson and Sgt. John A. McDougall of the US 4th Cavalry Regiment were killed in Mason County, Texas, by Hays Taylor, P.G. Taylor and a man named "Spencer". [6][7]

Deputy Sutton shot and killed a Taylor kinsman, Charley Taylor, whom he was trying to arrest for horse theft on March 25, 1868.[1] The following Christmas Eve, Deputy Sutton killed William P. "Buck" Taylor and his associate, Richard Chisholm, in a Clinton saloon, following an argument regarding the legality of the sale of some horses.[8]

On June 5, 1869, Jack Helm assisted Captain C.S. Bell in trying to arrest members of the Taylor family. Helm, as a deputy sheriff, assisted in the capture of Jim Bell. Goliad County Sheriff Andrew Jackson Jacobs, however, was killed by the Peaces brothers, Taylor allies.[1] Later that summer, on August 23, 1869, the Sutton faction allegedly shot John Hays to death after he had caused repeated disruption in town.

The following year, in July 1870, Sutton was appointed to the Texas State Police Force, serving under Captain Jack Helm. The police force was tasked with enforcing the "Reconstruction" policies of the federal government. This force operated with a bit of a free-hand—returning, more often than not, with "wanted" suspects dead.[8]

On August 26, 1870, the Suttons were allegedly sent to arrest brothers Henry and William Kelly on a reportedly trivial charge. They were related by marriage to Creed Taylor's brother, Pitkin. During the attempted arrests, the Kellys were killed.[8] Following his handling of the task, Helm was dismissed from the State Police Force, although he was legally cleared of any wrongdoing.

John Wesley Hardin joined the Sutton–Taylor feud at the behest of his cousin, Emanuel "Mannen" Clements.

In early 1872, on-the-run outlaw John Wesley Hardin joined his cousin, Mannen Clements, in neighboring Gonzales County, Texas. There, Clements and his brothers were active in the cattle herding (or, by most accounts, cattle rustling) business, working in close alliance with the Taylor family.[7]

On May 15, 1873, Sutton family allies—Captain Jim Cox (né James Webb Cox; 1823–1873)[9] and Jake Christman, were gunned down by the Taylor faction at Tumlinson Creek. There were reports that Hardin had led the fight in which the two men were killed, but he never confirmed or denied his involvement.[10]

On December 30, 1873, a Taylor supporter, Wiley Washington Pridgen, was shot and killed at Thomastown station.[13] Allegedly, Wiley Pridgen's death involved his brother Boliver Jackson Pridgen in the death of William Sutton in revenge. The Sutton–Taylor feud reached its apex when cousins, James Creed "Jim" Taylor and William Riley "Billy" Taylor, gunned down William E. Sutton and a companion, Gabriel Slaughter, while they waited on a steamboat platform in Indianola, Texas, on March 11, 1874. Having grown tired of the feud, William Sutton was planning to leave the area for good. Slaughter was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Victoria, Texas. [14] In retaliation, the Sutton faction caught and lynched three of the Taylor group on June 22, 1874, in Clinton, Texas.[15] Those lynched were Rufus P. "Scrap" Taylor, John Alfred "Kute" Tuggle and James White. John Wesley Hardin admitted in his biography that he and his brother, Joseph, had been involved—along with both Taylors—in Sutton's killing.[2][15]

On June 1, 1874, two of Hardin's relatives—his cousin Alexander "Ham" Anderson and Anderson's brother-in-law Alexander Henry Barekman (who had been involved with the Taylors and Hardin in the killing of Sutton)—were killed by a Texas Ranger Company in retaliation for Hardin's killing of ex-Texas Ranger and Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb on May 26, 1874. Another member of the Taylor group was George Culver Tennille who was killed in Gonzales County, Texas on July 8, 1874.

After this, the fighting continued, although with much less frequency. James Creed "Jim" Taylor was killed on January 1, 1875. On November 18, 1875, the leader of the Suttons,[16] ex-Cuero Texas Town Marshal Reuben Brown, was shot and killed by five men in Cuero along with a black man named Tom Freeman and another black man was wounded.[17] In his autobiography, Hardin made only two references to Brown: that "Rube" Brown had arrested William Taylor before sending him to Galveston, Texas, for trial,[18] and that Brown had been among the leaders of a Sutton "posse" that had been out to "get" him in Gonzales County, Texas.[19] It is not known if Hardin was directly or indirectly involved in the killing of Reuben Brown as he made no further mention of the incident in his life story. Billy Taylor was tried twice and acquitted; allegedly he was killed in Oklahoma in about 1895.

On Sept 16, 1876, Dr Phillip H. Brassell and his son, George, were killed by the Suttons.

Following another outbreak of violence in October 1876, Texas Ranger, Captain Jesse Lee Hall led a force into Cuero, Texas, to break up the feud for good. By January 1877, he and his supporting troop had put an end to the conflict once and for all.

• List of feuds in the United States