Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 10, Number 1, January 2000 Page: 24
62 p. : ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal
tors had worded their questions so that only the first statement was introduced into evidence.
The defendants got their new trials, and, on July 15, 1871, Snodgrass was exonerated. The
following March, another of the defendants was acquitted, and the remaining cases were
dismissed.29
Stafford's revised testimony evidently infuriated the Townsend family. In any
case, there seem to have been hard feelings between the two families when, on December
5, 1871, some five months after the trial, he and Sumner Henry Townsend had an altercation
in downtown Columbus. Their disagreement culminated in a shootout in which perhaps
fifteen shots were exchanged. Townsend was shot in the arm and shoulder, and Stafford's
brother, Benjamin Franklin Stafford, was shot in the ankle. Four days after the incident, State
Police Captain Leander H. McNelly and one private arrived in town. They arrested, or
assisted in arresting, Bob and Ben Stafford, their brother, John Stafford, their cousin, Rich-
ard R. Ratcliff, and Townsend. All were subsequently indicted either for carrying weapons
or for assault. In judgments handed down in June 1872, February 1873, and February 1874,
Ratcliff was fined $125, Ben Stafford $50, and Bob and John Stafford one cent apiece for
their parts in the affair. The charges against Townsend were dismissed.3o
29 Lavaca County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 700: State of Texas v. David
Snodgrass, et al., Minute Book D, pp. 135, 664, 669, 768, Minute Book E, p. 122. The five defendants
were David Snodgrass, Rupert "Ben" Van Wagner, Mac W. Rhodes, William C. Meredith, and William
Burton Simpson. Townsend was about eighteen when he was killed. His father, Spencer Burton
Townsend, had died before he was ten. After his father's death, he seems to have lived with his uncle,
and the man for whom he was apparently named, Stapleton Townsend. In addition to Stafford, Townsend
was attended on his deathbed by a Dr. DeGraffenreid. This was certainly one of three brothers, William
G. Degraffenreid, Thomas Tscharner DeGraffenreid, and Fleming Taylor DeGraffenreid, all of whom
practiced medicine in the Oakland area at the time. The most likely candidate is Fleming DeGraffenreid
who was, like his brother Thomas, married to a close relative of Townsend. He, rather than Thomas, is
the more likely because the attending physician did not testify at the trial. Fleming died in 1869, two
years before it was held. Thomas lived until 1875, and would certainly have been called to confirm or
refute Stafford's testimony if he could (see Seventh Census of the United States (1850) Schedule 1,
Lavaca County, Texas; Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Schedule 1, Lavaca County, Texas;
DeGraffenreid Family File, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; and Tula Townsend
Wyatt, The Seven Townsend Brothers of Texas 1826-1838 (Austin: Aus-Tex Duplicators, 1974), p.
187. The latter source has been used as the source of the date of Spencer Townsend's death. Curi-
ously, it omits mention of the suspected horse thief).
30 Colorado Citizen, December 7, 1871. February 27, 1873; Robert P. Tendick to Edmund J.
Davis, December 11, 1871, Edmund J. Davis Records (RG 301), Archives Division, Texas State Library,
Austin; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 920: State of Texas v. Rich-
ardR. Ratcliff Criminal Cause File No. 921: State of Texas v. John Stafford; Criminal Cause File No.
922: State of Texas v. Robert E. Stafford; Criminal Cause File No. 923: State of Texas v. Benjamin E
Stafford; Criminal Cause File No. 924: State of Texas v. Sumner Townsend; Criminal Cause File No. 949:
State of Texas v. John Stafford; Criminal Cause File No. 950: State of Texas v. Benjamin E Stafford;24
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 10, Number 1, January 2000, periodical, January 2000; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151408/m1/24/?q=nesbitt%20memorial%20library%20journal: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.