Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 10, Number 3, June 2001 Page: 159
[56] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County, Texas
Jackson, Fritz Leyendecker, and Cicero Howard. Howard and Green, the latter of whom
outpolled the respected cattleman and Confederate veteran George H. Little, were black.39
Despite the sharply reduced level of political rancor in the air, and the dimin-
ished likelihood of rustling, the pattern of frequent random violence involving all levels of
society which had been established in the previous decade did not abate, nor by any means
was it confined to the Stafford family and their cowhands. By 1880, guns had become so
popular that salvos fired into the air or at inanimate targets had become a regular and annoy-
ing feature of nightlife around the county. Naturally, people more than occasionally shot at
each other. On February 10, 1877, Frank Duke shot Tucker Hoover in the side, wounding
him. On February 11, 1878, Joe Chapman, a tenant farmer near Borden, was called to the
door of his home and shot to death. On November 18, 1878, at Weimar, Fritz Homuth, in an
act he declared was self-defense, killed a Lavaca County man named James C. Reynolds
by shooting him in the head with a shotgun. On May 2, 1879, Larkin Secrest Hope shot a
man named Burton who had followed him across a field in what Hope regarded as a threat-
ening manner. On July 27, 1879, at Minter's Crossing on the river south of Columbus, Otho
H. Crebbs, investigating the supposed theft of some horses, encountered several black men
returning to their homes from a nearby church, and when one, John Bonzano, failed to stop
for questioning, Crebbs shot and killed him. On August 11, 1879, again at Weimar, Ben F.
Holman shot and killed Pedro Torras during a seemingly-minor argument. A week later in
Columbus, James Hitchfeldt, standing inside a butcher shop, fired four shots at Wes Kirby,
who was walking by on the street. Though Kirby was not hit, another man, Charles McCuen,
was struck in the arm and the abdomen. On January 10, 1880, John Johnson was shot and
39 Colorado Citizen, November 2, 1882, November 23, 1882, February 1, 1883 (which con-
tains the last known mention of the Free Politician). In his lengthy diatribe published on November
2, 1882, Towell also stated that Nelson had informed him "that I was unfit to represent the people of
Colorado county ... [because] I could not play billiards, play cards, chew tobacco, smoke, or drink
whisky."
The city elections of the period should briefly be mentioned. In Columbus, Benjamin M.
Baker was elected mayor in 1879, and Mumford Kennon in both 1881 and 1883. Kennon won the 1881
election by only five votes over John Calhoun Harbert, a candidate endorsed by local blacks, but he
ran unopposed in 1883. In late 1883, Kennon resigned and was replaced by Baker. In Weimar in 1879,
Jerry J. Griffin was elected to replace the recently resigned mayor, J. E. Poole. Later that year, Griffin
resigned and David M. Estes was elected to replace him. Estes won the office again in 1880, 1882, and
1883. The only black man to serve in either city's government was Edmund Eason, who was elected to
the Columbus city council in 1879, 1881, and 1883 (see Colorado Citizen, June 5, 1879, June 12, 1879,
July 17, 1879, September 25, 1879, December 25, 1879, January 1, 1880, September23, 1880, June 2, 1881,
June 9, 1881, September 28, 1882, April 5, 1883, December6, 1883, December 20, 1883).159
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 10, Number 3, June 2001, periodical, June 2001; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151410/m1/27/?q=nesbitt%20memorial%20library%20journal: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.