The Sutton-Taylor Feud: The Deadliest Blood Feud in Texas

2. Homicides and Private Quarrels

27 chapter two Homicides and Private Quarrels “… many of these homicides have resulted from private quarrels. There is much bad blood in the land.” —Report of Special Committee on Lawlessness and Violence in Texas, June 30, 1868 H ays and Doboy Taylor, the sons of Creed, were the first of the Taylors to be involved in difficulties with the occupying Federal forces. Anyone associated with them naturally became part of the “Taylor gang,” although the Taylors certainly never considered themselves a gang. We cannot know today who all comprised the Taylor party, those men Union officials identified as outlaws, but certainly their cousin Buck Taylor would have been a welcome member, if indeed such a notorious band of outlaws did exist. Hays, Doboy, and Buck became the first to draw the full attention of the military. Its efforts merged with the attempts of various civilian officers, the initial troubles ultimately bringing on the feud. Hays Taylor’s first recorded act of violence occurred on April 15, 1867, when he and William North argued about the winnings at a horse race in DeWitt County. The twenty-fiveyear -old Taylor shot North through the thigh, and at the time it wasbelievedhecouldnotrecover.1 Therumormillalsorecorded that Hays and Doboy had seriously wounded Captain Nolan 28 The Sutton-Taylor Feud of the 18th New York Cavalry in Clinton in 1865, certainly the sameCaptainNolanlaterreportedshotinLaVernia.Additional rumors maintained that two soldiers were killed by the Taylors.2 Unfounded rumors undoubtedly plagued the Taylors, rumors that resulted in the military expending great energy to capture or kill them. The violent incident that colored the name of every Taylor as a desperado took place in the town of Mason, in Mason County, on the fourteenth of November, 1867. Taylor brothers Hays and Doboy, along with kinsman Randolph W. Spencer,3 moved to Mason County, then on the edge of the frontier. A relatively small number of soldiers were stationed at Fort Mason situated a little over a mile from the town of Mason itself. They were there mainly to give the settlers a semblance of protection against Indian raiding parties. Ohio-born John A. Thompson, Company F 4th Cavalry, commanded the fifty or so soldiers stationed at the fort. Appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Dragoons on June 25, 1855, he was transferred to the 1st Cavalry later that same year. After joining the 4th Cavalry on August 3, 1861, Thompson served throughout the Civil War, and was then named post commander of Fort Mason on August 25, 1867, with the rank of major.4 On November 14 he was waiting for an officer to relieve him so that he could proceed to a new command in Kansas with the 7th Regiment of U.S. Cavalry. Major Thompson was considered by his contemporaries “a man of noble qualities and a genial nature [and was] universally beloved by his fellow officers and men under his command. …”5 On that day, Spencer, with Hays and Doboy, brothers quite different in personality—Hays quiet and good-humored and polite while Doboy boastful and quarrelsome—returned from a cow hunt and stopped in front of James W. Ranck’s general store located on the northwest corner of the town square. Some soldiers, in various stages of intoxication, insulted Hays for no apparent reason. Doboy advised the soldiers to leave his brother Homicides and Private Quarrels 29 alone, but before further action was taken by either side Major Thompson rode up in his buggy, accompanied by his wife. Seeingthedisturbance ,ThompsonorderedSergeantJohnMcDougall to arrest the civilians. He stated he would discipline the soldiers if he determined they were at fault. But there was no time to determine where guilt lay or to consider discipline, because the Taylors and Spencer resisted with gunfire when the blue-coated sergeant attempted the arrest. Both Major Thompson and Sergeant McDougall were shot and killed. No matter whose bullet entered Major Thompson’s right cheek, or whose bullet entered the sergeant’s body, both men were fatally shot and all three shooters would be considered guilty. Dr. John J. Hulse was at the side of the dying Thompson within minutes, but could do nothing to save his life, nor could he do anything for McDougall. Dr. Hulse had to report what happened, explaining that it was with “the deepest regret, it becomes my painful duty to inform you of the death of Major John A. Thompson.” The death-causing...