Yours to Command: The Life and Legend of Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald

Chapter 8. Reese–Townsend Feud at Columbus

{ 1 5 2 } This report by the adjutant general added to McDonald’s growing reputation as a two-gun crusading knight. Yet Captain Bill was only one of a number of Rangers who became involved in the affair over a period of time. Columbus is situated in the south central part of the state in Colorado County. Settled by pioneers from Stephen Austin’s colony in the 1820s, the town began as a ferry site, took part in the Texas Revolution, became the county seat, and prospered through growing cotton, raising cattle, and exploiting sand and gravel deposits. Due to the coming of the railroads and economic activity, the population of the county increased to about 22,000 residents by 1900, as Germans and other nationalities moved into the area. The locale had come of age.2 For years two of the more prominent families in Colorado County were the Townsends and the Staffords. The former traced their lineage back to the Texas Revolution, made a fortune in the Chapter 8  REESE-TOWNSEND FEUD AT COLUMBUS During the month of March, 1899, Capt. McDonald, with two men, were ordered to Columbus, Colorado county, for the purpose of preventing trouble there between the Townsend and Reece [sic] factions. Capt. McDonald went alone, his men not being able to reach him in time, and his courage and cool behavior prevented a conflict between the two factions. The district judge and district attorney both informed him that it was impossible to handle the situation, but he told them that he could make the effort, and he gave the members of each faction a limited time in which to get rid of their weapons, stating that he would put those in jail who refused to comply. His order had the desired effect.1 cattle business, and entered law and police work through the sheriff ’s office. In time, members of the Townsend clan married into families named Burford, Clements, Hope, Lessing, and Reese. The Staffords, on the other hand, entered Texas from Georgia on the eve of the Civil War. Less educated than the Townsends, the enterprising Stafford brothers got rich in the cattle industry and became well schooled in practical affairs within the county. One writer said that the Townsends of note—Mark and Sheriff John Light—“were tall, handsome, blond men with strong wills and much personal force.”3 They would come up against the equally tough-minded and headstrong Staffords. The relations between the Townsends and the Staffords were changeable, lively, and unpredictable. Among the factors that provoked a violent clash was the fatal shooting by a posse of a fleeing A. Stapleton Townsend for stealing horses in 1867. In the various trials of posse members four years later, the testimony of Robert Stafford angered the Townsends. The first bloodshed occurred in December 1871 in a shootout in Columbus. When the smoke cleared, Bob Stafford still held his ground unscathed. Sumner Townsend received wounds in the arm and shoulder. And Ben Stafford had a painful ankle injury, probably due to Sumner’s aim being deflected. Although the environment remained hostile after the numerous rounds fired in this altercation and the time spent in the subsequent investigation by the State Police, the two families spoke and coexisted for nearly two decades. The friendly encounters included seeking legal advice from the Townsends, attending a funeral together, and even marrying each other after the turn of the 1900s.4 In the summer of 1890, Larkin and Marion Hope, deputies of their uncle Sheriff Townsend, arrested and handcuffed Warren Stafford, son of Bob Stafford, for intoxication. Early that evening Stafford’s enraged father held a heated talk with the Hope brothers outside a saloon in Columbus. A remark about his friendliness with blacks led Larkin Hope to shoot and kill Bob and John Stafford in cold blood. { 1 5 3 } REESE-TOWNSEND FEUD AT COLUMBUS Although the Hope brothers were never convicted of the shootings , the sheriff’s office became a focal point of criticism. Some people in the county had always been dissatisfied with the way Sheriff Townsend carried out his duties and held office through the manipulation of the black vote. When the sheriff died in November 1894, Samuel H. “Sam” Reese, husband of Keron (or “Keetie”) Townsend, took over his duties. With the appointment of Reese the stage had been set for a major...