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Gunfight at
the Lampasas Saloon
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Gunfight at the
Lampasas Saloon Historical Marker
Photos courtesy Sarah
Reveley, 2006 |
Historical
Marker:
Gunfight at
the Lampasas Saloon
In the early 1870s
Lampasas was a wild frontier town. In January
1873 Sheriff S.T. Denson was shot while arresting brothers Wash and
Mark Short. The district judge sent men to apprehend the Short brothers,
but the posse was stopped by Ben, Tom, and Mart Horrell and several
others. Sheriff Denson and the justices of the peace of Lampasas County
appealed to Governor Edmund J. Davis for the assistance of the State
Police. On February 10, Governor Davis issued a proclamation prohibiting
the carrying of sidearms in Lampasas. On
March 14, Captain Thomas Williams and seven state policemen entered
Lampasas to enforce the proclamation.
The State Police immediately arrested Bill Bowen for carrying a gun
in town. Bowen persuaded Captain Williams and two of his men to enter
Jerry Scott's Lampasas Saloon, this led to a gunfight between the
State Police and the Horrell brothers and their associates. Three
officers were killed in the saloon and a fourth was fatally wounded
while trying to escape. The police were buried in Lampasas,
but Captain Williams was reinterred in the Texas
State Cemetery in Austin.
More State Police came to Lampasas and
joined forces with the sheriff and Lampasas
and Burnet County Minute Men companies to search for the Horrell Gang.
They arrested four men connected with the incident. In early May the
Horrell gang attacked the Georgetown
Jail and released Mart Horrell and Jerry Scott form custody. The
Horrell gang remained in the Lampasas area
until September when they left for New Mexico. In 1874 they returned
to Lampasas. In 1876 the Horrell brothers
stood trial for the murder of the State Police, but were found not
guilty. |
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Texas
Escapes,
in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas,
asks that anyone wishing to share their local history and vintage/historic
photos, please contact
us.
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