HELENA, TEXAS The Toughest Town on Earth

by Barry Harrin

  Sally Skull was born in the Illinois Territory in 1817, and christened as Sarah Jane Newman. She was the fifth of ten children born to Rachel and Joseph Newman. Her grandfather William Rabb had fought in the war of 1812 against the Indians.

  In 1822 her parents and grandfather, William Rabb, were among the first Anglo settlers of Stephen F. Austin’s “Old Three Hundred” in Austin’s colony. This was the Texas equivalent of the Pilgrims arriving at Plymouth Rock.

  Her Grandfather William Rabb received the largest grant in the colony in return for agreeing to build a gristmill and sawmill on the Colorado River. The family’s land grant of over 22,000 acres included the present site of La Grange in Fayette County.

  Unfortunately for the Rabb clan their land grant was at the northern most portion of the Austin Colony and Indians were a constant danger. The Indians would continually steal their horses, shoot though the cracks of the log cabin if the oil lamps were left on and attack the log cabins, if the men folk were gone at night.

  At a very early age Sally understood about the dangers of the wild-west and learned to be as self reliant as the bravest of men. One night when the men folk were gone, one of the marauding Indian braves noticed the door of the log cabin did not touch the ground. He put his feet under the door in order to lift it off its hinges so he could break in and claim his prize. Unfortunately for him, Sally’s mother Rachel surgically removed his toes with a quick slash of her double edged sharpened ax. The Indians then tried to enter the home by way of the chimney. A feisty Rachel piled feather pillows in the fire grate and set them ablaze … causing great discomfort to the home invaders.

  In those primitive frontier times, before there was an ACLU or a local police department, survival was a more useful tool than a formal education. Sally learned how to survive, ride and shoot as good as any man … if not better.

  Due to the continuous attacks by the Indians as well as the theft of horses and corn, the family had to relocate to a more secure location. In 1824 the entire family moved down the Colorado River to a more settled area, upriver from present day Wharton where Joseph Newman and two of the Rabb sons obtained titles to their grants.

  Her father died in 1831 and not long after she married the first of her five husbands. Her first husband was Jesse Robinson who in 1823 had joined a company of volunteers, predecessors of the Texas Rangers. Sally probably first met him when she was a young girl of seven. Jesse and several other men had rescued the family when about 180 Waco and Tawakoni Indians had attacked their house.

  Jesse continued soldiering after their marriage and fought in the Texas Revolution. He became an elite trooper for Sam Houston in the battle of San Jacinto and according to legend fired the shot killing the cannoneer in the center of Santa Ana’s main line.

  As both Sally and Jesse were confrontational and had warrior personalities, the inevitable divorce came in 1843. She claimed cruel treatment and Jesse claimed abandonment and charged her with adultery.

  She married George H. Scull 11 days after her divorce. She kept his name for the rest of her life, except she preferred the spelling of Skull.

  She lived in Dewitt County in 1850 but in 1852 she moved to Banquete in Nueces County and set up a permanent ranch there. She attended Henry Kinney’s great fair at Corpus Christi that year when the famous military hero and Indian fighter John S. “Rip” Ford wrote his memoirs years later he recalled seeing her in action. While riding home from the fair, he heard the report of a pistol, raised his eyes, saw a man falling to the ground and a woman not far from him in the act of lowering a sixshooter. She, a noted character, named Sally Skull. She was famed as a rough fighter. Prudent men did not willingly provoke her in a row. It was understood that she was justifiable in what she did on this occasion having acted in self defense.101

  In the mid-1850s a European tourist recorded her activities and reputation. “The conversation of these bravos drew my attention to a female character of the Texas frontier life, and on inquiry. I heard the following particulars. They were speaking of a North American Amazon, a perfect female desperado, who from inclination has chosen for her residence the wild border-country on the Rio Grande.

  She can handle a revolver and a bowie knife like the most reckless and skillful man: she appears at dances (fandangos) thus armed, and has even shot several men at merry-makings. She carries on the trade of cattle-dealer and common carrier. She drives wild horses from the prairie to market, and takes her oxen wagon along through the illreputed country between Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande.”102

  Sally didn’t need the excuse of self-defense to start shooting. She has been described as “a merciless killer when aroused” and apparently it didn’t take much to get her aroused.

  She had gained a reputation of making snap decisions as to who needed killing and then quickly following through for some unfortunate victim. Sally was also known to have a strange sense of humor.

  On one occasion Sally was told a stranger had been bad mouthing her behind her back. She tracked down the alleged perpetrator and quickly confronted him and saying loudly “So you been talkin’ about me? Well dance you son of a bitch!” Sally then pulled out her six shooters and began rapidly firing at his quick-moving boots that had begun a very fast dance routine in the dusty South Texas street.103 No one today knows what the original remark was that got Sally so upset. It must have been a real beauty.

  On another occasion Sally crossed paths with a freighter who owed her money. She is said to have grabbed a large ax and said loudly, “If you don’t pay me right now you son-of-a-bitch, I’ll chop the goddam front wheels off every Goddam wagon you’ve got.” The freighter made a quick decision, paid his debt to Sally … and, according to legend lived to tell the tale.104

  Sally was known to be fearless and in the 1850s began making dangerous trips across the border into Mexico for horses. Either with her vaqueros or alone she carried large amounts of gold. She reputedly only had a problem once during a solo trip through the territory of Juan Cortina. Cortina the very dangerous bandit and leader of hundreds of bad men with a savage reputation jailed her for a few days. Reputedly, Sally considered it as a kind of a vacation and just relaxed while waiting for her Mexican vaqueros to arrive.

  Her reputation was so wide spread that back in the day in Texas, if a child was still frisky after dark, momma simply said; If you don’t go to sleep, Sally Skull is gonna cum and get ya. This usually achieved the desired result as the rambunctious children jumped into bed … and quickly pulled the cover over their head.

  When the Civil War began Sally seized an opportunity to make a lot of money quickly. Texas cotton was in great demand by European manufacturers, but the north had a naval blockade of Texas and Confederate ports. Likewise Texas and the Confederacy desperately needed military supplies and equipment. Since international law forbade the Union blockaders from interfering with Mexican commerce, Sally dropped her horse trading and became a major transporter for the confederacy.105

  Sally and her Mexican vaqueros turned teamsters moved huge quantities of Texas cotton to European ships loaded at Matamoros on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The sale of Texas cotton provided the money for the large scale purchase of military supplies shipped into Mexico from Europe and then transported to the Confederate forces.

  Sally and her men became a regular fixture on the famous Cotton Road. This Cotton Road was the major route to transport contraband goods to and from the neutral port of Matamoros, Mexico. Much of the Confederate cotton bound for Mexican ports was routed through Helena, and it also became a receiving facility for clothing, medicines, smuggled food, arms, and ammunition.106

  Starting from Matamoros, Mexico through South Texas, Helena, Goliad and to the railroad at Alleyton (near present day Columbus) Confederate cotton went south and European weapons were shipped throughout the Confederacy by rail from Houston by way of Alleyton.107

  By the end of the Civil War, Sally Skull became quite wealthy having acquired an abundance of gold.
She had married her fifth and final husband Christoph Horsdorff around 1860 when she was in her early 40’s and he was in his early 20’s. Everyone called him “Horsetrough” because they claimed “He wasn’t much good, mostly just stood around.” Legends abound that soon after the war Horsetrough ambushed and killed her for her gold and then buried her in a shallow grave. Whatever the truth of her ultimate demise, Sally Skull was one of the most unusual characters in the history of the old Southwest.

  Chapter 14: The Ox-Cart War

  Hidden under the blacktop of Farm Road 81 in today’s Helena, lays an ancient superhighway used centuries ago by buffalo and Indians, During Spanish colonial times this superhighway was first known as the La Bahía Road and later the Ox-Cart Trail or Ox Cart Road.

  This old Ox-Cart Road has always been critical in the history of Karnes County. This road carried substantial commercial activity between Chihuahua, El Paso, and New Mexico via San Antonio. The total trade was considerable amounting to millions of dollars per year.

  Helena, being at a mid-way point between San Antonio and Goliad, served as a rest stop for cart drivers to eat, drink, and relax. By the time Helena was founded in 1852 the old Ox-Cart Road was bursting with traffic. According to the memoirs of Thomas Ruckman:

  “The large amount of freight may be understood when we realize that not only the settlers, but also all of the various posts of the American Army, strung for many hundreds of miles along this frontier that reaches from the Rio Grande to the Indian territory, must be supplied in this round about way.

  As there is such a vast amount of goods to be hauled we can see it kept not by the tread of feet. There are some two thousand carts owned and driven by Mexicans and drawn by three or four yoke of oxen. There are also Mexican mule trains made up of great lumbering wagons, each with from ten to twelve mules in front of it. Besides these there are the clumsy American wagons hitched to five or six yoke of the biggest and longest horned oxen in the world.

  All of these slow moving vehicles, constantly crawling one after another in a steady stream, remind me of a great cloud of smoke that seems to be winding and worming its way along the road. Day after day, month after month, year after year, this great serpent keeps crawling on over the hills and prairies’ past our town, along the river’s edge, and onward, to finally disgorge itself in that coming city that lies to the north and west of us, San Antonio.”108

  By the late 1850s traffic on the Ox-Cart Road had increased dramatically for the transport of goods between San Antonio and Indianola (Powderhorn) on the Gulf Coast. The trouble began in 1857 after San Antonio merchants tired of paying exorbitant fees of $3.00 per hundred pounds109 to American drivers hauling freight to and from Indianola.

  In order to drive these prices down hundreds of Mexican drivers and their carts were imported because they would haul freight cheaper and work for lower wages than the Americans.

  The Mexican drivers quickly gained a virtual monopoly on the Ox-Cart Road due to lower pricing. The American drivers became resentful and tensions increased dramatically between these competing drivers.

  Adding to the problem were accusations and resentment against the Mexicans by Texas slaveholders and cattlemen. Slaveholders claimed the Mexican teamsters had helped runaway slaves escape to Mexico. The Texas cattlemen were also incensed that the Mexican drivers were stealing, butchering and eating their cattle grazing along the Ox-Cart Road.

  This resentment exploded into violence around Helena in 1857 as the so-called Cart War began.

  First it started as low level sabotage by jobless Texas freighters. They would sneak into the Mexican camps at night and cut the spokes of the cart wheels. Naturally this caused the wheels to collapse at the first turn the next morning. Unfortunately, such low-level sabotage quickly escalated into full scale guerrilla warfare near Helena and Goliad as Texans destroyed the Mexican’s carts and stole their freight.110

  The shootouts and bloodshed increased leading to significant injuries, deaths and loss of revenue. Local and county authorities seemed either unable or unwilling to stamp out the escalating violence.

  The San Antonio merchants demanded the protection of soldiers for their Mexican cart drivers. After significant political pressure was applied General D. E. Twiggs, the General of the Department of Texas, began providing military escorts.

  The protection provided to the Mexican drivers by the Army was insufficient to stop the attacks as emotions built to a fever pitch in both Bexar (San Antonio) and Karnes Counties.

  What began as a war of words began to escalate quickly. A mob from San Antonio led by a Colonel Wilcox came down to Cibolo Creek in Karnes County, bragging they were going to burn down the town of Helena. While camped on the creek (their bravery disappearing like their supply of whiskey) they came across four or five innocent local citizens and threatened to hang them. A vote to hang the locals was defeated by a small majority. The mob then denounced the citizens of Karnes County as murderers and thieves.111

  December 4, 1857 a public meeting at Helena passed eight resolutions. In Number Six, the citizens of Karnes County resolved that the continued presence of “peon Mexican teamsters” on the Ox-Cart Road was an “intolerable nuisance” and requested that the citizens of San Antonio withdraw them and substitute other drivers.112

  As the deaths and injuries increased, commerce was disrupted and the road became unsafe for everyone. Texas Governor E.M. Pease was forced to send in the Texas Rangers and by early 1858 the war was over.113

  The Ox-Cart war left a bad taste in the mouth of many in South Texas. As a result, Mexican drivers realized that cart driving was not worth the risk to life and limb and headed back to Mexico. American teamsters became a familiar sight on the cart road, until they too were displaced after the railroad came through Karnes County in 1886 and the Ox-Cart Road finally was abandoned.

  Chapter 15: Knights of the Golden Circle

  The Knights of The Golden Circle or KGC has been called “The Most Gigantic Treasonable Conspiracy the World Has Ever Known.”114 This secretive and dangerous organization was the catalyst for the American Civil War. It ripped the country apart and left wounds that still bleed to this day.

  The true role of this secret organization, also known as The Sons of Liberty or the American Knights was one of the best kept secrets of the Civil War. After the Confederate surrender the KGC secretly planned a second Civil War, and its remnants may still be active to this day. Our modern “politically correct” history books have for some reason chosen to ignore this truth.

  Many years before the Civil War the KGC had planned a slave empire called the Golden Circle to be centered in Havana, Cuba. This empire would include the southern portion of the United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and the northern part of South America.115

  The leadership of the KGC claimed that their empire would have a virtual monopoly on key raw materials such as tobacco, sugar and cotton. This virtual monopoly would give them the economic power and muscle to maintain and expand the system of slavery.

  It has been claimed that the KGC was intimately involved with the secession of the Confederate States, a planned invasion of Mexico, the opening salvos of the war at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Guerrilla attacks in the North and the Border States and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.116

  It is also believed that many of the post Civil War attacks on northern bank and railroad interests by outlaws such as Jesse James and post war terrorism against African Americans by the KKK are directly related to the Knights of the Golden Circle.

  One of the founders of the KGC was George W. L. Bickley117 a Virginia-born doctor, editor, and adventurer. The records of the KGC convention in 1860 indicated that the organization originated in Lexington, Kentucky on July 4, 1854; However the KGC did not become active until 1859 when Bickley undertook an organizing campaign across the southern states.

  Bickley called for the annexation of Mexico, which proved popular in Texas. Within a short period of ti
me Bickley had organized thirty-two “castles” or local chapters in various Texas cities, including Houston, Galveston, Austin, San Antonio, Helena, Marshall, Jefferson, and La Grange.

  Although many prominent Texans joined the K.G.C., one that got away was Governor Sam Houston. Although Houston was for the annexation of Mexico, he would not join nor would he support the KGC because of its anti-Union position. Ultimately he was forced to resign as governor because of his refusal to support Texas secession.118 Today, we have no understanding of the depth of anger and fear that was felt by day to day Southerners before and after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Below are samples of the news the people of South Texas and Helena were reading at that time. Naturally, the combination of these news stories and the election of Lincoln were like throwing gasoline on a fire. Membership of the KGC exploded as the prominent citizens of towns like Helena joined the KGC.

  BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, August 4, 1860, p. 2, c. 6