by Barry Harrin
In 1867, Charles Russell, A.J. Trueman, and John Ruckman organized a joint stock company for the purpose of creating a coeducational college, the Helena Academy. In 1872 the Helena Academy was built by private subscription and fifty-five citizens contributed twenty-five dollars each or donated livestock rather than cash. It is interesting to note that among the stockholders, two subscribed $25.00 by each giving two beeves and one individual subscribed the equivalent of one share with $25.00 in bacon.208
Donors included, Pink Bennett, John Ruckman, Thomas Ruckman, Elder, Sullivan, Bill Mayfield and Al Mayfield. The two-story rock structure housing this “male and female institution of the highest order” was completed in 1872 and soon enrolled thirty-five girls and even more young men. Males and females were taught on separate floors. The college operated until the mid-1890s when the old rock structure was used to store corn for a few years before burning down.209
In 1873, a rock courthouse was built. A bell and belfry were added after 1895 when it was converted into a school. The second floor of the courthouse has witnessed an untold number of hard fought trials. Too many of them ending with some unlucky participant swinging from one of the two “hanging trees” near the courthouse. It is said that on trial days crowds of people would bring their whole family with a picnic basket, in the hope of seeing some biblical justice.
Speaking of biblical justice, it seems that Helena was home to a biblical cult that received international attention. Here is an article from the “The Christian Life Volume 6, 1880, London, England. “America is a place of marvelous originality and invention. Dr. Tanner is already out of date. Another man equally wise has the field. He firmly believes that a second flood will come next November to cover the whole face of the Earth, and is building an ark at Helena, Texas. The craft will hold fifty persons, with food for forty days and forty nights, and he will take passengers at $500 each. Every other vessel, he explains, will be wrecked. We must be off to Texas.”210
Naturally, any good courthouse needs a good jail. Helena got its jail several years after the courthouse was built. It was a two story stone building filled with iron cells, one of which can still be seen in the courthouse square today. The building itself was torn down and moved to Karnes City and rebuilt. It later served as the Jauer store building.
Previous to this, the jail was an iron cell, 10’ by 10’ built by Z. King and Son Company of Cleveland Ohio. Completed in January 1876 the structure cost $2,200. Before that facility was available the sheriff routinely took prisoners to the blacksmith to be fitted with irons that allowed them to be fastened for safekeeping.211
The first real church was the Helena Union Church built in 1866. It was used by Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists who alternated holding services there. Previous to this worship services had been held in the blacksmith shop, the courthouse and any other place available. The old church, was blown down by a hurricane in 1973, was then carefully dismantled and the pieces stored for future restoration.
In 1873 an iron bridge replaced the rickety old wooden one. For a number of years after this it was a toll bridge212 until the county finally took it over. Legend has it that the bridge was a favorite meeting place for young couples seeking a romantic encounter.
Thomas Ruckman’s younger brother, John Ruckman, married in 1867, certainly a difficult period for Helena residents. He married Eliza Dickson whose family had moved to Helena from Arkansas. They eventually had eight children.
In 1878 John Ruckman must have been doing well financially as he built a showplace home in Helena. It was a three-story, six-bedroom mansion. The house was constructed of Florida cypress shipped by schooner from Florida to the port of Indianola then transported up the Ox-Cart Road by wagon and team to Helena.213
Ruckman’s home was the town’s social center. Circuit preachers always stayed there and the largest room in the Ruckman house, the family dining room, was usually full of out-of-town guests and ranch hands. The Ruckman house still stands today not far from the courthouse.
Now, I don’t want to give you the impression that all that prosperity had turned Helena into a center of culture and civility, because that’s just not the case. The 1870s and 1880s were certainly better than the near anarchy of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, but there were definitely issues. One of those issues was still cattle rustling.
In March 1875 W.G. Butler had a serious run-in with some unsavory characters. The problem began on a bright moonlight night, when an outlaw by the name of Frank Fountain and about thirty of his gang rode silently into the area of the San Antonio River and Escondido creek.
The gang fanned out up the creek about five miles and rounded up all the cattle they could find. By the time the sun rose the next morning the rustlers had herded about 9,000 head of cattle. They all came together a few miles from where the town of Kenedy is now located and began driving them to the west. After driving the cattle hard for a day they came to Atascosa Creek in Atascosa County at what was then Peacock Ranch.
After a local cattleman came upon the stolen herd he noticed the brands were from Karnes County. He rode hard to the Conquista crossing on the San Antonio River where he knew W.G. Butler was camped, reaching there about sunup. Butler sent riders to alert all the cattlemen in the area to meet at his camp with good horses and weapons. At eight o’clock that night they all met at Butler’s camp at the Conquista crossing, five miles below where Fall City is now located. One of the riders who happened to be with Butler was a young man by the name of Fate Elder. Remember his name as he would one day be Sheriff of Karnes County.
Butler and his posse rode hard for less than an hour before they struck the trail of the stolen herd which was easy to do in the bright moonlight. After riding all night long they stopped to get some sleep and let the horses rest and graze. They wasted little time resting and were back riding by sunrise. After going up a high hill they looked down and saw a large herd of cattle about a mile away.
Butler consulted with his small force of ten men as they checked their pistols. Butler and his men only numbered ten versus Frank Fountain and his thirty rustlers, who had a vicious reputation. In spite of this and their fear of the violent outcome, Butler was chosen leader of the party and, with their hearts pounding in their chests, they all rode together into the stolen herd.
Mr. Butler rode up beside Mr. Fountain and said to him, “My name is Butler and I understood that you have some of our cattle in your herd, and that you have said that you would not allow your herd to be cut. We have come to cut our cattle.” To this Fountain replied, “Mr. Butler, you or anyone else who have cattle in any herd can cut them out. “
Fountain ordered his men to bunch the cattle. Butler’s men cautiously proceeded to cut out 2,700 head, with one eye on the thirty armed rustlers, who appeared none too pleased about losing their bounty. However, under Fountain’s orders they allowed the ranchers to cut their herd with the understanding they could return the next day to cut the balance from the herd.
They drove their 2,700 cattle about a mile away and stopped them for the night, taking turns guarding the cattle. About noon the next day they cut the balance of 1,800 from the rustlers’ herd then began driving their 4,500 cattle back home. Along the way they met up with a number of cattlemen from Bee and Atascosa Counties who, thanks to Butler, were able to recover most of their cattle, too.214
Another issue for Helena was the large number of saloons that were filled on weekends with rowdy cowboys, teamsters, drivers and some nasty outlaws and gunslingers. The outlaws and gunslingers came to Helena from all over Texas and the southwest, as they appeared to be comfortable there.
However, it wasn’t just the outside rustlers, desperados and gunslingers like the Taylor gang or John Wesley Hardin who brought mayhem. Sometimes, even native sons of Helena and Karnes County could cause deadly violence … after too much whisky.
Wealthy rancher and cattleman W.G. Butler had twin brothers, George Washington Butler and Marquis Lafayette Butler. In 1879
at 28 years of age they were known as Wash and Fate. Clearly the Butler men had a well-deserved reputation for being hard-headed and the type of men you didn’t push too far … unless you were looking for serious trouble.
It was August 4th, a typical hot Texas day, when Wash and a friend John Cooper rode into Helena for some serious drinking anhellraising. As the alcohol flowed freely and mixed with male testosterone, the two men began to argue. The argument spilled from the saloon into the streets of Helena where the two men shot each other to death in a dramatic gunfight.215
Unfortunately … this would not be the last tragedy to impact the Butler family.
Chapter 22: The Daileyville Massacre
The Daileyville massacre makes the Shoot-Out at the O.K. Corral look like a Sunday school picnic. In the span of less than two minutes, five men fell mortally wounded (Three lawmen and two civilians). At Daileyville there were more people involved, more shots fired, and more dead or wounded than at the O.K. Corral.216 This ambush was a premeditated assassination of lawmen, planned for eighteen months, by a powerful rancher … for the killing of his son in Helena.
First let’s understand the background of Daileyville before we discuss the tragedy. Once Karnes County was established in 1854 with Helena as its county seat by Judge Thomas Ruckman and Dr. Lewis Owings, the citizens had a problem. In the beginning the citizens of Helena had to cross the San Antonio River at Wofford Crossing and proceed all the way to Goliad to get their mail.217 After awhile approval was received to operate a post office in Helena. Naturally this was a real convenience for the people of the new Karnes County and a point of great pride.
Daileyville was created to fill a need. After the establishment of Bee County in 1857 it became necessary to build a road to connect Helena with Beeville, the county seat of Bee County. A state road and a mail route were built to fill this need. The new road branched off the Helena-Goliad road on the west side of the San Antonio River near Wofford Crossing and then meandered south to Beeville.218
Then in 1869 soon after the Civil War David Dailey and his brother Christopher P. Dailey opened a general store on this Helena-Goliad road where the Beeville road branched to the south. Their small village of Daileyville was located on the west side of the San Antonio River only a short distance from the river and Wofford Crossing. This village would have been on the old Pleas Butler’s “33 Ranch.” It had the Dailey’s general store, a grist mill, possibly a cotton gin and several houses.
A post office was approved with C. P. Dailey as the first postmaster. The post office was in service from July 5, 1870 until May 27, 1884 when the store closed. The store was re-opened in November 1885 but it was never again a post office for Daileyville.
It appears there was a sense of normalcy and civilization before the Daleyville tragedy. This is from an 1880 medical journal.219
Gentlemen: Please send me per “Pacific Express” the drugs mentioned below. I will say here that your “specific medicines” give me better satisfaction than any drugs I have ever used. I have been using yours over four years. They stand the test and always fit the bill. W.D. Matney M. D.Daileyville Texas February 28th 1880.
This wooden general store and post office building was a central prop in the Daileyville tragedy. It was directly in the line of fire on September 6, 1886 and many bullet holes could be identified in its walls in subsequent photographs. The building was dismantled in 1887 and rebuilt in Kenedy serving as its first post office, with C. P. Dailey as postmaster.220 Interestingly Dailey had been postmaster in the Confederate post office in Helena as well as the one in Daileyville and finally Kenedy.
The massacre, or as some have called it, the fracas at Daileyville took place on September 6, 1886. On this momentous day an election was to be held at Daileyville in Precinct 4 for the southern portion of Karnes County.
The election would determine whether saloons would be allowed (wet) in the southern part of the county, or not (dry).
This was a contentious election with two major factions. On one side was Karnes County Sheriff Fate Elder who favored a “dry” vote. On the other side was the powerful and wealthy rancher William G. Butler (WGB), who favored a “wet” vote.
Now to make matters worse there was bad blood between these men and their families. WGB believed that Sheriff Elder and his men had been harassing the Butler family.
However it is believed there was an issue much worse and at a much deeper level that was eating away at WGB. This issue was the fact that twenty months earlier Fate Elder had fired some of the shots that ultimately killed WGB’s son in Helena, when Fate was deputy sheriff. After Edgar Leary was shot dead by WGB’s son, Fate was appointed Karnes County sheriff.
After the tragedy at Daileyville there was an inquest. At that time Dr. S. G. Dailey testified that “the Elders and the Butlers were sooner or later going to have a difficulty, because the Elders were so abusive toward them that a fight would be the result of it.”
The reason I choose to call this tragedy on September 6, 1886 a massacre is because it was not a shootout … it was a planned and premeditated shooting. It has been estimated that 75 bullets targeted the unsuspecting lawmen in less than 2 minutes while they barely got off 7 shots in return.221
What follows next is how this terrible incident unfolded that fateful day according to the sworn testimony given at the Justice of the Peace Inquest, murder trials and newspaper articles. Please note that as pointed out by Archie Ammons in his book “Karnes County Texas Gunfights” that when reading the original testimony at the inquest, a pistol is a six-shooter. A gun is a rifle or Winchester. In 1886 a pistol is NOT a gun.
As a general comment on the testimony: Many of the witnesses seemed reluctant to stick their neck out identifying the shooters and killers. They claimed that the thickness of the gun smoke prevented them from identifying who did what to whom … and with what.
Butler’s hired hands seemed to have practiced their testimony. They didn’t see or do anything … and by the way, they had left their firearms on the ground back at the ranch.
Back in the day when a town had an election, firearms were banned during that day. It appears that the WGB faction of about 17 men all gathered around a “hack” or wagon. The “hack” was owned and operated by WGB’s son-in-law Andrew M. Nichols, who tied it to a tree just south of the store and voting place.222
It was a warm and comfortable day as two Mexican pistoleros rode up to the “hack” and tied their horses. The two pistoleros were later identified as Juan Coy and Epitacio Garza. These two men were known to be enforcers for WGB and were very excellent marksmen with their extra-long Winchesters. Clearly either bringing these rifles or pulling them was illegal. Juan Coy was known as a dangerous man who killed a Negro in Floresville in Wilson County not long before this election. His look was vicious and he was described as “… one of the ugliest living at the time, strongly resembling a lion.” He was definitely a scary looking hombre.223
Deputy Jack Bailey walked out to the hack and began talking with his friend Newton Butler. However it was obvious Bailey wasn’t aware of what was about to occur.
Sheriff Fate Elder, who was impossible to miss, with his red hair and long red beard, was sitting in front of the store whittling on a piece of wood. He quickly got up and headed for the “hack” just behind deputy Bailey, putting up his whittling knife as he walked.224
Suddenly Sheriff Elder pulled his pistol after seeing WGB’s Mexican enforcers with the long rifles at the ready. Juan Coy said “Stop” and then repeated “Stop” again. Elder said something unintelligible and within seconds, all hell broke loose as a fusillade of gunfire broke out.
At the inquest, several witnesses testified that the Mexicans started the shooting. Juan Coy clearly had targeted Sheriff Fate Elder and kept firing as he walked towards him. At the same time, Elder was backing away towards two mesquite trees, trying desperately to avoid the gunfire from Juan Coy’s Winchester.225
Sheriff Elder tried to return fire twice bu
t his pistol misfired. Unfortunately for Sheriff Elder a second assailant snuck up on his blind side, placing his pistol within about four inches of his head … and fired.226
The force of the bullet slamming into Elder’s head blew his hat into the air … and Elder fell forward dead.227 A witness at the inquest identified the second assailant as WGB’s 18-year-old son Sykes Butler.
Deputy Bud Elder had been inside the voting place when he heard the first shots. He quickly ran out the front door with his pistol at the ready. However he received an unpleasant surprise as four shooters immediately began firing at him with Winchesters from a distance. Coy and Garza had just finished with his brother, Sheriff Fate Elder. They now redirected their Winchesters along with two other shooters to the stunned Deputy Bud Elder. Elder was hit several times and received a serious wound.228
Deputy Jack Bailey tried to get clear of the fight by running towards the yard on the east side of the store. As he ran he cried “O Lordy, Lordy, don’t shoot me. I never done anything.” By then he was down on his back. He repeated the plea but was shot again anyway … in the knees.