"White Lightning Feud":

Tuggle and Glover Ambushed

White Lightning Series: Part 3

            NOTE: This series was originally scheduled to run for six weeks; however, continuing research indicates that the series will run longer than originally planned. This is another in a series of articles reprinting prior published information on the White Lightning Feud.

 

Historical Series Chronology Resposes have been favorable to this historical series. Additional material continues to come to light. This means the series will be longer than originally expected; therefore, we are including a brief chronology of past articles: Part 1 (printed 10/13/05) - J. H. Tuggle's rabid dog bit several livestock and other animals; W. W. Maddox assassinated by unknown person and rewards totalling $500 offered for arrest and conviction of the killer; J. H. Ramsey wounds J. D. Tuggle near Denman and Co. Hardware in Homer... Part 2 (printed 10/20/05) - Near Denman and Co. Hardware in Homer, J. D. Tuggle shot at John H. Ramsey, missed, and killed Professor J. H. Williams; W. W. Ramsey died and Hamp and Henry Tuggle were wounded in a shootout between the jail and Knighten's saloon in Homer... Part 3 (printed 10/27/05) - J. D. Tuggle and I. N. Glover died when ambushed by unknown assailant about three and a half miles toward Summerfield... Part 4 (printed 11/10/05) - Murray Tuggle, Hamp's 15-year-old son is shot and wounded; continuation of Dosia Williams' account of Hamp Tuggle's stay at Loyd Hall... Part 5 (printed 11/10/05) - Murray Tuggle, Hamp's 15-year-old son is shot and wounded; continuation of Dosia Williams' account of Hamp Tuggle's stay at Loyd Hall Part 6 (printed 11/17/05) - Henry Tuggle killed in field in presence of his three children. Link Waggonner shoots a Mr. Holland, then flees to Texas...

 

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continued from last week......

            We learn that John Ramsey has left the country, and that his father and family will soon move away. It is a deplorable state of affairs, indeed, when citizens leave their homes to insure the safety of their lives.

— Guardian-Journal, page 3

 March 4, 1891

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            It begins to look as if the Claiborne Parish feud will soon be settled by the death of everybody concerned with it, with an occasional outsider as a victim [of] its misdirected bullets. This is bad, but a great deal better than if the deadly vengeance of the factions lingered year after year until half the community are involved in it.

— originally printed in the

Baton Rouge Advocate

 and reprinted by the

Guardian-Journal, page 2

 April 1, 1891

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A DOUBLE TRAGEDY

The Affair Shrouded in Mystery

            Last Wednesday [March 25, 1891] at about 1 o'clock p.m., the people of Homer were thrown into a fever of excitement by the report that

J. D. TUGGLE AND I. N. GLOVER

had been shot and killed at Beaver Bridge on the Summerfield road about three and a half miles from this place.

            A large number of persons from town at once repaired to the spot, among whom were the coroner and the sheriff and his deputies. The report was found to be true. Tuggle and Glover were found to be dead, and judging from their wounds they were

KILLED INSTANTLY

 and died without a struggle.

            Mr. Glover had been to town that morning and was returning home in his wagon. Mr. Tuggle was accompanying him for the purpose of taking a duck hunt on Cornie (sic) Bayou. The two men were riding side by side on a spring seat. Just as the wagon was going up on the bridge the shooting, it was supposed, was done. The body of Glover dropped dead in the road near the bridge. Tuggle fell over the dashboard of the wagon and remained there. The mules were

FRIGHTENED AT THE SHOOTING

and ran away but were stopped by a bog-hole in the Kinnebrew Lane.

            On the north side of the road at the bridge about thirty yards from the road was found the place where the party or parties who did the fatal shooting had stood. A blind made of pine brush was found, also pieces of an old sack on which they had stood or sat while waiting for their victims. There were two places where parties had stood, but whether there were two men or only one and for some reason he had moved his position is not known.

FOUR SHOTS WERE FIRED

and it is said that there was time enough between the second and third shots for a gun to have been [re]loaded. Two shells were also found near the spot from which the shooting is supposed to have been done. These facts would tend to indicate that there was only one party, but a number of persons who surveyed the grounds think that there were more than one.

            The sheriff and his deputies found a track which led off through the swamp. This track was followed for some distance when the party

MOUNTED A HORSE.

            The tracks of the horse were followed for several miles by parties whose evidence was given before the coroner's jury. The coroner's jury was composed of the following parties: R. F. Taylor, J. G. Knighten, Dr. A. R. Bush, W. D. Bonner, and F. U. Allen. After hearing all the evidence the jury returned a verdict that Glover and Tuggle came to their death from gunshot wounds at the hands of

UNKNOWN PARTIES.

            The killing of these two men has been the topic of conversation since it occurred, and there are all sorts of theories and rumors in the air, but if there is any evidence to implicate anyone, it is not known to the public.

            Both the men killed were well-known to the people of this parish. Mr. Glover had been deputy sheriff and several times a candidate for sheriff. He leaves a family. Tuggle had no family.

            The sheriff speaks of procuring a pack of bloodhounds for the purpose of tracking [the] criminals.

            It is thought by many persons that the late J. D. Tuggle left a considerable sum of money buried in some place and that it probably will never be found.

            Eight white men and we don't know how many colored have been killed in this parish in the past six months. This is a terrible record for old Claiborne.

AND STILL ANOTHER

            On Sunday last a negro, Webb Asberry by name, was shot on the place of the late J. D. Tuggle and seriously, though not dangerously, wounded. About the middle of the day  Sunday the fence around  J. D. Tuggle's place near Hamp Tuggle's home, was discovered on fire. A negro was sent to put it out. Some distance from this first fire near a gate on a road through the plantation, [Asberry] was shot as he was coming from church. The negro sent to put out the fire did not hear the report of the gun. After he had put out the fire at the first place he discovered fire near the gate and went and extinguished that, [as he returned to the house he] found Asberry by the road shot. The supposition is that the fence was fired for the purpose of drawing out Hamp Tuggle, and it is also supposed that the negro (Asberry) was shot merely because he was approaching the party who was lying in concealment. The party who fired the shot is supposed to have been in a fallen treetop near the gate. This treetop was destroyed by fire.

            The sheriff could track no one from the spot, and no clue whatever has been discovered.

— Guardian-Journal, page 2

 April 1, 1891

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            Last week a negro discovered a wagon sheet, blanket, and an old sack in a hollow tree about one mile east of town in D'Arbonne Swamp. The sheriff was notified and went out and got the articles and now has them at his office. It is supposed that these articles had probably  been used by the party or parties connected with the assassination of Glover and Tuggle. They are held at the sheriff's office as a clue to be used for what they are worth as evidence. The negro who found them says someone had been sleeping in his cottonseed house, which is on a path which Tuggle sometimes traveled when coming to and returning from town.

— Guardian-Journal, page 3

 April 15, 1891

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The Assassination of J. H. Ramsey

            On Saturday evening last [August 15, 1891] at about sunset, Mr. John H. Ramsey was waylaid and shot about a half-mile this side of his home, which is about three and a half miles southeast of Homer by a party or parties who are as yet unknown. Mr. Ramsey had been to town Saturday evening and was on his way home in a wagon with his brother Sam and a negro man and a negro girl. When in about a half-mile of home, the shooting was done from behind a dense fence row of a field by the roadside. Twenty buckshot struck John Ramsey in the back, shoulders, and neck, and it is said that any one of eighteen of these shot would have proven fatal. The negro man was also killed, being struck in the head with four buckshot. Some of the shot also passed through the hat and clothing of Sam Ramsey and one through the hat of the negro girl. Three shots were fired. When the shooting was done, Sam Ramsey and the negro girl leaped from the wagon. John Ramsey fell from his seat dead in the wagon, and the negro man who was driving the wagon retained his seat for some distance when he fell from the wagon and was caught between the front wheel and the bed of the wagon. The mules took flight when the gun fired and ran home.

            News of the bloody tragedy was brought to town by Mr. Sam Ramsey, and in a short time the sheriff and his posse and the coroner and his jury were on the ground. Deputy Sheriff Brown went to Minden Saturday night for bloodhounds and returned with the dogs early  Sunday morning, but the dogs failed to trail the track of the assassin with any success, and all efforts to follow it for any distance proved a failure. The man who did the shooting had blocks of wood about seven inches long and about one and a half inches wide fastened to the bottom of his shoes. The sheriff's posse traced this track for                          ............to be continued

NOTE: Bill Hightower and Jimmy Dean researched this article.