"White Lightning Feuds": Trouble Brewing 

White Lightning Feud Series: Part 5

 

NOTE: This is another in a series of articles reprinting prior published information on White Lightning Feuds.

 

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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COMMENT: Last week we printed the first part of an excerpt from the book War, Reconstruction, and Redemption on Red River, the Memoirs of Dosia Williams Moore. Dosia Moore mentions someone's shooting at Hamp Tuggle's son Murray. She gives that as a reason for Hamp's leaving Claiborne Parish with his two sons and his unnamed brother-in-law. We are inserting here the Guardian-Journal article that reported the wounding of Murray Tuggle:

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Attempted Assassination

            Saturday night last [August 12, 1893] just after dark as Murray Tuggle, the fifteen-year-old son of T. H. Tuggle, went out to the lot for the purpose of watering his horse, he was fired upon by some would-be assassin who was concealed near the lot. Young Tuggle was struck in the upper portion of the thigh with three buckshot and one passed through the flesh just above the ankle. The wounds, while painful, are not serious. Two shots were fired with a shotgun.

            Mrs.Tuggle came into town immediately after the shooting for a physician and the sheriff. Drs. Gladden and Gladney went out, cut out the shot, and dressed the wounds. The sheriff and his deputy also went out. Dogs were sent for and arrived Sunday morning. The place where the party stood who did the shooting was found. He stood near some tall weeds and was not more than twenty steps from his intended victim when he fired. The dogs were put on the track and ran it to the big road and a short distance down the road but could not trail it any further. It is supposed that the would-be assassin mounted a horse after he reached the road.

            There were two or three different sizes of buckshot found in the wounded boy.

            There has been a great deal of this kind of bloody work done in this parish during the past few years. It has gone on from bad to worse until now mere boys are being shot from ambush. Who will they shoot next? It is high time our people were bestirring themselves for the purpose of deriving and putting into execution some plan of discovering and punishing to the utmost extent of the law the perpetrators of such cowardly and hellish deeds. If the miserable work is permitted to go on unchecked and unpunished, the pass will be reached where no one will be safe from the assassin's bullets.

We learn that Mrs. Tuggle has received anonymous notes urging her to leave the country and stating that if she [does] not, her boys [will] be killed.

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            Something must be done to restore the reign of law and order in this parish as we will reach the pass where the country will have to be abandoned to the assassins and other lawless elements. Will people always endure such a state of affairs with patience?

— Guardian-Journal, page 3

August 16, 1893

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            We now return to the excerpt from Chapter IX "A Feud and an Indian" of the book War, Reconstruction, and Redemption on Red River, the Memoirs of Dosia Williams Moore, printed in 1990 and edited by Carol Wells.

            The foreword to the book explains that Dosia Williams Lewis Moore lived in Rapides and Natchitoches Parishes during and after the Civil War. Born in South Carolina, she came at three years of age with her parents to Louisiana. The book is based mostly on a collection of Dosia Moore's accounts stored in the Archives Division of the Watson Library at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.

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(continued from last week)

            Fourteen or more men had been killed, and a bitter hatred existed between the two families. On a day when Joe Tuggle and his brother Hamp had gone into town, one of the Ramsey's (NOTE: this was John H. Ramsey), a cousin of the Tuggle brothers, shot Joe Tuggle. He fell into his brother's arms. Hamp Tuggle, clasping his dying brother in one arm, shot his slayer dead. After this, Hamp, the only survivor of the tragedy, was sought by the officers of the law. He was arrested but was let out on bond and went home to his wife and three children (NOTE: wife was Sallie; children were Elmo, 18, Maud, 17, and Murray, 15).

            One day a friend sent him a warning to "keep close," as some men were planning to waylay and kill him. He and his two sons went on with their crop and minded their business, but one night when his younger son (NOTE: this was Murray—see preceding article) rode down to a stream to water his horse, he was shot from ambush, receiving a wound in the arm. Mr. Tuggle took his two sons and, accompanied by his brother-in-law, slipped out of the country that night. His lawyer advised him to keep out of the way until the other side quieted down; then he would arrange for him to have a trial. The Ramsey's, who were wealthy, were determined to go to law with it and have Mr. Tuggle either hanged or put in the penitentiary. He did not want to resist officers but was anxious to evade arrest until his lawyer advised him it would be safe to go back to Homer and give himself up.

            He was a poor man, so it was necessary for them to work to pay expenses, therefore, the cotton picking. My husband sympathized with him, told him to keep the cabin as long as he wanted it, that he would give him work and help him all that he could.

            Mr. Tuggle played the violin well, and often the four of them would dress up and come spend the evening at Loyd [Hall, located in Rapides Parish about 20 miles south of Alexandria]. They also visited at my sister's home nearby. We all enjoyed hearing him play the violin.

            After cotton picking was over, Mr. Tuggle began hauling cottonseed to the railroad station. One day while waiting near the track to unload his cottonseed, a passenger train stopped. Judge Blackman was on it, sitting by a window. (footnote: "Wilbur Fisk Blackman, judge of the Twelfth Judicial District, was born in Georgia in 1841. He lived at Homer, La., and died in 1873 in Shreveport, La."  from Northwest Louisiana Memoirs, p. 550.) He looked out and recognizing an old schoolmate shouted, "Hello, Hamp! What are you doing here?" Mr. Tuggle swung on the train, quietly explained the situation to Judge Blackman, and asked him not to tell anyone of having seen him. My brother-in-law, Mr. Baillio, told Mr. Tuggle that it was dangerous for him to be about the station as so many travelers passed through he might be recognized at any time. He thought that he would be safe if he stayed in the wagon, and his boys could attend to shipping of the seed.

            Meanwhile, trouble was brewing. A letter written by a young man from North Louisiana who was working for my brother-in-law told a friend in Homer of the mysterious stranger who was working at Loyd [Hall]. He described the man. His friend made some inquiry about it to the sheriff. The sheriff at once sent the description and a warrant to a deputy at Alexandria. Mr. Tuggle knew nothing of all this, so pursued the even tenor of his way, but he and his sons always went armed with a pistol and a shotgun.

            One day his wagon had just crossed Loyd's Bridge on the way to the station when a horseman rode down to the bridge, fell in behind them, and slowly followed the wagon. Mr. Tuggle felt uneasy. He said, "Elmo, look behind us. That man is after me." The man did not try to overtake the wagon, only loitered along behind them. When they were nearly to Lecompte, Elmo said, "Papa, you are watchin' the man behind us, but you better look in front." A livery stable hack with two white men and a negro driver had eased in ahead of them. It drove slowly along in front of the wagon.

            Mr. Tuggle slipped from his seat and walked along by the heavily loaded wagon, watching for a place where he could slip through the wire fence by the side of the road. He did not hurry but walked quietly along with his shotgun in his hand. Just ahead, he saw a turn in the road that would hide him for a minute. "Bud," he said, "I'll leave you here, and try to get away, but if these men get me, I want you to promise me to let this thing drop. I don't want you to get in any trouble. Just let them alone."

            The boy replied with tears streaming down his face, "Like hell I will! If they kill you, I'll kill one of them before they get me!" Elmo was [eighteen] years old. No wonder these old feuds died hard!

            Mr. Tuggle walked through the field, keeping the hack in range of his shotgun. The deputies had Winchester rifles. He thought if he got far enough from them, his shotgun would not reach them, but their rifles would carry so far he would be at their mercy. The men in the hack saw his advantage and did not begin shooting, although they saw Tuggle leave the wagon. Afterward, the hack driver told that the deputies said their "life insurance was not attended to," so they would return to Alexandria and make those arrangements, "and we will come again and get him." "Naw, suh!" the driver reported himself as saying, "We going to come no mo'. You gentmens can come but not Dutch, naw, Sir! Um got enough right now."

            The livery hack drove briskly off towards Alexandria. Mr. Tuggle glided into the swamp  back of the field and disappeared.

            That evening I was in the dining room at Loyd [Hall]. Supper was over; the servants were gone, and I was alone. Suddenly my husband and Mr. Tuggle stepped into the room through one of the French windows. Each carried a shotgun on his shoulder. William told me of Mr. Tuggle's trouble and that he was going to......(to be continued)

 

NOTES: Hamp Tuggle's marker in the Tuggle Cemetery shows he was born Thomas Hamilton Tuggle on February 3, 1855, and died April 10, 1935. His wife's marker shows her name as Sallie Boulware, born May 30, 1854, and died June 6, 1915. Hamp is listed in the 1880 Claiborne Parish Census as T. H. Tuggle, age 25. Listed in his household are his wife Sallie, age 26; son St. Elmo, age 5; daughter Maud, age 4; and son Murray, age 2. Dosia Williams refers to two sons who came with Hamp to Loyd Hall. We have concluded those sons were Elmo and Murray, ages 18 and 15 respectively at that time. We think it was probably the fall of 1893 that Hamp, Elmo, Murray, and the unnamed brother-in-law left Claiborne Parish and stayed at Loyd Hall Plantation, Hamp for 18 months or so and the others for a shorter period. Mrs. Williams mentions Hamp's "wife and three children." It seems clear that Hamp's wife Sallie and young daughter Maud remained in Claiborne Parish while Hamp's sons Elmo and Murray and the unnamed brother-in-law went with him to Loyd Hall. The Ramsey to whom Mrs. Williams refers ("one of the Ramsey's, a cousin of the Tuggle brothers") is John H. Ramsey who had shot at J. D. Tuggle in September, 1890. J. D. Tuggle's cemetery marker shows he was born Joe Dawson Tuggle on August 12, 1851, and died March 25, 1891. He and I. N. Glover were ambushed and killed by unknown person(s) about three and a half miles east of Homer toward Summerfield. J. D. Tuggle died unmarried without children. John H. Ramsey is listed in the 1880 Claiborne Parish Census as J. H. Ramsey, age 21 (born about 1859), and living in the household of his parents, William and Mary Ramsey. John H. Ramsey was killed August 15, 1891. Although Hamp Tuggle was charged with the crime, he was acquitted on March 12, 1895. John H. Ramsey had been indicted on October 11, 1890, for the attempted murder of J. D. Tuggle when Ramsey shot at Tuggle three times with a double-barreled shotgun on October 2, 1890. Released on $1200 bond, we found no record of legal disposition of the charge.......to be continued.

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Note: Bill Hightower and Jimmy Dean researched this series of articles.