DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to give it the weight it deserves. Now, Lampasas County has seen its share of hard men and harder times, and few chapters cut deeper than the one the locals called the Horrell-Higgins Feud. Both families were among the early settlers of Lampasas County — put down roots, built lives — and somewhere along the way, those roots got tangled up in blood.
The Horrell side had four brothers: Tom, Mart, Merritt, and Sam. They were accused of many crimes over the years — cattle rustling, murder — the kind of accusations that follow a family like a shadow and don't lift easy. On the other side, you had Pink Higgins, a cattleman and trail driver.
By 1876, Pink had convinced himself the Horrell brothers were stealing his cattle, and he started saying so out loud. Then came January 22, 1877. That's the date things went from a slow boil to a full blaze.
Pink Higgins walked into the Gem Saloon and shot and killed Merritt Horrell. Just like that, one of the four brothers was gone, and the feud had its first casualty on the books. What followed was six months of warfare — open, ugly, frontier warfare.
On one side, the remaining Horrell brothers. On the other, Pink Higgins, Bob Mitchell, Bill Wren, and their followers. March 26th, Tom and Mart Horrell were ambushed on their way into Lampasas.
Captain John C. Sparks of the Texas Rangers went in pursuit, but no one was captured. Higgins stayed a fugitive for a time, eventually surrendered, and was ordered to appear in court.
Then things got stranger. On June 4th, the Lampasas County District Clerk's Office was burglarized — and the District Court records were destroyed. Somebody didn't want a paper trail.
Three days later, the feud brought its biggest battle right out into the open: a fight on the public square in Lampasas, in front of God and everybody, and when the smoke cleared, one man from each side was dead. That was enough. Major John B.
Jones, commander of the Texas Ranger Frontier Battalion, came to Lampasas personally. He sent Sergeant N. O.
Reynolds and a company of Rangers out to bring in the Horrells. The brothers were arrested. And then, in one of those rare moments where the pen actually quieted the gun, Tom and Mart Horrell agreed to send a letter of reconciliation to the Higgins party.
That letter became the treaty. The formal end to one of the worst feuds in Texas history. But the marker is careful to say "formal end," because what might have been the true termination came later — in 1878, in the town of Meridian.
Tom and Mart Horrell were murdered in their jail cell by a vigilante mob. Whatever peace the letter had made, somebody didn't feel bound by it. Sam Horrell, the surviving brother, left Texas, resettled in Oregon, and died of old age — which, given everything, is a kind of miracle all by itself.
And Pink Higgins? The man who fired the shot in the Gem Saloon, who kept the whole bloody engine running for six months — he eventually settled near Spur out in West Texas and went to work as a range detective. The feud that consumed so many lives just... folded itself into the past, and the men who made it walked on into different futures.
Some stories don't end so much as they run out of people.
What the marker says
The Horrell and Higgins families were among the early settlers of Lampasas County. Tom, Mart, Merritt and Sam Horrell were accused of many crimes, including cattle rustling and murder. Pink Higgins was a cattleman and trail driver who, in 1876, began accusing the Horrell brothers of stealing his cattle. On January 22, 1877, Pink Higgins shot and killed Merritt Horrell in the Gem Saloon. This was the beginning of a six-month battle between the Horrell brothers and Pink Higgins, Bob Mitchell, Bill Wren and their followers. On March 26, Tom and Mart Horrell were ambushed on their way into Lampasas. Captain John C. Sparks of the Texas Rangers went in pursuit, but no one was captured. Higgins remained a fugitive, but eventually surrendered and was ordered to appear in court. On June 4, the Lampasas County District Clerk's Office was burglarized and District Court records were destroyed. Three days later, the biggest battle of the feud took place on the public square in Lampasas; one man from each side was killed. Major John B. Jones, commander of the Texas Ranger Frontier Battalion, came to Lampasas and sent Sergeant N. O. Reynolds and a company of Rangers out to capture the Horrells. The brothers were arrested and agreed to make peace by sending a letter of reconciliation to the Higgins party. This treaty was the formal end to one of the worst feuds in Texas history. What was perhaps the true termination of the feud came in 1878 in the town of Meridian, when Tom and Mart Horrell were murdered in their jail cell by a vigilante mob. Sam Horrell left Texas, resettled in Oregon and died of old age. Pink Higgins eventually settled near Spur in West Texas and went to work as a range detective. (2000)