A bound booklet of this web-site, down through and including James Monroe Choate, is available in hard-copy in a plastic-jacket 138-page publication.

Throughout this writing, "WGB" means William Green Butler, Bill Butler.

                                       Go directly to         The Incident         An Old Legend        



PROLOGUE

The United States joined the Republic of Texas in 1845. The new state encouraged settlers, and thus large Anglo, German, Czech, and Polish groups arrived. Texas rangeland sold for 25 cents an acre in the early 1850's, but the price doubled to 50 cents in the later 1850's.

James M. Elder and wife Sarah Ann Davis came to DeWitt county from Choctaw county MS in probably 1849, and later moved to the new Karnes county. They had eleven children. Their son Fate Elder became Sheriff, and his brother Bud was a Deputy.

Hamilton R. Ammons inherited money in December 1851 when the estate of his father was settled in Choctaw county MS. His father Jonathan Ammons had moved there from Lincoln county GA. In January 1852 Hamilton immediately followed the Davis family of Choctaw county to DeWitt county TX and married his teenage girlfriend Martha Louise Davis, sister of Sarah Ann. The newlyweds moved to the west bank of the San Antonio River. Hamilton bought primitive rangeland in 1852. They soon became friends with some later arrivals, the Butler family. Their first child was a girl born in 1853, Sarah Jane Elizabeth Ammons, who later married Pleasant Burnell Butler on her 18th birthday.

John Butler of Virginia settled in Kentucky just after the Revolutionary War. A few years later, he and his family moved to Scott county MS. His son William Butler was an early settler of Liberty county TX.

John's son Burnell Butler sent his 19-year-old eldest son Woodward to Texas in 1849 to seek suitable land. Woodward may have been influenced by John Wofford of Rankin county MS to look at the west bank of the San Antonio River. Woodward made two trips to Texas, and then camped on Ecleto Creek to wait for his family.

Burnell sold the Scott county holdings, and with his wife Sarah Ann Ricks and their large family started on the long journey. They moved in ox-drawn wagons, and brought twelve children, seven slaves, and cattle, spending three months on the road. Sarah Ann drove a hack with a team of big horses, and the men rode saddle horses. The Butlers arrived on December 24, 1852, and pitched a tent.

The families of John Pullin and his sons Hiram, Thomas, and Calvin Pullin came with the Butlers, as well as John, Richard, Landon, and Stephen Ricks, half-brothers of Sarah Ann Ricks Butler.

Burnell Butler cleared 14 acres, made brush fences, planted corn, and began raising cattle on leased land. There was plenty of free range for the cattle.

Another son of John Pullin, Henry, came in 1866, and built a log cabin near the Escondido Creek. This location later became Live Oak at Fifth Street in Kenedy, where Pleasant Burnell Butler and Sarah Jane Ammons Butler built their spacious home in 1916.


                    The Helena Courthouse with its school bell tower

                                                                                   About 1980, maybe.

THE  AFFAIR  IN HELENA
December 26, 1884

Emmett Butler, the 20-year-old son of Col. William G. Butler, the county's richest landowner, was shot and mortally wounded near one of the saloons in Helena.(2)

According to Ted Butler, retired State District Judge and great-grandson of WGB: "W. G. Butler had instructed his sons to stay away from Helena. Bad blood had developed between the Butlers and Sheriff Edgar Leary." Emmett Butler had had escapades that identified his character.(15) There had been an outbreak of horse stealing, and Emmett had been questioned about that. Emmett was also called before the Grand Jury on a charge of murder in another incident.

"On one occasion when W. G. Butler was on a trail drive to Dodge City, Kansas, the Sheriff and one of his deputies went to the Butler home in search of someone who was subject to arrest. When they arrived at the house, Mrs. W. G. Butler met them at the door. No one was there except she and some of the girls. The Sheriff insisted on searching the premises, and went through various parts of the house, and when he came to one room, he asked Mrs. Butler who was in there, and she said that one of the girls was in there sick in bed. The Sheriff insisted on going in, and when he went in the girl was covered over with a sheet. The Sheriff, perhaps thinking that it was one of the people they were searching for, jerked the sheet off the girl. This constituted a very serious insult to the young girl and to the Butler family. W. G. Butler was furious when he learned of this matter, as were his sons. Before he left for Dodge City, Butler instructed his sons to stay away from Helena, as he didn't want them to become involved in bloodshed." (5)

     "Before he left for Dodge City" would likely be in March 1884, the usual month to begin trail drives on the Chisholm Trail. On December 26, 1884, we believe that W. G. Butler was working cattle not far from Helena.

"On Friday December 26, the day after Christmas, the boy and a friend were drinking. They went first to Helena, then to Panna Maria, and then back to Helena."(2)

"As is the custom in country towns during the holidays, many were indulging in whiskey too freely. E. W. Butler and Hugh McDonald were under the influence of whiskey and were inclined to be quarrelsome. (2) Hugh McDonald was 22, and was a laborer in the Butler household. When drinking, he wasn't mean but did get fussy. McDonald picked a row with a fellow there. It became necessary to send for the Sheriff, who disarmed them of their Winchesters. (15)

With all this commotion, a crowd of people gathered. One side called it a "posse." The other side called it "an armed mob."(14)

The Sheriff followed them with a posse to arrest them, when Butler wheeled around and, with a six-shooter which was previously concealed under his raincoat, fired at the Sheriff, shooting him in the heart. Upon being shot, Leary said to his posse: 'He has killed me. Shoot him,' and then he expired. (2)

Emmett stood waving his pistol back and forth at the crowd, to get them to release Hugh. But Hugh would have none of this, and instead called out 'Run, Emmett. You've killed the sheriff !'(15) The posse and others fired at Butler, who had mounted the least wounded horse and was riding away. Fully 40 shots were fired. Three shots took effect, two in his right leg below the knee and one through Butler's brain. Butler was shot at 3:40 PM Friday and died at 1:00 AM Saturday."(2,16)

"The son of a wealthy rancher from across the county was shot from his horse and killed in the street, with the shot coming from a saloon. Eye witnesses tell how his horse turned and fell dead as it galloped toward a livery stable."(1)

This had occurred near one of the saloons, in the afternoon in broad daylight. "It wasn't an accidental shooting."(2)
                                                                     
Ed Campbell, an eyewitness, gave this statement to Judge Ted Butler in 1960 : (The shooting was actually on Friday December 26, 1884.)
'The killing occurred on the 24th day of December 1884. It was very cold. Two men came in from the north by way of Panna Maria. One was Mr. Emmett Butler, and the other was Mr. Hugh McDonald. They came in town and hitched their horses at a rack in front of the old Connolly Drug Store under an old oak tree. They walked on, down this street eastward from the drug store. They got, I would guess, about a hundred yards, more or less, when somebody hollered, and there was a pistol fired, and they supposed it to be these men Butler and McDonald.

'The Sheriff wasn't on the street at the time, but he heard the commotion and the shot, so he mounted his horse and came into town, and rode up and got down off his horse in front of the store, and these two men were advancing.

'When they got up close, they hollered and there was another shot fired. The Sheriff just turned as he was then started into the store. He just turned and called them in question, asking them what was the trouble. There was a threat made by one of the men, and the Sheriff told them they had to obey orders and keep the peace.

'I was just going in the front door of the store, and a shot was fired and the Sheriff fell. The weather being very bad, it was sleeting and raining and in those days everybody wore a slicker. The Sheriff had on a slicker, but he succeeded in getting his pistol and firing a shot which I believe struck Mr. Butler in one of his lower limbs, and by that time there was a posse gathered "just on the opposite side of the road from the drug store and the stable."

'Mr. Butler got up and turned back to get to his horse, and threw the bridle reins over his horse's head, and got on the horse. He was riding a big black horse which he called Nigger. He swerved to his left and turned in towards Panna Maria. As he turned on the opposite side of the stable, a volley of shots came out. The horse fell. Mr. Butler got up fighting, going backwards toward a two-story hotel which was operated at the time by a man known as Shanghai Butler, no relation. Before he got in front of the hotel, he fell and the crowd gathered around, and they picked him up and laid him on the lower portion of the lower front porch. All of the top of his head was shot off. He died right quick. A bunch of us white and colored kids walked up to look. My name is Ed M. Campbell and I am 92 years of age and I have lived in Karnes County all of my life.'     This is the end of the Ed Campbell statement.

San Antonio Daily Express, Dec. 31, 1884: "The people here in Helena are non-committal about the affray, and it is very hard to get the facts in the case. Even a perusal of the evidence given at the inquest is very unsatisfactory. "(2)

"This morning your reporter found the town full of armed men, each faction being about equal in numbers. The accidental discharge of a six-shooter, Winchester or even a firecracker might have made the streets run with blood. The coolness and judgment of Lt. Scott of the State Troops, who with two of his company left Yorktown and rode to Helena in darkness and rain on hearing the news, prevented all trouble, and the crowd dispersed and went to their homes." Lt. Scott, after making preparations for the safety of the late sheriff's posse and closing all saloons, met Mr. Butler, father of the deceased, and that gentleman told him that neither he nor his late son's friends came for any trouble. And that after attending to his business he would leave town, and about 2 o'clock pm, as both of the Messrs. Butler drove out of the town, the crowd dispersed, having remained for several hours without making a threat or using an angry or profane word. (2)

The tragedy is supposed to be the result of an old feud, and dire apprehensions are felt that the end is not yet."        A point to remember at Daileyville.

"Six-shooters have been carried openly in this town, and the law has been denied. The county has now an opportunity to place itself on record as a law and order place, but unless a man of courage and judgment is elected to fill the office of Sheriff, county organization ought to be abandoned, and attachment to some adjoining county for judicial purposes ought to be its fate."(2)

In the reporter's opinion, Karnes County was so lawless that the county should be dissolved and split up among nearby counties.

"At the inquest held on December 27, the verdict was that E. W. Butler was killed by the Sheriff's posse, the said Butler having first shot and killed said Sheriff, and that Edgar Leary, Sheriff, was killed by a leaden bullet fired out of a pistol by E. W. Butler, in Helena, at about 3:10 pm."(2)

"Edgar Leary was claimed by many to have been the best Sheriff that Karnes County has ever had, and while some question his discretion, all agreed that he never feared to go where duty called him. He was the only Sheriff who rigidly enforced the six-shooter law."(2)

Reisinger was the previous sheriff.   I. L. Elder succeeded Leary, and Elder was followed by W. L. Rudd.

Emmett W. Butler was buried on Sunday December 28 in the Butler Family Cemetery.  He was described as "the best one of the sons of WGB.   He was 19 years of age, and bore an excellent reputation. He was reputed to have been brave almost to rashness, and that quality, mixed with whiskey, caused his death.

The Butlers were all good men, but as many know, the Butlers were also quick to resent an insult, and quick to take action, which in that time of the open wearing of guns, was often drastic and fatal."        A point to remember at Daileyville.


THE LEGEND

"Butler, riding his horse up and down the street and waving a rifle about in one hand, yelled to the citizenry in general, "I want the men who killed my son!"    Nobody would tell him.    After a fruitless effort to find out who they were, he said,    "Alright then, I'll kill the town that killed my son !"(15)

"The next day the boy's father, William Green Butler, showed up with 25 ranch hands to claim the body.     W. G. Butler rode up and down the street shouting for someone to identify the killer, but got no response.    He dismounted and drew a line in the street with his quirt handle, offering to shoot it out with six-shooters with any man who dared to cross.     He threatened 'to kill the town that killed my boy.'    He still could not learn his son's killer." (1)

"Col. Butler buried his son on Sunday.     On Monday he rode into Helena with 25 armed men, demanding to know who had killed his son.    When no one would tell him, he rode away, shouting behind him:    'Then I'll kill the town that killed my son !'"(2)

"To Col. William Butler, the area's wealthiest rancher, his son's death called for vengeance.    He buried his boy on Sunday, and Monday rode into Helena with a Colt on his hip and a rifle in his saddle scabbard.    He trotted up and down the town's main street, demanding that someone reveal who murdered his son.    No one obliged him.     He screamed harshly, his voice echoing from the false fronts of the stores and saloons.    "For that, I'll kill the town that killed my son !"(4)
   (Note: "a Colt on his hip and a rifle in his saddle scabbard, his voice echoing from the false fronts of the stores and saloons" are wonderful poetry from a San Antonio Express writer, who reportedly was John Ruckman of Karnes City.)

      Great-grandson Ted Butler reports that his father Marvin Butler did not believe the stories about 'I'll kill the town.'
     "My father said that WGB might do it, but he wouldn't brag about it."(2)
       Marvin Butler said his grandfather WGB was the type of man who would not boast of what he would do, but instead he would just do it.

        The author believes this:   That W. G. Butler was summoned from a ranch pasture some miles away.    He came to Helena on Saturday with a brother, a wagon, and some cowhands.   Butler assured Lt. Scott (of the State Troops, who came with two others from Yorktown in darkness and rain) that he came in peace.   He retrieved the body of his son.  The funeral was held on Sunday.  He may have returned to Helena on Monday with 25 armed ranch hands.

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