Horrell-Higgins Feud

Between the two Lampasas wars the Horrells fought another in New Mexico. After the 1873 killings they drove a herd west and settled in the Ruidoso country west of Roswell, where they were quickly in trouble again. Accounts of how the Horrell War began conflict, but it was brief and bloody: at least seventeen men died, among them Ben Horrell and a brother-in-law, Ben Turner. Pursued a long way by angry New Mexicans, the brothers reached Lampasas near the end of February 1874, surrendered, were tried for Captain Williams's murder and were acquitted.

What the plaque says

Horrell-Higgins Feud 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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hancock Springs Park — 0.8 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.
• Colorado Bend State Park — 18 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.
• Inks Lake State Park — 25 mi
  A state park on a constant-level lake of the Colorado, between Buchanan and Inks dams, with pink granite and gneiss at the water and CCC work along Park Road 4.
• Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery — 27 mi
  A free federal hatchery below Inks Dam on the Colorado, with thirty production ponds that draw birds and a look at how fish are raised from egg to harvest.

More markers nearby

• First State Meeting of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas — steps away
• Gunfight at the Lampasas Saloon — steps away
• Lampasas County — steps away
• Texas Bankers Association — steps away