THE DAY SNELL WAS KILLED
The records show Snell was killed January 10, 1880, only forty years
old or a little more. Late that afternoon Mr. Snell had his horse hitched
at the old liveoak tree that used to be on the south side of the square,
and he was bout to mount and start home, when he saw Grandma Pierson
sitting on the veranda of her hotel (about where we were sitting when we
were talking). He either walked over or rode over there to talk to
Grandma. Mr. Williams saw him, but left and went over to Cropper’s
livery stable, where it seems he looked after some animals. Mr. Snell rode
on off, probably a handsome figure on the prancing horse, and with his
Spencer or Henry rifle, also wearing a coat of mail under his coat.
That night at the hotel they were waiting for Old Man Cook to come in
with the stage coach from Bosque County. They key the horses and fed them
back of the hotel. The stage changed horses there before going on toward
Comanche and Bud Tatum’s stagestand on Waring Creek. Mr. Williams and
Uncle Tom Pierson helped look after the stage horses, and Uncle Tom had a
man named Torian to take care of them.
When old Man Cook rolled in with the stage about eleven that night he
told them he thought he had seen a dead man by the road beyond Second
Crossing on the Pecan Creek.
But then he was probably just a drunk. Then he went on toward Comanche.
Uncle Tom Pierson, Mr. Williams, and Torian hitched up a hack and drove
out and found Mr. Snell’s body about thirty yards to the other side of
Second Crossing near a clump of sumacs. He had been shot in the chest or
front and in the side of the head, and had powder burns there, showing
that he was shot there after he was down. He was lying with his head on
his arm, the right he thought.
Doctor Perry told it the next morning that he had come by earlier from
a call that night and saw a body but thought it was a drunk and didn’t
say anything about it.
Earlier in the evening down at Cropper’s livery stable one Bush came
and took out his horse, was gone about thirty minutes and came back with
the horse foaming with sweat. It was surmised that he had gone out on the
east trail to tell Highsaugh and Kemp that the deed had been done. Compare
Uncle Sid Ross about the boys making a show of looking at their watches
around the saloon for an alibi. They were arrested, probably taken to
Stephenville, and he didn’t know why nothing more was done about it.
A nephew of old Squire
Loyd was watering his horse at Second Crossing when Mr. Snell came
riding by pretty fast for he had a good horse, and it wasn’t thirty
yards further that he was killed. Some people passing through, strangers
were bedding down a herd of cattle on the hill just a little further
along. He said these people must have heard the shots, but were never
called as witnesses. (He said it was my father who located Ferguson
and brought him back about 1892.
WILLIAM
SNELL
BACK
TO THE SNELL STORY
MORE
ABOUT MR. SNELL
SNELL
and CLAUNCH
MR.
WILLIAM SNELL
WILLIAM
SNELL, AGAIN
THE
SNELL CASE
MR.
SNELL, A GOOD MAN
WILLIAM
SNELL, AGAIN
THE
ASSASSINATION OF MR SNELL
AFTER
THE ASSASSINATION OF MR. SNELL
ASA
LANGFORD
CROCKETT
HENDRIX
CROCKETT
HENDRIX
GEORGE
W. WHITE
ALEXANDER
PERRY WHITE
TOMBSTONE OF
WILLIAM SNELL
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
CHESLEY'S HAMILTON COUNTY INTERVIEWS
BY
HERVEY EDGAR CHESLEY, JR.
Born: 21 November, 1894
Died: 17 July, 1979