Sutton–Taylor feud

The Sutton–Taylor feud began as a county law enforcement issue between relatives of Texas state law agent, Creed Taylor, and a local law enforcement officer, William Sutton, in DeWitt County, Texas. The feud cost at least 35 lives and eventually included the outlaw John Wesley Hardin as one of its participants. It started in March 1868, not reaching its conclusion until the Texas Rangers put a stop to the fighting in December 1876.

The Sutton–Taylor feud arose from a growing animosity between the Texas Taylor family—headed by Pitkin Taylor, the brother of Creed Taylor (a Texas Ranger)—and local lawman, William E. Sutton—a former Confederate soldier, who had moved with his family to DeWitt County intending to raise cattle. Sutton had been elected deputy sheriff in Clinton, Texas prior to the feud's inception. The feud lasted almost a decade and has been called the "longest and bloodiest in Texas history."

On April 23, 1866 William P. "Buck" Taylor shot a black soldier, Sergeant John O'Brien, who had come to a dance. That same month, John Hays Taylor killed a black soldier, a Sergeant Josiah Ripley, in an Indianola saloon

In November 1867 (according to the Handbook of Texas) John Hays Taylor and Phillip Goodbread "Do' Boy" Taylor killed two Yankee soldiers, a Major John Thomson and Sergeant John McDougall, in Mason, Texas Four months later, on March 25, 1868, Deputy Sutton shot and killed a Taylor kinsman, Charley Taylor, whom he was trying to arrest for horse theft.

The following Christmas Eve, Deputy Sutton killed William P. "Buck" Taylor and his associate, Richard Chisholm, in a Clinton saloon, following an argument regarding the legality of the sale of some horses.

On June 5, 1869, Jack Helm assisted Captain C.S. Bell in trying to arrest members of the Taylors. Helm, as a deputy sheriff, assisted in the capture of Jim Bell. Goliad County Sheriff Andrew Jackson Jacobs, however, was killed by the Peaces brothers, Taylor allies. Later that summer, on August 23, 1869, the Sutton faction allegedly shot John Hays to death after he had caused repeated disruption in town.

The following year, in July 1870, Sutton was appointed to the Texas State Police Force serving under Captain Jack Helm. The police force was tasked with enforcing the "Reconstruction” policies of the federal government. This force operated with a bit of a free-hand—returning, more often than not, with "wanted" suspects dead.

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