Research Catalog

Title

Bad blood : the life and times of the Horrell brothers / by Frederick Nolan.

Author

Nolan, Frederick W., 1931-2022

Publication

Stillwater, OK : Barbed Wire Press, c1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvii, 210 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

With deeds of violence and vengeance, the seven Horrell brothers burned their names into the history books of Texas and New Mexico in the 1870s. The sons of early immigrants to Lampasas, Texas, they were Texans as if by birth, raised to horses, cattle, whiskey, and guns. Their iron wills were forged in the flames of the lawless frontier, hammered on the anvil of the Civil War, and tempered in the waters of Reconstruction and the Indian Wars. With Texas seething under the rule of the carpetbag Governor Edmund J. Davis, the Horrell brothers gained a reputation as troublemakers, finally shooting their way out of a gun battle that left three state police offices dead and a fourth mortally wounded. The family fled to Lincoln County, New Mexico. There they became embroiled in a deadly dispute with Lawrence G. Murphy, William Brady, and the local Hispanic population that erupted into a minor war, a precursor to the next decade's famous Lincoln County War. Ben Horrell's body was among those the clan left behind as they retreated back to Texas in an orgy of theft and killing. In Lampasas again, the family returned to the cattle business and lived peacefully for a time. Then they locked horns with Pink Higgins, a local rancher and a bad man to tangle with. The resulting Higgins-Horrell vendetta was among Texas' deadliest and most famous family feuds. Only one of the Horrell brothers would survive the bloodshed. When he died in 1936, the full story of the family's bloodstained life and times was buried with him. Best-selling author Frederick Nolan tells it here for the first time.

Subject

• Horrell family
• Since 1800
• Frontier and pioneer life > Southwest, New
• Vendetta > Southwest, New > History > 19th century
• Southwest, New > History > 1848-

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

ISBN

0935269169 :

LCCN

^^^94027503^

OCLC

• 30811512
• SCSB-10607538

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library