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Note: I was 2 years 8 months old on 19 August 1927 when Grandpa Samuel L. Williams was shot and killed. I was playing in the dirt in front of the new Post Office building and heard the gunfire that killed him. I remember Grady running out and picking me up off the ground and carrying me into the Post Office out of the line of fire. Grandpa was a Deputy Sheriff for the County and mainly served as the peace keeper in town, primarily on Saturdays when farmers and their families came to town to purchase their weekly supply of groceries, staples, and other provisions. Some of the young boys, in their 20's would become rowdy and needed to be kept from fighting, drinking and creating disturbances. Some would be a little drunk from drinking moonshine whiskey. Some boys of one family disliked boys of another family and they were easily angered if they crossed paths. Several times they engaged in fist fights. Other duties of the Deputy Sheriff dealt with government mandated health matters, such as seeing that all cattle stock were properly dipped in vats of insect poison to eradicate an outbreak of ticks. Texas also had this problem and directed mandatory cattle dipping throughout the state. Also, cattle were infected with undulant fever, known by the medical term Bangs Disease, and had to be inoculated. Cattle owners could also get the disease by working with infected animals. Symptoms consisted of constant headaches and a fever that came and went. That is, the body temperature would increase, then after a while it would drop back to normal. It would undulate, thus the name undulating fever. Grandpa, also had to be on the lookout for hidden whiskey stills where bootleggers were illegally making moonshine whiskey. They tried to conceal their stills from view by setting them up in the woods and on farms in the area. It was convenient to locate in the woods where fire wood was easily obtained for use in firing the boiler to aid in the distilling process. Some men employed a farm hand to operate their stills, the owner furnishing the required equipment and the necessary supplies and ingredients. One man, Claude Simpson lived on a farm "down the bayou" and engaged in the operation of a whiskey still. Several times grandpa had located and destroyed Claude's still. Eventually, Claude began to think that grandpa was picking on him and overlooking other stills in the area. He didn't feel that grandpa was treating him fairly by continuing to search out and destroy his still knowing grandpa had found other stills but didn't bother to destroy or wreck the equipment for all he knew existed or that he discovered. One time during a discussion on this subject, Uncle Grady remarked that grandpa sometimes seemed to be prejudiced with some bootleggers. He said, "Papa would overlook the operation of some stills he knew about, yet continue to wreck those of others, time and again." He was sure this caused Claude Simpson to feel dejected to the extent he became desperate. Early in the history of the town of Boydell, Claude Simpson operated a general mercantile store, the one later operated by G. H. Richardson. It was about mid-afternoon on a hot August day when Claude drove up in his Model T Ford and parked under the huge pin oak tree located near the front of the Richardson General Store. He was very intoxicated and extremely irritated as he stepped out of his car and walked toward Grandpa, stopped and called out to him. Grandpa and his son Ira (Monk) were sitting in their car nearby and in the shade of the big tree. Claude, standing some 10 feet away was directing his dialogue at grandpa, cursing him and calling him vulgar names, and saying he wanted to talk to him about the equipment that was recently destroyed on his property. Grandpa got out of his car and started walking toward Claude. As he got within a few feet, Claude placed his hand into his pocket as if reaching for a knife or gun. Grandpa, suspecting Claude was reaching for his gun, hit him in the jaw with his fist, knocking him to the ground. Claude got up, still loudly cursing and again he placed his hand in his pocket. Grandpa again struck him, knocking him down. It's said Grandpa struck and knocked Claude down about three times. The last time Claude was knocked down, he was grasping a pistol as he was getting up. When he was almost fully on his feet he had removed the pistol from his pocket and was moving his arm to point the pistol in the direction of grandpa. At that moment grandpa swung his open hand against Claude's arm, knocking it to the side just as the pistol fired wildly. Grandpa turned and ran toward the filling station located off to the right and forward of the front of the store. Before he reached the safety of the rear of the station, Claude fired his .32 caliber automatic pistol twice at grandpa, and one bullet struck grandpa in the leg and the other entered the side of his body. I remember hearing the loud popping noise from the gun shots, and somewhat frightened I ran farther away from the front of the post office. I had not gone far when Uncle Grady ran out from the porch and hurriedly carried me into the post office. I had been sitting in the dirt in front of the post office and about 50 feet from where the shooting started. Monk had driven grandpa into town for no particular reason other than to join townspeople and others from farms to sit in the cool shade of the tree and talk. Monk remained in their Model T car after grandpa stepped out when Claude called to him. He wasn't armed, having left his revolver at home. Without a weapon and Claude drawing his pistol and shooting at him, grandpa had no choice but to try to escape to a safe place. When he was hit in the leg and side, he attempted to get to the store porch and to safety inside the store. He was about halfway between the back of the filling station and the store porch when Claude emptied his gun, firing the remaining 3 bullets and hitting Grandpa in the shoulder and chest. Grandpa fell to the ground severely wounded but not yet dead. At that point, Claude jumped into his car and sped away down the bayou toward his home. Daddy was working in the railroad depot about 200 feet away and came running when he heard the first shots. All of this happened within less than a minute from the time Claude arrived, accosted grandpa and made a hasty departure. As Daddy got to where grandpa lay on the ground, he knelt down to check his condition and grandpa said, "Where were you when I needed you?" Observers who had been sitting on the store porch when the confrontation began, had jumped up and ran into the store when Claude drew his pistol and started firing. Afterwards, they came out to where Dad was with grandpa and helped carry him to the store porch. Shortly thereafter, I remember Ruth and I standing at the edge of the store porch and looking at Grandpa. He was on his back, his big stomach protruding upward, with blood covering his shirt on the left shoulder and upper chest. He was now dead. We were shocked to see someone now dead who was so alive and talking to us minutes before. Grandpa had been hit with five of the six shots fired by Claude. Daddy picked up the empty shells that fell to the ground when ejected from the pistol as Claude fired the gun. Ruth has these shells. Also, she has a copy of the court report of the trial of Claude Simpson that tells in detail the testimony of eye witnesses at the shooting. Claude never went to jail or the penitentiary because he was acquitted on a plea of self-defense. He used all his available cash and borrowed money to hire lawyers who were adept at convincing a jury that since grandpa struck the first blow, and subsequently knocked Claude to the ground twice more, Claude responded in his own defense. Claude became bankrupt, lost his farm to creditors, as a result of the legal costs. Claude Simpson had been one of the early known settlers in the town of Morrell, later named Boydell, having arrived there sometime in the mid or late 1880's. He operated the big general mercantile store later purchased by Mr. Richardson. Initially, Claude married a sister of J.T. Boyd, an early settler and land owner. The town was named after his son, Morrell Boyd. Claude's first wife died in a fire, then Claude married her sister who later died of an accidental death. Ruth remembered other things that were told to her that occurred afterwards and helped me to include them here. She said our Daddy was working in the railroad depot when he heard the gunfire and came running to assist grandpa. When he kneeled over grandpa to see how bad he had been hurt, grandpa said to him, "Where were you when I needed you?" . With other men helping, they lifted grandpa's limp body and carried him to the store porch where he lay on his back with his head toward the edge of the porch. He died shortly after being placed on the store porch. Daddy went home and returned with his gun with the intent to go get Claude and hold him for the sheriff. But cooler heads fearing it would only cause more trouble and possibly more shooting convinced him to put the gun away and wait for the county sheriff to arrive and take over. Uncle Ira (Monk), upon seeing his father dead on the store porch, jumped into the Model T and raced home, a mile away and across the bayou to return later with grandpa's revolver. Again, others intervened and convinced him to wait and for Sheriff John Riley to arrive from Hamburg. I remember the next and last time I saw grandpa. It was just before he was buried and the casket was open so a photograph could be taken of him. According to Uncle Grady, one of the family members was unable to attend the funeral and had requested a picture be taken of grandpa before he was buried. A woman had a Kodak box camera, and while standing on a long and wide board, some men lifted the board upward to about three feet above the ground so the woman was able to get a picture of grandpa's face as he lay in the casket. I have a copy of the photograph. Next, the woman wanted to take a picture of grandpa's grand-kids attending his funeral, so Felix, Juanita, Ruth and I stood together and had our picture made. Grady said the reason Ruth and I have a mad look on our face in the picture is because we didn't want our picture taken. To entice us someone gave both of us a penny to stand still and have our picture taken. We did and I have a copy of that picture.
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