February 19, 2019 - The William Carroll Crawford Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas shared some of the history of Shelby County at the Shelby County Historical Society meeting held on January 15, 2019 at the Museum. The main speaker for the DRT was Barbara McClellan.
It was a brief 10-year history between 1836 and 1846. It was its own country. Do you know about the everyday settlers of this time period? The farmers, blacksmiths, preachers. Everyone knows about Houston, Crockett, and Fannin but let’s talk about the everyday people.
Regulator-Moderator War
Barbara McClellan shared with the group that for years the strip of land from Louisiana to Mexico was our East Texas land. The Spanish didn't claim this strip of land and the American government didn’t offer to help with any problems. The area was just “do what you wanted to do.” In an attempt to control the problems, a group was formed called the Regulators. Their job was to bring some law and order to the area, but they were so extreme they were killing people who hadn’t done anything wrong. This group was in fact vigilantes.
Another group of men formed who became known as the Moderators. Their job was controlling the Regulators. The trouble all begin in 1840 when a man by the name of Mr. George, first name is unknown. It could have been Alfred George who was the Shelby County sheriff at that time. Later Mr. George became a member of the Regulators and was a good friend of Charles Jackson.
Mr. George had been sold a piece of land by a man named Joseph Goodbread. Mr. George had traded a slave for the land but the land was a fraudulent certificate. Mr. Jackson was very upset about this transaction and asked Mr. George to help him find Goodbread and get his slave back. Jackson did exactly what he was set out to do. He located Goodbread and got into an argument with him and then Jackson shot and killed Goodbread.
Jackson was brought to trial in 1841 in Shelbyville and when the judge got there he saw many of the Regulators fully armed and waiting for him. The judge just got back on his horse and left writing a note saying “I am unwilling to risk my person in the courthouse any longer when I see myself surrounded by bravos and hired assassins.” The trial ended before it even started.
Of course, this infuriated the Moderator group. They took after Jackson themselves. “Tiger” Jim Strickland was a very bad dude and with the McFadden brothers, they ambushed Jackson, killing him. There was also an innocence man that just happens to be riding along with Jackson who was killed. McFadden brothers were caught but “Tiger” Jim Strickland got away. The McFaddens were brought back to Shelbyville and a trial was set up under a tree. The jury was made up of the spectators who were there. Two of the brothers were hung right then, but the third brother was only 15 years old. There was a lady in the crowd who was so upset that this child was going to be hung she keep on begging the group not to hang him. The group let him go.
Barbara stated she had heard two different stories. One story stated he was flogged and then sent home. The other story was that he was just sent home. The truth will never be known now.
Now Charles Moorman was the leader of the Regulators since Jackson had been killed. He was worse than Jackson. He spread the war north into Harrison County and what would later become Panola County hanging the Moderators and driving others out the area. The group numbered so many that Moorman thought he would overthrow the Republic and became a dictator. Things continued to escalate in the homes on each side with homes of Regulators and Moderators being burned out. When the men on both sides were gone, probably burning someone out, the women and children slept in the field.
Things continued like this for some time. President Sam Houston had previously said, “I think it is advisable to declare Shelby County, Tenaha, and Terrapin Creek free and independent governments, and let them fight it out.” But finally, in 1844 Sam Houston had enough. He and militia went to San Augustine. Houston sent 600 of the men to Shelby County to arrest the leader of each group and bring them back to him. He spoke with each one and had them sign a declaration. It was a peace treaty and a cease fire treaty. M.T. Johnson and John McNairy signed for the Regulators. James Truitt and John Dial signed for the Moderators.
Moving the Courthouse to Center
Shelby County was one of the original 13 counties that had been divided when Texas was a Republic. The county was named for Isaac Shelby, a Revolutionary War hero and governor of Kentucky. Shelby County became one of the most populated areas because it was so close to Louisiana. For the next 30 years, Shelbyville was the county seat. The original name of Shelbyville was Nashville. Al Johnson, an east Texas representative introduced a bill that all county seat needed to be centrally located. He arranged to have the county surveyed to locate the center of the county. It was voted to move the county records. Shelbyville did not agree with the new law and was determined to protect their rights.
R.L. Parker who was the County Clerk at that time planned ahead and built a small building. One person who helped Mr. Parker said the building was smaller than most rooms in a house. With the building being ready, he told some of the young black men that he wanted them to be in front of the Courthouse at 10 o’clock that night. Mr. Parker had brought in an ox cart and he and the other men loaded all the county books into the cart and took off. Part of the way, up to Tenaha Creek had a trail but after crossing the dry creek there was only 3 houses between Shelbyville and the area that would later become Center. The black men had to take axes and made a trail. Once they got to the “new” courthouse, the men unload the ox cart and then hurried back to Shelbyville before it was daybreak.
Those helping included Steve Osby, Ossie Cartwright, Sam McCowan, Bob Collins, Edward Matlock, Jube Myrick, Bill Dysart and Washington Flournoy.
It is said that the citizens of Shelbyville followed the trail and found Parker sitting in front of his building, with a shotgun stating that this was now the Shelby County Courthouse. The residents agreed it would be unwise to shed blood over the incident, so they returned home. To this day some of the citizens still complain about the stolen records.
Shelby County Poisoned Wedding Supper
The Regulator-Moderator war was coming to an end in Shelby County but then a little spark would break out and there would be problems again. In the spring of 1847, there were still hard feelings between the two groups. Shelby county families involved in the feud sometimes thought of things to do to the other group to stir up problems, like stealing hogs or horses.
In the town of East Hamilton, whose name was changed from Hamilton since there was another town in Texas by that name, there was a family by the name of Wilkinson who were about to have a wedding. Wilkinson was an old grouchy man and a hog thief. He wasn’t well liked in the area, but everyone liked a wedding. The word went out that old man Wilkinson’s daughter, an orphan girl who he had raised, is finally getting married but the man, Morris, she was marrying wasn’t much better. Wilkinson was one of those that hadn’t forgotten what was done to his family during the Regulator-Moderator war. Excitement was in the air with women pulling out party dresses and trying on dancing shoes. The date was April 22, 1847. The groom wanted to wait for a June wedding but Mr. Wilkinson wanted the wedding now.
Mrs. Eddins was the one to bake the cakes and left them in the smokehouse for safe keeping. She went out early the next morning to check on the cakes. She noticed that the icing had been removed on all the cakes but one and that one was covered with custard. She hadn’t done that. The other cakes were dark and discolored. Since she didn’t have time to make any more cakes, she sprinkled some sugar loaf over the cake to make it look better.
The Spottswood Sanders family didn’t want to go to the wedding as there had been trouble between the families. Sanders had accused Wilkinson of stealing some hogs. Wilkinson was a Moderator and Sanders was a Regulator. Sanders then thought if he didn’t come, he could be accused of continuing the feud. So, the Sanders family decided to go but at the last moment changed their mind. When Wilkinson heard this, he loaded a box with food to be served at the wedding supper. It included parts of a young pig, 3 chickens, chicken pies, a turkey and a buttered pound cake. It was enough food to feed the family and all the slaves.
What a feast! Old man Wilkinson must not be that bad. Everyone set down to eat but all the food was poisoned. There are two versions about the food. Some say all the food was poisoned but the other version the poison was just in the cakes. This is another thing we will never know. We know that even the butter was poisoned. The meal resulted in the death of so many people. Mrs. Susan Eliza Sanders, the wife of Spottswood, as she lay dying, she asked for her children to be reared in the “nurture of the Lord” not knowing that her two sons, age 5 and 3 were already dead. Then she asked for her slaves to come in and tell her goodbye. The slaves had also been poisoned. Spottswood and his son, Francis, survived when they crawled to the slop bucket, drank from it and then vomited. It saved their lives.
Meanwhile back at the party, everyone was eating finger foods but the Wilkinson’s family. The food was laced with arsenic. It didn’t take long for the poison to start killing. Some dropped dead on the spot and others lingered. Some lingered for days.
Allan Haley and his mother apparently were the only persons not poisoned at the wedding beside the Wilkinsons. The Haleys arrived late and other guests had already been served so they ate at the brides table. When it came to the cake, they didn’t want any. The Haley also lost a slave, whose wife was one of the servants attending the wedding. She carried him a piece of cake home. He took two bites of the cake, not liking the taste of it, didn’t eat any more of it. But after just those two bites, he died.
Mrs. Eddins, who made the cakes, was poisoned along with her son and a slave girl. The girl died and her son was not expected to recover. The poisoned butter left over from the meal was thrown out and the birds that ate it were dead within minutes.
Elder William Brittain who probably officiated at the wedding entered the names of several members of his own family on the death page of the family bible. There are 5 graves in the East Hamilton cemetery with names but no dates.
Dr. James H. Starr of Nacogdoches wrote that 17 of the 54 who were poisoned had died and 15 others were dangerously ill. Then he had another statement printed in the Nile Register on June 5, 1847 and on July 19th an article in the Telegraphy and Register stated “Wilkinson, at whose house the wedding was held, had confessed that he had the arsenic purposely mixed in the cake. The article also confirmed that the bride was an orphan girl raised by Wilkinson.
On May 23, 1847, a letter written in Bayou Sara, Louisiana to a friend, contained the particulars of the incident. The letter said that "Old Wilkinson and his wife, and Morris’ wife were arrested and examined before Squire Sanders, who committed them to prison." Wilkinson was brought before a magistrate and released. He was afraid to leave the house during the day, as there were persons determined to kill him. So that night, that very last night, Wilkinson got on a horse and left. But there were men following him and they ran him down and killed him. This is the story of the Wedding Supper.
