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Uvalde: A Proud Heritage
The combination Uvalde City Hall and Jail built in 1882. The architect was Alfred Giles of San Antonio.
Young Reading W. Black was a man with a dream and a lot of guts when he established a town named Encina on the banks of the Leona River in 1853. For the next three decades Uvalde was known one of the wildest and most lawless of all the towns in the West.
Black himself would become a victim of that lawlessness when he was shot by his brother-in-law G. W. “Tom” Wall in 1867. Black was 37 years old.
James B. Davenport, a member of the Texas Militia Uvalde Company, was named as the first sheriff, and a combination jail and courthouse had been completed by May 19, 1857. Unfortunately, the Civil War turned friend against friend in the new town. Black, who was a Union sympathizer, moved to Mexico during the war. During that time the county was without a sheriff for two years.
Nueces Strip becomes a sanctuary for criminals
After Black was murdered, Governor E. M. Pease asked General W. S. Hancock to establish martial law in the area, but Hancock refused. Uvalde County was the last bastion of any type of law, and the infamous Nueces Strip lay beyond the Nueces River. The strip had become a sanctuary for Mexican and Anglo-American smugglers, gamblers, rustlers, and gunslingers.
Uvalde gained a reputation in those early years. In his novel “Sackett,” Louis L’Amour chose Uvalde as the opening scene where his hero Tell Sackett shoots a card shark and has to leave town. Back then, one could quickly gain a reputation as a bad guy, whether the shooting was justified or not. Sackett points out, “And me, William Tell Sackett, who came to Uvalde a stranger and alone, I found myself a talked-about man.”
Uvalde: A Proud Heritage
King Fisher, outlaw who ruled the Nueces Strip but later became acting sheriff of Uvalde.
King Fisher ruled strip
One of the most talked-about men at the time was King Fisher. He ruled the country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. Near his ranch, a sign at the fork in the road read, “This is King Fisher’s road. Take the other.” In the 1870s, Texas Rangers took him on seven counts of murder, but they couldn’t get a warrant and witnesses disappeared. An El Paso Times article describes Fisher as having a passion for silver-tinkling sombreros, red slashed trousers, tailored shirts and silver-plated guns. He stood about six feet tall and weighed 186 pounds with strong white teeth, flashing eyes, black hair and mustache.
It would be Texas Ranger Capt. Leander H. McNelly and his successor Capt. Lee Hall whose persistence led to Fisher turning his life around. McNelly gave up the chase in 1877 at age 33 when he died of tuberculosis. Hall arrested Fisher and transferred him to San Antonio where he spent five months in the “bat cave” jail, a jail actually infested with bats. Even though Hall obtained 21 indictments against Fisher, six juries set him free.
Fisher was offered a position as deputy by Uvalde County sheriff Ben Boatright, himself a somewhat shady character who was caught dipping his hand in the public till. A former tax collector, Boatright became sheriff in 1883. The October 1884 Austin Weekly Statesman reported, “Sheriff Boatright of Uvalde, who started Friday week to Austin to make a $7,000 settlement with the comptroller, is missing.” Fisher then took over as acting sheriff and campaigned for the job in 1884. Unfortunately, he was killed alongside his friend Ben Thompson in San Antonio on March 11, 1884. Fisher was 30 years old.
Uvalde: A Proud Heritage
Sheriff Henry W. Baylor, credited for cleaning up Uvalde, served as sheriff for 20 years.
Sheriff Baylor promises to clean up Uvalde
Boatright was followed by Henry W. Baylor, a resident of Montell. Prior to Baylor’s election, the infamous “Bull Pen” in Uvalde was known as a dance hall, saloon, and gambling place. The women of Uvalde had appealed to the commissioner’s court to close down the place, but when their pleas went unheeded, they took the law into their own hands and tried to burn down the establishment. When they didn’t quite succeed, Baylor remarked that the only mistake made was that they didn’t make a good job of it and burn the place to the ground. He added, “If I was sheriff, this town would be cleaned up.”
Baylor, who was married to Reading Black’s daughter Florence, served as sheriff from 1884 to 1906 and is given credit for “cleaning up” the frontier town while in office. During his twenty years in office, he dealt with horse and sheep thieves, numerous jail breaks, and murders. Among those criminals in the Uvalde jail in 1887 was Charles Ray who murdered P. H. Johnson, the postmaster at Concan.
On a lighter note, the April 13, 1897, El Paso Herald reported, “Mike Ansley broke out of the Uvalde jail one morning several days ago. He returned in the afternoon and, when asked where he had been, remarked that the family physician had advised him to take more exercise and the limits of the jail were too small for his purpose.”
Baylor was successful in apprehending many criminals by offering rewards. In July 1900 Baylor advertised a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the party or parties who murdered Tucker Van Pelt on his farm.
A 1900 list of fugitives from Uvalde County lists 47 men wanted for various crimes dating back to the 1860s. G. W. “Tom” Wall, indicted in 1867, and Ben Boatright, indicted in 1884, were on the list.
Baylor ran for sheriff again in 1910, this time in a hotly contested race against Sabinal resident J. H. “Hammer” Johnson. Johnson, who ended up winning the race, had alleged a number a voting irregularities, including illegal voting and mistakes in counting.
Sheriff Hammer Johnson indicted but acquitted
Johnson and his family lived in the new Uvalde jail which had been built around 1900. His wife did all the cooking for the inmates. Located on Nopal St. and constructed of red brick, it even had a hanging tower, although it purportedly was never used. Former Uvalde resident Jo Stevenson Noble often visited the jail to play with Johnson’s daughter Dorothy.
Johnson served 15 years as sheriff, but near the end of his tenure, he not only was charged with extortion in 1922, but he and others were charged that same year with conspiracy to violate the Prohibition laws. It was reported that thousands of bottles of tequila were smuggled over the border and then distributed over the state. Supporters of the sheriff claimed the charges were political, and, according to the 1923 Sabinal Sentinel, it only took fifteen minutes for the jury to acquit him.
Ironically, Johnson’s job following his tenure as sheriff was as an investigator for the State Liquor Control board. He died in 1938.
During Johnson’s term as sheriff, Jim Fenley, father of Uvalde historian Florence Fenley, was murdered in Robert’s Grocery on the square in 1913. Fenley, who was 31 years old, was shot by his ex-brother-in-law Will Davenport after an ongoing feud.
Then there were the infamous Newton Boys. Willis Newton robbed his first train in Uvalde County in 1914, although their criminal activity had begun much earlier elsewhere. Their bailiwick seemed to be banks and trains and they are credited with the largest train robbery in history, netting them $3,000,000. They spent their “retirement” days in Uvalde.
With Prohibition still in effect, a new problem arose in the early 1920s: the Ku Klux Klan was organized. Hammer Johnson was still sheriff when, on a Sunday morning on July 22, 1924, prominent Uvalde citizen Levi Old, a KKK member and attorney, was shot four times by cattleman Fred McKenzie at the First National Bank.
Violence continued in the 1930s
Hammer Johnson’s colorful career was followed by sheriffs Harold Matthews and Harley Clayton, but violence continued into the 1930s. December 1930 saw another murder in Uvalde. Uvalde police chief John Connor was shot at the Strand Theatre on a Saturday night during a scuffle with two brothers. B. H. Hunter, owner of the theatre, and his three sons were jailed and charged with murder.
In February 1935, J. W. Haygood, deputy sheriff under Uvalde Sheriff W. H. Smyth, was shot by John Trapper as Haywood stepped from his automobile at the outskirts of town to arrest Trapper. Haygood had been a deputy under Hammer Johnson, Harold Matthews, and Harley B. Clayton. An angry mob gathered at the jail but was later dispersed. Trapper was executed for slashing his wife’s throat and shooting her down as she attempted to flee.
Uvalde enters a new era
Uvalde had become an established, respectable community by the advent of WWII. By 1940 there were approximately 200 businesses, wonderful neighborhoods, an excellent school system, and numerous draws for tourists. It was a largely agricultural community producing mohair, pecans, honey, and many other crops. It also produced a number of great city leaders who guided the city into the second half of the century. Despite its early “meanness,” Uvalde had arrived on the scene!
New jail built in 1967
In 1967, after 65-plus years, the jail on Nopal Street was finally torn down and replaced. What stories these walls had witnessed! The new 49-prisoner facility, built by Carlisle & Carlisle of Uvalde and costing $250,000, was equipped with the latest in security installations. Unlike the large open space in the former jail where prisoner couldn’t be segregated, cells were designed for certain prisoner types.
Looking back and forward
Although Uvalde is still reeling from the 2022 tragedy, its citizens can be proud of the city’s rich history and the unique individuals throughout the past 170 years who had a part in making the city a very special place in which to live.
And it all began with a young man’s dream and a wild frontier town named Encina on the banks of the Leona.
Allene Mandry was born in Uvalde where she attended elementary school before moving to San Antonio. Now a retired teacher who lives on a ranch near Camp Verde, she spends her time doing genealogy research and giving presentations on genealogy.
Courtesy of Susan Anderson
Built around 1900 and located on Nopal St., this jail served Uvalde for over 65 years.