Prohibition And The Age of Lawlessness

 

I've kind of gotten away from the 52 Ancestors blog prompts lately. This will be my second "rogue" post. The reason, you may be wondering, is because I recently came across a story that is too good to not write and I can't wait for a prompt that would fit it! The story won't be about a direct ancestor, but rather David "Dave" Williamson Rutherford, the brother of my 2nd great grandfather, James Walter Rutherford.

Dave Rutherford was the 7th child born to Thomas Franklin Rutherford and Martha Ann Wright. And the first of their children to be born in Texas. According to his WWI draft registration, Dave was born 11 April 1880 and considering his parents show up in the 1880 Ellis County Census it is probably there that he was born.

According to transcribed records, on 27 Oct 1899, David W. Rutherford married Rachel Paralee Close in Coleman County, Texas. They were married by an Elder of the Methodist Church, Mr. William Charles Hilburn.

In 1900 this newly married couple is found in the Coleman County census living in between his parents and David's sister Minnie Elizabeth who is now married to Francis Marion Close (I believe him to be Paralee's brother). He owns his home but it is mortgaged and his occupation is listed as a Farmer.



Seated are Thomas Franklin and Martha Ann. Standing is David and Paralee

In March 1906 Dave's father passes away.

In 1910 Dave and Paralee are living on their own in Coleman County. No children*. His mother Martha is living up in Childress with her daughter Minnie Elizabeth Rutherford Close.

In 1917 David registers for the draft. He is 38 years old, medium height and medium build. He has blue eyes and grey hair. Another interesting piece of information from this record his is occupation. He says he is a 'Rental Agent' and his employer? Mrs. M.A. Rutherford (his mother). His place of employment is listed as Santa Anna, Texas.

In 1920 according to the census, he is living with his wife in Buffalo School District, in Coleman County, TX. There are no children listed with the family. His mother, Martha, is now living with him.

This is where the plot thickens.

Dave was in his mid to late 30's when Prohibition was taking the country by storm. Fear that 'the drink' was causing a decline in the family dynamic as well as the social damage and individual wreckage that alcohol consumption too often seemed to cause, some Americans sought to persuade citizens to refrain from drinking liquor. In 1919, when Dave was 39, Texas voters approved a state prohibition amendment.

At some point Dave began to take up with a neighbor by the name of J L Parnell (or maybe it was the other way around). In February of 1921 it was discovered by Prohibition Agent RD Schumate, that Mr. Parnell had a 15 gallon still in the upstairs of his home. Somehow our Dave was tied to this and he and Jim Parnell were arrested and taken to the jail in San Angelo where bond was set at $1500. That is $18,155 in today's money!




Identification card of Prohibition Agent R D Shumate




Brownwood Bulletin (Brownwood, Tex.), Vol. 21, No. 106, Ed. 1 Friday, February 18, 1921



 



I guess that much money and jail time wasn't enough to convince Dave of the dangers of alcohol during the time of prohibition because almost exactly 3 years to the day Dave's life all begins to come to an end. On 16 Feb 1924 Deputy Sheriff Joe H. Griffith and Constable W. L. Connolly attempted to arrest him on the minor charge of intoxication. When the officers approached him, he shouted "Don't arrest me!" and then pulled out his .38 and began to shoot. He shot Griffith in the stomach and Connolly in the thigh but they returned fire and Griffith landed a shot to Dave's head. One article said it went through his head but missed his brain while another reported that he was shot through the jaw. At first it was thought that he wouldn't recover but Dave pulled through. Unfortunately Sheriff Griffith did not.

Taken from Tippah County Rutherford's Page

RAY STOCKARDS ACCOUNT

Dave Rutherford was well known and liked here in De Leon (Santa Anna) He had the reputation of being a fair man and of not putting up with a lot of guff from anyone. He came here about 1920 as I recall and bought a little place outside of town and built a house there.

Dave and his little wife lived there and that is where Dave ran his business from. Dave was a bootlegger and sold some real good moonshine. Understand being a bootlegger in those days was not something to be particularly ashamed of. Dave was looked up to and respected in the area because he never cheated anyone and kept out of other folks business.

It was his bootlegging that got him in trouble and it happened this way:

The local sheriff was a man name of Joe Griffeth or Griffin I don't recollect which. Everyone called him “Uncle Joe". This sheriff used to try and get a portion of all the bootlegging and other illegal activities in the town. He and Dave didn't see eye to eye on some things and had had trouble in the past. Once Joe tried to bully Dave into paying him a part of his bootlegging money and they got in a fistfight over it. Dave knocked Joe out cold and went home. When Joe came to he vowed to kill Dave the first time he got half a chance. Folks here figure if Joe had just asked nicely Dave would have given him some money. Dave was like that. He Just didn't like to be bullied and wouldn't put up with it.

The whole thing came to a head one night in February of 1924. Dave had come to town to deliver some whisky, which he put, under a sort of dock in the alley behind the store. I owned a restaurant at the end of the alley where it all took place and I went outside when I heard someone arguing out there.

Dave had come to town in his wagon and had tied up in the alley. Joe and the local constable, a fellow named Conneley, were talking to Dave who was standing in his wagon in front of the seat. Joe told Dave he was under arrest for bootlegging and Dave asked if he had a warrant. Joe said " I don't need a warrant to take the likes of you to jail. Dave said " you are going to need one real bad before you get me there".

The constable, Conneley, was standing in front of the wagon holding the horses so Dave couldn't go anywhere. Joe reached for his gun and Dave opened his coat and pulled his and the shooting started. I didn't see who fired first but Dave shot two shots that hit the sheriff in the stomach. Connely took off running down the alley and Dave gave him one in each hip pocket to hurry him along.

Dave had an old German Luger. (Probably a war trophy from WWI ) ed. He turned back partly toward Joe just as Joe fired and Dave fell off the wagon. The whole thing took maybe half a minute.

Joe come down the alley and asked if he could use the phone to get a doctor and call his wife. He said he didn't think he would survive and he didn't. Joe had a big potbelly and Dave put two bullets in it. When the doctor got there they took Joe and Connely into the store to treat them. The doctor told Joe he was in bad shape and was not going to live. Connely wasn't hurt much but I never heard a person take on so in all my life. You'd of thought it was him was killed. During all this time no one paid any attention to Dave who was still laying outside by the wagon. Finally someone decided to go see if he was alive. Turned out he was. He had been shot through the jaws just in front of his ears but he was conscious. The doctor pulled a silk handkerchief completely through the wounds and said that was all he could do there and that Dave might just make it to the hospital but probably would not live.

They got Dave to the hospital and he did live and recovered completely. The doctors at the hospital told Dave he was not going to make it. Dave couldn't talk so he reached up and pulled a pen from the doctor’s pocket and wrote on the sheet not to worry about him because he would be all right.
Dave's  mother, Martha Ann, died later that same year.







 

 

One year later Dave Rutherford received his sentence for the murder of Sheriff Joe H. Griffith. In May of 1925 after only 2 hours of deliberation he was given life in prison.















I guess when you've been sentenced to life in prison you really don't have much to lose. Dave appealed this verdict but fearing the worst decided to take matters into his own hands. In November of 1926 while awaiting the verdict on his appeal he escaped from the prison in Brownwood by sawing his way out of his cell with a shoe spring and then tying blankets together to make a rope to lower himself out of the building.

If you want to read text from the 1926 trial of Dave W. Rutherford vs. The State, with witness testimony, click here. <--This is quite a find! It sounds like Griffith and Dave had quite a history.

If you're like me you're wondering what a shoe spring is. According the link above a shoe spring or a spring plate was a piece of carbon graphite that was lighter than a feather but stronger than steel. While the link above is a rather new item, there was a patent for a spring loaded arch support as early as 1920.

 

 

 

 

Dave was able to enjoy his freedom for only a year before being recaptured. During that year he took the alias of Crude and began employment with a pipe line crew around Eldorado. In late August 1927, while enjoying his meal at a local restaurant, Deputy Sheriff Leslie Galbreath, recognized Dave Rutherford and called in for back up. He and W.E. Young the deputy for the Humble pipe crew later made the arrest. I don't know if the remark made by Dave upon arrest was sincere or some sort of arrogance. The article claims the reward for Rutherford's capture was only $100 but when Dave was captured he admitted to being the man they were looking for and claimed to be worth $1000, telling Galbreath not to hand him over until he got his thousand dollars.

In September of 1927 Dave Rutherford shows up in the Texas, Convict and Conduct Register, age 47, 5'9" and 157lbs. Is listed as a Christian and his shoe size was 8. He smoked and had attended school for 7 years. He was confined to the State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Walker, Texas. At some point he was moved to the State Sanitarium in Angleton, Texas where on the 28 of August 1928 he got into a knife  fight with another convict named J E Edwards at the kitchen on the Ramsey State Farm where they worked. He "recovered" from his wounds to the point of dying one month later on 25/6 September 1928. None of this was initially known. It seems the prison wanted to cover up their lack of medical care because in their books cause of death was listed as 'heart block' and when they sent his body back home to Santa Anna slashed all over with stab wounds and gashes they included a death certificate with a cause of death listed as 'heart failure'. Just a few days later on 3 Oct 1928, Dave's faithful widow Paralee demanded a probe into the death of her husband where the truth was finally made known.

An interview passed down from an unknown source and published on the Tippah County Rutherford Page says the following:


Paralee Close married Dave Rutherford ~ date unknown) and they had one son* who died shortly after birth. After Dave was killed she moved to Tucson AZ and worked as a cook at the county jail until her retirement. She never remarried and lived alone all the rest or her life. She was a very private person and it was very hard for her to talk about David but she bravely tried to give me all the information she could. She broke down in tears several times. Out of respect for her I have waited to record her account until after her death.

PARALEES ACCOUNT 

David was a very respected man around De Leon and didn't have a lot of trouble with anyone. He didn’t put up with a lot from people but he was not the kind to start trouble unless they started it first. He was an aviator in the war (WWI) and was a pretty good hand at whatever he tried.

He had some trouble with the City marshal ( Stockard said sheriff but he was mistaken) and the Marshal vowed to kill Dave if he ever got a chance.

In February of 1924 Dave went to town to do some business and the marshal tried to arrest him. There was a fight and the marshal got killed. The constable was also hurt but he recovered. Dave was shot and went to the hospital. He recovered and was taken to Brady to be tried for shooting the Marshal.

The trial was later moved to Brownwood after the trial at Brady was declared a mistrial. While awaiting trial at Brownwood Dave escaped and was free for about a year before being recaptured. They finally got him while he was asleep. He had been working on a pipeline gang somewhere in Texas. Dave was tried and found guilty and sentenced to 99 years. (This is also different from Stockards account and is probably more accurate).

David was in prison until 1929 when he was killed by a cook who had stolen an ice pick from the kitchen. 

When I asked her why Dave got stabbed she told me that it was a revenge killing instigated by the Masons because “ Uncle Joe Griffeth" was a Mason. This was Parolees personal opinion and I have not been able to prove or disprove it.

Exactly how Dave escaped from jail in Brownwood is still a mystery. Legend has it that he got a gun which was hidden in the false bottom of a suitcase that he received at the jail. I asked Parolee about this and she would only say “ Well he got out".






From all the records I've been able to gather, I've never found that Dave and Paralee had any children*. His father passed away long before any of this lawlessness took place and  his dear mother only endured the very beginning before she passed away. I wonder what life was like for his siblings. I know one paper out of Dublin reported on the story and made note that Dave was the brother of one of their citizens, Mrs. S.L. Price (Lillie Carl Rutherford, wife of Sterling L. Price). My ancestor, James Walter was living over 150 miles away in Knox County during all of this. Dave's sister, Minnie Elizabeth and Paralee's brother Francis Marion Close who had once lived right next door in 1900 were now living near 200 miles away in Childress. Dave's oldest brother, Thomas Nathaniel was living in Big Spring, Texas and he died in 1926. His brother Grandville is living near 200 miles away in Navarro County, and his sister Margaret who had married Nick Hosch was living in OK. I also wonder what kind of support system Dave's wife had while she endured all of this. Her parents are in Coleman County still. Her father died in 1925 and her mother in 1929.  In 1930 she is still found living in Santa Anna. She's a seamstress and works as a dress maker, she owns her home and its valued at $1100. In 1940 she's living in Pima, AZ as the head of  household. Her brother Henry Close, also widowed, is living with her. According to that census she had lived in AZ for at least 5 years and she is now a cook at the public school where she has an income of $540 for an eighteen month period. Her brother is a painter and it shows he didn't work. After that she disappears until her death in 1984. She's buried next to Dave at Santa Anna Cemetery. If her birth and death dates are correct, she lived to be over 100 years old.

Do you have any prohibition ancestors or stories? I wonder if the prohibition caused far more problems than it solved?

One article quoted a Dr. Alfred E. Stearns, [speaking of the prohibition laws in 1924] "It has bred crime and dishonesty in high places and low". He went on to say that while he wasn't a prohibitionist he did support obeying the law.

Until next week,
Becky


Click here and scroll down a little more than half-way to get a first person account from Mr. Ray Stockard who knew Dave as well as his wife Paralee's account.