Ya’ Messed with the Wrong Fella’, Part II

This installment of the Footprints of Fayette section of the Fayette County Record is the second in a series concerning the encounter between those engaged in crime and those who are the victims of the crime. Old newspaper articles from years past reveal that there was seemingly a never-ending degree of lawlessness, ranging from minor incidents, to the most hideous imaginable. In this feature, we will go to the nearby community of Plum to learn about those involved in crime, and those who took a stand against it. The exact location of this episode is the old Morgan Store. According to the local history text “Fayette County, Texas Heritage” the community was founded in 1889 along the Taylor, Bastrop, and Houston Railroad line (now Union Pacific). For any community to thrive, businesses must be developed to support the local populace. Hence, the story unfolds. A General Mercantile Store was built and operated by Dave and John Killough in Plum in the 1880s, until it was later purchased in 1900 by the Morgan brothers and the Barnhill brothers. By 1926, W. L. and Edward Morgan were the owners and operators of the business, which they later expanded to include a lumberyard and farm implement business. The Morgan family ran the organization until it was sold in the early 1990s.

Truthfully speaking, the Morgan Brothers, and any other business owner/operators can easily verify that there will be trials and tribulations at some time or other in the life of an operation such as a business. (Let it be noted here that the communities of Plum, Ledbetter, Carmine, Winchester, and Ellinger all had the same problem. They were located miles away from local law enforcement, they did not have their own police force, telephones were not always as common as today, and they had the railroad running through these towns. All these added up to a degree of trouble with crime.) Let us now examine a couple of episodes in Plum.

First, from the April 25, 1929, issue of the La Grange Journal. “Sunday night at 12 midnight, a call came to La Grange that burglars were entering the Morgan Mercantile Co. store at Plum… Sheriff (Will) Loessin being out of town, City Marshal Paul Himly and Deputy Sheriff F. J. Lidiak rushed to the little community, arriving in less than 15 minutes.” Before they could get to the scene, several local men had already gone to the store, and upon seeing the burglar running down an ally in order to escape, Mr. Bill Morgan fired on the man. The shots took effect, as the would-be bandit was struck. Upon the arrival of City Marshal Himly, the would-be burglar was found lying in the shrubs, suffering from a wound in his left leg. The man, identified as Charley Randell of San Antonio, seemed to be “well acquainted with ‘the lay of the land’ at Plum.” He was taken to the local hospital in La Grange for treatment, and a charge of burglary was made against him.

A few years later, a similar occurrence happened at the same location, as reported by the November 16, 1933, La Grange Journal. “The store of Morgan Mercantile Company at Plum… was entered for the third time within the past three years… On Wednesday night of last week, the third attempt to rob the store was made; due to the vigilance of the manager, Wm. L. Morgan, this last attempt proved also to be a bad move for the night visitors.” The story unfolded in this manner: Mr. Morgan made the discovery and got in touch with the Sheriff’s Department in La Grange. Sheriff Loessin and his deputies arrived promptly. However, in the meantime Mr. Morgan had already assembled his posse (some neighbors). As law enforcement made their appearance, two men were seen trying to escape by the rear entrance of the store. The men were ordered to stop, they however continued to run and were fired upon by Mr. Morgan, the shot hitting the lower limb of one of the fleeing burglars. Despite the wound, the two continued to run until the wounded man was captured, that being Raymond Conroy of Los Angeles, California. Furthermore, a few days later, Sheriff Loessin and Deputy Jim Flournoy removed a young man from a freight train at Flatonia. He gave his name as Harry Conroy, his home also as being Los Angeles. The Journal concluded the story with “that this village store – which is one of the most modern in the county – should continue to be the object of burglary on the part of transients, is remarkable, to say the least.”

Hence, the reaction to being a victim of recurring crime, and the response on the part of the business owner. The Morgans showed that they had reached a point of “having had enough, and ya’ messed with the wrong fella’ this time!” Stay tuned for another episode next week… Sources: Fayette County, Texas Heritage, Volume 1 La Grange Journal

Footprints Of Fayette

Fayette County is one of the most historic counties in Texas. In this weekly feature from the County Historical Commission, a rotating group of writers looks back at local history.