The violence and unrest in Texas after the civil war was probably the worst in the south.

In 1870, my great grandfather William E. Gilmer came from Jasper County Georgia to Texas and got married in Gatesville Texas in 1874. My great grandparents then moved to Higgins Gap (now Izoro,TX) in Lampasas County where he went to work for John Calhoun Pinkney Higgins as a cowboy and teamster. Pink Higgins was also from Jasper County Georgia and has written to the Gilmers after the civil war and offered my great grandfather a job on his open range Lampasas River cattle operation.

From 1872 until 1876, and unknown to my great grandfather, Pink Higgins and the Horrel Brothers were literally at war over cattle rustling in what has become known as the Horrell-Higgins Feud. Pink Higgins always carried the new 30-30 Winchester repeating rifle and became known as "The Reluctant Rifleman." He shot and killed Buck Waldrip on the town square in Lampasas Texas. Buck Waldrip was a notorius professional cattle thief who was hired by the Horrell brothers in 1874 after he was released fromthe Comanche County jail by Sheriff Carnes due to lack of evidence. Waldrip was released after his former employer John Wesley Hardin shot and killed Brown County deputy Charley Webb in Comanche Texas. The Horrell-Higgins Feud ended when one of the Horrel brothers was shot and killed in his Maridian TX jail cell by vigilantes where he was being held for the robbery and murder of a rural storekeeper.

In the sever record setting drought of 1885 - 1995, Pink Higgins sold his cattle holdings along the Lampasas River when the river dried up. Frank Gholson bought the Higgins herd and my great grandfather went to work for Gholson as a windmiller, building windmills. He worked on Frank Gholson's ranch until he retired and died in 1914. He is buried in Smith Cemetery near the Lamapasas River with a SCV grave marker.

Pink Higgins was the inspriation for the TV series, "The Rifleman", starring Chuck Connors. Pink Higgins only had one son, just like in the TV series, who became a lawyer.His son was shot and killed in Snyder Texas by a former client. The murderer was later arrested by the Texas Rangers who finally got a confession from him. He "committed suicide" in his jail cell in Sweetwater Texas.