A Perfect Butchery

A Perfect Butchery

It was right after Francisco de la Garza died in the Spring of 1870 that strange things started to happen. Francisco was laid to rest on their ranch between Alamita Creek and Copano Creek. It was the start of the 1870's and Thomas O'Connor was done snapping up cattle. He was thinking about land and more land. Legend has it that it was during the early 1870's that he started fencing up all his different tracts of land into these so-called pasture's.
The early 1870's was his rampaging years in Refugio, Goliad and Victoria. He was hell-bent on snapping up as many tracts of land as humanly possible. He didn't care if it was a small tract or a mega-size tract of land, he was determined, and no one would get in his way. It was at this very moment, in-between the fencing of lands into pastures that he was conveyed the coveted Power tract, all 6,642 acres.
As expected, he was given a heads-up that a young man, a de la Garza was situated between Alamita Creek and Copano Creek. He knew more or less who it was, so did Dennis O'Connor. They knew the time was right and that it would be no issue for Don Carlos. They probably didn't have an idea as to just how large a tract of land but knew that it was large due to Antonio's cattle and horses roaming everywhere. The first tactic was to scare by slaughtering cattle and horses.
Again, since Antonio's homebase was Goliad the cattle and horses were left to their own device. They were far from a watchful eye or protection. It would have been the perfect opportunity to poison them from any number of weeds and plants, all too easy. By 1874 according to an inventory report filed in Feb of that year it appears that 100 head of cattle were dead as well as 14 horses. Antonio had been made administrator of his father's estate since 1870 and wanted no part of it.
Since April of 1870, O'Connor and the rest had wanted Antonio to sign off on his father's final estate and finalize the land and cattle. Antonio refused, and made it very difficult to find him. It wasn't until August 20th, 1872 that the county clerk of Refugio ordered sheriff J.L. Billingsly to find Antonio. He did not find Antonio until Sept 29th, 1872. He would need to go deep into the woods of Goliad to reach him. For some reason Antonio didn't want to go to Refugio noticed.
Whatever came of that fateful meeting with the sheriff, it did not lead to Antonio signing away his land. Two years would pass before O'Connor had enough. 100 head of cattle, 14 horses poisoned, he was a ruthless bastard and knew that if there was a way to hurt the young man it was to poison his animals. So, two years later, after evading O'Connor, he learned a very painful lesson indeed.
Mark


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