The Steer Branded MURDER

 

(Tales of Texas) The story begins on a cold, dust-blowing day with several local cattlemen working a roundup on the tan grass flat about thirty miles east of Fort Davis. 
Leader–or committee chairman–of the roundup was Eugene Kelley, and present was Henry Powe (pronounced “Poe”), soon to lie dead with several bullets in him.  He wore a full black beard and had lost his left arm at the elbow in service of the Confederacy.  He had come from Alabama to Texas in 1870 and had had some college education.  By 1883 he was grazing cattle on public land around Mount Locke, and he helped found the Methodist Church in Alpine. 
Two other men involved in the shoot-out were Finus (‘Fine”) Gilliland and Mannie (“Mannie”) Clements, both of stormy reputation. Continued