Dave Burge-A Preacher Recalls Violence from "Rocking Texas' Cradle" by Ralph Ramos
Reverend David Augustus Burge was a man with pure Texas roots. His grandfathers were both here before the War Between the States and both fought for the Confederacy. Ralph Ramos called him "as much of a rogue as any river rat who skulked up and down the Sabine River." However, in 1919 when he converted he became a Nazarene minister.
In his early days he was eye-witness to gun fights and barroom brawls. He even participated in fist fighting, gouging, and kneeing and other logger brutality. His father once owned half interest in "Old Doggie" saloon near Deridder where there was said to be at least one killing every week-end. He brought logs into Orange and like everyone else at that time, carried a gun.
He spoke of the Greybo shoot-out and Leather Britches Smith (more on that later) as well as other shoot-outs on Beaumont streets. He also spoke of bullies, battles, feuds and even lovers.
He told of his grandfather Nobles (mother's father) who served as a blacksmith of the Confederate Army until he was captured. He soon escaped and made his way stealthily back to his home, avoiding both armies who would either capture him or put him back to work for the Confederacy. When he arrived near his home he found his family starving. He hid out in the woods, sleeping in a huge hollow log at night, hiding from both armies and wild animals and began killing wild hogs and game to feed his family. His wife would cook it and hide the cooked food in a bucket under her large skirts to bring back to the woods for him. She would pound on a log and holler for the hogs. She would then hide the food nearby and return to the house.
When the war was over and the Union had won the men came back to rundown farms and starving families. They became victims of carpetbaggers and insults by Union soldiers who remained in the communities. "Then freed blacks went rampant, pillaging, burning, and raping." From this the Ku Klux Klan was born to protect against depredation. Finally President Buchanan withdrew the soldiers and gradually the South adjusted.
Burge's other grandfather was a freighter. He used a 6 yoke oxen team to freight cargo from the steamboat landings at Logansport and San Augustine to communities in the area. Hardware, fancy furniture, and food were his trade but he often spent days on the trail and had to contend with highwaymen at night. He solved the problem by tying a large vicious dog to the wagon tongue while he slept in the nearby woods. He was never hijacked. Later he became a logger and had a partner. One day his partner became ill and Mr. Burge left him behind in the woods. When he returned two outlaws had severely beaten his partner, stole what they could carry, and burned the camp. They, however, had been recognized and Burge reported them to officers at San Augustine. The officers told Burge to take his gun and go out and "kill them like they were two skunks and you won't be billed." He laid in wait on the trail from the ferry but someone had warned them and they left the trail for another route. He was just as glad having never killed anyone before.
He met another bully by the name of Wax Simmons when he moved to George Adams logging camp in Old Salem. He was so tough "he could fasten a log chain around his chest, get down on his hands and knees and pull a 16-inch log to the top of the wagon stack."
The fight to end all fights began when Simmons shot at some cattle and shot rained down on Mrs. Burge as she stood in her garden. Burge yelled at Simmons and Simmons yelled back with a challenge to a fight. Next morning on the tram to work the fight started and the train stopped. Burge and Simmons got out and, ignoring the usual set of logger rules, they began with Burge telling Simmons "I give you first lick." Simmons swung, and Burge ducked. The battle was on and as it progressed Burge got a one-hand hold in a really sensitive place, wrapped the other arm around Simmons neck and went to eating him. He was said to have bit out huge chunks of flesh from Simmons chest before they were pulled apart. Burge offered to continue the fight later but Simmons had had enough of him. They later became inseparable friends until Simmons died under the wheels of a logging train a few months later.
When union organizers tried to organize a union with the loggers several people were killed. He recalled that Leather Britches Smith was there on the side of the union and rumor was that he was the first to fire as the union spokesman climbed up on a wagon to speak. The first shot killed a mill hand named Goleman inside the sawmill office. It became a gang fight then with not a few injuries. After that all attempts to organize stopped. Burge said he heard later that Leather Britches was ambushed and killed at Merryville.
Another of Burge's stories involved a man called George Stephenson, supposedly the brother-in-law of R.J. Cooper who owned a café and theater in Kirbyville. Stephenson was shot while riding his horse on a Newton County road north of Orange. The man pulled up alongside in a car and said, "I'm going to kill you." Stephenson said, "I don't have a gun. Wait and I'll go get one." He turned toward home and the man shot him in the back. This ploy had worked for Stephenson before and the man had never come back. There were several stories about Stephenson. Evidently, he had come upon a thug attacking Cooper. Stephenson challenged him. The thug turned his gun on him and Stephenson grabbed the gun away and hit the thug in the face with it, knocking out several teeth and putting him on the ground. This may have been the same man.
Burge's stories go on and on. He told about a time when there was virgin timber, untouched for centuries and wild game so plentiful that you couldn't sleep at night in the camps because "there'd be coons and wildcats fighting and owls hooting everywhere." He rode the cattle trails through Devil's Pocket. He remembered the bad days in Orange "where there was a lot of killing" and when Beaumont was "as bad a town as there was."
If you'd like to read more of the tales of Newton County including those recorded by Ralph Ramos, come by the Newton County History Center. "We'll leave the light out for you."