WM-RD-29
by Jeff Jackson, December 1, 2008
The White Elephant Saloon of Lampasas Texas was built in 1883 and destroyed by fire in 1884. George W. Scott was the proprietor. Scott bought the property from John W. Townsen in 1881.George W. Scott came near being the first white child born in Lampasas County in 1856. His parents were Abner and Angelena Scott. Scott died in 1918 in Dallas, Texas. His saloon was located on what was legally described as the west tenement of Lot 7, Block 17, of the Old Town of Lampasas, fronting 23 feet on the north side of Third Street and going back 128 feet to the alley.
On September 12, 1883, George W. Scott mortgaged the property to Kauffman & Runge. At that time the two-story stone building was nearing completion. On September 19, Kauffmann & Runge released the property back to Scott. On September 24, Scott deeded the same property to Houghton & Robinson of Travis County for $1000.
When the building was completed Scott bought an insurance policy for the White Elephant Saloon from P.M. Hargrave who was a banker and the insurance agent for the Phenix Insurance Company. On November 12, 1883, Scott deeded the property including all stock, bar fixture, and billiards tables except for one dollar interest in the same to Hargrave for $6000. Galveston Daily News reported, "Lampasas, November 26, -- It is stated that P.M. Hargrave, through his attorneys, Matthews, Wilkes & Woods, has brought suit against each of the firms - P.J. Willis & Bros., and Kauffman, Runge & Co., of Galveston, for $29,000 damages for having an attachment levied on the stock of goods recently purchased by him from George Scott."
Hargrave was a banker and his bank was on the verge of failure. In July 1884, Hargrave assigned the property to Henry Exall for the benefit of Hargrave’s creditors. On August 14, 1884, a devastating fire destroyed almost all of block 16 and a portion of block 17 including the White Elephant Saloon. In the court record of a lawsuit between the Phenix Insurance Company and P.J. Willis & Brothers it noted that Scott had deeded the property to Hargrave without consideration, in order to hide this asset from his (Scott’s) creditors, but there was no change in occupancy.
The White Elephant Saloon was destroyed by a fire in 1884, but it was a part of a fatal shooting in 1887. On November 12th, Frank Zollman was found not guilty of the arson that caused the great fire of 1884. That fire had started in an Ice Cream Parlor owned by Eckles and Zollman. That same evening Franklin D. Wilkes kept saying "Here’s to the White Elephant." Wilkes was an attorney and former district attorney. He was the son of Franklin Collett Wilkes, a Methodist minister and veteran of the Civil War.
Virginia Rasbury, better known as Doc Rasbury, had been on the witness stand earlier that day and took Wilkes’s comments as insult, and said to Wilkes, "You have carried this far enough!" Both men were undoubtedly under the influence of too much to drink. Rasbury went to get a pistol and later that evening met Wilkes on the streets of Lampasas, where more words were exchanged and finished with gunfire. Rasbury was unhurt but Wilkes was shot in the leg. The wound was so bad the leg had to be amputated. Ten days later Wilkes died. Wilkes may have died of the bullet wound, the amputation, or the effects of too much alcohol combined with the chloroform administered by the physician in order to perform the surgery. Whatever caused his death is uncertain and Rasbury would be acquitted.
