THE ENGLISH WESTERNERS' SOCIETY
JANUARY 2018 BOOK REVIEW
This review first appeared in the Tally Sheet (Autumn 2016, Volume 63, Number 1)
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TOM TENNILLE AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JIM
CLEMENTS: Echoes Of The Sutton-Taylor Feud And Texas Reconstruction.
By Wayne Tennille. Pp. xiv + 118. Eleven
illustrations. Selected bibliography. Endnotes. Index. Soft cover. $14.95 US.
We all love a
mystery, or so the saying goes. The only thing incontrovertible about the death
of Jim Clements on May 22, 1897 is just that. But wait: even that is
controversial since no body was ever found; Jim Clements may not have been
killed at all, but may have disappeared in Mexico. Was he killed and his body
buried? Or did he decide to leave it all behind him and just disappear? Was he
another victim of the Sutton-Taylor Feud which claimed many lives in Texas
during the years after the Civil War and Reconstruction?
Jim Clements is not
an easily recognized figure of Western Americana. Only one article has been
devoted to his life, “James Clements: Peripheral Gunfighter” published in the
English Westerners Society Brand Book
back in 1980, by this reviewer. He has appeared in books about the Sutton-Taylor
Feud but only in passing, and he figures in the several biographies of John
Wesley Hardin, but mainly during the cattle drive to Abilene, Kansas in 1871. To
answer the question as to whom Jim Clements was, in a word: he was a first
cousin of John Wesley Hardin, sided with the Taylor clan in the Sutton-Taylor
Feud and in May 1897 “disappeared.” He may have been murdered but his body was
never found and no one ever convicted of the crime. He had married Anne
Tennille, daughter of George Culver Tennille who was killed in the feud. He had
several children who grew to adulthood. And what makes this incident in history
significant is that Anne Tennille had a brother, Thomas Conley, born February
22, 1860, in DeWitt County, Texas, which some consider the heart of the
Sutton-Taylor Feud.
Author Wayne Tennille
is the grandson of Tom Tennille. He had grown up knowing about the disappearance
of Jim Clements, and in some way the name of his grandfather was hinted at as
the killer. After many of the old-timers were dead he decided to seek out all he
could find about the relationship of Clements and Tom Tennille. His research
uncovered much about the times his grandfather lived, the man he may have killed
and why his passing remained a mystery.
Author Tennille opens
his story with the disappearance of Jim Clements. Instead of a conflict over
open range or a stolen horse the problem in this family was that Jim Clements
abused his wife. Anne T. Clements may have began the road of marital bliss as
any other bride, but the happiness ended and ultimately Anne had had enough and
wanted out of the marriage. Jim wouldn’t accept that and let it be known he
wouldn’t change his ways. It became well-known among family members, and among
the extended family members, that the couple had reached an impasse.
There are various
theories as to how the impasse was breached, and author Tennille discusses
thoroughly the probable incidents which led to the hearing of shots on that
February day in 1897 and why the families of that section were able to keep
“mum” about what they knew or thought they knew.
In developing the
story we deserve the chapter on the feud, a sketch of the life of Thomas
Tennille, his father who died fighting a posse, others who were closely
connected and what happened to Thomas Conley Tennille. Jim Clements had two
brothers who could have conducted their own “investigation” but apparently did
not. One is tempted to speculate on what would have happened if John Wesley
Hardin was still alive, but he had been killed over a year and a half before, so
if Jim Clements was in truth killed Hardin could not have returned to DeWitt
County to ferret out who the killer was.
The author concludes
that Jim Clements was in all likelihood murdered to prevent more abuse of his
wife and perhaps his children. But the second mystery remains: if Clements was
murdered, then who killed him? His brother-in-law certainly had the means and
had stood up to him before, but there were other close friends of Tom and Anne
who had the means as well, as did Anne herself. She was no timid prairie flower.
So that mystery remains.
In sum this is a succinct gathering of the now available facts on a mystery over a century old. It was a cold case in 1897 and will remain so.
Chuck Parsons
Copyright © 2018 English Westerners' Society
