"Leatherbritches" Smith
Leatherbritches got his nickname from the clothing he wore, worn shiny buckskin. He was a small man, easy going by appearances as long as you didn't cross. He came to this part of the state because had trouble with the law in West Texas after he put his wife's fingers to the red hot lid of a wood stove. He held them there until they were burned to the bone. The law put a price on his head a long manhunt ensued.
Sabine River bottoms were notorious for providing sanctuary for wanted men, cutthroats, gamblers, smugglers as well as robbers. Leatherbritches took up in the bend of the river above Bon Wier near the Quicksand community. It was said he never slept in the house at night. He'd disappear into the woods in one place and come back out from a different direction the next day.
Leatherbritches wore two .45 Colt revolvers strapped at his sides and cradled a Winchester in his arms. It seems he never went anywhere without them. He often walked into Merryville and went to the theater with those guns. No one dared argue with him. He'd stop in the middle of the street in Merryville to shoot martins with his six-guns from either hand or he'd shoot down martins with his .30-.30 and never miss.
Em Sapp, a tough U.S. deputy marshal at Beaumont tried more than once to go after Leather britches but was never able to successfully ambush him. He had a reward on his head and "everyone was after him but nobody wants to catch him."
Leatherbritches always got what he wanted without paying a dime. "He'd walk up to a house, shoot a chicken and pitch it to the housewife telling her to cook it ad she would." He would eat it and go back to the woods or he'd stop someone on the road, tell him to go get him some tobacco or rifle shells or whatever and he would. People asked no questions and never refused.
Leatherbritches, however, had fallen into the bad habit of stopping the logging train going into Merryville, give the conductor an order and telling him where to drop it off the next trip. This was his downfall.
There were six men who wanted that reward in the worst way. So, on one of the logging train deliveries at a pump house near Merryville, these six set up an ambush. They opened fire on him from both sides of the track. Although he fought desperately to defend himself, the ambush coming from so many directions, overcame his efforts and he died there. The six men loaded him onto the logging train and hauled him into Merryville and packed him in ice until authorities were satisfied it was truly him and the reward was paid. He was finally buried in Merryville. However, there were some who would have preferred a fair fight.
--Jonnie Miller