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Shoot-out at the A & L Saloon

July 1901 –  Tom Mullins was one of Hood County’s most colorful sheriffs. He was a short, stout man, and in this writer’s memory he rode a big white horse. It was in 1901 that Tom got into a shooting scrape with Nat Tracy. Tom was Constable at the time, several years before he became sheriff. The shoot-out occurred at the Aston-Landers Saloon.
Nat Tracy was one of three brothers – Nat, Berry, and Byrd. Byrd was killed in some difficulty or another. Nat and Berry were good-natured fellows when they were sober. The trouble was, they weren’t always sober and they’d had some problems with the Constable at the Thorp Spring picnic.
On this particular day of July 1901, Nat was in the A&L Saloon when Tom walked in. Nat challenged him with a gun. Now Tom was not armed, but he offered to go and get his gun, which he did. When Tom came back through the door of the saloon, Nat opened fire. He emptied his gun at Tom and hit him once in the leg. Tom was emptying his gun at the same time but he never hit Nat. Meantime a strange thing happened, G.C. Rothell had just untied his horse from the old chain fence around the Courthouse and he had placed his foot in the stirrup to get on his horse. At that moment, one of Nat’s stray bullets came through the open door of the saloon, across the north side of the square, and struck Rothell in his private parts.
Bleeding mightily, Rothell started toward the stores adjoining the saloon on the north side of the square, but he never made it. Louis Shoemaker saw him fall and carried him the rest of the way. It was thought at the time that he was emasculated, but evidently not. He became the father of 3 or 4 children. Tom also recovered from the wound in his leg. The jail records show that Nat was put in jail July 7, 1901 and charged with assault to murder.