The Rawhide Fight, Vernon Parish Louisiana
Submitted by Jane P. McManus CPS
Date: March 4, 2008

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The Rawhide Fight
by Curry Ford
re-printed in the Leesville Leader 1955

The reason I say the Rawhide Fight took place in 1850 is that “Uncle” Lenn 
Sweat, Confederate Veteran who died in 1931 at the age of 96, well remembered 
the fight as taking place in 1850. 
[Note: The fight actually was reported as occurring in August of 1851 by 
the Red River Republican Newspaper, so Uncle Lenn Sweat’s memory was off 
by one year! jpm]

James Groves migrated overland from North Carolina to a point in Louisiana 
near Opelousas. Later he settled about 13 miles northeast of Leesville on 
Burton Creek near Walnut Hill. He was a man over 6 feet, weighing nearly 
300 lbs. That he was a man of means, could not be denied as he brought 
with him farming equipment, slaves, glass windows for his new home, and 
a string of race horses.

The glass windows were probably the first glass windows to be used in 
this section of the country. And the little cemetery near the Groves 
home got to be known as the “Glass Window Cemetery.” One of the first 
things Groves did after establishing his home was to build a race track 
nearby. To do this he had to cut through the virgin pine forest. The 
clearing in the timber was noticeable until it was cut in 1926.

Near the Groves home was a trading post owned by Hawkins and Burton of 
New Orleans. The locality became quite prominent and in time a stage line 
made scheduled stops on its way from a point near Boyce, Louisiana, on 
Red River into Texas by way of Burr’s Ferry. The trading post grew with 
the community and one of its biggest businesses was the buying of dry 
hides.

The community needed a school house and one was built of logs held 
together with wooden pins. The desks and seats were of pine logs split 
in half and smoothed down. Holes were bored in the rounded half, and 
pieces of wood driven in to make the legs.

A school professor came along one day and announced he was available to 
teach a season of school – a session normally lasting three months.

Excitement ran high in the community with the announcement. Word was 
passed out through the country that school would begin on a Monday. 
James Groves and others living within a few miles of the school 
announced that they would board a certain number of students from 
areas too far to ride by horseback daily.

The joy of having a session of school soon turned and as a result one 
of the greatest calamities ever to happen to the community occurred. The 
school house burned to the ground a few nights before school opened.  

The loss of the school building was the cause of much conversation and 
consternation in the community. Soon the finger of suspicion was pointed 
at a certain citizen in the community. However, this citizen had friends 
and the area was thrown into a turmoil and split into two factions with 
about an equal number on both sides.

The cooler heads in the community saw that trouble was in the making, 
something they didn’t want. So a meeting was called for all interested 
school patrons to meet at the trading post. History is not clear as to 
whether the meeting was held at the Burton and Hawkins store or at the 
home of James Groves, but it probably was at the Groves home.

Fearing serious trouble at the meeting, every patron asked to attend was 
told to leave his guns at home or don’t come. The agreement seemed to have 
been well taken. But one thing was forgotten; nothing was mentioned about 
knives and clubs. Although the meeting was planned as a peaceful one, both 
sides mistrusted the other.

The meeting got underway and was represented by most every household in 
the community. One of the leaders, a Mr. Jenkins made a fiery speech in 
which he was very abusive. He was followed by others who tried to smooth 
matters over.

One gentleman evidently not caring for speeches announced in a loud voice, 
“I thought we came here to fight.”

Hardly had the words fallen from the speaker’s lips when two men clinched. 
From then on it was a free-for-all, knives and clubs, no holds barred. 
Before the fight ended six men had been killed and no one ever knew how 
many wounded. Uncle Penny Sweat, now 85 years of age and living at Mora, 
Louisiana, has in his possession a club used by his grandfather, L.C. 
Sweat Sr. in this fight.

Of those killed only five whose names are known today. They are Charles 
Weeks, a Mr. Harrison, Mr. Hawkins who operated the store, a Mr. Hardcastle, 
and a Mr. Simon.

Mr. Weeks was buried in a cemetery near the W. R. Turner place, 10 miles 
north of Leesville. He had a brother, B.F. Weeks Sr. His widow was the 
former Elizabeth Garland.

Mr. Simon left two daughters, Malissa who married Benjamin Netherland, 
and Missouri who married John Greer for many years a resident of Leesville.  

After the fight, there were not enough sheets or quilts nearby to place 
the dead on so dry cow hides were used and from this the fight became 
known as the “Rawhide Fight.”

L. C. Sweat Sr. was wounded in the fight. After the fight, and because 
of the feeling aroused, a treveno (Indian style, a rig made by stretching 
a big hide across two poles and a horse then hitched between the poles 
as motive power, the other ends of the poles dragging on the ground) was 
made on which Mr. Sweat was placed. He was carried to the home of a Mr. 
LaCaze, living in Natchitoches Parish. He was placed in a room that had 
been used by the deceased wife of Mr. LaCaze.  

It was not long before a search party arrived at the LaCaze home looking 
for Mr. Sweat with murder as their objective. Mr. LaCaze told members of 
the party they could search his premises with the exception of the room 
used by his deceased wife as it contained her clothing and no one was 
allowed to make use of the room.

The premises were searched by not the room where Mr. Sweat lay badly 
injured.

When Mr. Sweat recuperated enough to travel, he left Louisiana and went 
west to Texas where he lived until his death. He was buried near Jasper, 
Texas.

Many stories have been told over the years as to who burned the school. 
One story, probably legend, is that a youth in his late teens was getting 
set to marry a neighboring girl and starting out on his own. His father, 
hearing that a session of school was about to start, sternly announced 
that the wedding had to be postponed and his son would go to Mr. Groves 
to board and attend school. The youth, not to be outdone, slipped away 
one night and fired the school building.  

Today the little Glass Window Cemetery, one acre in area, bears mute 
evidence to what was once a prosperous community and what might have 
grown, prospered and become the parish seat of Vernon Parish had it 
not been for the “Rawhide Fight.”

Nearby flows the little clear running stream called Burton Creek named 
for one of the owners of the trading post.  

[See related newspaper articles]