In the three decades following the Civil War, Livingston Parish, like much of the nation’s Deep South, was wracked by mayhem and violence, and law enforcement agencies were tasked with trying to maintain peace and order while vigilante groups sought to keep the Democratic Party in power through intimidation and common criminals were frequently ready to take the law into their own hands.

One result of the chaos and lawlessness was that George Calvin White, a gritty Livingston Parish deputy sheriff, was killed when hit with a hail of buckshot while riding home from Springfield. The story of White’s demise was told in great detail by Lt. Cmdr. Alden Thomasson, of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, to members of the Edward Livingston Historical Society at the group’s Sept. 7 meeting at the Main Branch of the Livingston Parish Library.

Thomasson recounted the difficulty he had in researching details related to White’s death and explained that he undertook the daunting project in an effort to determine whether White should be enshrined in the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. Ultimately, his work was rewarded when White earned recognition in that memorial in April.

Recounting White's saga reflected Thomasson's years of dedication pouring through old newspaper accounts and courthouse record books searching for the complicated story. He pointed out that official record books are difficult to work with because many entries were handwritten and names were not always accurately entered in the books. “Different spellings, nicknames, wrong names make it hard to identify exactly who is being mentioned in some of the old record books,” he said.

Further complicating research was the fact that an early parish courthouse in Port Vincent burned. A second courthouse was built there, but eventually the courthouse was moved to Centerville. Thomasson said that some records have been lost, such as some census accounts.

The connection between White and the Saturday meeting of the historical society had some special relevance because Maxine Hoover and Mike Jenkins, White’s great-grandchildren, were in the audience to hear about the tragic demise of their ancestor.

The speaker said that in the 1870s, a group known as the Blackburn Committee was formed to explore ways to bring under control a group known as the Bulldozers, who were terrorizing residents and burnings homes of anyone who dared to vote Republican. This was a time when violence was part of life in Livingston Parish, and it was into this environment that White would later be immersed.

A similar group known as the Regulators also rode roughshod over all who dared to vote against a Democrat in elections.

White, by all accounts, was a complicated man. Thomasson explained that White’s name first appeared in old criminal record books when he was arrested, along with his brothers, for stealing a pig. Apparently he was also apprehended on other occasions for petty thievery and possibly other small crimes, but despite his early brushes with the law, he joined the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and began his career in law enforcement.

In 1887, White became a deputy and generally was assigned to bring law and order to the Springfield area. Because of distances between different population centers and basically horseback being the main mode of transportation, deputies pretty much had to concentrate on certain areas of the parish.

In Springfield, White became acquainted with John Settoon and V.A. Steward, who both owned a store. Both would play a role in White’s activities in Springfield. Thomasson said that three men, including Luther Morgan and Sylvester Gainey, crossed paths with White in Springfield and a fight ensued.

White apparently took a gun away from one of the men, busted it against a tree, and then proceeded to beat the men with a stick. A second fight followed and White again beat the men with his stick.

White continued to be entangled with various unsavory characters in pursuing his duties as a deputy sheriff. Apparently in the process of trying to maintain the law, he drew the enmity of the criminals in the community and this would lead eventually to his murder.

On the evening of Feb. 24, 1890, while he was heading home on La. 22 with some other men including Settoon, the blast from a shotgun rang out, and White, critically wounded, fell under his horse. A second man was also killed.

Word of the deadly assault quickly spread and White’s brother, Jerry White, was alerted and brought to the scene. The shooter or shooters ran off into the woods and swamp and were never found. A subsequent investigation turned up the shotgun shells and the wading that was part of the shell but the evidence was apparently not sufficient to pin the crime on anyone.

A reward was put out for Morgan, who was a suspect because of his earlier encounters with White, and he was subsequently arrested and put on a train to New Orleans, where he was jailed. He was later tried and exonerated. No record of the hearing for Morgan has been found, Thomasson said. Morgan subsequently moved to Mississippi and lived into the 1930s.

Also suspected in the shooting were the Gainey brothers, but they too were exonerated. Yet another suspect, Zachery Hall, was also cleared of the crime but was later killed himself.

White’s killer was never identified and the mystery of who killed him endures 134 years later.

White was 33 years old when his life met its tragic end. However, his name will forever be remembered through his induction into the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. He is also memorialized at the First Responders Memorial in Walker’s Sidney Hutchinson Park.