I am researching my mysterious ancestor, Lewis Gardner, my ggg grandfather. He was born in 1809 at South Carolina, lived in Georgia and Mississippi where he was a farmer and slave holder. Then he went to Texas in 1865 and was a horse trader. Lewis Gardner was known to have been good with a gun and he was known as an all around bad man.

Mystery especially surrounds his death. It was said that he was ambushed and killed in a gunfight with horse thieves at Neches, Texas while he was driving horses to Louisiana. However, it was also stated he spent his last years in Johnson County, Texas.

Does anyone have any old newspapers from the 1870's that mention this man being involved in a gunfight at Neches, Texas in Anderson County?