Nolan County Rancher Found Shot to Death

Sweetwater, Aug. 14 - Edd Bardwell, 57, rancher and former Nolan County sheriff, was found shot to death on his ranch today.

Justice of the Peace G. W. Butler said a pistol was found under Bardwell's body. He had been dead about 36 hours when two ranch employes, Eldon Davis and Lloyd O'Haver, discovered the body. No formal verdict had been rendered.

The body was found at the spot where in 1897 Bardwell's father was slain by a sheep herder.

His widow and a daughter survive.

From The Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram, Monday, Aug. 15, 1938
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NOLAN COUNTY DEATH CERTIFICATE

Name: David Edwin Bardwell
Death date: 13 Aug 1938
Death place: Bittercreek, Nolan, Texas
Cause of death: Self-inflicted gunshot wound through left breast
Gender: Male
Race or color (on document): White
Age at death: 56 years 9 months 11 days
Birth date: 02 Nov 1881
Birthplace: Coleman, Texas
Marital status: Married
Spouse's name:
Father's name: Brainard Bardwell
Father's birthplace: Starksville, Mississippi
Mother's name: Ada Fly
Mother's birthplace: Canton, Mississippi
Occupation: Rancher
Residence: Silver City, New Mex.
Cemetery name: Sweetwater
Burial place: Sweetwater, Texas
Burial date: 15 Aug 1938
Informant: Mrs. Gladys Harkins, Sweetwater, Texas
Film number: 2117822
Digital GS number: 4030421
Image number: 259
Reference number: cn 38635
Collection: Texas Deaths, 1890-1976
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DAVID EDWIN BARDWELL AND CALLIE SHIELDS BARDWELL

Ed Bardwell was born in Coleman County on November 2, 1881 and died in 1938 in Sweetwater. He came with his parents to Nolan County in 1885. He was the son of Brainard and Mary Ada Bardwell, who settled in the Bitter Creek community. The home in which they lived has been restored by the J. C. Pace family. In 1903, Ed Bardwell married Callie Shields, who was born May 13, 1884 in Arkansas and died in 1961 in Sweetwater. Ed ranched on Bitter Creek for a while and then moved to Sweetwater in 1911. He served as a sheriff and on the police force. He served two terms as sheriff of Nolan County from 1918 to 1922. The included picture shows him in his office in the courthouse. At this time, the jail was in the building on the northeast corner from the courthouse in what is now known as the Doscher Building. The sheriff was the jailer, and he and his family lived in the bottom part of the building, with the jail being on the second floor. I well remember the hanging rope and platform in the old jailhouse and taking the meals to the prisoners.

To this marriage one daughter was born, Gladys Edwina (Bardwell) Harkins. She married E. H. Harkins, who was born in 1901 and died in 1975. Gladys was a school teacher in the Sweetwater School system for a number of years. Mr. and Mrs. Bardwell and Elvy Harkins are all buried in the Sweetwater Cemetery.

From FIRST 100 YEARS NOLAN COUNTY TEXAS (published by the Nolan County Genealogical Society, 1985), Page 97
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