Cowboys
and outlaws shoot it out... Much has been written over the years about the days of the outlaws in Texas and the citizens who opposed them during those wild times of the 1860s and 1870s. Gonzales,
Texas, had its share of violence with outlaws such as John Wesley
Hardin and others like him walking the streets — a situation
that made the local citizens uncomfortable, I'm sure. But
Gonzales wasn't the only place that had to put up with lawlessness
back in those days. Take for example the little Texas town of
McDade over in northern Bastrop County. Located on Highway 290
about eight miles southeast of Elgin, McDade was founded in 1869
in the expectation of the arrival of the Houston and Texas Central
Railroad. According
to information found in The Handbook of Texas, the town was named
after James W. McDade. In the early days it was also called Tie
Town or Tie City. It supposedly acquired this name because ties
and logs cut for the railroad tracks were stored at the site. No
matter what it was called, McDade was a mighty rowdy place. The
first business was a saloon that operated out of a tent. There a
thirsty man could buy a tin cup full of whiskey for ten cents.
When the town was incorporated in 1873, it had a post office,
cotton gin, and a small Baptist church. In
1879, a school was formed and McDade was called a "thriving
depot town" — the population of the community had grown to
about 150 people. Although you would think that this place had
everything going for it as a law-abiding locale, it was not to be
— violence and vigilante justice soon became a serious problem. A
group of outlaws known as the "notch cutters" took up
residence in McDade. As there was no local law enforcement, the
citizens of the town decided to deal with the bandits in their own
way. They hung two of the outlaws and the bad guys retaliated by
murdering two of the vigilantes. The citizens returned the favor
by hanging a third outlaw. In
1876, the citizens caught two men skinning a cow that was
displaying the brand of the Olive Ranch. The men were shot on the
spot — no questions asked. Again the outlaws retaliated. About
15 men, supposedly led by the son of one of the men shot, attacked
the headquarters of the Olive Ranch. Two cowboys were killed and
the ranch house was burned. Again
the local citizens cried out for justice and another group of
vigilantes caught the suspected killers kicking up their heels on
the dance floor. They stopped the dance and drug four men outside
and hanged them from the nearest tree. Needless to say, the party
was over. This incident happened in June of 1877. According
to Paula Mitchell Marks' article in The Handbook of Texas, McDade
remained relatively free of violence for the next five years. But
in 1883, the trouble started again. Two of the locals were
murdered and a third man was beaten, robbed, and left for dead. A
deputy sheriff investigating the crimes was shot to death in
McDade. So
much for law and order — the vigilantes returned to their bloody
work and hanged four of the suspected murderers. On Christmas Eve
of 1883, they executed three more suspects. This event led to a
gunfight at a local saloon and three more men died in a violent
barrage of lead. It
has been noted that this was the last occurrence of vigilante
justice in McDade, but other reports indicate that the violence
and gunfights continued until 1912. In
the face of all the turbulence McDade seemed to continue to
prosper. In 1884, it had a district school and a successful broom
factory with 10 employees. The Randolph Factory, a pottery
manufacturer, relocated from Bishop to McDade to be near the clay
deposits there. It later became known as McDade Pottery and it
caused the town to gain attention from around the state. Robert
L. Williams, owner of McDade Pottery, also invented and patented a
charcoal cooker and this item became a big seller. There were also
several coalmines in the area. The town got a weekly newspaper in
1890, as the McDade Mentor was founded. The
little community prospered through 1925, when it had increased its
population to 600. The town had three churches, two doctors, and
more new businesses began to open their doors. By 1930, however,
things started to go bad. McDade Pottery closed at the beginning
of World War II and in the 1950s, the population fell to 220. What
had been a four-block business district was reduced to less than a
block. Today,
the once-so-violent railroad town is a small and tranquil
agricultural community best know for the melons that it grows in
the fertile, sandy soil — that same soil covers the remains of
the outlaws and vigilantes — grim reminders of those rough times
in early Texas.
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