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Bastrop County, TX |
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The
Bastrop Advertiser 1960s This
file contains articles gleaned from area newspapers and for 1960's. Submitted
by Author's granddaughter melba@nctimes.net Shoot-out
On Christmas Day Luckett
P. Bishop Frontier
Times July 1964 vol. 33. No.4, New Series No. 36 It was
a day of violence- that Christmas of 1883 at McDade. Homes were decorated
with the traditional boughs of green-but the streets ran red with blood.
Luckett P Bishop >From
1863 to 1883, lawlessness prevailed in Bastrop, Williamson and Lee Counties
in Texas, especially in the area where the three counties join. Bastrop
County points into Williamson and Lee like a Comanche Indian's arrowhead. It
was in and around this location that the Notch-Cutters plied their
trade. My
sole motive in relating this story is to correct existing published versions
of one of the bloodiest street-gun fights that ever occurred in Texas.
The odds were six to two. It
took place in McDade, in Bastrop County, about 10:30 on Christmas morning,
1883. It was held in true Yegua Notch-Cutter's fashion-that of heavy odds
by obtaining fixed positions, all within Colt. 45 pistol range, pre-arranged and
executed according to plan. Yet
the plan failed! In this open street fight the two men they had marked for death
escaped without a single scratch. Some thirty-five to forty-five shots were
exchanged. When the gunsmoke had cleared away, two men lay dead in the
street, and four were wounded (one was to die the next day). My father
Thomas P Bishop, and his personal benefactor and true friend, George Milton, had
rung down the final curtain on outlawry in the McDade area. Eighty
years have passed and you might ask, "Why write this story?" Well, as each
Christmas season approaches, a new version is related. It is always
different. Bishop
and Milton children are still alive today, some in Bastrop, McDade, San
Antonio and Beaumont, Texas. These children know the true facts. While
we are proud people we do not glorify gunplay and bloodshed. Not a single
shot ever fired by Thomas P. Bishop or George Milton at any one of the six men
involved, prior to the final showdown. Since the McDade fight, not a
single shot has been fired at any of the families of those who were involved. Et
the sons of those who were killed and wounded and the sons of the
Bishops and Miltons have resided and still do reside in Bastrop County. No
feud has ever existed between the Bishops and Miltons and the Goodmans, Hasleys,
Stephens, and three Beatty brothers (Jack, Haywood and Asbury). Then
why the gunfight? This is a good question and of all the newspapers that
published the story, not a single one raised this point. It was not asked at
the trial. It was
said that a week before the showdown, Bishop and Asbury Beatty almost had a
gunfight, but friends averted it. The facts are, the writers and
reporters did not know the true story. They published information taken
from persons who did not know, or were not in McDade, Texas, that Christmas
morning when guns were being shot and hot lead was flying through the air.
Their reports were based mostly on hearsay. The
question always arises as to why life was so cheap in Texas. My contention
is that conditions-the environment and hardships with which the early
settlers of Texas and Bastrop County had to contend-were the primary reasons. Our
grandparents and great-grandparents paid a heavy toll of life for the
peace and security that we enjoy today. Our early settlers had to
learn the lesson of "survival", which is the first law of nature,
be it to man
or beast. Santa
Anna never forgot the part played by the citizens of Bastrop in the revolution
against Mexico. Accordingly, in his pursuit of the Texas Army he
sent one column of troops to Bastrop to wreak vengeance on its inhabitants. The
town was partly burned and the women and children driven away. This
was a part of the "runaway scrape". The survivors never forgot that
while one hand guided the plow, the other might be forced to handle the rifle
and pistol to protect life and property. In and
around these hills starts Yegua Creek. Indians infested its thickets.
Records of the land grants made to families in June 1831, in the Department
of Brazos, Division of Mina, represent this area. Thee records also
reveal the names of many families who lost one or more members at the hands of
the Comanches. The average settler cleared the land as he built his
cabin. He was never out of reach of his rifle and pistol. His wife and
children always went along with the father. They could expect to have to
fight the Indians, who came on raiding parties from what is now Coryell County,
the Owl Creek country. They swept across the rolling prairies of Williamson
County, through the Yegua section into the Knobs section of Bastrop
County, into Old Mina (now Bastrop), and on to settlements as far south as La
Grange. They were intent on burning, murdering, scalping, and stealing
horses. |
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