This is for you Lisa, Short Background for others: Near Yegua Knobbs (Lee-Bastrop Co line) Boaz Heffington, Lee Co deputy sheriff was murdered when investigating a robbery and double murder in Fedor community. Vigilantes formed, a list of names read of suspected cattle rustlers and horse thieves at the saloon (Henry Pfieffer and Thad and Wright McLemore, included), and these three men marched out of town and hanged. Heywood Beaty's name was also read because Milton, the storekeeper, stated that Heywood had helped Boaz Heffington's murderer leave town. Batey's and McLemore's were kin. The Batey boys came into town the next day (Christmas Day) which resulted in a shooting and deaths. We must remember how it was back then, with the railroad came rough characters, and Bastrop County was not immune to violance. The land was raw and still untamed, and so were some of the men. People were scared and otherwise law abiding men dawned masks for one reason or another and pointed fingers at their neighbors. Mustangs ran free and everyone seemed to live on an unfenced prairie, moving cattle to wherever there was grass. This is just one of the many stories of the time, one that made the newspapers. Bastrop Advertisor 1/26/1884 The Late Tragedies at McDade From the News MCDADE. January 14, 1881-Now while the horrible tragedy that was enacted at this place on Christmas eve and day is going the rounds of the press, just as correspondents see fit to clothe, and as reporters get it, I, a widow of one of the victims, claim a hearing. Three weeks have passed since the McLemore and Batey families received their double blow. Life with its duties and cares are before us, while behind us lies the shadow of our murdered dead and heart wounds that time can never heal. The Bastrop Advertisor, containing an account of the tripple lynching in Texas, as taken from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, s before me; also the reported interview with F. H. McLemore. It seems that it was proved at the inquest that Thad McLemore was under arrest, charged with burglary; that Wright McLemore and Henry Pfeiffer were under a nominal bond for cattle-stealing when taken from the saloon. That Jack, Azberry and Haywood Batey, Charley Goodman, Burt Hasley and Robert Stevens came in town next day defient, trying to learn the fate of their friends; that all were old residents, and all were under bad repute except Jack Batey. Thad McLemore was under arrest through charges by S. E. Walker, as was ascertained afterward. I hope that Thad died in ignorance of the latter fact, for he thought Walker a friend. As to Wright McLemore, my husband, being under a nominal bond for cattle-stealing, there is no truth in it. His accusers have not, nor can not, come forth! That all were old residents, and under bad repute, is another untruth. Wright McLemore had only been in the county six months, was almost an entire stranger. We had been living in McDade only about two and a half months. My husband was old and badly crippled with rheumatism, an object of pity to anyone who had a spark of that element. He felt that his life was nearly over, and came here to spend his remaining days near his brothers. The southern and north-western couties know W. K. McLemore; Bastrop did not. Thad McLemore and his brother Felix were volunteers from here in the Confederate army; served their time, came back, married and settled down in this county, where they have lived ever since in good repute; and yet one of those brothers, while in custody, was taken by a mob from a town he had helped to build, at an early hour, and on an evening when such a thing would be more difficult to perform than at any other time, carried out and hanged, and McDade knew nothing of it until the next day. And that next day! Oh, it is a deed worthy of being handed down to posterity with the Alamo! As to the Batey crowd going in armed and defianmt, that is also false. It is true they went in together. It is a custom of old Mrs. Batey to get all of her family together on Christmas day. They boys said they would ride into town to see what was going on; and come back for an early dinner. They were not drinking; none were armed except Haywood Batey and Charley Goodman; the latter never used his pistol, it being on his person all the time, and turned the ball that wounded him. Haywood Batey had only four charges in his, so that might account for the miraculous escape of Milton and Bishop, as there were from sixty to one hundred shots! I saw them as they rode into town, and a few minutes later Azberry Batey rode up to my door to see if the news he had heard was true. I think the very last rational words he ever spoke were to me. I saw him fifteen minutes later lying in the streets dead. I see from the Bastrop Advertisor that it is generally supposed that the lynching was the outgrowth of a vigilant commitee organized in McDade after the shooting of Heffington, of Lee County, and that the McLemore brothers were suspected as being implicated. My husband did not know Heffington. Thad McLemore left town before the train came down that Fitzpatrick, the accused, was on. We knew nothing of a man being shot until the following MOnday. The shooting was done on Saturday night. In a special from McDade to The Galveston News, dated December 25, it was stated that Wright McLemore happened to be present when the others were taken out. Since them The News has come out with an editorial which should elect him for our next governor, if such a man could be spared from the press. Texas, the empire State of the Union, has a constitution that demands the right to say who shall and who shall not be put to death. The Globe-Democrat reporter, in copying from notes made during his interview with Felix McLemore, was sadly out of time; but then he had been at the scene of carnage, and I suppose had caught the infection so it will have to be excused. Felix is well known in this county and wants it distinctly understood that he emphatically denies having once said, "I can prove this and so." He told the reported from the beginning that he knew nothing about it only what his family and friends had told him; he was not home at the time, and only stayed a short time when he did go. He made no allusions as to his dead brother's families being dependent on him for a support. Everyone in that mob knew Thad McLemore was the father of six children, all under twelve years of age, and left without a maintenance. The part referred to where Thad had a conversation with Goodman and Fitzpatrick is all wrong. Felix has the letter now which my husband wrote him after the death of Heffington, containing the substance of what he related to the reporter. He is not staying from home through any fears of killing or being killed. He is a living flesh and blood man, with perfect organization. and, it is presumble, he has the power of feeling. I can establish all and more than is contained in this article and earnestly request that you give it publication. Mrs W. K. McLemore Tammy Owen Bastrop CO, TX Coordinator Bastropcc@aol.com http://www.rootsweb.com/~txbastro/bastrop.htm http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~txtammy/bastrop/bastropmain.html