Part 1 of 8 (Tell me at any time if you would like me to stop) Lisa 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.