Bastrop Advertisor January 26th 1884

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 triple 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 counties 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.

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 committee 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.