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.

Taken from a history of Bastrop as compiled by Margaret Bell Jones, June 3, 1936, is the following social commentary. “At this early date . . . there were no ministers of the gospel and no officer who might legally perform marriage ceremony. The Catholic priests in the missions of San Antonio De Bexar were busy converting the Indians and seldom left their mission homes. In Mina or Bastrop, a combination meeting house, courthouse, and dancehall was built by S. V. R. Eggleston, who was killed by the Indians in his own dooryard in 1839.

“A fine code of honor pervaded this embryo State; and so it came about that marriage by contract was legalized. This I have from a pioneer, Mrs Cambell Taylor: Marriages by contract were drawn up in writing, signed by the contracting pair and witnesses 9two), and were as binding as though they were licenses. Sometimes it would be two or three years before a priest could be secured to perform the marriage ceremony.

“on the very banks of the Colorado River, in what is now the southern part of the town of Bastrop, was a two-story frame house with a room below and a room above. This building was the meeting house that Mr. Eggleston had built. On one occasion a priest came over from one of the missions. Word had been sent along to all the surrounding country of his coming and, as night drew on, people on foot, in ox wagons and on horseback were wending their way to the frame and log building on the Colorado River bank.

“The upper room was lighted with tall candles in tin holder, hung around the walls. A rough wooden bench, nailed to the walls, extended around the room. When all had arrived, some twenty-five couple presented themselves for marriage. Quite a few of those, who had been united by contract marriage, had their children with them. The good priest solemnly read the religious service of his church; children born in contract marriages were legitimate. After the twenty-five couples had made or renewed the vows, the company made a night of it, the Padre as jolly as the rest. Children were placed on pallets while their fathers and mothers danced. The Comanche Indian prowled by night and it was safer to return home by daylight.”

From 1836 to 1862, settlers from “the States” came in a steady stream. They raised cotton, corn and cattle. McDade, Texas, was founded in the year 1840. Named after James McDade, it consisted of a few stores-was sort of trading post. Its development was cut short by the Civil War.

When the heavy-hearted Confederate soldiers came home, they found utter confusion-homes in ruin, families scattered, no money with which to rebuild. Union troops sent to govern the area were followed by carpetbaggers and riffraff.

From the Yegua thickets came the “Dodgers” to join with the riffraff. There were McDade’s first outlaws. They were despised by the settlers-those who believed in law and order. Then the gang started to expand. These few who knew the art of organization and planning were joined by battle hardened soldiers.

Thousands of heads of cattle ran in the open country of upper Bastrop, Lee and Williamson Counties. For four years very little branding or ear marking had been done because all able-bodied men had been in the Southern Army. Cattle ran wild.

Blacksmiths were busy making branding irons. When they made them they were registered in each county by their owners. Then came the rustling of unbranded or unmarked cattle.

The Texas Central Railroad was building its way to Houston, Texas. After shipping pens were constructed, the price of cattle went up. The rustling continued. When the railroad made the town of McDade its railhead in the year 1871 the little village became a boomtown. Brick buildings- a row of them- were constructed, McDade had is full quota of saloons, gambling houses, hotels, restaurants, blacksmith and wheelwright shops, corrals for oxen, stables for the stagelines, shipping pens, meat markets and other stores. The railroad “split” the town. Its railroad ran down the main street, and the depot was directly in the center of the settlement.

McDade was often called “Tie Town” due to its being the railhead assembly point for construction of its Austin branch. In those days all such construction was accomplished by hand labor and mules. First came the survey crews and the cutting and clearing of the right of way. Burning crews were followed by plow crews to break the top soil. Mule drawn slips dragged the dirt upon the roadbed. Hills were cut down; culverts and bridges constructed. Ties were hauled to the right of way and spaced for those who placed the rails and plates.

The spike-driving crew drove four spikes in each plate, eight to each tie, the ties being spaced eighteen inches apart. Then came the mining and groveling crews all of this hard work performed with the most primitive equipment.

There were tent towns, tent eating places, bunk cars- and a good pay roll which attracted undesirable camp followers. McDade had its full quota The Notch-Cutters, too, had started to prey on those who had any money. On paydays the construction workers came to McDade to gamble and drink or make necessary purchases. Those who won at the tables of chance were often relieved of their winnings on their way back to the tent town or bunk cars by the Notch-Cutter outlaws.

Not only were the railroad men being robbed, but citizens who sold cattle, horses or cotton were relieved of their cash, also. Cattle rustling continued. Butchering of stolen beef supplied the construction workers with meat. Beef without cowhides or heads could not be identified, so it was a profitable business. One robbery followed another, and murder was being added to the list of crimes. Conditions grew steadily worse.

This was no small one-time robbery group; it was well organized. The citizens of McDade were getting worried. Law enforcement was ineffectual, not because the sheriff was incapable or afraid, but because of the lack of money and too few assistants, long distances, and mode of transportation. On horseback, it might take a couple of days to reach the site of the crime.

The Yegua Notch-Cutters by now had increased by marriage and had a lot of kin. Citizens were afraid to testify. Those who did were bushwhacked from the side of the road. Just murdered. Then what would be the answer? To survive.

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