McDade
McDade, Bastrop County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Laid out 1871; named for Jas. McDade, Brenham lawyer. Became a thriving town, important freight center and early-day stage stop. School-church was built 1872; vigilantes (organized 1883) lynched three men on Christmas Eve, causing a shoot-out next day at the Rock Saloon (now a museum). (1968) Incise in base: McDade was settled in 1869.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Laid out in 1871 and named for Brenham lawyer James McDade, this Bastrop County town grew into a busy freight center and stagecoach stop, its school-church raised the following year. But prosperity came with lawlessness: a vigilante group organized in 1883 hanged three men on Christmas Eve, and the next day's reckoning erupted in a gunfight at the Rock Saloon, a building that survives today as a museum.
Why it matters
McDade's mix of commerce and frontier violence—vigilante justice settled at gunpoint—typifies the rough, unsettled character of central Texas towns in the decades after the Civil War.
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Related people
- · James McDade
Themes & tags
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