The following History of McDade, Texas is taken from The New Handbook
of Texas published by The Texas State Historical Association
in 1996.
McDADE, TEXAS. McDade, on U.S. Highway 290 eight miles southeast of
Elgin in northern Bastrop County, was established in 1869 in anticipation of the
arrival of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad. Two years later the first
train reached the site, and the town was officially platted and named after
James W. McDade, who lived in Brenham. In its early days McDade was also called
Tie City or Tie Town. Two explanations for the name are given, the first being
that ties and logs cut for the railroad were gathered at the site. The other
story is that it was know as Tie City because of its status as a regional
freight and cotton shipping center. The first business in McDade was a tent
saloon, where a tin cup of whiskey sold for ten cents. With the coming of the
railroad McDade became a shipping center for cotton and freight going to and
from Austin, Bastrop, and Smithville. By the time the town was incorporated in
1873 it had a post office, a cotton gin, and a twelve-member Baptist
congregation. The next year the first school was established. In 1879 McDade was
called a "thriving depot town" of 150 people, but following the Civil
Warqv lawlessness and violence in the area had
become a serious concern. The area was a stronghold for a group of outlaws known
as the notch cutters, and county law enforcement was far away and ineffective.
By 1875 local citizens took the law into their own hands and hung two suspected
outlaws, provoking retaliation with the murder of two vigilantes, which led to
the hanging of a third outlaw. Early in 1876 two men were caught with a skinned
cow, and the skin showed the Olive brand. Both men were shot on the spot. Five
months later fifteen men, believed to have been led by the son of one of the men
shot, attacked the Olive ranch headquarters, killing two men of the ranch and
burning the ranch house. On June 26, 1877, vigilantes stopped a dance, took four
men out and lynched them. For five years after there was little crime or
trouble. However, in November 1883 two men were murdered in Fedor, and in a
separate incident another man was beaten, robbed, and left for dead. Shortly
afterwards the deputy sheriff investigating these crimes was shot to death in
McDade. A vigilante committee hung four of the suspected perpetrators. But the
violence continued with the McDade Christmas hangings on Christmas Eve 1883,
when three more suspected outlaws were executed. This event led to a gunfight in
front of a McDade saloon on Christmas Day that left three more men dead. This
ended the vigilante "justice," but violence and gunfights continued
until 1912.
McDade had a district school and a church in 1884. It also had a thriving
broom factory, which employed ten workers in 1881, the first year of operation.
Matthew Dunkin started a pottery called Randolph Factory east of Bishop. When he
died Milton Stoker moved it to McDade to be near clay deposits. In 1890 Robert
L. Williams became owner, and he and his son operated the business until World
War II.qv Called McDade Pottery,qv
it caused the town to become well known throughout the state. Williams also
invented and patented a charcoal cooker that became a large seller. There were
also several coal mines in the area, and the coal was used by local businesses.
In 1890 the McDade Mentor, a weekly newspaper, was founded, and the
population stood at 250. Six years later the town had 400 residents, a graded
school, and Baptist, Christian, and Methodist churches, as well as businesses
that included two blacksmiths, two milliners, and two doctors. McDade reached a
population of 500 by 1914 and 600 by 1925. By the 1930s, though, the community
was declining. McDade Pottery closed during World War II. In the mid-1950s the
town's population fell to 220, and the four-block business district was reduced
to less than a block. However, the town remained an agricultural center
particularly noted for the melons produced in the surrounding sandy soils. By
the late 1960s the population had taken a turn to 300, and in the mid-1970s it
moved to an estimated 345, where it stabilized through 1990. In the mid-1980s
McDade remained a primarily agricultural community with two rated businesses.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bastrop Historical Society, In the Shadow of the Lost Pines:
A History of Bastrop County and Its People (Bastrop, Texas: Bastrop Advertiser,
1955). Luckett P. Bishop, Sr., "Shootout on Christmas Day," Frontier
Times, July 1965. Mary Ficklen, "McDade's Christmas Murders," Cattleman,
December 1967. Bill Moore, Bastrop County, 1691-1900 (Wichita Falls:
Nortex, 1977).
Paula Mitchell Marks
