Mason County War
| Date | 1875–1876 |
|---|---|
| Location | Mason County, Texas, US |
| Deaths | 12 killed (including those who were lynched) |
The Mason County War, sometime called the Hoodoo War in reference to a masked vigilante member of a vigilance committee, was a period of lawlessness in 1875-1876 during a "tidal wave of rustling". The violence resulted in a climate of bitter "National prejudice" between the "Americans" and "Dutch" or "Germans"s in Mason County, Texas. The war took the lives of 12 men.
Organized bands stole livestock but the spring trail bosses were also "indifferent to whose cows they drove", picking up mavericks and even other brands, though the understanding was they were supposed to return the profits to the rightful owner.
Germans had settled in Mason and Gillespie counties, "loyal to their adopted country and government when undisturbed" but "were sorely tried by the rustlers and Indians, who committed many depredations upon their cattle." In 1860 the county's first Sheriff, Thomas Milligan, was killed by Indians. In 1872, the Germans elected Sheriff John Clark and Cattle Inspector Dan Hoerster.
Clark and Hoerster organized a posse to reclaim lost cattle and soon came across a herd stolen by the Backus brothers gang and eight others, capturing five of them, who were taken back to the Mason jail. The captives included Lige Backus, Pete Backus, Charley Johnson, Abe Wiggins and Tom Turley.
A posse member, Tom Gamel, later claimed that Sheriff Clark and Dan Hoerster suggested lynching their captives. In any case, a mob of forty attempted to break into the jail on the night of 18 February 1875 with a battering ram after failing to get the keys from the jailer, Deputy John Wohrle. Both Sheriff Clark and the visiting Texas Ranger Lt. Dan W. Roberts were prevented from interfering with a warning they would be shot. Clark did gather a posse of about six citizens and, with Roberts, pursued the mob to the south edge of town where they were hanging the prisoners from a large post oak. By the time the posse reached the mob, Lige and Pete Backus, plus Abe Wiggins, were dead, but they managed to save Tom Turley while Charley Johnson had escaped.
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