McDade

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it — and McDade, friend, has a story worth every mile of the drive. McDade was settled in 1869, and by 1871 the town had been properly laid out and given a name — named for Jas. McDade, a lawyer out of Brenham.

From those early days it grew into something real: a thriving town, an important freight center, a stage stop in the days when the stage was how you got anywhere worth goin'. They built a school-church in 1872, which tells you the community had its priorities in order — learn something, then pray about it. For more than a decade, McDade hummed along as a working town doing working-town things.

Then came 1883. That's when the vigilantes organized. And vigilantes, once organized, tend to find a use for themselves.

On Christmas Eve — Christmas Eve, of all the nights on the calendar — those vigilantes lynched three men. Three. On a night most folks were home with family, McDade was settling something darker.

But the story didn't end there. The next day, the day after Christmas, a shoot-out erupted at the Rock Saloon. That building is still standing today, kept now as a museum, which means you can walk right up to the place where the gunsmoke settled and imagine what the morning after Christmas looked like in 1883.

McDade has carried a long memory — freight wagons, stage lines, a schoolhouse, and one Christmas that nobody forgot.

What the marker says

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.