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The German and Anglo Texans spoke different languages, went to different churches and had different beliefs and habits. That caused some friction, as did the fact that the German immigrants owned much of the best land. Still, the two groups found a good reason to cooperate — their population was small and the threat of hostile Indians was large. As late as February 1860, Thomas Milligan, the first sheriff of Mason County, was attending to some horses and mules on the outskirts of the town of Mason when Indian raiders killed him. The Civil War and secession, however, pushed the two groups farther apart. Texas voted overwhelmingly to secede, but in Mason County the vote was 77 to 2 in favor of staying in the Union. Loyal Valley, 16 miles south of the town of Mason, got its name because the German settlers there did not desert the Union. Supporters of the Confederacy regarded the German farmers as a threat. Although no violence took place in Mason County at that time, Germans were attacked in other parts of Texas, and resentment built up everywhere.

After the war, Reconstruction was difficult for most Texans, but things were relatively quiet in Mason County, where the military force at Fort Mason maintained the peace. When the Army closed the fort in March 1869, peacekeeping became the business of local law enforcers and judges. In the minds of some Texans, too many former Union soldiers held those positions, but there was certainly no stress from population growth. The censuses of 1860 and 1870 both showed only 650 residents in Mason County.

Raising and selling Texas cattle became a very profitable enterprise in the late 1860s and flourished in the 1870s, with thousands of Longhorns being driven each year to the Kansas railhead towns. Cattle were Texas’ most important ‘cash crop, and some Anglo cattlemen did more than just raise them — they were not always too particular about what cattle they branded and brought to market. Because cattle often roamed far on the open range, honest cattlemen regularly rounded up their own cattle and strays, held them as their own, put out the word, and expected the owners to show up and identify their animals. Meanwhile, livestock rustling occurred all along the Texas frontier, including Mason County. The Germans generally had small, tame herds of cattle, and they objected to losing their strays to the rustlers and cowboys.

In October 1873, the German majority in Mason County chose as sheriff a man they obviously felt could protect their interests. Little is known of Sheriff John Clark’s background; even his middle name or initial is uncertain. How an apparent stranger could be elected sheriff — for his name did not appear on any tax roll or census in Mason County before he was elected — is unclear. When Clark rode out of town two years later, nobody is sure where he went. One thing is clear, though: While sheriff of Mason County, Clark had no problems with lynching or shooting those accused of — or merely suspected of — livestock theft. Clark was no gunman, but he surrounded himself with armed men, including Deputy Sheriff John Wohrle, who were willing to do his dirty work.

In August 1874, Clark and a large posse of German-born supporters arrested and jailed a number of reputable ranchers, led by M.B. Thomas and Allen G. Roberts, who were rounding up cattle. Thomas and Roberts owned ranching interests in Llano and Burnet counties, but they reportedly had hired several Mason County men who could recognize the cattle brands of local ranchers. The arrested men claimed they were rounding up only the cattle they owned, but to the state it made little difference. State law allowed for a man to round up and sell any cow he found, as long as he later turned the money over to the rightful owner. After spending a week as prisoners in Mason and paying a large bond, these cattlemen were released and returned to Llano County, where they found their herds scattered. They brought charges against Clark for false imprisonment and robbery.

Clark, though, was only getting started. On February 13, 1875, he and his posse went into McCulloch County and arrested nine men, including brothers Elijah and Pete Baccus, for suspected cattle theft. The suspects were brought to Mason and jailed. Four of them made bond and left the community, while the other five remained in jail to await trial. Almost immediately, the sheriff made it well known around town that he was in favor of lynching cattle thieves.

Only a few days later, a 17-year-old cowboy named Allen Bolt was killed and left beside the road near Mason. A note pinned to his back said, Here lies a noted cow thief. Bolt appears to have been the first man killed by vigilantes in Mason County, but far more blood was about to be spilled. On the night of February 18, a group of armed men broke into the house of Deputy Sheriff Wohrle, causing the lawman’s wife to wake up half the town with her screams. The intruders forced Wohrle to give them the keys to the jail. The mob then went to the jail, where they took the five prisoners and headed south along the road to Fredericksburg. Only a quarter mile from the jail, the mob found a suitable tree and began to hang their prisoners.

There are several versions of how Sheriff Clark and Captain Dan Roberts of the Frontier Battalion (Texas Rangers), who was in town buying supplies, chased after the mob and tried to stop the lynchings. In one version, Clark found some other men to help him, and they drove off the vigilantes in time to save a few of the prisoners. Other accounts suggest that Clark and Roberts didn’t do much of anything that night. In any case, nothing could be done for the Baccus brothers, both already hanged to death. Their associate Abe Wiggins had been shot in the head and would die the next morning. A rope had not yet choked the life out of Tom Turley, and he was returned to jail. The fifth man, Charlie Johnson, had been able to throw the noose off his head and escape into the night.

The next morning, Wohrle and his wife said they could not identify any of the men who broke into their house, even though Mason was a small community where everyone knew each other. Clark and Roberts were of no help either, and nobody was arrested for the jailbreak or the murder of three prisoners. Still, four men, including young Bolt, were now dead in what would become known as the Mason County War, or the Hoodoo War. In his book Ten Texas Feuds, historian C.L. Sonnichsen wrote that Hoodoos were the members of a vigilance committee which attempted, by ambushes and midnight hangings, to get rid of the thieves and outlaws who had been holding a carnival of lawlessness in Mason County, as in other parts of Texas. He added that some 19th-century blacks were using that term to refer to members of the lynch-happy Ku Klux Klan. One definition of hoodoo is a person or thing that causes bad luck, and by that definition, there were plenty of hoodoos on both sides during the Mason County War.

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