Download Free Mason County Or Hoo Doo War Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Mason County Or Hoo Doo War and write the review.

A haunting story of ethnic strife, human frailty, betrayal, vengeance, and the harrowing repercussions of mob justice.
This tour will begin as a walkingtour through downtown Mason. Although known as the Mason County War, through the years it has become more common to say the Hoo Doo War. A Hoo Doo was someone who rode at night, masked, looking for trouble.
In 1874 the "Hoo Doo" War erupted in the Texas Hill Country of Mason County. Hoo doo is an old term often applied in the 19th century to members of a vigilante committee. The feud resulted as an effort to deal with a cattle theft problem. The effort changed into vigilantism and eventually into an escalating quest for revenge. Another major component was a cultural clash between those of Anglo and German heritage. It was not until the premeditated murder of a rancher, supposedly a murder by Sheriff Clark. The murder brought Texas Ranger Scott Cooley to the area. The courts failed to remedy the problem. Gunfighters such as John Ringo were involved, too. Local and state officials were powerless. Twelve to 14 men died in the Hoo Doo War. The county Courthouse was burned on January 21, 1877. It was thought that it was burned in order to destroy evidence that could be used against those involved in the violence. The feud petered out in the early 1900s. "No one in the first generation after it ended ever talked about it," says Mason resident and editor Julius DeVos. "If anyone asked about what happened, what they would hear was something like, 'The trouble's over, let it die."
Set in the backdrop of one of the bloodiest range wars in Texas history, HooDoo War is the story of Boyd Wechsler, the son of a lovely young widow, who grows up on his wealthy grandfather's ranch. He learns the truth about his long-dead father when a ruthless outlaw and his gang are arrested and condemned to death at the hands of a corrupt sheriff. After learning the secret his mother and grandfather kept from him his entire life, he finds himself on a path shared by those who seek revenge against his grandfather and the men who support him. This heart-wrenching Western drama follows the life of a German immigrant boy's life, from learning the truth about his late father, who died under suspicious circumstances, through early manhood, when he learns the truth about his birth and the reason he has always been an outcast. His path leads him into the middle of the violence of the Mason County War. From his efforts to please a stern grandfather who will never respect him, to discovering a lost uncle whose singular goal is to see his grandfather dead for his sins from before Boyd's birth, Boyd will have to choose between honor or vengeance. Does he remain loyal to the family who raised him, or does he betray that upbringing to honor the blood that flows in his veins? In this Texas Frontier Tale, Craig Rainey weaves his fictional characters into the tapestry of the history of the Mason County War - the Texas range war known as the HooDoo War.
The Mason County Historical Commission is pleased to publish this edition of personalities and events of the Mason County Hoo Doo War by a group of western writers who are interested in Mason County and have researched this era.
Few names in the lore of western gunmen are as recognizable. Few lives of the most notorious are as little known. Romanticized and made legendary, John Ringo fought and killed for what he believed was right. As a teenager, Ringo was rushed into sudden adulthood when his father was killed tragically in the midst of the family's overland trek to California. As a young man he became embroiled in the blood feud turbulence of post-Reconstruction Texas. The Mason County “Hoo Doo” War in Texas began as a war over range rights, but it swiftly deteriorated into blood vengeance and spiraled out of control as the body count rose. In this charnel house Ringo gained a reputation as a dangerous gunfighter and man killer. He was proclaimed throughout the state as a daring leader, a desperate man, and a champion of the feud. Following incarceration for his role in the feud, Ringo was elected as a lawman in Mason County, the epicenter of the feud’s origin. The reputation he earned in Texas, further inflated by his willingness to shoot it out with Victorio’s raiders during a deadly confrontation in New Mexico, preceded him to Tombstone in territorial Arizona. Ringo became immersed in the area’s partisan politics and factionalized violence. A champion of the largely Democratic ranchers, Ringo would become known as a leader of one of these elements, the Cowboys. He ran at bloody, tragic odds with the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday, finally being part of the posse that hounded these fugitives from Arizona. In the end, Ringo died mysteriously in the Arizona desert, his death welcomed by some, mourned by others, wrongly claimed by a few. Initially published in 1996, John Ringo has been updated to a second edition with much new information researched and uncovered by David Johnson and other Ringo researchers.
The Johnson & Sims families were pioneer ranchers, settling in the same region--Lampasas & Burnet counties--in the dangerous years before the Civil War. After the War, Billy & Nannie Johnson & Dave & Laura Sims establish large ranches in adjoining counties in West Texas. At the turn of the century the two families united in a marriage of 14-year-old Gladys Johnson & 21-year-old Ed Sims. Several years later a nasty divorce ensued due in part to Gladys willfulness & Ed's drinking. More trouble followed over custody of their two children & Gladys took matters into her own hands.....
For decades the Horrell brothers of Lampasas, Texas, have been portrayed as ruthless killers and outlaws, but author David Johnson paints a different picture of these controversial men. The Horrells were ranchers, and while folklore has encouraged the belief that they built their herds by rustling, contemporary records indicate a far different picture. The family patriarch, Sam Horrell, was slain at forty-eight during a fight with Apaches in New Mexico. One Horrell son died in Confederate service; of the remaining six brothers, five were shot to death. Only Sam, Jr., lived to old age and died of natural causes. Johnson covers the Horrells and their wars from cradle to grave. Their initial confrontation with the State Police at Lampasas in 1873 marked the most disastrous shootout in Reconstruction history and in the history of the State Police. The brothers and loyal friends then fled to New Mexico, where they became entangled in what would later evolve into the violent Lincoln County War. Their contribution, known to history as the Horrell War, has racial overtones in addition to the violence that took place in Lincoln County. The brothers returned to Texas where in time they became involved in the Horrell-Higgins War. The family was nearly wiped out following the feud when two of the brothers were killed by a mob in Bosque County. Johnson presents an up-to-date account of these wars and incidents while maintaining a neutral stance necessary for historical books dealing with feuds. He also includes previously unpublished photographs of the Horrell family and others.