Friday, June 16, 2023
Mason County War
The Mason County War, commonly known as the Hoodoo War, was one of a number of feuds that developed over the stealing and killing of cattle. As early as June 25, 1874, Wilson Hey, presiding justice of Mason County, wrote Governor Richard Coke requesting that troops be stationed in the county to help deal with cattle rustling. Since many of the settlers of the county were Germans, there began to be a perception that they were pitted against the American-born residents, and neither group was able to get protection from the cattle thieves. The trouble began seriously when the sheriff, John Clark, jailed nine men on charges of stealing cattle. Before a trial was held, four of them escaped, but a mob of about forty men took the remaining five from the jail on February 18, 1875, led them to a place near Hick Springs, and hanged them.
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People that do not receive satisfaction from the system will tolerate injustice for only so long. That day is coming very soon, with all the shennanigans going on at the federal level...
ReplyDeleteI had tunnel vision on the word Feud. I thought it was just two families. I looked it up and yup it can be hired guns or at least people not releated. Learn something every day.
ReplyDeleteMy family on my mother's side were long time residents of Mason county dating back to 1850s. There is more to this story and it is interesting. There was a lasting resentment between the 'Germans and the White folks' (their descriptions). The first acknowledged marriage between the two clans occurred during WWII. Like wow. I remember attending a church in the 1950s where an old man attended that had a long scar that was in the place of a hair part. He had been a young boy when the Mason County was going on. The two factions had agreed to a peace meeting. The story went that the Germans arrived first and set up an ambush. The youth was creased by a bullet to the head in the ambush.
ReplyDeleteAll of this and Indians too!