THE WALLER COUNTY HORRORS.
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Crawford Will Stand His Trial — The Lynch Massacre — Lynch Still at Hockley.
[Houston Telegram]
One of the Telegram men spent Sunday in Waller county and picked up sundry sensational items.
It was learned from friends of R. W. Crawford that he will return to Hempstead before January court and stand his trial for the bloody and sickening murder of Robert Finklea. From all accounts Crawford did escape in good time to save his neck from the lynchers, who, to the number of one hundred, the majority of them from the surrounding country, congregated in town upon the evening of his escape. They were well armed with shot guns and six-shooters and evidently meant straight out business with Crawford, who would undoubtedly have been hung during the night had he not quietly escaped. His residence in Hempstead was at one time and a short time previous to his "skinning out" nearly surrounded by armed men, who congregated especially in front of the street gate. When asked what they wanted one of them replied "Crawford." Mrs. Crawford, a very accomplished lady became frightened and called on some of her husband's guards for protection, so it is reported. Matters were assuming a thrilling aspect when it was ascertained that the bird had flown.
The ostensible purpose of the armed men was to see that Crawford had a fair and impartial investigation at the hands of Justice Hannay, free from all bulldozing influences. Their friends claim they had no intention whatever of mobbing Crawford, but were determined to see fair play.
Crawford's friends say that when he returns to Hempstead to stand his trial, he will have the State troops at his back to protect him from the mob.
THE LYNCH MASSACRE.
The reporter took in a little more of the Lynch business. It was learned in Hockley yesterday morning that Mr. George W. Lynch, the only surviving member of the family lately massacred and burned at his home on Spring Creek, Waller county, is still with his nephew, Mr. Everly, in Hockley. He is now pretty well recovered from the wounds in his breast received on that dreadful night, when he saw his eight children swallowed up in the jaws of a fiery death. As some of Lynch's neighbors seem determined to crush him as well as silence the press, threaten reporters who want to get at the bottom facts, and let Lynch's eight innocent children rest in their graves of blood without an effort to ferret out the murderers, it is opportune here to say that even among his enemies Mr. Lynch has heretofore borne an unblemished reputation. This is the universal testimony of his friends and his enemies in his neighborhood. The reporter asked one of them if Mr. Lynch had ever been accused of cattle stealing. With a look of astonishment he replied, "No. Not only was Mr. Lynch never accused of that, but in all his dealings he had been a man highly honorable and upright." This also is the testimony of citizens of Hockley, where he is well known. Lynch has heretofore been a member of a Master Mason's lodge, in good standing, and nothing has happened to blacken his character or impeach his reputation for veracity. The detectives are said to be at work on this dreadful crime — one that surpasses the murder of the English princes in the Tower of London, or the massacre of the Dowdy family by the Indians in Kerr county the other day. It is reported they have information that, if published, would startle the people of Texas at the deep and damnable guilt of a plot that in a single hour swept a whole family of beautiful children into eternity.
"The Waller County Horrors." Tri-Weekly Herald (Marshall, TX), Saturday, October 19, 1878, p. 1, col. 5.