THE HOCKLEY HORROR.

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Statement of the Coroner.

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Giving the Testimony Taken at the Inquest, but Sheds no Light and Furnishes no Clue to the Guilty Party - - A Black Business.

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Field's Store,
Waller Co.

To the Editor of the Telegram:

Sir — I am called upon by the citizens of this community to answer an article in your paper of date September 15th:

I write by the request of many to refute the idea that suspicion has ever been pointed to any person whomsoever, I will satisfy you that the whole affair is clothed in the deepest mystery.

I have made a statement of this awful tragedy, which will be published in the Hempstead Courier of the 21st and now, at the request of the citizens and for the sake of the young man Mr. Boulware so that a false statement or report may not censure an innocent person, or go forth to the world unanswered, I now give you a short report of the whole transaction and all that could be learned by the jury of inquest.

On the 13th day of September, at about 12 o'clock, I was informed by Mr. James Hargrave, a brother of the deceased wife of Mr. Lynch, that Mr. Lynch's house had been burnt down the night previous, and that all of his children had been burnt up, and he (Lynch) shot or wounded twice.

Mr. Hargrave told me to go down as soon as possible.  I live about five miles from the late residence of G. W. Lynch.  As soon as I could saddle my horse I started for the scene of the dreadful disaster.  Upon arriving there I found that a good many citizens of both this and Harris county had collected at the burnt house of Mr. Lynch.  On going into the yard one's eyes became fixed on what had once been the house and home of G. W. Lynch and his eight motherless children.  I summoned six good citizens, all men of age and experience, to act as a jury of inquest.  We took the evidence of Mr. Lado, who was one of the first persons on the ground, and one of the men who helped to carry Mr. Lynch to Mr. Weaver's.  We will give you his evidence

EVIDENCE OF HARRY LADO.

About 12 o'clock on night of the 12th of September, 1878, I was aroused by the report of a gun.  I thought it at Mr. Lynch's.  I looked out.  I saw a light reflected on the smoke house at Mr. Boulware's, which stands east of the dwelling.  I thought it too bright for moonlight, and saw that Mr. Lynch's house was on fire.  About this time Miss Mattie Boulware called out that "Mr. Lynch's house was on fire," and aroused the household.  I went with James Hargrave (as soon as I could get my clothes on) over to Mr. Lynch's.  The north side of the house fell in about the time we got there.  We found Lynch in the lane, walking up and down in front of the yard gait.  The first thing he said was, "Jim, I am shot twice, and my children are all burnt up."  Jim Hargrave says, "Brother George is that so?"  He (Lynch) says, "I reckon so; I don't know.  Look for and call them."  Jim called, and we looked, but we could find no one.  Lynch did not say who shot him or how he was shot.  He showed us the wounds in his breast and neck.  We then carried him to Weaver's.  This is all I know about it.

(Signed)      H. Lado

Mr. Lynch stated that he had been driving or hunting an ox that was in his field, that his two eldest daughters Miss Carrie Lynch and her younger sister Luranie came out to the lot gate and called out to him that the ox had gone around by the pond, which stands north of the house; then (the daughters) went back into the house.  He unsaddled his horse and also went into the house; that his young infant was asleep and he thought before going to bed he would feed it, and so he laid down across the foot of the bed by the fire-place occupied by his eldest daughter and the baby.  He layed down not to sleep, but to rest until the babe awoke, when he would feed it and then go to bed.  That he had fallen asleep, and was aroused by being shot in the breast, then in the neck.  He saw, after being shot, a dark object, something like a negro.  When last shot he fell back and became unconcious (sic).  The next thing that he remembered was that he went out on the gallery.  As he passed through the gallery door a sheet of flame filled the doorway, and he never could get back any more.  He stated in reply to a question that he had a shot gun and a five shooter pistol.  That after he got in the yard he heard the pistol fire four times.  He said it only had four loads in it, and after he got in the lane he heard the shot gun go off.  This is all he knew.

I (in the presence of the jury) asked him to tell us every thing, that we wished to come to some conclusion as to how all this thing happened.  He said, "I was shot, but I will cast no insinuations as to who did it, because some innocent person might suffer.  If I live I may know some day who did it, if I die it is at an end."  This is all the evidence we could get."  Mr. James Hargrave made the same statement as Mr. Lado.  We gathered the remains as soon as we could, and I positively state that the assertion made, that Miss Carrie Lynch was cloven by a hatchet is false, and there were no grounds for it to have been made.  The house was a log house, ceiled overhead, and to joists six inches wide and boxed outside.  The chimney was on the north side, not brick, but a mud and stick chimney.  A shed room on each side and no L.  A gallery on west side with a small shed room at north end.  According to what Mr. Lynch said in conversation to me, he slept on the bedstead in the southwest corner of the room; his eldest daughter and infant in bed to right of fire place, north side of the room; that two children slept with him; the rest must have been on beds on the floor.  From all that we could see the whole family must have burnt up without a struggle.  We found where the bed stood by the fire place, the remains supposed to be Miss Carrie Lynch, and close to her as it seemed the bones of the baby; where the bedstead stood, in the southwest corner, we found the remains of two side by side; on the east side of the room, where we supposed the bed on the floor was made, we found what we supposed were remains of the other four children.

From my own observations, I would say that not one of those eight children ever moved.  Don't think any one of them ever turned over in bed.  There was not a skull that a person could tell anything about.  What we supposed were skull bones were burnt to ashes and in flakes, and would crumble at a touch.  The heads, arms and lower limbs were burnt up so that no one could tell aught about them.  There was only the upper part of the bodies, the ribs and lungs, and this was burnt to coals.  Have given you all I know about this sad affair.

"THE HOCKLEY HORROR - Statement of the Coroner." The Waco Daily Examiner, (Waco, TX), Sunday, September 22, 1878, p. 3, col. 1-2.

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