What is Termed the Hockley Horror.
A correspondent writes to the Houston Telegram to relieve Hockley of the charge of being responsible for this almost unparalleled deed of violence and crime. We subjoin a portion of his communication:
The scene of this fiendish outrage was eight miles north of Hockley, in Waller county, and in a community between which and Hockley there has never been much trade or intercourse. When the news reached our ever-quiet and peaceful village many of our people visited the place, determined, if possible, to find some traces by which the foul murderer or murderers could be ascertained and made to suffer the penalty that should ever await the perpetrators of such an unnatural crime. And because the first report accidently came from Hockley, it has been known as the "Hockley Horror."
The whole affair is yet involved in mystery, but we cannot believe that God, in His divine wisdom, will permit this long, and we do believe that the fiendish murderer or murderers will yet be known, and brought to punishment, upon which Heaven itself, though the home of love and mercy, will smile. Mr. Lynch was born in Grimes county, near where Navasota now is, and several of our citizens have known him from boyhood. All speak of him in the highest terms, as a man of strict integrity, of the purest morals and kindly emotions. * * Not a great while ago he had a difficulty with the Boulwares, growing out of stock trespassing upon each others' farms. Mr. Reuben Boulware made two assaults upon him — once with a pistol, again with a shotgun — for both of which he (Mr. Boulware) was fined. Mr. William Boulware, who is a very stout man, also met him in the road when (Lynch) was coming home with his wagon, and badly beat him. The above are facts, known to many, and will not be denied. The Boulwares have all reputations for being honorable men; nothing can be alleged against them that would reflect upon their characters. They are all distinguished, or at least well known for their fearlessness, and those who know them are not at all inclined to think that they could perpetrate a crime so revolting to reason, so repugnant to all the emotions of humanity.
Mr. Pinckney says "some deem it a terrible accident caused by bad management of the family." This may be so, but we cannot see how an accident could have resulted in shooting Lynch twice and burning eight children in the beds where they lie. Some one would surely have been awakened and their remains would have developed some evidence of an effort to escape. Mr. P. also says that some think it was the "work of a madman, or some inhuman fiend." This is somewhat ambiguous, and we know not how to construe it unless by a reference to certain rumors. I refer to the rumors that the father of Mr. Lynch was at times deranged, as was also his only sister. In reference to his father's derangement Mr. Lynch refers to many of the citizens of Grimes who knew him long and intimately. He was an educated and intelligent gentleman, and was highly esteemed by all who knew him. So we have heard, Mr. Lynch's only sister was the wife of our highly esteemed citizen J. Eberly, and her friends smile at the idea of her insanity. As to G. W. Lynch himself, whom we never saw until since the perpetration of the foul deed that has brought his name before the public, I have been assured by those who have long known him that he has nover (sic) shown any signs of mental wandering. I have had several conversations with him recently, and notwithstanding the dreadful circumstances that have occurred, I find him calm, cool, resigned and always rational and intelligent. He has never made the least variation in his many narrations of the dreadful crime that made him childless, and as he and his friends believed at the time, would result in his own death. The many conversations and interviews which friendly sympathy and eager curiosity have elicited, all develop the fact of his sanity and intelligence. His reply to the J. P. who asked for information, "I was shot, but I will cast no insinuations as to who did it, because some innocent person might suffer," evinces not only intelligence, but that true nobility of soul that occasionally manifests itself in the development of human nature.
"What is Termed the Hockley Horror." The Tri-Weekly Herald, (Marshall, TX), Saturday, October 05, 1878. P. 1, col. 6.