A man named Dalton lived along the Bosque River a few miles from Stephenville. Toward the end of the Civil War, a posse arrested Dalton for the murder of his wife. Arriving in town, the party found that citizens had gathered and were waiting. Without a judge or anything like an official court, the citizens were asked to consider the evidence, then a line was drawn in the Stephenville square, one side for guilty and the other for innocent. Most people stepped to the guilty side and Dalton was taken to the hanging tree close to the square.

Sherri Knight. Vigilantes to Verdicts: Stories from a District Court, Stephenville: Jacobus Books, 2009.