Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-08-18
vi rrE raANKLrN rRAeERY. "a

dental AtitinS OF an AnaOeemt Negro.
A terrible story Of bloodsbed and muir
der was rife in the city yesterday, relative
to an Occurance that trsnspired at Franklin,
Tennessee, on Saturday night last. It Gre
ated sach intense excitement throughout the
city, and made hundred times worse than
i was by The gross MISREPRESENTATION
Of villainous liars aud vilIainons sheets,
we deemed il OF sufficient importance, not
only TO telegraph to the scene Of action for
full particulars, but also dispatched spe-
cial reporter thereto that everything, every
incident connected with the affair might
be obtained and given TO the public IN
fOtO II needs not rehearsal Of the terri
bic story Of how the sister Of young Ezell
was foully ravished by hellish fend,
how he nobly avenged that sisters Wrongs
how he was ambushed and murdered. MOI
No That story Of sorrow is TOO well
known by our people. But it becomes us
as faithful chroaiclers Of passing events TO
record the death Of the internal instigator
Of the last bloody page Of that most foul
book Of infamy.
The facts gathered BY our reporter and
those Of our resident correspondent, which
we publish below, coincide 50 nearly that
we deem our publication trlts in every par
ticular. Perhaps we had best wander from
the story for an instant, in order to connect
chain of incidents that will prove conclu-
sive the guilt of the deceased. Our readers
will remember our publication last week Of
an account Of the robbery of the Station
Agents Office, at franklin, and the abstrac-
ton of several hundred dollars therefrom.
II was not overwhelmingly, at the time, who
the persons were, although the authorities
had an eye Of suspicion on several parties.
| Some time during last week, the letter
which our correspondent furnishes Us
below, addressed to John Nolin,
a negro porter in the employ of Mr.. Mar
shall, Station Agent, and who was suspect
ed as an accompice TO the robbery, was
picked up near the railroad depot at Frank
lin, and subsequently found its way into
the hands of Ezell's friends, and on Satur-
day night about eleven o'clock, Immediate
" after RobinEon's Circus had closed its
performance, a body of horsemen, for the
most part undisguised and unEnacn 10 the
inhabitants Of the town, rode in from
various directions, placed their pickets ont
in strong force in the southern portion of
the town, with orders to let no one pass.
Bear6eld was then taken from his house,
and seeing his fate almost inevitable, the
deep-dyed villain, az he was knowing that
he would soon confront the immortal ghost
Of his murdered victim, in the presence of
his God and the avengers Of Ezell, Gc-
llO'Oledged the crime; prayed that If has hte
might be spared he gOuid leaVe The State an
tt0caiy-tolT hours and mould reueal The names
Of his accomplices. But no, justice demanded
and vengeance was swift to yield obeisanee.
His blackened soul was launched into
eternity.
The negro man killed at the same time,
we regret 10 say was shot accidentally. He
was returning home from the circus-saw
the crowd of hOrsemen-was told to get out
| Of the way, and it appears that BeaTfeld
attempting to run, was fired at and this
negro shot in his stead. This was pecu-
| liarly unfortunate rs the death Of an inno-
cent person is, and should always be regret
ted by every true and honest man. After
| the firing was over the horsemen wheeled
and left the city, nobody se,ing whittier
they went or whence they had come.
Coroner r. P. Moss held an inquest over
the body of Bearfeld, and returned a YER
dict Of death by being shot, at the hands of
some one unknown.
The negro Also has since died.
| On his deaih-bed he told some Of his
| friends that he was accidentally shot
and that the horsemen were not in the
least TO blame; that they had given him
orders 10 get ont Of the way and he didn't
heed them. The letter written by Israel
| Brown TO John Nolin lead TO the laiter's
detection in completely with the aforesaid
robbery, and on Sunday last Detective
Jenkins Of this city arrested Nolin and
| committed him 10 the Franklin Jail. His
/ investigation Is to be had to day, when it
is thought some further developments may
be obtained.
In conclusion, we learn from J. A. Ed
monson, one of the leading Radicals in
| Williamson county, that Bearfeld was not
driven out of Pulaski by band Of dis-
/ guiscd hOrsemen.
The following is our correspondents let
1 ter:
To the Editors of tho Union and Dispatch.
FRANKLIN, Tenn, Aug. IL, 1S6S.-You
will please publish the following letter,
which in itself is 30 plain that it needs no
prefacing:
NASHVILLE, Tenn, August 9, 1861
Mr., JOHN NoLIN: ] write you these few
lines to inform you that | am well, but
mighty hard run. / have been down here
since that Ezell was killed. / want you to
go to Mr.. Bearfeld's store and tell him TO
send me some money. He promised us if
we went into that thing he would help MS.
| All the help he has ever given us was the
| powder we had the night Ezell was killed.
! saw Mr.. Bearfeld once since ] have been
down here, and he promised TO send me
some money last week, but he never did il.
/ don't think he is a gentleman. He pro-
missed us TO help us in case We got into
trouble. he acted the coward that night,
for he didn't show up after he got US into
the trouble. Some Of the boys have gone
| down the river TO work. Mr.. Bearfeld
told us that we could join the militia
that he was going TO raise two companies
for three years, and be would be our
1 Captain. But / believe he was only
| fooling ia. He said he had his commission
then but didn't want to arm us until the
Legislature met 30 they would protect him,
but ! believe he lied about it. When /
saw him he said the law wasn't exactly
passed yet but would pass soon, but he
seemed mighty uneasy about il and
wouldn't give me any satisfaction about it.
Tell 10 Perkins TO write 10 me and tell all
the girls howdy for me. II the militia
isn't raised, you need not look for me to
come back 10 franklin soon. Write me il
the Jury passed bills against us for killing
Fzell. ! asked Mr.. Bear6eld about il, but
be was 80 uneasy about it he wouldn't tell
me any thing about it. i begin TO believe
he is afraid of rs oolored people. Give
nv love to Ell inquiring friends snd accept
fair portion for yourself
Write as soon as you get this.
Your friend, ISRAEL BROWN.
P. S.-Tell Mr.. Besrfeld TO send me
some money. J.B.
The above letter was found near the de-
pot at this place last week, proving con
clusiyely that Bearfeld was the author of
the plot and headed the negro mob who
killed poor, young Ezell, and no doubt was
the cause Of his death.
| About ii o'clock on Saturday night a
COMPANY Of horsemen came in, leone few
only Masked and effected an entrance
from the rear of Bearfield's house. They