The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-01-20
sereau,ersviile burnt.

EDITOR HERALD, Dear Sir:-No doubt
ere this, you have received many ac-
counts OF the burning of Screamersville.
l will add my account, with the lights l
have on il, and allow you to make your
own selection. The first burning occur
red on New Year night, at which time
there was one clubhouse and one church
burned. The next Tuesday night there
were several houses burned-in fact, all
the houses immediately III the place, ex-
cept the Baptist Church, but none Of
them occupied. Again, Oh Friday night
the Baptist Church, the last house in the
place, was burned.
Some of the above burning is charged
10 the kukluX, by some people, and 9TH
ers are of the opinion that they had moth
ing to do with it. incline TO the latter
opinion, for the following reasons: There
has existed in that neighborhood for
some time very serious difficulty be-
tween Mr.. George Anderson tthe man
who shot Dew, i'll Mt. Pleasant and a Mr.
James Thomason, which resulted in a
shooting scrape between them in Scream
ersvillo about one year ago, in which
both were badly wounded. They have
not been friendly since. 4 short time
ago, Anderson and his crowd met with
Thomson at Enterprise, and there: had
like to have been more shooting. Since
then Anderson has boen very hostile,
and himself, James Swan, and one Chris
topher, have been Kukluxing around at
several places some time ago. The gen.
uine K. KS visited these men, suppose,
and gave them orders to leave in fifteen
days. This is Anderson's story, which
time expired on New Years night. The
back that night, but the men had all
left but himself. He says they told him
that he must lie gone by the next day at
twelve o'clock, which he did / suppose
That night, the burning commenced.
Now, why should the kK's have burned
this out house and the church, none Of
which belonged to Anderson, or any of
his party, and if they intended to burn
thetplacc, why not have burned it all at
once, and why did they set the fence on
| fire, several hundred yards of which /
understand was done? is it not much
more probable that somebody had got
tired of such place, for there has been
| nine men killed in the place in the last
forty years? Or might not these men,
rendered desperate by their treatment,
have wished TO be reyenged on the lie gh-
/ borhood, or to make the impression that
! the Kk'S were house and church burn
! ersY TOR be it remembered, that Swan,
! one of the men who had his orders TO
! leave. had killed man in the placesince
receiving his orders, because he had
| thought he had reported him TO the KK's.
/ Mr. EDITOR, do not wish to be under
stood as defending he ku-kluN Khan.
Far from it. On the contrary. / bitterly
oppose it. and all other mob law, but
knowing that for this unfortunate affair
10 he charged to them, oun Radical
friends viii make it appear very badly
ON ice or paper, aud l give my honest
/ opinion, after talking with different men
/ who live i'm the immediate neighborhood.
none of whom believe that the kuklux
done it. do not wish to be understood
as intimating that ony of the men who
had the personal difficulty with Ander-
son and his party, did the burning. On
! the contrary, l do not believe they would
| be guilty OF such II thing. AZ
| simply wish that this s:t,i affair NAV
/ be published in its proper light, and in
| the light i'm which the Immediate neigh
! borhood see it, and that the impression
may not go out 10 theworld that we have
disguised House Burners i'm our neigh
borhood. w. r. I'll. NJ.
SOUTHPORT, JAM, ISL.