The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-09-23

! The whole thing seemed to me to be de-
lliberste plan to murder me Else why SO
many armed men known 10 behuk'ux of
the Severest stripe2 Mr.. Perry has given a
! verson OF the affair in which he says he was
shot at by some one in Monterey. L append.
the affidavit Of several citizens Of that town,
j marked Note A to show the falsity of his
assertion. l also append the statement Of
the two magistrates before whom the cause
! was pending, showing that although the case
was set for trial against US for shooting at
! 10 o'clock a NJ and that we had right
then to have demanded trial. that we con-
sented to postpone it till O'clock for the
prosecuting witnesses to come IN, which they
failed to do Said statement Is marked \ ote
i B.
i Learning that Governor Stevenson was
distributing arms to the militia for the pur-
pose of suppressing outlaws IN Kentucky, al
the suggestion of several reliable citizens L
wrote to the Governor, asking permission to
! raise company of militia to be ready IN
case of an emergency. The Governor an
swered Immediately. and authorized me to
raise the company. stating that he would
send an enrolling officer to muster them in.
The company was partly formed when / re-
ceived intelligence from Frankfort that VIC
could not get any arms, and consequently it
was disbanded-
Il Shortly after this I went to Gratz to reside
Gratz is a small village in the lower portion
of Owen county, on the Kentucky. river.
think it was in the spring of 1872 that went
there to reside. Durin all this time the Ku-
|, kiuX continued their depredations, and |
= continued to denounce them | found that
they were mainly composed of trihing, ig-
}, norant, depraved men and thoughtless youths
who had been induced TO join by the persua-
/ sion of the leaders. These youths are, manv
of them. of good families; hence such terrible
, efforts to shield them.
! 1 finally began to hear that these men had
!! threatened me; and in the fall or winter of
1872, about IL o'clock one night, squad of
them, armed, mounted and disguised, rode up
to the house where l was boarding in Graft,
I III e n - u,
the window, and saw that they were armed
and disguised, and refused to come out. |
knew one of the men by his voice. refer
to John Oman. When they found that l
would not come out to them, they rode out
a short distance to the edge of little wood
near the house, and halted. Several citizens
of the town having come up by this time the
squad of kuklux commenced firing on them.
They then rode away. Fortunately no one
was shot by them in the difficulty.
I Not very long after this party of them
went to cabin on the farm of W. NJ.
! Bourne in Henry county where an old negro
sided. They shot and wounded his son. who
was about eighteen years of age and he is
consequently paralyzed for life. None of his
! ASSISTANTS have been punished, although he
recognized the men who shot him, and some
of them were arrested.
Shortly after this they attacked an old man
named Williams, who resided near Guest
). vile, in Henry county Williams was sixty
! five or seventy years of age. He had borne
an excellent character all his life, and what
they could have had against him mortal
can tell They wounded him terribly in the
arm. He was brave man, and returned
their fire and, it is said, wounded Bill Smcot.
who was, no doubt, the leader of the party.
Smoot has never denied it.
i This Bill SnIoot is considered the leader OF
the Kuklux X Ian. He is a terror to the COM
munty. Several years ago he killed Il man
named John B. Roberts at Gratz. This con-
stituted him hero in his own opinion, and
ever since then he seems to take great pride
in being considered Desperate. Hence he
became prominent character in this organ
izatiOn, whose name is a terror throughout
the State.
After Williams sufficiently recovered, he
went to Frankfort and applied to Governor
Leslie. The Governor promptls offered re-
wards for the apprehension of Williams
assalants, and sent them to me through the
hands of w II. Walker 1T Monterey. One
of the parties implicated by Williams was
Harvie Grubbs. On the Monday following
the Governors proclamation / arrested
Grubbs at Gistvilh. Bill Smoot was there
at the time, and ordered Grubbs not TO go
with me. l got between Smoot and Grutbs,
and drew my pistol and forced Grudbs to go
Smoot that night gathered together n band
of fifteen or twenty men. armed with shot
guns and pistols, and followed all the
way, to Newcastle. intending as they after
ward said, to kill me, together with two
Young men whom l Ind with me as guards
[ got to Newcastle however. before they
could catch me, and placed the prisoner in
jail. / then went to Eminence, expecting 10
take the first train for Frankfort. /
had net been in Eminence however, but
a few minutes when Snloot and his party came
intended to kill me. / was in the hotel with
the two young men when Smoot and his
men came up I remained in the hotel at
the re quest of the Town Marshal, as he said
it was our only means uf escape. The Mar
shall sent our horses out on the Frankfort
road, and after dark we slipped out got our
horses and rode them to Frankfort that
night. The next morning | called on Gov
ernor Leslie and told him al the circumstan-
ces of the case, and asked him If something
could not be done with Smoot and his party
The Governor replied that it was certainiy
an outrage, but under the existing circum-
tGre virtually tied his hands lie told me.
however, to return home, and l should not
be molested for making the arrest. Grubbs
was shortly afterwards released from the
jail l know not for what reason: l don't
i know whether he has ever been tried vet
i After leaving Frankfort, and while on my
road to Monterey, Smoot and his party came
out on tbs road sew minutes after / had
passed. expecting to catch me. They came
down the road and stopped at house near
Monterey, and stated that they intended TO
kill me and both OF the men that were with
me- in retaliation for the arrest of Grubbs,
who was then in Jail
In July, 1873 the Kuklux murdered a COL
ored man named Lewis Wilson Wilson
was peaceable inofansive negro, and re-
sided on the farm Of Mrs Mason Brown, in
Owen county They went to his house in the
night broke open his door and immediately
shot him dead. There were seventeen men
in this gang. It was about two miles from
Gratz, and / could hear the reports of their
guns while they were shooting him. After
numbering Wilson they set fire to his house
and burned it TO the ground Wilson, in his
dying declaration, mentioned the names of
several Of the party whom he recognized /
am confident that Wilson was killed simply
because he had offered 70 lend me horse to
assist me in taking Grubbs to Newcastle.
! After the murder of Wilson, the Governor
offered reward of 500 each for the appre-