The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1878-08-02
HaNa1ra OF FOUR MEN IN TIL
PUBLIC SQUARE.

to this Office, tho WflteE ptaSSeO inc
square. He was thinking
very hard about the eclipse, new
for the State and generally
what should go into this paper, to
make it interesting. A large bundle
of exchanges was under his arm, and
he was wholly absorbed in thought,
when, looking over the fence enclosing
square, he saw a crowd OF
people gathered around one of the
beautiful water-oaks growing in the
square, near the stops on the western
side of the enclosure. 10 80!
This square is beauty in nature,
and no city, large or small, can rival
1t. Its beauty is marred only by the
little, bake-ovcns known as the offices
of the Clerk and of the Recorder of the
parish, and bya barn called court
house, just opposite this office. In the
middle of this beautiful square stood,
before the war, a two.story brick court
house. In April, 1864, the Yankee
gunboats came up the Ouachita, and
one Foster commanding the feet,
burned tho courthouse. Foster, an
eyewitness tells us, was as ssdrunk as
help at the time. He found only
wonderland children in Monroe.
IIarrison's cavalry had sketladdled to
the pine hills, stopping somewhere
about Vienna, some 80 miles west OF
this place, where water and butter
milk were plentiful, and there was a
good place to camp. c
Facing tho courthouse square, on the
west, is the parish jail-a sweet-scented
place, known to all criminals and to
the community generally. In this jail
were confined, for safe-keeping, four
negro men and two negro women.
The men were upstairs, the women
below. Two of the men were in the
rear cell, and two in the front cell,
chained together, in pairs, by the
ankles, and then chained to the "bull-
ring'' to be found in the center of the
floor of each cell. In the rear cell
Henry Atkins and Peter Butler were
incarcerated in the front cell, Jim
Beatty and Tom Ross.
Between one and two O'Clock Mon
day night Deputy Sheriff Richardson
was waited upon while in bed, and the
keys of tho Jail were demanded of him.
His evidence before the C0roner's jury
shows that he did not give up the keys,
but told his intcrviewers where the
keys were. He was told to stay In bed
and not move from it. He did not.
Just around the corner Mr.. w. HI.
Ferry has a sleeping room. Mr.. Ferry
says that he could not go to sleep, and
lit his lamp to read awhile. Some
one came up, and said, put that light
out. What did you say? inquired Mr..
Ferry. Put that light out, was the
response, with a long pause between
each word. The light was extinguish-
ed, aud Mr.. Ferry quit reading.
Policeman Crawford was walking
along his beat IIo was halted in front
OF the Catholic Church., AMI Mr.. Craw-
ford halted. ...
This is the best evidence we
can gather of the hanging Of the four
negroes in the courthouse square Mon
day night. Tom Ross, Jim Beatty,
Henry Atkins and Pics Phillips, were
all hanging from Il limb Of ono Of the
water-oaks in the courthouse square,
Tuesday morning, and were all dead.
Had not their arms been tied, they
might have shaken hands, so close
were they together. a small MANILA
rope, threc-cighths in thickness, was
used, and q neat hangman's knot was
around the neck of each one, and the
knot was directly under the car OF
each. Their teet were not off tho
ground very far, Tom Ross's feet
touching the ground. Against tho tree
stood a ladder, got from the rear OF $
Meyers store, and ON the ground lay
another which came from the rear o.
Judge Richardson's Office Tho mouths
of tho four men were either filled with
scraps of old newspapers, or stopped W
with bandages. No one heard them hal
oo,and no one heard any disturbance,
SO far as we can ascertain. The town was
notalarmed, and men who werc up knew
nothing of what was going on. If the
men were masked, We have not heard