The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1878-04-03

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household increased its moral character
istics seemed to weaken proportIonately.
Several mem bers of it were indicted for
robbery and other offences, but IS often
as an arrsignment was had, some other
member OF the family was on hand to
prove an slsbi or devise other
means OF acquittsl, and their pursuit be-
came waste of time and patience. FL
nslly two of the boys were sent 10 the
penitentisry at Moundsville, which was
then impertectly surrounded by q
stocksde and but poorly guarded, and
they soon managed TO escape and re
turned home, bringing with them ether
escaped convicts, who found the rocks
and forests of the mountains q secure re-
treat. Then the gang grew bolder, and,
as was supposed, under the leadership OF
the elder Jennings, organized more
audscious enterprises. Highway robber-
les became frequent, men were fired upon
from ambush, and detection and punish
ment by the ordinary means OF justice
seemed impossible,
At this period, when no intimation of
such action had been given, q body Of
men, upward of fifty in number, with
their faces painted red, heavily armed
and well mounted, formed on the main
street of New MartinsVille on chilly
winter night, and without uttering an
unnecessary sound chose leader and
moved swiftly upon the house OF an old
man named Jennings, few miles up
the creek. They burst In the door with.
out stopping to ask admission, and when
the old mans wife threw her arms about
her husband and begged for his life they
poured volley after volley through her
body INTO his PROSTATE form. Some
members of the household ESCAPED n
the darkness, but the work was intended
TO be thorough, and not only was the
building and its sppurtensnces Destroy
ed, but every neighboring covert which
could afford them shelter was burned,
and every relative or connection OF the
family, after being warned TO leave, lost
their homes by the torches Of the Wig
ilautes. In one night twenty families
were driven out of the county, and hav-
ing effected their purpose OF driving out
and destroying the obnoxious elements
of the county society, the Red Men"
dotted their sanguinary colors, and re-
sumed the pursuits OF peace.
THE MARTINsBUBG LYNCHING.
About the time that these scenes were
transpiring in Wetzel county similar
tragedy was being prepared IN Berkeley
county, one of the tier In the Eastern
Panhandle, through which the Baltimore
and OHIO railroad passes, and OF which
Martinsburg is the county seat. The
people of this county are, as rule, quiet
and law-ahiding citizens. The only eie-
ment of the population which has ever
| given any appearance of INSTRUMENTATION
has been the railroad employees, q large
number of whom find employment IL the
| large machine shops of the Baltimore
/ and Ohio Company at MartiEsburg, snd
/ affairs IN the county have usually been
conducted decentiy and in order. There
are a good many negroes in the county,
snd some little time before the lynching
above described took place, one Of them,
who went by the name of TOlvar, had
been arrested on charge of outraging
little white girl, the daughter OF one OF
the residents OF the county. The offence
was committed in lonely part OF u
country road, and there was some uncer.
tsinty about the Identification OF IolIvar
as the offender. He was ably defended,
Colonel Ward LsmOn and other well
known LAWYERS of that section giving
their best efforts in his behalf, and on the
first trial of the case the jury were dl-
vided, and a second trial was ordered.
This, too, resulted in a hung jury, and
then, fearing that the prisoner would
escape, mob, composed principally o.
the rough element about Martinsburg,
surrounded the jail in that town, where
Tolivsr was confined, just before daylight
on the day following the disagreement OF
the second jury, and, overcoming the
slight resistance Of the jsiler, took from
him the KEYS of the prison, and, dragging
ont their miserable victim. TolIvar wSs
found at dawn by early risers a ghastly
corpse, suspended by a rope, IN the out
skirts of the city. No effort was ever
made to discover any Of the perpetrators
of the deed, and its commission was
quietly ignored by both the county and
State authorities.
THE CAMPBELL's CREEK HORROR.
The scene now shifts to the ksnawha
Valley, near Charleston, where, IN the
winter OF 1886. an exhibition OF blooc-
thirsty and persistent ierOcity on the part
Of Judge Lynck's adherents was given,
which IS without parallel in the history
Of mob violence. For twenty or thirty
miles above Charleston, on the kanawha
river, and along the line of the Chesa-
psske and Ohio railroad, the population
IS mainly made up of coal miners and salt
boilers, the most turbulent and desperate
class within the limits of the State when
reused to action by any occasion OF pre-
iudice or excitement. One OF their num-
her John Lee, q coal miner, on the
night of December "a, 1875, was assault
ed on the bridge which crosses
Campbelrs Creek, near the Nan
awha river, about SIX miles above
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