The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1881-11-11
THE MERIDIAN RIOT.
The True Story Of the COnnIst Between
Gegroes and the MhItes.

| MEklDlAhi MIss-l NoVeMper lU.-Atter
lapse Of two days In conversation witt
forty or fifty different participants, thu
whole story Of the shooting at Marion i
given in brief as follows; Tuesday last
while the State election was progressing a
Marion, this county, Joseph Barrett, ar
aged white man, having Just voted, was
insulted by a negro at the polls, Barrett
raised his arm 10 resent II with a blow
some say he drew . stick on the negro, but
before he could strike another negro, Jack
johnson, shot him In the neck, cutting the
iusular vein and killing him almost in
stantly,
George Johnson, eolored, formerly a
slave OF Barnett, ran up to defend his old
master and was shot by q negro, from
which he died to-day, When the general
shooting among the negroes commenced
the whites were all unarmed jeff Segars,
white, was killed by negro named Sam
Gillespie, Vance Segars was wounded and
is expected to die. Alex, Harvey, Demo-
cratic candinate for county assessor, fifty
yards from the scene, was rushed upon by
negroes and killed, being shot through the
head. He was shot in the face by Frank
johnson after he was dead, Jas. Hodges,
white, was wounded in the hand.
The negroes doing the shooting were
Gillespie, Frank Johnson, Allen Burwell,
Brown and Martin Malone, Marion was
not the voting place for these negroes.
They were from another precinct. VIII
Vance, a white Republican, Is said to have
given the order to the negroes to begin
firing, As soon as the news reached Sheriff
X. J.. Henderson, who was six miles dis
tant, he repaired to the scene with pose
Of scyenty.Rve men, but the negroes had
all left.
A party Of twenty ymen went to the house
OF Ed. Vance, q white Republican, and
approaching with warrants OF arrest de.
manded his surrender, and were replied to
by Vance halloing to them to go TO hell.
They we're then fired on and repulsed, one
horse being shot, BY 5 o'clock in the af-
ternoon relief came, and the Sheriff and
his men surrounded the house. The
Sheriff called out TO them TO osurrender,when
q white flag was presented at the front
door, The Sheriff met the bearer on half.
way ground, and on the promise that he
would protect Vance and oil in the house
should they surrender, II was agreed on.
When the Sheriff drove Ills buggy up to
the gate to take tho prisoners, Will Vance
and his men gathered about in the yard,
anticipating no danger. John Vance at
that moment was seen In stopping atti-
tude behind corner OF the stables, near
by, with gun leveled on the posse, but
before hc could fire he wis shot and killed.
At the same instant, while A, q. Warren,
OF the posse, was pledging protection to
the females Of the Vance family, he was
shot through the head by some one from
the inside Of the house and instantly
killed. The Sheriff and Harden Jones, OF
the posse, were slightly wounded. Ed.
Vance escaped.
Several negroes were sent to fire on the
posse from the house and run of. No
negroes are known 10 be killed, but four or
five are known 10 be wounded. viii
Vance was brought to Meridian by the
Sheriff in q buggy, eight miles, at night,
and lodged In jail. No harm WINS offered
him, Young Ed. Vance, u boy seventeen
years old, was captured, but was allowed
to remain at home. Yesterday party OF
fifty men, under the direction OF the
Sheriff, went in search Of I'd. Vance and
others concerned In the riot
None were found except tho negro Mar
tin Malone, who took an active part In the
riot. He Is now in Jail. No negroes were
murdered in the swamps, and none shot
except those resisting arrest and running
out Of vance's house, nor have the blacks
about Marion fled in terror. There was d
circus in Meridian to-day and tho streets
arc crowded as II nothing had happened.
fany OF the above statements are not
correct the errors arc so immaterial they
can give no color to the case. However,
an affidavit doubtless could be procured to
sustain any statement made herein. The
only cause assigned for the disturbance Is
the doctrine taught by the iusionists in the
late campaign, for the negroes carried pls-
tolls TO the polls after the fight. Three kegs
Of powder and large supply OF buck shot
was found in VanCe's house. He Is said to
have bought q keg Of powder Saturday.