The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-11-17
NEGRO BULDOZERS.
Their Plan to Reduce an Adverse
Majority.

Inelf Hian 10 heUuCe an Adverse
Majority.
MERIDIAN. Miss, November 13.-After
the lapse of few days, and cOnYerSa-
tiOns with forty or fifty. different parti-
cipants, the whole story of the shooting
at Marion is given, in brief, as follows:
Tuesday last, while the State election
was progressing at Marion, this county,
Joseph Barnett, an aged white man,
having Just voted, was insulted by ne
gro at the polls. Barnett raised his arm
to resent it with a blow. Some say he
drew a stick on the negro, but before he
could strike, another negro, Frank john
son, shot him in the neck. cutting the
jugular vein, and killing him instantly.
George Johnson (cOlOred), formerly
slave of Barnett, ran up to defend his
old master, and was shot by a negro,
from which he died.
General shooting among the negroes
then commenced. The whites were all
unarmad. Jeff Segars (White) was
killed by negro named Sam Gillespie.
Vance Segars was wounded, and is eX-
pected to die Alex. Harvey, Democratic
candidate for county assessor, fifty yards
from the scene, was rushed upon by the
negroes and killed, shot through the
head. He was shot through 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, Bur
we'll Brown and Martin Malone. Marion
was not the voting place for these ne
grOes. They were from another pre-
cinct. Will Vance (white) Republican,
is said to have given the order to the
negroes to begin firing.
As soon as the news reached Meridian,
six miles distant Sheriff r. l.. Hender-
son, with a posse of seventy-tiYe men,
repaired to the scene. The negroes all
had left. A party of twenty men went
to the house of Ed Vance (white) Repub-
lican, and approaching with warrants
of arrest, demanded their surrender,
and were replied to by Vance, hallOOing
to them to go to hell. They were then
fired on and repulsed. One horse was
shot.
By five in the afternoon relief came,
and the Sheriff with his men surround
ed the house. The Sheriff called out to
them to surrender. A white flag was
presented at the front door. The Sheriff
met the bearer on halfway ground, and
on the promise that he would protect
Vance and all in the house
should they surrender it was
agreed on. The Sheriff drove
his buggy up to the gate to take
in the prisoners. Will Vance and his
men were gathered about the yard, an
seen in a STOPPING attitude behind a
corner of stable near by with his gun
leYelled at the posse, but before he could
fire he was shot and killed. The same
instant, while A. q. Warren, of the posse
was pledging protection to the females
of Nance's family, he was shot through
the head by some one from inside the
house, and instantly killed. The Sheriff
and Hardin Jones, of the posse, were
slightly wounded. Ed Vance escaped.
Several negroes were seen to fire on the
posse from the house and run off. No
negroes are known to be killed. Four
or five are known to be wounded.
Will Vance was b ought to Meridian
by he Sheriff in a buggy, eight miles,
at night, and lodged in Jail. No harm
was offered him. Young Ed. Vance, a
boy of seventeen, was captured, but was
allowed to remain at home. Yesterday
a party of fifty men went, under the
direction of the Sheriff, in search of Ed.
Vance and others concerned in the riot.
None were found except negro, Martin
Malone, who took an active part in the
riot. He is now in Jail. No negroes
were murdered in the swamps. None
were shot at, except those resisting
arrest and running out of Vance's house,
nor have the blacks about Marion fled
in ter. or. A circus was in Meridian last
Thursday, and the streets were crowded
WIFI HeSiotS dS IL HOJllHg ndu nap
pened.
If any of the above statements are not
correct. the errors are so immaterial
they can give no color to the case. How
ever, affidavits doubtless could be pro-
cured to sustain any statement made
herein. The only cause assigned for the
disturbance is the doctrine taught by
the Fusionists in the last campaign, for
the negroes to carry pistols to the polls.
After the fight three kegs of powder and
a large supply of buckshOt were found
in Vance's house. He is said to have
bought a keg of powder on Saturday.