Mexico weekly ledger., 1884-05-08
SHOT TO DEATH.
a ioung Negro Boy Killed BY Avengers
In Galloway County.

ABOUT > O'Clock Saturday night some
masked parties called where Ham
was stopping. He had gone to bed,
out the parties pulled him out and
dragged him some twenty yards from
the house and discharged two loads
OF shot into his body. He lived two
or three hours, and, it is said, he
recognized some of the crowd.
There were some twenty-five of
them. The cause of this murder is not
clearly defined. Ham is a brother to
julius Patterson, whom some parties
bound to a tree and whipped or the
10th Of April, these persons being
arrested and tried in Fulton on the
29th, and acquitted.
Learning that the wife of julius
Patterson, of whom the Galloway
mob was in quest when Ham was
shot. had sought safety among
friends in this city, she was traced to
the house of a colored friend in the
vicinity of the Union Depot by the
reporter, and when approached seem
ed very much agitated~, explaining that
she had not entirely recovered from
her fright. Mrs. Patterson is an in
telligent colored woman, answered
questions explicitly, and although not
an eyewitness to the murder of Sat-
urday night, knew all the facts bear
ing on the case. She arrived in this
city late Sunday night with her chill
dren, fleeing from the mob, which
she feared might murder them, as
blood was what they were after, as
the twenty-five armed and masked
men declared when they came to the
house of Ellen Black, where the
younger brother, Ham, was in bed.
The cabin of Ellen, the sister of both
Black and Patterson, is situated
about a mile west of Hatton, and al
this place the victim of the mob was
dragged from his bed, taken about
twenty-five yards from the house and
shot twice with buckshot from 6
double barreled shot gun, literally
tearing his bowels open. Very few
words we're spoken, and when Black
asked to be allowed to put on his
clothing, the mob told him to ''never
mind, he needed no clothes where he
was going" He then pleaded pite'
ously and realized that they had CONF
to kill him. The man lived about TIVE
hours after receiving his dealt
wound, dying in great agony. Mrs
Patterson says that last Tuesday
Black was notified to leave the coun
try in ten days, and preparation:
were being made by him to that end
She says as to the whipping Of he
|. husband, she does not know the caus
and thinks there was none. If b
ever insulted Or talked disrespectfull,
: of any white woman she never hear
of it until after the castigation wa
administered. She had also under
: stood, she SAID, that her husband ha
gained the ill-will of a neighbor b
carrying notes to his daughter from
man with whom the father had fol
hidden communication. 1t WAS tn
!. wife's impression at the time tbs
$ this was why the whipping was giver
Patterson owns a small farm lies
Hatton, and his wife says he was a
ways considered a peaceful man III
til these rumors were put in circul'
ton and gained credence. Blac
was a mere boy, only 10 years oil
and also bore q good name in Il
neighborhood so far as she knew
u She had heard the reason Black W.
killed vas that he had given warnir
to his brother Patterson. that the me
was after him, thereby giving him
chance to escape its fury. A rum'
was afloat that Patterson was hidde
in this city, but this the wife denies
1. and said she did not know his wher
abouts.
This is, indeed, a deplorable ira
edy, as (if reports be true) Il
n wrong man was doubtless the yicti
of the mob's ire. Mob law is b.
m enough st its best, but to thus mu
der an innocent boy, it matters n
as if he was a negro, is very much to
regretted by the better people of tt
Is "kingdom"
The report that Julius Patterst
ID was also killed Is a mistake. He b
fed to parts unknown. The verdi
st of the coroner's jury was, that "Hs
Black came to his death by the han
as of unknown parties" The fr;en
of the parties who did the KILN
or (and they are of the best families
Audrain and Callaway,) claim tt
N Ham Black had threatened to she
the men who whipped Patterson, a
nix that he was in many ways an obje
tionable character. An account
lie, the whipping of Patterson was
last weeks LEDGER, and We think
US, deserved all he got. The LEDG
does not believe In mob law. esps
ng tally when carried to this extent, b.
perhaps, We cannot appreciate b
bit we would act If our wives and daus
tiers were slandered. Great excl
ate ment prevails around Hatton.
A well known citizen this norm
entered Jonas Berg's feather and c