St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-23
THE CRUClFIED HAND.
A Weird Tale Of Retributive JUS
tice i'm Early War Times.

Exchange.
Beside the road leading from the fer
tile Meek" of TuckahOe. in Carolina
county, stands huge poplar tree, with
wide-spreading branches, at distance
of four miles from the county seat,
Denton. A worn fence" of oak rails,
built i'll the primitive style peculiar to
that section, passes close behind the
tree, the boughs of which project clear
across the sandy highway and even be-
yOnd the fence which bounds it on the
other side. Save for it's larger size and
evident age, this stately type of the
English forests would hardly attract a
greater share of attention than many
others, which. like watchful sentinels
stand guard over the ''Neck" rOadways.
But at a distance of a few feet from
the ground the observer sees big nail,
rust eaten, and almost of the same
color as the Seamy bark into which it. is
driven. Look clOs' ly at the shape of
the bark which surrounds it, and you
will perceive the form of a human
hand! An indelible impression it is,
with the iron spike driven straight
through the center!
In the summer of one of the first wears
OF the war. while the simple minded
farmers, who were little disturbed by
the great struggle for the Union, were
living on theirQ quiet, uneventful careers,
tragedy occurred which created a
greater sensation than has ever before
or since stirred the feelings of the staid
farmers of Carolina. A charming little
girl, the daughter of one of widest
known and best respected citizens of
the county. failed to return one day
from the unpretentiOuS wooden school
house, short distance from her home.
which she attended. The anxious
parents, aided by their kindly neigh
6ors, searched for the missing girl dur
ing the night, but no trace of her was
discovered. At daylight, with an in
creased force, the search was renewed,
and during the day the lifelesS form of
the little one was found in the vicinity
of thicket of pines net far from her
home, with the weightof a panel of rude
rail fence of the period resting upon her
/ delicate neck. 1t was evident that both
outrage and murder had been commit
ted. Suspicion pointed toward cOlOred
man IN the service OF the family, one
Jim Wilson. He was Immediately ar
rested and confessed the deed. He had
. been at work, in the thicket when the
little girl passed on her way home from
school. The frail dinner pail she had
carried and her bundle of books We're
found not far from the scene of the
crime.ea Sheriff Salisbury assumed
charge OF the prisoner and lodged him
in Denton Jail. But he was never tried
for the crime. 4 -,
A night or two after the incarceration
OF Wilson a cayalcade of armed men
rode into town. They dismounted. hay
ing tethered their horses. to the fence.
inclOsing the public square, in which
was situated the court house and Jail.
A LOG OF WOOD; WAS PROCURED,
and in an orderly, compact body the
men marched to the jail. Not word
issued from a single throat save the
determination, fifty neighbors of the
sOrrOwing father and of the heart
broken mother of the pure young limo
cent whose promising life had been
snapped by the infamous wretch at
that moment living in a cell in the
square brick building before them, gath
cred in front of the door with the log
like battering ram suspended above
their shoulders. AT the word of COM
mand they rushed forward, breaking
down the Jail door with frightful
crash. The prisoner, in the rear cell on
the top floor, heard them coming and
began to pray and beg for mercy. Axes
were quickly brought and the cell door
i,
bearing the marks and cuts of that
eventful night, is used in the crazy old
Jail. A rope was placed about the neck
of the miserable wretch. and fifty
hands from the outside ierked the
criminal headlOng. down the narrow
stairs. The lynchers yelled and
whOOped in wild eXultatiOn, while the
shrinking wretch prayed fervently and
fast. Determined tie make the punish
ment fit the crime, the mob placed
moose around Wilson's neck. and tied
the other end of the rope to an axle con-
Meeting two cart wheels. Horses were
attached to shaft fitted to the axle, and
through the streets of the quiet town
the doomed man was dragged. Behind
followed the mob on horseback. Cutting
their revenge in seeing the fellow COM
PEELED to race at his utmost speed to
prevent himself being chOked, and even
then half the time being pulled over the
ground at his full length. The feminine
and Juvenile portion of the population
locked themselves in their habitatiOns
and in terror listened to the wild clamOr
of the avenging mob. When Wilson
became exhausted he was carried back
to the Jail and strung from Que of the
tall trees which surround it. When he
had ceased struggling and was slowly
choking to death, the crowd began fir
ing at him. The contents of scores of
into his body. Not content with this,
when the corpse, rigid and CHASTITY, was
at length cut down, it was carried to
another part of the town and hung in
front Of church. Again it became
target for the weapons of the crowd. A
fire was kindled on hill just back of
the village, whose foot was washed by
the waters of the Choptank, and the
body was taken down and conveyed
thither.
The two resident butchers, armed
with long knives, quartered the re-
mains, and the sections were thrown in
the flames and cremated. A hole was
dug near the spot and the ashes and
charred bones inferred. Years after
ward the latter were eXcavated by a
party of venturesOme boys, but the
blOOd-curdling tales told them by old
villagers of the fearful crime and hOrri-
bic death Of Wilson caused them to
quickly renter their anatomical find,
and to this day the bones lie undis-
turbed beneath the grassy surface of
the hill within stones throw of the
rickety old jail. III
AS the butchers dismembered the bull
let-riddled corpse one of the rioters,
half drunken, obtained the right hand.
On his way home in the early morning
he nailed the CHASTITY object to the tree,
where it remained for know not how
long. And since that night legend is
current among the dWellers in the
countryside that the ghost of the
lynched man, full formed, save the alb
sence of the right hand, haunts the
vicinity of the gigantic poplar in vain
search for the missing member. have
met people who assured me that, i'm the
lonely watches of summer nights, they
had personally come into contact with
his uniformed and fOrlorn ghostship.
But whether this ho really ca / lnoxu