Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-27

The First Woman to Suffer Death by
Hanging in Georgia.
ATLANTA, August 26th.-A most notable
fact ad0uced by the relation of Mrs. May
bricks doings to the people in Wilkes
county, Ga, is that a kinswomsn of hers,
Mrs. Polly Bartlett, the first woman in
Georgia to suffer the death penalty, nearly
a century ago, came to her death for an
offense almost similar to the one with
which Mrs. Maybrick stands convicted.
Mrs. Bartlett was in her early prime, and
every rill of tradition united to say she was
a beautiful woman. The crime occurred
in the autumn of 1906 and she suffered the
penalty in 1906. Her husband and she
were Incompatible" to use a modern term,
and it was known that they lived unhap-
PLY. She had lover whose name has not
been preserved and they engaged her half
brother man named Nowlin, to murder
her husband. lie was to receive for this
$500. They wanted also to secure Mr..
Bartlett's money, and so they plsnned to
have him killed just as he had returned
from selling his cotton in Augusta.
Some time in the fall the brother went
to see his sister, and they talked it over.
The brother said he did not believe the
lover would pay the $500. She said she
would see il paid and urged him to the
deed. A hBlf-grown boy, either not known
to be present or supposed to he asleep,
heard every word. The plan was that the
brother should go at night to the cotton
house on the road and make some noise.
Mr.. Bartlett had been troubled with depre
dators, and it was supposed he would go
out, when he was to be shot.
There was some company at the Bartlett
house that night when the noise was
heard at the cotton house. Mr.. Bartlett
heststed and did not care to go, but the
woman was determined aud hard hearted
as Lady Macbeth, for all her beautiful face,
and she urged him to go where he was to
meet his death. Not long after the people
at the house heard gun fired, and Mrs
Bartlett exclaimed: ooh, my husband is
killed !"
Mr.. Bartlett was not killed at once, but
the ball went into his mouth and cut off
his tongue. He died the next day, giving
no sign that he knew who fired the fatal
shot. At first no suspicion was aroused.
Something she herself said about his
money first excited it. The people began
to whisper and put things together, and
finally she was arrested and the boy re-
ferred to was the principal witness against
her. Lawyers tried hard TO impeach the
credulity of his testimony, but he persisted
in his tale, and the jury believed him and
brought in veraict Of guilty. Public
opinion was strongly against her. Mrs.
Bartlett went to the gallows dressed in
Georgia-made silk and wore smile to the
last. One man survives-93 years old
who saw the execution. He is the Oldest
man in the county, and says he never
wants to see another hanging.
They buried Mr.. Bartlett exactly where
he fell. The coLtCn-house has long since
gone and the grave is almost in the road
The neighbors dragged heavy rock upon
it. 1t is said that when people work the
roads they always pile dirt on the grave.
Eighty-thTee years ago that rock, without
inscription, was placed there. 1t shows
the profound impression made by the trag-
edy and that people still remember who
lies buried under it. 1t is an old road from
Ellerton 10 Augusta, not row much tray
eied. On Callaway's map of Wilkes county,
the map is marked " Murdered Bartletts
Grave"
1t is rather disappointing to know that
the lover and Nowlin succeeded in run
ming away. Worse still, many years after,
when he knew the witnesses were all dead,
Nowlin came back, was tried and acquitted.