The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-01

and were pretty full, and ssked If we had any
water In our houses One of them tried to get
hold OF my gun while another man was abusing
me, but would not allow them TO handle IL
would know both white mY, and can describe
them
Mr.. Eddy told OF dispute he had with the
guards, when the first coal train came down
with guards after the arrival of the negroes. and
accused Deputy Sheriff Stretch Of having indie
Gently exposed his person on that occasion.
e H. Payne, rancher, living between Black
Diamond and the old depot. said:
Those guards commenced firing ss soon as the
trai passed the trestle above Black Diamond.
ana xept shooting ali the time. At the first start
they fred AS fast as they could. shooting while
the people were out for their Sunday evenings
walk on the track. man named Nichols, OF
the hre-clay mine, was also witness TO the
shooting down there.
Then comes Thomas ConIey. who lives In the
old depot building, makes this statement:
John Clifford, OF Black Diamond, got OF the
Train at our house and one OF the guards asked
him what he was doing here. He said he
was going ''up on top" The guard said "You had
better go as quick as you can and then pointed
to a colored guard on the path. He asked me
'.0h yes, that's the old station house there:
that's ali right. you can stay here" When the
train turned around the bend in the road, shots
began from the train towards the fats.
Thomas Joyce, who also lives at the old sta
ton, tells the same story, with the addition that
two guards who were sitting on the steps Of the
cars rolled of on the opposite side to the sta
ton, being too drunk to keep their seats. John
Tracy said:
was standing at the top OF the hill, 800 feet
above the railroad, when / saw the train stop
at the old depot Tor two or three minutes.
When il had started toward the new depot and
was near the point where the old bunkers used
10 be, guards started firing upon them. The
colored guards inside the dead line made rush
10 the top OF the hill and commenced firing
down on the fats, where the whites were living
with many women and children. Furt er l
could not state. waited till the firing ceased.
1t lasted about five minutes.
Mrs. D. G. Lewis, OF franklin. tells of the
shooting as she saw it near the Wye which In
below the old depot. She says:
Ny husband and daughter, watkin Evans, HIS
wife and son, Daniel Weston, Jimmy Jones and
We all understood there was some trouble
and could not venture to stay as
usual We all took q walk on the track and sat
on the bluff just by the Wye when the train was
coming. We heard them firing Just after leav-
ing Black Diamond. We did not know what
they were firing at till we saw the train
coming aud thought there was danger We
rushed into the brush there and lay down be-
hind log, rs scores of bullets flew over us.
When we got out to the track we walked home
to franklin, all in cloud of smoke. We put
up at the first dwelling house in franklin.
IL has always been peaceabie camp for six
years, up to the time Mr. Corey brought his peo-
PIE IN. Dut since then nave had only one good
nights rest, and that was on Monday.
We were out all Sunday night, because
we were scared TO stay in our houses.
We met Edward Williams about four minutes
walk from the old depot. We asked him IL he
had seen any niggers on the track. He said no,
and We told him II was not safe to go for a walk
without arms. He held up his head and said he
did not carry such things with him, and he
lifted his coat to show that be had none below.
Mrs. Daniel Griffiths, who was at her house
near the switch at the east end OF town, said
there were three negroes on the cowcatcher, all
OF them shooting. The shooting stopped at the
switch. All of the persons who
state that they saw and heard shooting
before the train reached the old depot,
deny that any shots were fred at
II from the brush. On the other hand the guard
who was on duty under the bunkers. from
which he can only see the track on one side of
the point jutting out from the hill, said today
that he only heard two shots before il
rounded the curve, and they sounded
If they came from below, and that the shooting
from the train only began after the train
rounded the point. He also offered to bring a
man who had told him that man had been
wounded while hidden in the brush below the
bunkers, and whose wounds had been kept Sc
cret.