The record-union., 1892-03-10
snecial TO the RrcoRp-uS1os.

Special to the REcoRD-UNIoN.
MEMPHIs, March o. Four Deputy
Sheritfs went to crossroads about three
miles from town Saturday night and ar
rested a negro named Stuart, who in a
quarrel seriously shot white man.
While the deputies We're in a grocery store
the place was suddenly filled with ne
groes. A shot was fired and Deputy Cole
fell to the floor mortally wounded. Then
the firing became general and Deputy
Harreo fell dead. The negroes then shot
Deputies Yerger and Webber and es-
capped.
Trouble had been brewing for some
time between the whites and blacks in
the lower quarter of the city, and the at
tack on the Deputy Sheritls brought mat
ters to a crisis. The negroes had been
expecting a raid, and were armed with
Winchesters and shotguns. A posse of
Deputy Sheritfs who had been searching
for Stuart and who were in the immediate
vicinity came to the rescue, and fifteen of
the blacks were placed under arrest.
Fifteen minutes after the first shot was
fired every white man was armed with
Winchester. The wounded men, all of
whom were at first thought to be fatally
shot. were taken to the hospital. Officer
Cole is in dangerous condition, how
ever, and will hardly survive. The 9TH
ers, it is now believed, Will recover.
The police placed fourteen more ne
groeS under arrest, charged with COM
plicity in the shooting Sunday.
Last night mob broke into the Shelby
County Jail and took away several of the
negroes who were under arrest. There
We're SeYenty-hve men in the mob, all
masked. The men broke in the big doors,
secured Calvin Mcdowell, Tom Moss and
viii Stuart, leaders of the negro gang,
and, rushing them out of the Jail,
quickly disappeared with them.
The mornings light disclosed the dead
bodies OF the three negroes riddled with
bullets, and partially covered with brush,
lying in an open lot about one mile and
half from the heart of the city.
About O'Clock this morning seventy
five men, all wearing masks, appeared
suddenly on Front street near the jail.
By ruSe three men obtained entrance to
the jail-yard and overpowered Watchman
O'Dowen, whom they bound and gagged
The others were then admitted, and a
search for the negroes begun. A guard
in the meantime had been put over the
watchman. There were twenty-seven
negroes there, all under arrest for COM
plicity in Saturday nights affair. and it
was no easy task to distinguish the three
negroes wanted. The men went from
cell to cell, the thoroughly alarmed in
mates coming to the cell doors and un-
Willingly aiding them III the search.
Alice Mitchell heard the noise, and from
her cell on the upper tier peered down on
the strange and silent crowd.
Moss, the mail-carrier, was the first
man identified. He was taken from the
cell and bound, and soon after Mcdowell
and Stuart were found and taken care of
in the same way.
The captives being ready, they were
dragged. pushed and hurried out of the
Jail. In a few minutes the suburbs of
the city were reached, and in an open
field near Wolf River the negroes met
their doom.
A shot from revolver crashed through
the cheek of Moss. This was the signal
for the work, when q terrible volley was
poured in upon the shivering negroes.
who instantly fell dead.
The bodies presented horrible sight.
McDowelPs jaw was entirely shot away,
and back Of his right ear was a hole large
enough to admit q mans fist. His right
hand, too, was half blown off. Stuart
was shot in the mouth and twice in the
back of the head and his body riddled
with buckshOt. Moss had an ear shot
off and several bullet-holes in his fore
head.
The mob turned about, after it COM
pleted its terrible work, and coming
toward town scattered and disappeared,
The bodies of the dead negroes were
brought to Walsh's undertaking estab-
lishment this morning. In less than fif-
teen minutes the place was surrounded
by about twenty negroes, all afraid to
talk, however, on account of the prox-
unity of the whites.
An inquest was held at 10 o'clock and
the bodies were then sent to their homes
at the Curve"
AT 1915 word reached the city that the
negroes were assembling in large num-
bers at the Curve" and Judge Dubose
Immediately equipped 150 men with
Winchesters, and they have left the city
for that locality.