The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-06
FRED DOUGLASS AT PENpLEroN.
Mr.. }. II. Lcwis's RecolIections of the
Attack the Famous Orator.

TO the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
observe that citizen of Pendeton has
recently given you his recollection of an
attack by a mob upon Frederick Douglass
in the town of Pendleton in 1913. AS the
gentleman's recollection is wrong in some
particulars, l think 1t well to make a cor
rection. The event occurred in 1S43 and
not .in 1917 or 1885" Mr.. Douglass was
at no time in or near the house of DR.. NJ.
G.. Walker although that gentleman I'M
doubtedly saved Douglass from death at the
hands of a burly ruffian who was swinging
heavy bar of iron over the head of the
PROSTATE man when DIR. Walker, then a
very powerful man. threw his whole weight
against the murderous hoodlum and hurled
him away. just as Neal Hardy (aIso q
brave, powerful and athletic mann, DR. Ed
win Russell and others gathered around
the fallen orator and drove the mobocrats
away. These fellows. who lived in Adams
township, In this county, and in the north
part of Hancock county. and not in Ander-
son, as Mr.. Douglass thought. went away
leaving Douglass bleeding on the ground in
insensibi1ity, they being that they had
KILLED the damned Niger and they long
enjoyed the happy deluson.
Mr.. Douglass was raised from the ground
by kind hands. placed in the carriage, OF
in his book, to the home of Mr.. Neal
Hardy, where he was cared for and nursed
with tenderness which he never forgot,
and which led him, years afterwards, to
say, "Since 1913 Neal Hardy and family
have been part of my llfe." Here is
what Douglass wrote of the affair in his
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
eat Pendleton this mobocratic spirit was
even more pronounced. 1t was found impos-
sible to obtain building in which to hold
our convention, and our friends, Dr. russell
and others, erected te = platform t,asaao IN the
bled Mr.. Bradburn, Mr.. White and my
self We're in attendance. As soon as we
the toughest characters ever looked upon
ordered US, through it's leaders. to be
Violence. We attempted to dissuade them.
but they mad not come to pariey, but to
fight, and were well armed. They tore
down the platform on which we stood, as
saulted MIR. White and knocked out several
of his teeth, dealt a heavy blow on Mr..
Bradburn, striking him on the back part
of the head, badly cutting his scalp and
telling him to the ground. Undertaking te
fight my way through the crowd with a
tracted the fury of the mob, which laid mo
PROSTATE on the ground under a torrent OF
blows. Leaving me thus, with my right
hand broken and in a state of unconscious
ness, the mobocrats hastily mounted their
Of OFF them he resided. I was soon raised up and
revived by Neal Hardy. a kind-hearted MEM
Der OF the Society OF FRIENDS, ana carried
by him in his wagon about three miles In
the country, to his home, where 1 was
tenderiy nursed and bandaged by good Mrs
Hardy I'LL ] was again on my feet; but, as
the bones broken were not properly set,
my hand has never recovered its natural
strength and dexterity.
The Mr. White mentioned by Mr.. Doug
lass was William A. White. a brother Of the
lovely Maria Lowell, first wife of James
Russell Lowell Mr.. White was a very
able and promising man, who met tragic
cote at Milwaukee some years after the
Isnts here treated.
IA rhe writer hereof has a very vivid, re-
nembrance of Mr.. Douglass and his de-
boro few days later. He was then some
twenty-five years old, an athlete in tbs
prime of a splendid young manhood He
was shen a far finer orator-consfdered as
a. aker-than he was later in life.
flow oil eloquent words. wit sarcasm and
pa tf1os made it very easy for any one who
then heard him to see why he became
famous The ring of his voice was some
thing very different from thtt OF late years.
when his slow utterance and husky voice
Sc emed those of another HIS picture OK
the whsky-soaked, tobacco-stained leader
OF the mob-an individual named Jackson
was worthy of an old master
Mr.. Douglass said that when he round
that he would be overpowered he turned and
ran, noning to draw the attention of the
himself. And he said that he would quite
probably nave done SO had he not been
struck in the back of the head by stone
lust as he leaped a fence, when he fell
insensible. have thought it well to thus
put on record the above facts, which are
so well remembered after long lapse OF
years. j. II. LEWIS.