The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1904-07-07

Thursday, after a consultation
with Judge Aldrich and Solicitor
Wilson, Sheriff Graham decided
to send the negro, Karo Will
liamS, to Florence on train "32, .
which makes no stop between
Kingstree and Florence. Among
the erroneous reports that have
goae out about the sensational
happenings that followed was
one to the effect that Williams
was being sent to the peniten-
tiary at Columbia for safe keep
ing. This is untrue. Williams,
along with two other negro pris-
oners, was being returned to
the Florence Jail, where they
had been kept ever since the old
iail here was torn down to make
room for the new building now
under construction. The three
prisoners were in charge of dep
uties Fl o Britton, J P Wheeler
and j J Matthews.
AS the fast train approached
Scranton, a number of men with
blackened faces, some wearing
rude masks and otherwise dis
guised, tagged it down and
searched the train for the negro.
Finally thev found Williams and
ordered the sheriff's deputies to
give him up, enforcing the de-
mand with guns and pistols ga
lore. The deputies refused to
give up the the negro and a
scufle ensued in which they
were overpowered and their
prisoner taken away from them.
1t is said that the crowd that
went through the train and
wrested the negro from his
guards numbered from twelve to
fifteen, all disguised in some
way and heavily armed. The
whole body of lynchers Is vari-
ously estimated from 100 to 250
men, all cool, quiet and deter
mined men. When Williams was
swept from the car and faced
this assemblage the full import
of it all seemed to rush over
him and he gave vent to shrek
after shrek for mercy, but they
fell on unheeding ears. At first
the intention seemed to be to
hang the wretch to an oak in
Mr. w R Singletary's yard, with
in a few feet of where the train
stopped, but this idea was aban-
doned and, putting Williams in
to a buggy, the crowd bore him
down the road leading to Bass's
bridge on Lynch's river. This
was about 7:30 O clock. Except
for the knots of people discuss
ing the recent events the town
soon settled down to its normal
quiet. About 10 o'clock parties
living in the vicinity of -
Bay, about one and a half miles
east of Scranton, heard twenty
or twenty-five shots fired in
rapid succession. What took
place during the hours that the
victim remained in the woods
with his self-constituted judges
no human beingAprobably. ex-
cept these judges, knows.
Looking at the affair in the
light of the past we do not see
how it would have been possible
to save Williams from the lynch
ers once he was put aboard the
train with the guard of but three
men to protect him. And yet
none of the authorities dreamed
that the fast train would or
could be held up, which accounts
for the slender "escort' of the
prisoners, as we'll as for the fact
that the sheriff was not along
with them IN person.
THE BODY FOUND.
Friday morning Sheriff Ora
ham went to Scranton to inves-
tigate the affair. About l O CLOCK
n the afternoon it was reported
that Williams body had been
found. He Immediately wired
Magistrate Baldwin to hold an
inquest. jeff Hyman and Willie
Evans, two young white men
who had heard of the, killing,
went into the woods to see what
they could find. After wander
ing about quite awhile they dis
covered trail marked by bent