The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-12-30
LIKE DAYS OF KUKLUX KHAN
ARE STORIES OF RAIDS TOLD OF
BY MIDNIGHT RIDERS.
Men in "MOther Hubbards" and
Masks Rode at Night Spreading
Terror. Women Whipped
and HOnac Eirad
and Homes Fired.

Masks Rode at Night Spreading
Terror. Women Whipped
and Homes Fired.
UNION CITY, Tenn.-When Mrs.
Emma Jackson, one of the state wit
nesses this afternoon in the night
riders trial, was excused from the
stand she turned to Judge Jones and
said
Il will not leave the court room
without armed protection. 1 know
these men,"
Mrs. Jackson told a vivid story of
several visits of the night riders,
corroborated Fred Fehringers testi-
mony in many details, as did other
witnesses and identified by name at
least twenty-seven members of the
band. She was followed on the stand
by her daughter, Miss Dora Jackson,
an 18-year-old girl, VINO corroborated
her mother.
Mrs. Jackson said the night riders
came to her home, forced her to dress
and accompany them to her fathers,
with her husband and daughter.
They ordered her to kill some dogs
she owned, and burned her fathers
house. She identified Garrett John
son as the leader The riders came
back two nights later, she declared,
forced her to go to her fathers half
clad, and said there had been some
talking done. They whipped her
father and then her sisters. She said
she again recognized Garrett John
son and several others.
They Wore "Mother hubbards."
A third time they called to force
her to get rid of her sisters little
child because the latter had quar-
relied with another neighbor's child,
They told Mrs. Jackson that if they
had to come again they would whip
her. A fourth time they came to
whip her father, because he testified
before the grand jury. On the last
visit Garrett Johnson, said the wit
ness, asked her if she had talked
She replied:
mo, Mr.. Johnson, | have not"
IF you were a man" Johnson re-
tOrted, I'D blow your brains out,
We will hang you if you talk
Judge Shaw, a witness, said the
night riders wore Mother Hub
bards" and black masks and tried to
disguise their voices by talking in
falsetto tones. When Shaw was sum-
moned before the grand jury he tried
to slip into the town at night. The
riders caught him and threatened to
kill him. Finally they gave him his
choice of switching or hanging.
He told them he was not anxious
to undergo either, but if he had to
make choice he would prefer the
whipping. He got it.
Shaw amused the court by his
quaint answers to questions of coun-
sci. After the riders whipped him
they told him to run.
Did you rum" inquired the court.
You oughter have seen me-" re-
torted the witness.
Like Last Eu Kiux Days.
Martin Leonard, another farmer
near Reel Foot Lake, was visited by
the riders and was given five days to
move under penalty of being hanged.
Asked if he moved he casually OBJ
served that he was still alive, but his
home was burned.
Witness after witness told of WISH
tations by the riders, and there was
no identification and no effort to con-
meet the riders with the murder of
Capt. Rankin or his murderers. One
witness, Mrs. Leonard, when asked
how many there were in the band
which visited her, said; About 200,
| reckon. The woods were full of
'em"
The purpose of the state is to show
the reign of terror maintained in the
Reel Foot district by the riders and
to prove that the murder of Capt.
Rankin was only an instance of
gigantic conspiracy.