The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1908-09-18
u NEGROES HELD
FOR CONSPIRACY
PLOT AGAINST WHITES DIS
COVERED AT GREENWOOD.
Blacks at Ninety Six Said to Have
Conspired TO Kill FoL4 Pr1mi-
nent White Citizels

Greenwood. Sept. A. E;zven Ne
groes were b ought here Saturday,
September II, about noon from Nine
+. six in the custody of Sheriff
McAlillan and peputy S, er;ff Charles
Duke>, under a warrant charging
them v n conspiracy. TIE arra>t Of
these Tx oroes vas the outcome OF IN
investigation Oh ;,,.e part oi t c local
authorities and certain citizens IL
Greenwood. Very itti2 was known
in Ninety Six up to Saturday mor,l-
ing Of the proposed arrest or the
cause therefor, but several Of the
leading citizens Of Ninety Six were
fully aware of the situation, and the
bringing of the negroes to Greenwood
was decided upon as the best method
TO proceed in lawful and orderly
manner. Saturday evening another
negro was arrested and brought here
on the same charge. The negroes
first arrested are: P. B. Dean, S. T..
Jackson, a preacher, Jas. Stephens,
Anderson Stephens, Ed. Harris, Tom
Bishop, Davego Williams, Wayman
jackson, John Calhoun, Zeke Chap
pei! another preacher, and Wade
Williams. The negro brought Sat-
urday night was Press Goodwin.
The investigation, which led up to
the arrest Of these negroes, started
in Greenwood on Tuesday, Septem-
Der s. On that day certain negro
in Greenwood received by mistake a
letter addressed to another negro in
Greenwood, and that letter, upon
which the whole cause hangs, as it
were, is the most important docu-
ment and development in the whole
affair. The great question is, is the
letter genuine or fake? This is the
letter:
"Ninety Six, September T. 1908.
F'Mr. Hartie Harris, Greenwood,
S. c.: We want YOU not to give us
away in this me and Tom Bishop and
Rev. Zeke Chappell is committee
10 get up men to by Winchesters, to
fix for white folks in few days. We
are going from house to house at
night and shoot in, and they will
think it is Tolbert. Now, we want
you to see how many at Greenwood
will help. All of us who come up
there to Tolbert convention is in it,
but Joe. Don't know anything about
this. It is US, who is S. T. Jackson
shere. We will be ready by Sunday
night to start if our men get back.
Don't tell anybody Of this, and burn
Shis letter up, Let me know who Will
come from there by Thursday.
"(Signed) Wade Williams -
AS stated above, this letter by mis-
take was received by another party
than the one to whom it was address
ed. This party, a negro, states that
he started to put the letter back in
the letter back in the postofice, but
realizing the serious nature Of its con-
tents, he turned it over to- Chief Of
Police McConrbs. The chief Of police
Immediately consulted with Sheriff
Mcmillan and these two with several
other representative citizens began
the investigation.
The negro who had received the
letter having himself been resident
of Ninety Six, Was most closely
questioned. He let it be known that
he knew something Of what was or
had been going on among the color
ed people at Ninety Six. Expressing
fear for his own safety he was re-
luctant to divulge anything. Re-
peated questioning finally brought
out the statement that two negro
societies at Ninety Six had been m
.dulging in incendiary talk against
the whites in their secret orders for
some time. These talks had been
more frequent and more violent since
the recent trouble at Ninety Six, as
the result of the. local election on
the matter of issuing bonds to build
"a school house. The negro did not
connect any white person at all with
these talks, but stated that the talks
We're original with the negroes and
confined exclusively to their own
secret orders. He stated that the re-
gro Odd Fellows Lodge at Ninety
Six was taking an active interest in
the matter as were the members Of