The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1910-08-18
WANT PARDON FOR
NEGRO SOLDIER
Eighty-year-Old Mike Thomas Sem
fenced to Penitentiary for Life,
Asks for Freedom.
RICHMOND. yA-Specia1-

X Z II NJ q y ID. Vas p eel L.
Mike Thomas. alias James Smith.
federate soldier, the body guard of
General Kirby Smith, an old negro
servant OF the well known Samuel S.
Selden family, OF Lynchburg. is an
inmate OF the penitentiary for life.
such is. in brief, the statement con-
tanned in an application for a pardon
presented to Governor Mann today.
me petition for the pardon of the
old man makes interesting reading.
When Mike was with his master, Mr..
Lynchburg, he did his duty as a SOL
der. Mr.. Selden fell on the field.
and Mike, such was his devotion to
Mr.. Selden, at once grabbed his mus
ket ana Fought with the courage born
of revenge for an injury to his mas
ter. He fought as long as there was
blue uniform within sight, and then
he helped to remove the body of Mr..
Selden from the field.
When Miss Cassie Selden married
along to look after General Smith,
being given to Mrs. Smith by her
rather. The old man saw hard ser
vice and stuck to the end. He was
all wool and a yard wide in his de-
votion to my white folks" as he
Then came the emancipation and
the freedom of the negroes. Then
came also evil days for Mike. and
after thirteen years of freedom he
found himself in the tolls of the law
in the Hill City, a charge of robbery
being preferred and proven against
him. He was tried in the Corpora
ton Court and for five years was inn
INJURED at the white house on the hill.
That was his first offense.
Mike was getting old and reckless.
his liberty and freedom being a phan-
tom. He did not improve after he
ing sent to the prison, and eleven
years after he had completed his
hrst term he was returned to that in
stitutfon to serve a second term of
two years for housebreaking, and he
got an additional five years for be-
coming a repeater.
When he was released from the
prison he decided that Lynchburg
was no place for him, and he pro-
ceeded to move his place of abode.
going to Newport News, where he de-
termined to begin life anew He did
very well for three or four years. and
Mike again fell, this time there be-
ing case of housebreaking against
him. He was proven guilty, and
though he had reached the age of
seventy-three years, the officers at
the prison recognized him, and the
papers were made out as the law pro-
vides and he was sent to the City Cir
cult Court. The judge could do moth
ing else in the case, and Mike was
made life member. Of the colony
which is adorned with a rather strik-
ing uniform and absolute security
from molestation from the outside
world.
He has served seven years and
seven months. The petition states
that the old man is now too feeble to
do much work, and his wife and chill
dren at Newport News are asking
that he be sent to them to pass the
remainder of his days. 1t is also
stated that when he was tried in the
city OF Newport News there was moth
ing to show that he had been pre-
viously> convicted, and il was not
known that he had served two terms
IN the penitentiary. His record in
the prison is good, and the petition
asks that the old man, in view of his
services, his age, his condition that
he be allowed to go back to his fam
lily and to spend his few DAYS in
peace and quiet. Ii is not likely that
he Will again be guilty of an infrac-
con of the laws. The papers are in
the office awaiting the return of Gov
ernor Mann, and il is believed that
he will see his way clear to grant the
petition.