The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-01
Fifteen or Twenty Deaths Re-
suit from Texas Race War
PEACE FINALLY RESTORED
The Sheriff of the County Declares
That Many Harmless Negroes Were
Killed During the Pursuit
of the Murderers

and 1t may be 20-negroes, all OF
them probably unarmed. were hunted
down and killed by mob numbering
perhaps zoo or 900 men In the Slocum
and Denison Springs neighborhood OF
Palestine last night and yesterday. ac-
cordng to tie opinion of Sheriff Black
expressed today.
The sheriff returned early this morn
ing after an absence of "a hours In the
district where racial trouble has been
acute. He described at some detail the
conditions which he found to exist
there. He told of a fierce man hunt In
the woods, of riddled bodies found on
lonely roads, and Of the terror almost
indescribable among the inha bitants In
the southeastern part of Anderson
county.
Sheriff Black is sure, he says, that
his estimate of the. dead Is conserva-
tive. He said he had made a careful
investigation. and after telling of Its
results, added the following:
I'VE will not find some of the bodies
until the location is revealed to us by
the buzzards.
Il found the greatest excitement pre-
vailing throughout the section of the
country. Men were going about killing
negroes as fast as they could find them
and. SO far as l have been able to as
certain, without any real cause at all.
THE negroes had never done any
thing that l could discover. There was
just a hot-headed gang hunting them
down and killing them.
Eleven Bodies Found
1--WE found II dead bodies, but from
what have heard the dead must num-
Der is or 20. We came across four
bodies In one house. l don't know how
many there were In the mob, but
think there must have been 200 or 800.
1 understand that Mrs. George Scar
borough Of Slocum saw party of 40
or so go through her field. Some of
them cut the wires and went through
on horseback and some of them walked
through. They went across to the
house where, we found the four dead
bodies. One negro had been killed at
this house the night before. Three
were sitting up with the remains, One
was an old white-hs ired negro. Three
were killed outright, SO far as / can
learn, and they were not armed.
have been somewhat disabled by a run
away accident and could not make a
personal investigation at this point. ]
sent out Two QeLeCIVeS TO Collect all
arms they could find In the houses of
the negroes. They made a thorough
search and found nine little single bar
relied shotguns. none of which seemed
to have been fired lately and about 80
shells, all loaded with small shot
Origin of Trouble
II am led to believe that the main
trouble was due to controversy over
a promissory note. This may not be
t,r,,. y, tlat l.
gained at this stage of the invesfiga-
tion. r. w. Ford, white man, who
is a cripple. had gone on a negro's note.
The note came due and he got after
the negro to renew 1t or pay 1t or
something of the kind, and the negro
would not do 1t, and cursed him. The
incident caused bad feeling. Then. /
think, Mr.. Spurges probably had a lit
tie trouble with them. At least they
claimed that he had whipped one.
Somebody saw this negro slipping up
to Spurges' house. This negro was killed
and then they went to killing them all
over the country. l have been talking to
Mr.. Sadler at Grapeland and he told me
that two were killed late yesterday aft
ernoon near the town of Priscilla.
think the crowd of men came from
Houston county and according to what
I am told, the shooting was still going
OH ldt6 y6Sletudy cN6Hll6. lHty WcIt
hunting the negroes down like sheep.
We found two In the road that had been
shot about 10 o'clock night before last.
1t was evident at the time they were
killed they were trying to get out of
the county, for they had their bundles
of clothes with them.
Because of my disabled condition got
to see only two bodies myself. but depu-
ties found dead negroes scattered around
oxt ,ovo In ,nCt Ia NJ q
been killed with buckshot
#s Deputies on Duty
IT have now two deputies down there
and these are working In conjunction
with the rangers, who went down last
night. If am able to ride by tomorrow
shall go back myself. I hope that
the situation is now under control. The
first l heard about this trouble was about
II o'clock Friday night, when the sher-
iff of Houston county telephoned me that
white man had killed two negroes in
his county near the line and wanted to
know If would not meet him at Grape
land and go with him to make the arrest
At u o'clock he telephoned me that It
had all happened in my county and then
got ready and sent two men on down
there and / went yesterday morning.
"Everybod seemed to be almost scared
to death. Everybody was armed with
shotguns. They had the women and chill
dren all punched up in places and were
guarding them. Many people were SO
scared and excited that they could hardly
tell their own names. The people right
around Slocum and Denison Springs were
not in the mob. bur this other gang had
been sending out scary reports that hum
dreds of negroes armed to the teeth.
were coming from Cherokee county. They
telephoned me early yesterday morning
that 200 negroes were at Denison Springs
heavily armed and when we got there
we found just one negro and he was not
armed but was badly scared,
..If reports that have been given me
are to be credited there must be Is or
20 dead. all Of them negroes. 1t will be
difficult to find out Just how many were
killed because the dead are scattered all
over the woods. Some will probably
never be found
Rangers Giving Aid
z Although every possible effort has been
made by the Anderson county authorities
Adjutant General Newton, Captain Rog-
ers and two or more rangers, who arrived
this morning, besides others. are lend
ing their aid to the work. Palestine to-
night has very little definite sinforma-
tior about the trouble between the whites
and blacks between Anderson and Denl-
son Springs
sunday has been characterized by
the utter absence of anything authori-
tative from there except the report
which Sheriff Black made on his re-
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