Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-10-01
NEGROES SLAY. 20;
TWO ARE LYNCHED
Jefferson County, Miss, Citizens
Enraged by Murders.
TROOPS ARE ON GUARD
Slayers Become Intoxicated and Then
Shoot Many on Street-Fight
Sheriff From Improvsed
Fort

FayotLe, MISS, Sept. Z9.-FOur White
men are dead, seven more probably
fatally wounded and at least sixteen
negroes are dead in what threatens to
become one of the worst race wars in
the history of the state.
Three troops Of militia arrived here
last night and Governor Brewer came
to take personal command Of them in
an effort to prevent further bloodshed
Trains are being held on sidings to de-
port the negro population, which num-
bers several hundred.
Small armies of white men are form
ing in surrounding towns and are pre-
pairing to march to Harrison, six miles
from here, where the battle which cost
twenty or more lives was fought at
daybreak.
Six More May Be Lynched.
Six negroes, arrested as participants
in the fray, were rushed to Natchez
and are under heavy guard in the Jail
there. Reports from Natchez state
that a mob is forming there to lynch
the men.
The ARRAY started when two ne
groes, Willis Jones and his brother,
Walter, eighteen and twenty years old
respectively, ran amuck after getting
drunk on cheap whisky and cocaine at
Harrison and killed four white men
and eleven negroes before being cap
tured by posse of armed citizens and
hanged to a telegraph pole opposite
the railroad station.
While making dash for liberty the
negroes killed Groves Hammet of
Fayette, sheriff of Jefferson county;
Frank Kinsley, constable at Harris
ton; Claude Freeman, a merchant, and
G. P. Lee, railroad employee.
Others Fatally Wounded.
They fatally wounded w. D. Den
ME, o. F. ellis, clerk of the Jefferson
county court; Will Bonds, Reynolds
Kinsley, William McCaleb and ]. APP
pleby railroad men, and Thad Ross, a
farmer.
While the drink and drug crazed ne
groes were at the depot train came
in. They fired several shots at the
cars, injuring the conductor and the
into panic.
SGltinels were placed at towns near
Harriston during the day and all ne
groes holding railroad tickets to pass
through Harriston were ordered off
trains and returned to their homes via
other routes.
Shortly after midnight Sunday morn
ing the Jones negroes went to an eat
ing house conducted by a negro wom-
an and when she served them an or
der they did not like they shot her
dead. The woman's ten-year-old boy
attempted to interfere and was killed.
A crowd of bystanders was next at
tackled and out of twelve in the crowd,
officers say, only three got away alive.
Fire at Everybody in Sight.
The negroes ran down the main
street of Harriston, firing at every
thing and everybody. Several passen-
gers waiting for a late train were
slightly wounded.
Sheriff Hammet was notified and
went to Harriston in automobiles, ia
king deputies with him. Being in
formed Of this, the negroes ran to an
clubhouse in a cotton seed oil mill and
barricaded themselves behind heavy
boxes and some strips Of sheet iron.
The officers ordered their surrender
and were met with volley from auto
matte pistols. Three men fell dead at
once and the fourth was shot before
he could get away.
Three hours later the brothers we're
captured in a Negroes house. They had
tied the owner to bedpost, threaten
ing his life if he attempted to warn Of
ficers of their whereabouts.
Intended to Kill All Whites.
The men said that if their ammuni-
ton had lasted they intended to kill
every white person in Harriston.
Willis Jones, seeing the house they
were in surrounded by mob, made a
dash for liberty and was shot dead.
His brother was captured alive. Both
were taken to the telegraph pole and
strung up. The rope around Walter
Jones' neck broke, but the mob
grabbed him and tied his head in an
other moose.
Their bodies were riddled with bull
let's and left hanging to the poles all
day, only being cut down after night
L. of T,1Iro