Daniel Odwell Lynched a Year Removed from Alleged Crime (Or was it Henry Barnes?)

According to MonroeWorkToday, the lynching of Daniel Odwell is referenced in A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930 and Fitzhugh Brundage's Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930. Following excerpt from the latter:

Private mobs, unlike terrorist mobs, usually murdered victims who were already in legal custody. In Georgia between 1880 and 1930, 80 percent of the victims of private mobs were taken from law officers...Without question, local law officers, whether through woeful incompetence or complicity, often aided the work of the mobs.

Macon Telegraph (Georgia)
Friday, 17 September 1886 - pg. 4 [via GenealogyBank]

LYNCHED AFTER A YEAR.

DANIEL ODWELL, A YOUNG NEGRO, LYNCHED YESTERDAY.

A Year ago He Assaulted a White Girl Eleven Years Old -- Arrested Wednesday -- On the Way to Jail He was Taken and Hanged.

MILLEN, September 16. -- About a year ago, Daniel Odwell, a negro, twenty-six years old, raped a white girl, aged eleven years, seven miles from here. He was apprehended yesterday, committed to the Sylvania jail this morning, in charge of Constable D. M. Brinson. A party of men overtook him two miles out, hung the negro, and riddled his body.

Another report is that the darky was burned.

IS HE THE SAME MAN?
By Associated Press.
AUGUSTA, GA., September 16. -- Henry Barnes, colored, was lynched to-day at Rogers' Station on the Central railroad. A party of masked men did the lynching. Barnes was taken from a train near Millen and riddled with bullets.

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.

The Ty-Ty Tragedy: Ed Henderson was Lynched for the Usual Crime in 1899

According to MonroeWorkToday, the lynching of Ed Henderson is referenced in A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930 and Fitzhugh Brundage's Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930. Following excerpt from the latter:

...Posses, which shared with mass mobs broad communal participation and support, claimed more lives in southern Georgia than in any other region of the state...Moreover, the tradition of man-hunting became for white men a welcome opportunity to demonstrate their civic commitment in a region where independence and isolation otherwise were the rule. Whites had long boasted that southern Georgia was "white man's country," and the pervasiveness of racial violence by mass mobs and posses demonstrated that large numbers of whites were only too ready to resort to violence in order to maintain the boast.

Macon Telegraph (Georgia)
Friday, 15 September 1899 - pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank]

THE TY-TY TRAGEDY

How Negro Brutes Attacked and Outraged the Woman.

CITIZENS TO RESCUE

THEY RUSHED IN FROM ALL DIRECTIONS TO AVENGE.

It Has Been Reported That All the Negroes Were Backing up the Rapists -- Old Man Boynton's Supposed Treachery -- Lynching of One of Wretches.

TY TY, Ga., Sept. 14. -- This morning a frightened and humiliated family breathe more freely, for they feel that at least one of the brutes who deliberately blighted their happiness and flushed the cheek with shame is no longer a terror to the helpless and unsuspecting.

The bare facts that an outrage upon a defenseless woman has been committed, that several negroes have been arrested and that one has been identified and hanged, have already gone out to the world, but there are numerous details and attendant circumstances which render the event unique. A full account, therefore, would be of interest to the public.

As already chronicled, the rape was committed on Monday afternoon at Ty Ty. The unfortunate woman is 22 years old and lives with her father, Mr. Johnson. Her name was Jennie Johnson. She married a man named Ash, but she has been a widow something more than a year.

On last Monday afternoon she and her little brother, about 10 years old, and not her little son, as some of the dispatches have stated, were picking cotton in a field within the corporate limits of the town. They were within less than a quarter of a mile of the depot and quietly at work, when they were both suddenly surprised by two negroes attacking her from behind. She was in a stooping posture when one of them caught her by the shoulders, pulled her backward and began choking her. She and the little boy began screaming. The negroes demanded them to hush or they would kill them. But almost the instant of the attack the boy ran toward the depot crying for help. Before he reached the depot he met his father going to the rescue and said: "Pa, two negroes are down yonder killing sister." Mr. Johnson said: "Who are they?" The boy replied: "One of them is the negro that was around here this morning with old Henry Boynton, but I don't know the other one."

Before Mr. Johnson could get a gun and reach the spot the negro who was choking Mrs. Ash succeeded in executing his devilish design, while the other negro held her feet.

The negroes, hearing Mr. Johnson and the boy coming, released Mrs. Ash before the negro who held her feet could carry out his intention to treat her as the other had done, and they both escaped into a branch close at hand.

Mrs. Ash said that the negro who held her feet was a short, chunky black negro, with thick lips and bushy hair, and that he wore an old brown hat and blue overalls, with apron front supported by suspenders. The negro who assaulted her was tall and black, but not so dark as the other, and wore a blue-checked shirt and a broad-brimmed black hat, turned up behind.

A large posse of men were soon in pursuit of the negroes, and later the service of hounds was secured, but they were young and untrained and were really of little service.

Quite a number of negroes were carried before Mrs. Ash from time to time. Among them were two who answered fairly well the description of the tall negro. She said as each was presented that he looked very much like the one, but the little boy persisted that he was not the man.

Yesterday morning the negro who was lynched was arrested at Tifton while working at Mr. Ridgen's gin. He was carried to Ty Ty yesterday afternoon and as soon as he made his appearance in the town the little Johnsonu [sic] boy declared emphatically that he was the negro who assaulted his sister. The citizens of the town knew him to have been with old Henry Boynton all the morning of the day of the crime. He was carried before Mrs. Ash, who instantly identified him, although he wore different clothes and hat from those described above.

A messenger was sent from Tifton with the clothes and hat which he wore when he reached Tifton from Ty Ty on the day of the crime. Mrs. Ash recognized them at once. The broad black hat, from having been worn that way, stood turned up behind. When it was presented to Mrs. Ash the turned up part was held out straight and she was asked if that was the hat worn by her assailant. She replied:

"That's exactly like it; only his was turned up behind."

This said, the man holding the hat removed his hand, and the part held by him assumed its former turned-up position.

There were about 100 men in Ty Ty, all heavily armed with repeating rifles, shotguns and pistols. They were very cautious, and without the slightest friction or discord were a unit in favor of not hurting any innocent negro, and, as already stated, several were turned loose unharmed. But the difference of carriage and countenance presented by the negro lynched and that of the other negroes carried before Mrs. Ash was noticeable in the extreme. He stoutly declared his innocence, but made a dozen conflicting statements, all placing him in a very awkward light.

Soon after the crime was committed the negro's sister bought three tickets to Tifton, but there was only one negro with her. Just as the train was pulling out her brother came hurriedly up and boarded the train. His name, I have not yet stated, was Ed. Henderson. His uncle, old Henry Boynton, seemed very officious in helping the white people to hunt the guilty negroes, and told a great tale about seeing two negroes going across the field and hiding in a barn, and presently it was found that Henry had disappeared from the scene. The people the decided that his feigned help was only for a decoy until the guilty parties could get a good start.

Ed. Henderson, who was lynched, was not suspected as the guilty party until the day after the crime. This being so, he was asked why he left as he did, his sister getting the ticket for him, and he coming in at the last moment. He answered: "Well, I had heard that some devilment had been done, and old man Henry dent [sic] and told me that the white folks was done and after me with guns and things, and I had better skip out."

Just after dark Wednesday night, the night of the lynching, several circumstances had accumulated to the effect that the citizens suspected the negroes were massing themselves in a thicket in the edge of town. Immediately Tifton, Sylvester, Sumner and Poulan were notified. In response to the message a special train from Tifton carried forty-three men, and others went from there by private conveyance. An east-bound through freight was held up at Sylvester and seventeen men boarded it for Ty Ty, afterwards taking as many more from Sumner and Poulan. Before 11 o'clock more than two hundred cool, sober, sensible, determined men, armed to the teeth, were congregated on the streets of Ty Ty.

About 12 o'clock the crowd moved away from the depot, and later they came back. As the special train went back to Tifton there could be seen through the radiating beams thrown out from the engine's headlight the ghastly figure of a condemned rapist dangling twenty feet in the air suspended from the cross beam of a telegraph pole 300 yards from the depot.

The negro was allowed to pray before he was hanged. In the prayer he said that he was going to hell or heaven, one of the other, but he didn't know which.

On the telegraph pole from which he was suspended was tacked a card bearing this inscription: "Given a fair trial and found guilty. Negroes must keep their hands off white women."

The quiet, concerted action and perfect order of the crowd was remarkable. Every man was sober, not a shot was fired or a shout uttered. Nothing was heard above a conversational tone. A protracted meeting was being held at the white Methodist church on the opposite side of the street from the home of Mr. Johnson, where the prostrated woman lay, and from dark until all were gon e the entire town was as quiet as a Sabbath morning, and some of the words of the preacher could be understood by men in the crowd.

The west-bound passenger train arrived at Ty Ty a little after 1 o'clock, after the lynching had occurred, and on it came an additional force of men from Willacoochee. They had heard that trouble with the negroes was expected and they seized the opportunity to give help.

Mr. Johnson, the father of the unfortunate woman, has lived with his family for sixteen years in Worth county, and during the last six years of that time he has lived in Ty Ty. He and his family are poor, but honorable. The best people of Ty Ty say that nought has ever been charged against the character of any member of the family. And when brutal negroes dare to treat them this it is enough to "turn the coward's heart to steel, the sluggard's blood to fire."

Everything is quiet in Ty Ty this morning and the search for the other negro will be continued. Information has been received that a negro from Worth county and answering the description of the negro wanted is in jail in Albany.

Before Ed Henderson was hanged he said that old Henry Boynton committed the rape himself, but this is not believed, for he is known to Mrs. Ash and her little brother, and they do not accept this statement.

After old Henry slipped off from Ty Ty he was caught up at Sumner and was being brought back. He told such a smooth tale that he was released, so some say; but others say that he attempted to jump from the buggy in which he was being carried and fell and broke his neck. This latter statement is pretty generally doubted. The fact remains, however, that old Henry is not to be found around Ty Ty.

The people of this section are quiet, law-abiding, home-loving people, and will protect the virtue of their women so long as blood courses in their veins.

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.

Storming a Negro Cabin: Masked Mob Shot Adam Mallard Down with a Load of Buckshot in 1887

When searching for newspaper articles about the 1887 murderous mob violence toward Adam Mallard, I found a few in periodicals from New York, Indiana, and (of course) Georgia. The one transcribed below seems to be the fullest account, coming from a local Cuthbert, Randolph County, Georgia source.

Cuthbert Enterprise and Appeal (Georgia)
15 September 1887 [via Georgia Historic Newspapers]

Assassination -- An Old Negro Shot by an Armed Mob.
Yesterday morning about 2 o'clock a mob armed with pistols and shot guns, went to the house of Adam Mallard, an old negro man living about five miles from town, on Mr. Seab Shepherd's plantation and calling to the occupants within demanded the three sons of old Adam, stating that they had warrants for their arrest. The old man answered them to the effect that two of the boys were not in the house, and that the third, Ransom, was present, but unable to come out, owing to a gunshot wound, received recently in a difficulty. It seems that the other two sons of old Adam, having previous warning of the approach of the mob, sought shelter near the house under a wide-spreading fig bush. They were young men, tenants on Mr. Shepherd's farm. Nothing could be done or said, however to satisfy the armed party and they began firing into the rear of the house with shot guns loaded with buckshot, riddling the weather boarding and slightly wounding one of the women inside in the leg. Adam went out about this time at the front door and started off in the direction of Mr. Shepherd's house, which was about three quarters of a mile away. When about thirty steps from the cabin he was fired upon and a load of buckshot lodged in his right side and breast, which doubtless killed him instantly. When the old man was shot the two men under the fig bush sprang from their hiding place and started in a run across a cotton field in the rear of the house. This was a signal for another volley from the mob. While they were endeavoring to kill the fugitives the wounded negro in the house went out the back way and his under a work bench, near the house. After daylight one of the negroes who ran off through the field before the hot shot of the assassins, returned home with a slight scalp wound made by a pistol ball. The other had not been heard from up to noon yesterday, and it was the prevalent idea that he was mortally wounded the night before, and had died in the woods[.] Mr. Shepherd came to town yesterday and reported the occurrence to the proper authorities. Coroner Coleman was not long in reaching the seat of battle and after a lengthy hearing from the family of the deceased, the jury rendered a verdict of killing by gun shot wounds in the hands of an unknown party, or parties, and that the same was murder. Negroes who testified before the jury did not state positively that any member of the mob was recognized by them. It was dark, and impossible to distinguish a white man from a negro at any distance. Why such a tragedy should have been enacted in this community, heretofore noted for its quiet, and law abiding citizens, is simply conjecture. It is an occurrence greatly to be deprecated by every good citizen.

For the 1880 U.S. Federal census, Adam (age 70) and family were residing in Quitman County, a western neighbor of Randolph in south Georgia. He was listed with wife Cordelia, daughter Emma, and three boys: Ransom (age 19), Allan (age 18), and David (age 15). The first two were noted as sons of Adam, and the last a grandson.

Three years after witnessing the melee detailed above, Ransom married Sarah "Sallie" Johnson on 1 September 1890 in Macon County, Georgia. By 1900, the couple was residing at 975 Jackson Street in Americus, Sumter County, Georgia with son Morris. By 1910, there was an additional son named Richard.

At the time of the murder, Allan/Allen had been married less than eight months. He and Mattie Brown -- "free persons of color" -- were wed January 1887 at Randolph County. By 1910, the couple was in Terrell County, Georgia.

David "Dave" Mallard and wife Matilda were in Early County, Georgia by 1910 -- the parents of fourteen children. Dave's "sudden death" came on 11 August 1926 at Albany, Dougherty County, Georgia. According to his death certificate, Dave's parents were Bill and Marie Diled or Dileal. Though Marie's maiden name of Mallard was not provided, the 1870 U.S. Federal census shows patriarch Adam Mallard did have a daughter named Marie. So David being Adam's grandson seems to fit.

(Note: Dave's wife Matilda died ten years later and was buried in Riverside Cemetery at Albany.)

If these three boys/men were the ones at Adam's house in 1887, I suggest all survived. Unless there was another son present (relation as described in the news article), no man "under the fig bush" was "mortally wounded" and "died in the woods."

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.

Charles Gibson had Been Hunted All Day by a Mob (in 1897)

According to MonroeWorkToday, the lynching of Charles Gibson is referenced in A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930 and Fitzhugh Brundage's Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930.

Columbus Daily Enquirer (Georgia)
Tuesday, 14 September 1897 - pg. 4 [via GenealogyBank]

MISS CHAPMAN AVENGED.

Her Assailant Shot and Hung Near Macon.

Macon, Ga., Sept. 13. – The assault committed on Miss Sallie Chapman in her bed room has been avenged.

Charles Gibson, a negro about 28 years of age, made a dying confession of the crime last night and was immediately afterwards hanged to a nearby tree.

Gibson was shot down by the deputy sheriffs in the swamp about two miles from the city. He had been hunted all day by a mob, and, though wounded in the shoulder, would probably have escaped under cover of darkness had he not been discovered by the posse just as night was setting in.

Yesterday morning Gibson shot and killed another negro, Jim Smith, as the result of an altercation which rumor said arose over the shoes that were stolen from Miss Chapman's room on the morning of the horrible assault. The cause of the quarrel that led up to the killing of Smith has not, however, been positively confirmed. Smith was instantly killed.

The report of the pistol aroused the neighborhood on Elm street and Gibson, who at once ran, was shot at several times. Mr. George Hyster shot his hat off with a Winchester rifle ball, but at this point the negro escaped.

He was followed in his flight to the swamp by a crowd that gathered in numbers as it went. Deputy Hines Millnors was in the lead. He kept doggedly on Gibson's trail and alone followed him into the swamp. Once he got a good shot at him and hit him in the shoulder. This was at about 10 o'clock.

A negro living close by was questioned and he directed them to the place close to which he said Gibson was lying hid.

A line was formed and the posse swept through the swamp. Young Henley Napier, on horseback, was ahead. He rode along a ditch and as he did so Police Officer Pierce saw Gibson lying there. He called to Napier to look out, and as he did so Gibson arose and fired at Napier, missing him. He then turned and opened fire on Deputy Sheriff Jobson and the firing became general. Gibson fired four shots and was brought down by a bullet from Jobson's pistol, which struck him in the side.

It was a fatal shot. The man, gasping for breath, was surrounded and one of the crowd said:

"You are going to h—l anyhow, and you don't want to go with a lie on your lips. Did you got into Miss Sallie Chapman's bedroom and assault her?"

It was a chance question, though suspicion pointed to the negro on account of the finding of the shoes which were taken from the house, and which had been traced to the house of a woman named Lou Daniels, with whom Gibson has been living. The negro hesitated when asked the question, and then said:

"Yes, boss, I done it."

Sheriff Westcott had gone to a nearby house to get a wagon in which to take the wounded man to town. The mob of 30 or 40 men, hearing of the confession, and hearing it repeated again and again, kuickly [sic] secured a plow line and the dying man was strung up to a tree. He hung there about three minutes and Sheriff Westcott returning, cut him down. He lived for about five minutes afterwards.

---

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.