Lynching in Elmore
- Title
- Lynching in Elmore
- Source Type
- Newspapers
- Publisher
- Weekly Advertiser
- Publication Place
- Montgomery, AL
- Publication Date
- 07/05/1901
- Transcript
- LYNCHING IN ELMORE Robert White, a Negro, is Hanged. HIS GUARDS OVERPOWERED. Mob Also Wanted Winston White, Robert's Brother. Negroes Had Made an Attempt on the Life of Mr. Thomas, with Whom They Had Quarreled. Wetumpka, July 3.-(Special)-Robert White, a negro, was lynched early Tuesday morning near Tallassee. The negro had been captured by a posse and was en route to the jail at Wetumpka in charge of Messrs. Clop Tanton, Marion Pitman and Bryant Nails when he was taken in charge by a mob numbering about twenty-five men and hanged to a tree. Robert White and his brother Winston were tenants on the farm of Mr. Godwin, who lives about four miles from Tallassee. Their cabins were near a truck farm owned by a Mr. Thomas. The fowls of the two negroes annoyed Mr. Thomas by destroying his vegetables. He told the negroes that if the fowls were not kept off his premises he would kill them. The chickens and guineas were not cooped up, and Thomas procured a shot gun and proceeded to slay all of them on his premises. This created bad feeling, and Monday night the negroes, heavily armed, attacked Thomas, firing six shots at him. Thomas Wounded Negro. Thomas returned the fire, and one of the charges from his gun struck Winston White in the arm. The white people were aroused and a search for the negroes, who had escaped, was instituted. Robert White was chased eight or ten miles with dogs and was captured. While conveying him to jail his guards were overpowered by a mob, and the negro was quickly strung up. Yesterday afternoon some men saw Winston White hiding in the woods near the scene of the difficulty with Thomas. The negro was captured and hurried to the jail here, his captors reaching Wetumpka with their prisoner at an early hour this morning. It is reported that ten or twelve miles from Wetumpka a crowd is watching the road, not knowing that the man for whom they are looking is safely confined in jail here. It is not believed that an effort will be made to storm the Wetumpka jail. A negro who bore evidence of having been running arrived in Wetumpka late this afternoon and announced that two other negroes had been lynched by the mob. This story is given no credence here.
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