A Hanging in Nacogdoches: Murder, Race, Politics, and Polemics in Texas's Oldest Town, 1870-1916

Chapter Six. A Suspect Is Caught: October 13, 1902

chapter six A Suspect Is Caught October 13, 1902 the night before, spradley and matthews had decided that Buchanan likely was headed toward the Pre-emption community, on the border between San Augustine and Shelby counties, where many blacks lived in relative isolation and peace. A significant number of blacks in San Augustine had retreated to this area after Reconstruction. When federal troops occupied much of the South—including San Augustine— after the end of the Civil War, a number of blacks gained political power, albeit briefly. Harry Garrett, a former slave of a prominent white plantation owner, Milton Garrett, became one of their leaders and formed his own armed company, which held regular marching drills—actions that the white populace viewed with more than a little trepidation. According to the account told by a white resident, matters came to a head after threatening letters were sent from blacks to two white residents: The white population was aroused by this threat, and responded by organizing a Klan of the Invisible Empire of Ku Klux. A body of more than two hundred men was soon enrolled under the leadership of I. D. Thomas and included not only the young men who had lately returned from the war, but also many well advanced in years. These ghostly riders of the night, with both man and horse enveloped in white, and with tall white caps and white masks over their faces, were so completely disguised that often their identity was not known to each other.1 The Klan members divided into small squads and went to the “cabins of obnoxious negroes.”2 Those deemed to be “obnoxious” were often flogged until they promised to “reform,” which meant they would cease any attempt to gain political or economic power. It wasn’t long before 52 } A Murder, a Manhunt, a Trial, and an Execution the political power of black residents had been broken, largely by use, or threats, of violence. As the writer put it, in typical white-southerner fashion, “Thus by vigorous , yet cautious action, the turbulent negroes whose minds had been inflamed by Yankee emissaries, were either driven from the county, or inspired with a wholesome respect for the white population.”3 Although no account remains of how Harry Garrett and other blacks in San Augustine viewed the visits by the Klan, it is doubtful that they considered themselves unduly influenced by Yankees. In the years after the Civil War ended, freedmen across East Texas, like their counterparts throughout the South, faced nearly unrelenting terror from whites determined to keep former slaves from gaining any type of political or economic power. The Klan, which had its beginnings in Tennessee, was actually preceded in Texas by a number of secret organizations formed with the goal of terrorizing blacks and the whites who were sympathetic to them.4 In one three-week period in January 1867, nearly a dozen acts of violence were committed by armed whites against blacks in Harrison County— three counties to the north of San Augustine. In Marion County, just east of Harrison County, the river town of Jefferson became a hotbed of Klan activity, even hosting a Klan parade attended by a reported 1,500 spectators . The terrorism against blacks quickly spread through a number of counties north of Nacogdoches and San Augustine. Blacks, according to a leading historian of Texas during Reconstruction, began sleeping in the woods at night for safety.5 more than three decades later, the pre-emption community was still a logical retreat for a black man on the run from the law. At daylight the search began again. Spradley and Matthews split up, both making their way around a swamp east of the Attoyac River. Spradley followed the tracks of someone who had entered the swamp from an adjoining cotton field. Just a few minutes later, according to Spradley, he spotted a black man about 200 yards ahead, carrying a double-barreled shotgun. The sheriff crept up behind him, and as the man topped a hill, Spradley made his move: As he passed over the hill I ran full speed, holding my double-barrel breech-loading shotgun in front of me ready for instant use. The negro heard me but thought the noise was coming from the direction in which he was going, and so he suddenly turned back and as I got to the top of A...