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chapter thirteen Buchanan Returns for Trial October 17, 1902 under cover of darkness, a specially commissioned train left the Rusk railroad station at 3:00 a.m. on Friday. The autumn air was crisp, the temperature in the mid-forties.1 By road, it was only thirty-five miles from Rusk to Nacogdoches. The route was a bit more convoluted by rail because there was no direct connection between the two cities. The old Houston, East and West Texas (HE&WT) rail line had been purchased three years earlier by Southern Pacific, but no new lines had been built.2 Thus, to get from Rusk to Nacogdoches by train required traveling forty-three miles south on the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas line to Lufkin, switching trains there, and traveling twenty miles back north on the HE&WT to Nacogdoches. The special train would have to make the rail switch in Lufkin, where it was possible that yet another hostile mob would be waiting.3 The train’s passengers included Spradley and his three deputies; Sheriff Reagan of Cherokee County; and five companies of state militia, a total of approximately 200 soldiers. This formidable military and civil force had been assembled and charged with guarding the life of a single person: Jim Buchanan, a nineteen-year-old black man who had confessed to killing Duncan and Nerva Hicks and their twenty-one-year-old daughter, Allie, seven days earlier, in their home in Black Jack, in eastern Nacogdoches County. Against great odds, Buchanan had been kept from lynch mobs determined to kill him either by hanging or burning, from Tenaha to Shreveport , and from Longview to Henderson. The first part of the final test would be getting the prisoner safely into the Nacogdoches County courthouse from the train station, located about three blocks west on Main Street. It would not be easy. Hundreds of people were streaming into the city from the outlying areas, especially from Chireno, Melrose, and (of course) Buchanan Returns for Trial { 113 Black Jack in the eastern part of the county, but also from Douglass and Alto to the west. A trainload of Lufkin residents, from the south, was rumored to be on the way aboard the HE&WT. From Cushing and Garrison to the north still more people were streaming into town. By noon it was estimated that at least 5,000 people—more than twice the population of Nacogdoches—milled about the square. Nearly all of them were white, judging from photographs of the crowds and offhand comments made by Haltom in the Sentinel. The train slowly made its way from Rusk through the Deep East Texas countryside, passing through the tiny communities of Alto and Linwood and finally into Lufkin. After switching tracks, the special train trudged back north on the HE&WT line, as the sun rose upon what would be a balmy, sunny day. A sizable crowd had gathered at the Nacogdoches depot to await the train’s arrival, which came shortly before eight. There is no doubt that the crowd intended to circumvent the necessity of a trial by taking Buchanan and stringing him up—or worse. A crude gallows had already been fashioned in the center of the downtown square, consisting simply of a tripod of poles lashed together near the top, “without the carefully planned details of the modern gallows,” as one writer put it. A bolt was placed through the top to brace it, and a pulley attached to the top, from which was wound a new rope.4 Three crosspieces were nailed to the tripod about eight feet up. A wider piece of lumber was nailed on top of two of the crosspieces to serve as a makeshift platform, with a rudimentary trapdoor attached.5 However, hanging might not be enough to sate the mob’s desire for vengeance. Perhaps those who a day earlier had boasted of roasting the young man alive on a pit would get their wish. A howl arose when the crowd realized that the train was empty except for its engineer and fireman. Militia commander Major G. P. Raines sagely had ordered the train to stop a quarter mile south of town. The soldiers , lawmen, and the infamous suspect had slipped off the train before it arrived at the depot. Spradley and Buchanan were completely surrounded by the troops as they prepared to march into downtown. Meanwhile, a “bunch of Nacogdoches boys,” as Spradley later called them, were determined to ensure that Buchanan’s fate would be decided in...

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