Mar 25, 2021 - Sale 2562

Sale 2562 - Lot 338

Unsold
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(RECONSTRUCTION.) Amanda C. Ewell. Letter describing a church meeting interrupted by rumors that "the negroes were coming in force." Autograph Letter Signed as "A.C.E." to mother Julia Franklin Williams of Belfast, TN. 2 pages, 7 x 8 inches, on one torn half sheet of paper; folds, minimal foxing. With pre-stamped envelope with Dyer, TN hand-cancel. Dyer, TN, 3 [September] [1874]
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While describing the religious revival meetings near her home in western Tennessee, the author writes: "The [religious] meeting at Dyer was absolutely broke up. Major Davidson came in, walked into the pulpit, took hold of the preacher's arm, said Trenton had dispatched to them for all the help they could get immediately. The negroes were coming in force against them. Everybody was on their feet instantly and great excitement prevailed. The country were all roused in a little time." Trenton was about 5 miles south of Dyer in western Tennessee.

This letter almost certainly relates to a mass arrest and lynching of 16 Black men in Gibson County, TN, as described in the long and perhaps semi-objective account in the Nashville Tennessean of 27 August 1874. The incident began on Saturday, 22 August in a dispute over fifty cents between a white and Black man in Picketsville. Two young white men were then shot at while riding through the woods. Rumors spread that "the negroes were organizing armed companies" and that "President Grant would back the negroes in whatever course they took against the whites. . . . Their object in organizing thoroughly was to shoot KuKlux." A white posse was summoned to arrest 16 alleged ringleaders of this plot on 25 August, and they were placed in jail at the county seat in Trenton, KY. At 1 a.m. that morning, a crowd of about a hundred masked men rode into town, "compelled the Sheriff to surrender the keys," and took the 16 prisoners, who were then killed in various horrible ways. The newspaper reported that "the wildest excitement existed throughout the country, owing to rumors of negroes marching in strong force for Picketsville, and rumors of their having murdered two white women. On the other hand, the negroes were terribly alarmed, and many fled to the woods, fearing the fate of those taken from the Trenton jail." The mob being recruited at the Dyer church meeting was probably not the arresting posse of 25 August or the lynch mob formed that evening, but rather the defense against the feared vengeful "negroes marching in strong force" the next day.

The author, Amelia Caroline (Williams) Ewell (1831-1914), was married to a well-off farmer in Dyer, TN, about 5 miles north of the county jail in Trenton. Her mother and sister Sallie lived more than a hundred miles east in Belfast, TN. The letter is not dated other than "Tuesday the 3rd." The envelope appears to be postmarked "Sept 4." 3 September 1874 fell on a Thursday, so the "Tuesday" or "3rd" may be in error. However, the people mentioned in this letter are very consistent with an 1874 date. A dentist named McLiskey is mentioned. James McLeskey was a dentist in Dyer born in 1842 who died very young in 1876. Among the family members noted, "Johnnie is preparing to start to Knoxville Monday to school." The author's second child John was born in 1856, so the early 1870s would seem plausible for him to go off to school on the other side of the state. "Virge" is suffering from toothaches and is advised to have them taken out; "she seems to be taking great interest in the baby." This would be eldest child Sarah Virginia, born 1853, who in 1874 was 21 years old, a young adult capable of making her own medical decisions. Her youngest sibling Roberta had been born in November 1873. Finally, "Rufe seems to be enjoying himself finely. . . . He will take a start to grow if he stays long." This would be nephew Rufus F. O'Neal (1858-1918), son of the author's late sister Elizabeth (died 1866); he appears with his grandparents in the 1870 and 1880 censuses.