Butts-Pike County GaArchives News.....Tom Delk Hanged June 1897
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864 July 25, 2006, 12:36 am

Jackson Argus June 1897
Tom Delk’s name is now a memory – his life is a small speck on the face of the 
past that is fading, even now, from the minds of men.

Tom was a sinner against both God and man, but his” sins have found him out” 
and carried him out.


In the late afternoon of April 2nd, last year, Billy Gwen, the noble sheriff of 
Pike county, took a posse of men and went out from Zebulon to Concord to arrest 
Taylor Delk on an indictment charging him with robbery.  The sheriff had 
arrested Delk several times before and had treated the “old man”., as he was 
called, with such uniform kindness that he did not expect any serious 
resistance.

But this was a very serious charge and the evidence in the case was direct and 
conclusive.   An arrest would have meant conviction.   The “Old man” knew 
this.  He asked one party on the morning of the day of the killing: Do you know 
whether the grand jury has indicted me for that robbery or not??  On receiving 
the reply he said, “Well, if Gwyn comes out here tonight after me I’ll do him 
this way”, and raising his Winchester he killed a dog some distance away.    He 
told another party that he had been pulled around by bailiffs and sheriffs 
until he was tired of it, and do you see her, he said as he rubbed his 
Winchester, “she’s a daisy, and if my son comes in tonight as I expect and Gwyn 
does come after me, by G- - we’ll smoke him !


Gwyn went.  He tried to reason with the inmates of Delk’s house to let him in 
but they would not do it.  He had started to leave the house and was shot down 
and died a few hours later.

The evidence against three men – the two Delks and Tom Langford – was 
overwhelming.    The two former were arrested.    They were tried in some of 
the daily papers several times with shrewd lawyers and pretty twin girls as the 
star witnesses and in every such trial the good people of Pike county were 
convicted of perjury and murder and the Delk’s were set free and the honor of  
knighthood conferred upon them.

But upon every trial which was conducted under the solemn forms of law these 
men were found guilty, and last Friday at 2 o’clock p.m. Tom Delk was hanged by 
the neck until he was dead.

It has never been my fortune to have a better friend than W. O. Gwyn.   He was 
a friend to me when I needed friends, and his friendship was as true as the 
needles on the pole.  He was a good man and a brave man, and it may be stated 
as general fact that good men are brave and that brave me are good men.   There 
is a distinction, however, between true bravery and recklessness.   Gwyn 
typifies the one and Delk the other.

On Friday morning at 8 30 o’clock in company with J. L. Hooten, Dr. Cantrell 
and Sheriff Beauchamp I landed in Zebulon.  Hundreds of familiar faces greeted 
me.   There was no drinking or signs of drinking observable and the large crowd 
which was being constantly increased was as orderly as the congregation at a 
camp meeting.   I noticed some half dozen white women who had evidently come to 
see what they could see.   One of these women was the wife of Tom Delk’s 
captor.   She was leading a 10 year old girl named “Sis” and Mr. and Mrs. 
McWilliams showed by their bearing that they felt that they were sharing in the 
attractions of the day.   They were pointed out hundreds of times during the 
day and everybody who went to Zebulon Friday must certainly have a perfect 
picture of his mind of Mr. and Mrs. McWilliams and Sis.

The sheriffs from Butts, Henry and Upson were present and gave Sheriff John H. 
Milner their assistance in arranging the preliminaries.

At two o’clock the sheriff and his posse arrived at the gallows.   There was a 
large crowd present and in order that the crowds might be kept back a rope had 
been put around the enclosure.

Delk ascended the scaffold and made a short talk in which he said he had been 
brought to the end of his tether by whiskey and bad company.  He asked Elder J. 
A. Wright to lead in prayer and he concluded the prayer himself.   Sheriff 
Beauchamp, by request of the prisoner, bound the arms and legs in as firm a 
manner as consistent with humanity and every detail was well arranged.

Sheriff Milner sprung the trap and the body shot through the door like an 
arrow.   Though death resulted from strangulation it is hardly possible that 
the slightest consciousness remained after the sudden shock.

As I looked at the handsome young man standing on the gallows I thought about 
the wonderful activity of the human mind, and what must be his thoughts as the 
floor flies from under him and he goes downward through this space!

As this sad picture stood before me I could feel myself standing on the brink 
of time with eternities - - past and future - - on either side.  Under such 
conditions the wrongs that have been done us are forgotten and the prayer of my 
heart was - - “God forgive him!”  
 
Jackson Argus – Week of June 24, 1897
…………………………………………………………………..
Tom Delk is booked to hang at Zebulon today

Jackson Argus – Week of June 18, 1897


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/butts/newspapers/tomdelkh1518gnw.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/

File size: 5.6 Kb