Coweta-Campbell-Spalding County GaArchives News.....Sam Hose Burned at Stake May 12, 1899 ************************************************ 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 September 10, 2007, 5:52 pm Jackson Argus May 12, 1899 In the Presence of Thousands of People the Negro Murderer and Rapist is Slowly Roast to Death. Klige Strickland is Also Caught and Killed From Monday’s Constitution Newnan, Ga., April 28 - Sam Holt, the Negro murderer of Alfred Cranford and the assailant of Cranford’s wife, was burned at the stake one mile and a quarter from this place this afternoon at 2:30 o’clock. Fully 2,000 people surrounded the small sapling to which he was fastened and watched the flames eat away his flesh, saw his body mutilated by knives and witnessed the contortions of his body in his extreme agony. Two counties, Campbell and Coweta, directly interested in the crimes of the Negro, and the entire state have waited with impatience for the moment when the Negro should pay the penalty for his fiendish deeds. Such suffering has seldom been witnessed, and through it all the Negro uttered hardly a cry. During the contortions of his body, several blood vessels busted. The spot selected was an ideal one for such an affair and the stake was in full view of those who stood about and with unfeigning satisfaction saw the Negro meet his death and saw him tortured before the flames killed him. For sickening sights, harrowing details and bloodcurdling incidents, the burning of Holt is unsurpassed by any occurrence of a like kind ever heard of in the history of this state. A few smoldering ashes scattered about the place, a blackened stake are all that is left to tell the story. Not even the bones of the Negro were left in peace, but were eagerly snatched by a crowd of people drawn here from all directions, who almost fought over the burning body of the man, carving it with their knives and seeking souvenirs of the occurrence. Self confessed and almost defiant, without a plea for mercy and no expectation of it, Holt went to the stake with as much courage as any one could possibly have possessed on such an occasion, and the only murmur that issued from his lips was when angry knives plunged into his flesh and his life’s blood sizzled in the fire before his eyes. Then he cried, “Oh my God! – it could hardly be called a mob, so orderly was its action – has made no mistake. The man was identified by a dozen people. He admitted his guilt and told of the murder. He confessed that he had murdered Cranford and said the deed was done with the expectation of obtaining a reward of $20 from Lige Strickland. He confessed while being brought here, confessed when confronted by Mrs. McElroy, the heartbroken mother of Mrs. Cranford, and confessed when he was taken from the fire and asked to tell the truth about the crime. He told the details, always implicating Lige Strickland. Although Hold was turned over to the sheriff and placed in the jail here, his fate was sealed from the moment his captors put in an appearance with him. The remonstrance of ex-Governor W. Y. Atkinson and Judge A. D. Freeman, two of the most prominent citizens of this county, were of no avail. The crowd was quiet until these two gentleman addressed it and begged them in the name of law and order, to depart to their homes and let the majesty of the law take its course. These two men, who are always listened to with respect, even when their hearers disagree with them, were hooted down. The awful crime of the murderer and assailant was fresh in the minds of these people. The agony of the living victim of his criminality and the walls of a broken hearten mother were fresh in their ears. There was nothing that could have stopped them, there was few who desired to stop them. J. B. and J. L. Jones, the captors of Sam Holt, won the admiration of the entire county when the news that the Negro had been captured by them reached this place, and the fact that the reward money they will receive is to given to the widow of Alfred Cranford has won for them still further praise and admiration. One of the strangest features of the entire affair is the part played in the execution by a northern man. This man, whose name would not be divulged by those who knew him, announced that he was from the north, while he calmly saturated Holt’s clothing with kerosene oil. The crimes of the Negro had wrought him to a high pitch and while he doubted if his act would be approved by his friends in the north, he seemed to take great delight in seeing the Negro meet his well earned death, and along with the thousands of others stood and watched the proceedings. The intention and desire of those who had the Negro in charge was to burn him at the home of Mrs. Cranford, and the people of Palmetto, when they learned of the capture, made elaborate preparation for the execution, but they were disappointed, and those who came here from that place this afternoon to view the scene of the burning seemed to almost resent what had been done, although feeling elated that the wrath of the people had been vented on the Negro. Mrs. Cranford was not permitted to see the Negro, although she is here, and it was suggested that he be brought before her. She is ill, and it has been feared her brain is deranged. It was thought the shock would be too great for her, and the crowd was satisfied with the positive identification by Mrs. McElroy and a number of others. No identification was necessary, but the crowd was cool and went about its work carefully and almost with a system. Masks played no part in this lynching. There was no secrecy; no effort to prevent any one seeing who lighted the fire, who cut off the ears or who took the lead. The whole male community seemed to be a unit, and while the majority of those present knew each other, it is doubtful if a man can be found who will say he saw any one he knew. Many told that they were present, and told the late comers of the execution. These were always the center of a large group, and made no effort to hid the fact that they were present. …………………………………………………………… GOV. CANDLER TALKS “About 11 o’clock this morning I was advised that Hold had been captured and was in Griffin, and would be carried at once from there to Newnan. I immediately called up Newnan by telephone and asked for the sheriff. The operator said he would send for him, and did so; but after a delay of fifteen or twenty minutes he informed me that the sheriff had gone out in the country, and he could not tell when he would be back. In order to exhaust every means I then sent a telegram to the sheriff, directing him not to receive the prisoner, who had not yet reached Newnan, and did not reach there till 2 o’clock, anywhere except at the jail in Newnan. I did this because I feared that because of the large rewards offered the parties having him in charge might deliver him to the sheriff out of town, or before they reached town, thus giving the mob an opportunity to lynch him, and still claim the wards. If delivered at the jail I presumed the sheriff would at once lock him up and then receipt for him. I heard no more from either Newnan, Griffin or Palmetto until 3 o’clock, when the sheriff of Coweta county called me up by telephone and said he had received my telegram; that Hold had been delivered to him at the jail in Newnan, and receipted for him, but that after he had receipted for him and before he had locked him up, the mob, consisting of 500 or 1,000 men, took him in a hack and went off in the direction of Palmetto. In reply to my inquiry the sheriff said he did not know a single man in the crowd. I directed him to summon a posse and follow the crowd and, if possible, prevent violence. He replied that he had done all he could do, and that Governor Atkinson and Judge Freeman and others had aided him and made speeches to the mob, trying to persuade them to let the law take its course, but that the infuriated crowd hooted at them and howled them down. Thirty minutes later I heard from The Constitution office that Holt had been burned. I again called up the sheriff, who informed that it was true; that he had done all in his power to prevent it, without avail. The whole thing is deplorable and Holt’s crime, the horrid details of which have not been published and are too horrible for publication is the most diabolical in the annals of crime. The Negroes of that community lost the best opportunity they will ever have to elevate themselves in the estimation of their white neighbors. The diabolical nature of the double crime was well known to every one of them; the perpetrator was well known, and they owed it to their race to exhaust every means to bringing Holt to justice. This courage would have done more to elevate them to the estimation of good people and to protect their race against the mob than all the rewards at proclamations of all the governors for the next fifty years. But they lost the opportunity, and it is a deplorable fact that while scores of intelligent Negroes, leaders of the race, have talked to me about the Palmetto lynching, not one of them has ever, in the remotest way, allowed to either the burning of Palmetto which provoked the lynching, nor to the diabolical crime of Holt. I do not believe these men sympathized withhold or the Palmetto incendiaries, but they are blinded by race, prejudice, and can see but one side of the question. This is unfortunate. They must learn to look at both sides. I want to protect them in every legal right and against more violence, and I stand ready to employ every resource of the state in doing so; but they must realize that in order to merit and receive the protection of the community, they must show a willingness to at least aid in protecting the community against the lawless element of their own ace. The good and law-abiding Negroes must separate themselves from the lawless and criminal element. They must denounce crime and aid in bringing criminals to justice, whether they be black or white. In this way they can do more to protect themselves than all the courts and juries in the state can do for them. To secure protection against lawless whites, they must show a disposition to protect the white people against lawless blacks. Allen D. Candler, Governor – Atlanta, Ga., - April 23, 1899 …………………………………………………… NEGRO PREACHERS DENOUNCE SAM HOSE’S KIND Newnan, Ga. May 5 - At the regular monthly meeting of the minister of the African Methodist Episcopan church on Thursday night, May 4, 1899, the following resolutions were passed. We condone no crime, neither do we wish to shield criminals from any crime for which they deserve punishment. We have no toleration for criminals who commit crime and are heaping disgrace upon our race. We denounce, in the very strongest terms, those creatures of our race who are so depraved in their nature and become so reckless as to invade the sanctity of the home and destroy the priceless virtue of woman. We believe the gospel of the Son of God and the teachings of the sacred scriptures by His servants will do more to check lawlessness and crime than all other agencies; therefore, be it…. Resolved, That we increase our efforts, organize our forces and put in motion all the machinery of our faculties of mind and heart to bring under subjection every wicked and evil influence, that the white winged dove of peace may hover over us. Be it further resolved, that we give more attention to the training of the young in the school, in the in the home, as well as in the church, and that we teach more on the line of industrial and moral training of our people. Be it further resolved, That we call upon our ministry and teachers to lay aside our petty jealousies of church and race and let us link our efforts with those of the white race to hold up the majesty of the law, to increase industry and commerce of the country, that peace and prosperity may abound in its borders. Rev. H. H. Holloway, President - Rev. John Harmon, Secretary. Jackson Argus – Butts County Week of May 12, 1899 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/coweta/newspapers/samhoseb2355gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 12.6 Kb