Judge T.S. Crawford Assassination, Franklin Parish
Submitted by: DeWanna Lindo
10-Jul-2001

Source: Franklin Parish Library Clipping


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Assassination of: Judge T.S. Crawford:

There has never been a more degrading time in the history of the
 south than the period following the Civil War known as Reconstruction. 
The war had left the south a scarred battlefield, and the idea of a 
"reconstruction" led by Radicals in Congress left something to be desired. 
With the advent of military reconstruction in 1867, the South decided to 
strike back. The Ku Klux Klan, innocently begun in 1866 as a veteran's 
organization, had blossomed into a terrorist group whose actions strove 
to attain white supremacy. Although the Ku Klux Klan was outlawed in 
1871 by an act of Congress, the spirit of the movement continued to 
exist. This spirit of discontent in the aristocratic South led numerous, 
defiant acts of violence.

September 8, 1873 saw q vivid realization of this in Caldwell Parish. 
Thomas S. Crawford, Judge of the Quachita- Caldwell district, 
and A.H. Harris, District Attorney, were murdered in cold blood on the 
road between Columbia and Winnsboro in Franklin Parish in one of the 
most brutal crimes of the Reconstruction Era in North Louisiana. 
Although solid proof of  a definite political motive for the murders 
cannot be given, the facts weigh in its favor. Stories developed 
about well- grounded non-political motives; but the deep-seated enmity 
of the people provoked by Radical measures in Congress and the State 
legislature laid a dark political overtone that can not be overlooked.

The Quachita Telegraph, the Democratic newspaper in Monroe related the 
atrocity of the murders on September 13,1873. The journal noted that the 
two had attended court in "Winnsborough" the previous week, and were now 
returning after resting in Columbia on Sunday. It is not clear how 
Crawford and Harris met their death; but their bodies were found near 
what is today Three Rivers Bridge by Thomas J. Hough who followed them 
from Columbia. Crawford's body was riddled, so much so that the number 
of shots he received was impossible to determine. His head was literally 
torn to pieces, and the remains lay scattered in the grass. The fragments 
were later gathered up in a handkerchief for interment.

Mr. Harris' body was equally mutilated; but the nature of his wounds 
seemed to indicate that he was killed as he made a desperate attempt 
to escape on foot after his horse was killed. The character of the 
wounds of both of  the men led to the belief that shots were fired 
from both sides of the road, and that the men were shot after they 
were down to assure death.

Judge Crawford, a native of Kentucky, came to Louisiana about 1840 or 41. 
He first located in Harrisburg in Catahoula parish where he fitted himself 
for admittance to the Louisiana Bar. He was admitted to the bar in the 
fall of 1842, and moved to Columbia where he resided until his death.

Though the radical element of the Republican Party generally held sway, 
Crawford, Judge of the Quachita-Caldwell district, aligned himself with 
the moderate element of the party in 1868 and denounced the new 
constitution for its attempt to enforce social equality, its judicial 
system, its expensive system of public education, its deprivation of a 
large class of people of the privilege of voting , its oath of office, 
and its direct tendency to perpetuate a state of strife between the 
citizens of the state. Despite this stand, Crawford was elected to the 
Republican ticket as district judge with T.J. Hough as district attorney

The Quachita Telegraph recounted Judge Crawford as a "man of very superior 
intellect, firm and unyielding principles," who had attained a 
"high degree of eminence in his profession." As a criminal lawyer he had 
been long established, and had few equals in the state.

Judge Crawford's straightforward personality, however had gained him many 
personal enemies. He was indifferent to his fate and spoke on several 
occasions of narrow escapes from assassination.