Blount County TN Archives News.....News Articles July 23, 1883
************************************************

Copyright.  All rights reserved.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/tn/tnfiles.htm

************************************************



File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Glenn Teffeteller glennt@icx.net August 20, 2005, 3:24 am

EAST TENNESSEE NEWS July 23, 1883
Monday, July 23, 1883



Mr. Samuel Keller, a well-known and worthy citizen of the 8th District, died

on the morning of the 18th inst., aged about 60 years or upward. He was an

excellent gun and blacksmith, a worthy member of the Baptist Church, and a

good citizen who will be greatly missed in the community.



Executions in Blount---Our good county of Blount has been blessed with having

but a few men hung under the legal sentence. This question of hanging was up

some time since, and the writer went to some of our oldest citizens and the

records, and secured all the knowledge he could obtain on the public

executions in Blount County. It appears that all told there has been three.

The first was a man named Brison, who was convicted of stealing Negroes and

counterfeiting. He was hung in the hollow below the present residence of Capt.

Hannum, by Charles Donahoe who was then Sheriff. That was in 1812. He was

guarded by a company of militia. It appears that he was a northern man and a

stranger in the county, and some of our old men say that he was not really

guilty of the charges for which he was hung, but that he fell in company with

some parties who were guilty, and who made their escape, leaving the innocent

man to pay the dreadful penalty of the law. The condemned man, knowing his

innocence, was confident that he would be pardoned until the last moments, and

when the time came he refused to stand up to have the rope adjusted, and the

guards were forced to lift his body that the fatal noose might be fastened

around his neck. The next execution by hanging was that of Henry Lunsford. He

was tried and convicted of murder on the 7th day of August, 1828; the sentence

was pronounced on the 9th of August, and the time of execution fixed for

Friday, the 26th day of September, 1828. The jury was composed of the

following names: Thomas Maxwell, David Delzell, William Whittenberger, Notley

Warren, David Cupp, Thornton Jeffries, Joseph Collins, Robert Porter, Joseph

Layman, John McKaskle, James Kirby, John S. Sullens. The murder was said to

have been committed on a man named Thompson, on the place where James Crisp

now lives. The old men tell us that there were extreme doubts as to Lunsford’s

guilt; indeed, some stoutly maintain that he was innocent of the murder. The

circumstances were that at some kind of gathering the two men got into a

quarrel, Lunsford struck the other a blow with a stick on the head. A few

hours after he took very sick and soon died. He was said to have been

suffering from epilepsy, or something of that kind, and many thought that it

was the disease that took his life and that the blow had nothing to do with

it. He was hung on the day fixed in the sentence, in the hollow in rear of the

present residence of  William Coning in southwest Maryville, a vast concourse

of people witnessing the execution. Gen. William Wallace was the Sheriff and

officiated at the execution. (Compiler’s note---In the History of Blount

County (1795-1955) by Inez Burns, she writes that Henry Lunsford killed Mr.

Thompson at Norwood Inn, which stood on the crest of the hill west of

Greenback Industries. Lunsford supposedly shot into the main room of the inn

through a hole in the chimney that was there for ventilation. After the inn

was abandoned, people said it was haunted.) The third and last execution was

that of Charles, a slave belonging to a Mr. Cox. He was tried and convicted of

murder on the 26th day of September, 1839, and sentenced to be hanged on

Friday, the 25th day of October, 1839. The following names composed the jury

before whom he was tried: John W. Prichard, John Henry, James Frow, William

Donaldson, Samuel Steel, Philip Hammontree, Thomas Maxwell, William W. James,

John Hays, John Carter, Henry Tilson, Jefferson Reagan. The circumstances of

this murder were that David Humes and our fellow citizen, William J. Hackney,

were sitting in a room engaged in playing a game of checkers. While thus

engaged, a shot was fired through the window from the outside, killing Humes

instantly. Charles was arrested, tried and convicted, and it is said after his

conviction, not only confessed his crime but boasted of it, and said that he

would do it again under the same circumstances. Charles’ wife belonged to

Humes and Charles claimed that Humes had treated her cruelly, was his excuse

for perpetrating the crime. He was hung on the day fixed in the sentence, at

the same place Henry Lunsford was executed. Gen. William Wallace being the

Sheriff and officiating. The county is now 87 years old. May it be ten

thousand years before there is another execution within her borders.   W.



File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/blount/newspapers/newsarti119gnw.txt

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

File size: 5.2 Kb