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1884 Lynching In Monterey, Virginia
It always amazes me when I hear back on an OkieLegacy features in our archives. This comment was made by Kevin Fansler who replied to our feature story in Vol. 13, Iss. 16, dated 2011-04-18, concerning "Learning Good With the Bad Ancestrial Stories."
Kevin says, "Henry Morgan Tomlinson is my great-grandfather. Giles Gum is my great-great-uncle and Sidney Ruckman is also a relative. I have been curious about this story ever since my grandmother Tomlinson told the story. The Tomlinson fled ultimately to McPherson, Kansas where Henry changed his name temporarily to Charles Morgan, according to the 1885 Kansas census. He, with his family, came into Oklahoma after 1895 and settled around the Fay, Oklahoma area."
This story as stated in the History of Highland County, Virginia, page 230, by Oren Frederic Morton states, "The good record of the county in this respect was marred by a lynching in the month of January 3, 1884." The lynching victim was a man from Michigan (may have been originally from Massachusetts), E. D. Porter (a.k.a E. D. Atchison), came to the west of the county after his release from the Pocahontas jail. It was believed that Porter was not a well-behave person, and during a game of cards with a citizen of Back Creek, a quarrel arose between two intoxicated men. Porter being one of them. He struck the other person a blow with his knife, only inflicting a slight wound in the breast.
As the story goes . . . a party of citizens broke into the jail, shot Atchison in his cell, and then hanged him to a tree on the Vanderpool road, where the same crosses the brow of the conical hill south of the town. It was reported that all but one of the lynching party was identifiable. One citizen was tried by a jury of Rockbridge men but was acquitted. The others who were assumed to be implicated in the unfortunate occurrence left the county never to return.
This is a list of the men that Sheriff Hiner could identify 9 out of the 10 men. He saw the face of the tenth man but did not recognize him. Arrest warrants were then sworn out for the following 9 men:
- John Anderson Chestnut
- James Beeson
- Joe Beath
- Luther Wade
- L. N. Gibson
- Giles Harrison Gum
- Henry Morgan Tomlinson
- John Adam Lightner
- Robert Warwick (may have been the same as my great grandpa, John Robert Warwick)
Comments:
Some further comments below in the form of an email sent to Michael Sellers zeller.sellers@yahoo.com Hello Michael, I came across your letter below and I thought I would comment on it. Thanks for finding out about the identity of the lone man to be tried for the murder. I have also been interested in this incident. My great grandfather was Henry Morgan Tomlinson and my grandmother is Mary Huldah Tomlinson. I am related to most of these suspects. If I am not related by blood I am related by marriage. I am also related to John Sydney Ruckman who was wounded by Atcheson. Ruckman was later murdered in a dispute with African Americans in 1896. One of his slayers was then lynched at Watonga, Oklahoma. My grandmother wrote the account down in a poem. The first part is lost because my mother burned a lot of this correspondence. I think it upset her to read it. I have the second part of the poem and I am surprised that she did not also burn it. Henry left immediately after the murder. He immediately went to Conwaw, Kansas but then quickly went to McPherson, Kansas. He had relatives there. According to the census one of the relatives was probably A.W. Gum. He was then living under an assumed name of Charles with the surname Morgan. My grandmother told us about this and I had no difficulty locating the family in the 1885 Kansas census. I have tried to find the other suspects using their real names but they do not show up in the Kansas 1885 census. The rest of the family followed after the farm was quickly sold and a sale was planned to dispose of other property. They received hardly any cash but held a note as promise for future payment. They rented land in Kansas and had frequent visitors from Virginia preparing to settle or just visit. Some visitors were the Ruckman's, the Erevin's, and Overholt's. They practically ate them out of house and home. The money from the note never came and the rent on the land was high. The family went from a prosperous state to being impoverished. In 1893 Henry Clay went down to settle on a quarter near Fay, Oklahoma. In 1894, Mary was coerced by her father and brothers to come down and make a claim as she had some resources from her occupation of teacher. Mary left a fiance behind in Kansas. She finally moved down for good in 1894. I have some old photos made when they were in McPherson, Kansas and a little later when they first came to Oklahoma. By joining Google Plus you will be able to see these photos. Kevin Fansler ~ 2012-06-06 21:50:12Add your two-cents (BACK TO FULL ISSUE)
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