The Chisolm Massacre: A Picture of Home Rule in Mississippi

By James M. Wells

The Chisolm Massacre occurred April 29, 1877, after the end of the Reconstruction era in Kemper County, Mississippi. A judge and former sheriff named William Chisolm was accused of killing a Democratic Party sheriff John Gully and was being held in the local jail. Also there, being held in protective custody, were his son and daughter and two of his friends. A mob of around 300 Ku Klux Klan members stormed the jail and killed Chisolm, his family, and one of his friends. No one was convicted for the attack.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Release date: May 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781839747038

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THE CHISOLM MASSACRE:

A PICTURE OF HOME RULE IN MISSISSIPPI

BY

JAMES MONROE WELLS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

DEDICATION 6

INTRODUCTION. 7

NOTICES OF PRESS AND DISTINGUISHED MEN. 9

CHAPTER I. 10

CHAPTER II. 13

CHAPTER III. 17

CHAPTER IV. 25

CHAPTER V. 33

CHAPTER VI. 37

CHAPTER VII. 40

CHAPTER VIII. 43

CHAPTER IX. 47

CHAPTER X. 55

CHAPTER XI. 62

CHAPTER XII. 69

CHAPTER XIII. 72

CHAPTER XIV. 76

CHAPTER XV. 80

CHAPTER XVI. 84

CHAPTER XVII. 87

CHAPTER XVIII. 93

CHAPTER XIX. 98

CHAPTER XX. 108

CHAPTER XXI. 113

CHAPTER XXII. 120

CHAPTER XXIII. 128

CHAPTER XXIV. 133

CHAPTER XXV. 138

CHAPTER XXVI. 141

CHAPTER XXVII. 149

CHAPTER XXVIII. 151

CHAPTER XXIX. 161

CHAPTER XXX. 163

CHAPTER XXXI. 167

THE MARTYRS OF MISSISSIPPI. 169

TO THE MEMORY OF CORNELIA J. CHISOLM. 175

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 177

DEDICATION

TO EMILY S. M. CHISOLM,

THE FAITHFUL WIFE, FOND MOTHER AND DEVOTED FRIEND,

WHOSE BITTER TEARS,

LIKE THE BLOOD OF HER MARTYRED AND BELOVED DEAD,

FALL TO THE EARTH AND PASS FROM SIGHT

UNHEEDED AND UNAVENGED,

THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

INTRODUCTION.

On Sunday, the twenty-ninth of April, 1877, a body of three hundred men, styling themselves the best citizens of Kemper county, in the State of Mississippi, conspiring together and co-operating with the sheriff and other officers of the county, coolly and premeditatedly murdered three men and two children; one of the latter a young and beautiful girl, and the other a delicate boy aged thirteen years. Against this act humanity itself, where humanity finds lodgment in the breasts of men, still cries out for vengeance; and the withering condemnation of an outraged public sentiment is everywhere turned upon the whole people of a State who stand supinely by, dumb and immovable spectators of such a crime without so much as a pretended effort toward the enforcement of the law against its perpetrators.

The inability of the courts of the country to arrest or punish is now admitted, and it is sought to palliate and justify the offense by invading the forbidden and hallowed precincts of the grave, and assailing the characters of the victims whose voices are hushed in the unbroken sleep of death. In behalf of justice to the living or dead, the laws of the land and the wail of the widow and orphan are alike unavailing.

Having been providentially called to witness this atrocity and its results, in their worst form and aspect, and knowing much of the men whose hands were employed in the bloody work, as well as of the causes which prompted them to its enactment; and, above all, being thoroughly acquainted with the lives and characters of the victims and the circumstances surrounding those who are left to mourn their untimely and terrible death, a sense of a solemn and imperative duty has impelled the author to undertake the difficult task which has resulted in the production of these pages. Nor has this been done with the hope of reward or fear of condemnation from any political organization or other source. The book is a simple record of facts, and for whatever there may be in them calculated to win plaudits from one or incur the displeasure of another the writer is in no way responsible. In their preparation, however, the necessity of producing something more than a simple and unqualified statement by which to establish the authenticity of the subject treated has been kept steadily in view, and where the circumstances seemed in any way to require it, some data or tangible proof of the correctness of every assertion made has been given, and the time, place and manner of its occurrence fixed.

The facts, dating back as far as 1870, are gleaned from personal observation of the author, whose business, carrying him into different parts of the State, has been of such a nature as to lead to a close investigation of the moral, social and political status and conduct of the people. The past four years, living in a county adjoining that of Kemper, which he has visited regularly and often, he has been made acquainted from time to time with the men and things here discussed.

With regard to the existence of the conspiracy to murder Judge Chisolm and his associates—which had its beginning soon after the close of the war, and culminated only when the last sod of earth was placed upon the grave of the faithful and heroic daughter, Cornelia—the circumstances of the murder itself, the subsequent treatment of the wounded, their sufferings and the manner of their death and burial, the writer is indebted to his own eyes, to the death-bed declarations of Judge Chisolm, and to the story as it came from the pale lips of the martyred girl, while the angels stood waiting to waft her spirit above. To all this is added the sworn testimony of more than twenty unimpeachable witnesses now living, whose names for their safety only are as yet withheld.

This evidence was taken by order of Attorney-General Devens, at the instance or demand of the British Minister at Washington, and was done for the purpose of ascertaining the facts with regard to the citizenship and death of Angus McLellan, the alleged British subject, one of the victims of the slaughter. To make this work complete and reliable, a special agent—Mr. G. K. Chase—was sent from Washington to cooperate with U.S. District-Attorney Lea, of Jackson, Mississippi, and these gentlemen, in company with Gen. Geo. C. McKee, of Jackson, and the writer, visited Meridian and De Kalb, where the facts were obtained, in strict accordance with which these pages are written. The coolness and deliberation of the plot to entrap the victims under a hollow pretense of executing the law, and then to murder them in cold blood; the shooting of Gilmer and McLellan on the streets and the assault of the mob upon the jail soon after; the murder of the little boy Johnny by Rosser, the leader of the savage horde, and the terrible vengeance visited upon the assassin’s head by Judge Chisolm; the heroic defense of the father by the brave girl, and the patient suffering of the wounded through all the days that followed the dark Sabbath, till death came to their relief; all taken together afford a theme well calculated to enliven the fancy of a writer of the most extravagant tale of fiction, and cannot fail to arouse the sympathy and indignation of every honest heart throughout the world where the facts are known. A reproach to the civilization of the century in which we live, the cheek of every true lover of all that is worthy of adoration in woman will mantle with shame when a record of this horror shall desecrate the pages which perpetuate the memory of a boasted chivalry, and American manhood must deny its name and existence so long as the blood of Cornelia and Johnny Chisolm is unavenged.

"And do we dream we hear

The far, low cry of fear,

Where in the Southern land

The masked barbaric band,

Under the covert night,

Still fight the coward’s fight,

Still strike the assassin’s blow—

Smite childhood, girlhood low!

Great Justice! canst thou see

Unmoved that such things be?

See murderers go free,

Unsought? Bruised in her grave

The girl who fought to save

Brother and sire. She died for man.

She leads the lofty van

Of hero women. Lift her name

With ever-kindling fame.

Her youth’s consummate flower

Took on the exalted dower

Of martyrdom. And death

And love put on her crown

Of high renown. ****

Cease, bells of freedom, cease!

Hush, happy songs of peace!

If such things yet may be,

Sweet land of liberty,

In thee, in thee!"

NOTICES OF PRESS AND DISTINGUISHED MEN.

I do not know what arrangements have been made for the distribution and sale of this thrilling volume, but it ought to find a place in every public library at the North, and deserves to be read and pondered in every family. Sitting down to its perusal I allowed nothing to interrupt me until I had read every line of it. ** This volume if widely circulated, cannot fail to do much towards opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, and melting the hearts of the obdurate.—William Lloyd Garrison.

We would not be surprised to see it circulate as extensively as Uncle Tom’s Cabin.—National Republican, Washington, D.C.

What heroism! What wonderful courage, endurance, love! Cornelia Chisolm will live with Virginia and Lucretia. I trust her sad story may be told to endless generations, and that the fearful caste that destroyed her may find her memory ever its most deadly foe.—Eugene Lawrence, of Harpers’ Weekly.

Discloses a condition of society which it is impossible for one not personally cognizant of the facts to comprehend. *** The heroism of the dying girl is deeply touching.—Inter-Ocean, Chicago, Ill.

A lurid picture of Home Rule.—Chicago Tribune.

A picture of society which is horrible to contemplate.—Indianapolis Journal.

A complete history of the Chisolm tragedy, including the causes leading to this and other terrible crimes.—Burlington (Ia.) Hɒwkeye.

A faithful history as far as it goes, of the civilization we have in Mississippi. *** A chapter of the outrages practiced upon Republicans, which equals the religious persecutions as given in Fox’s book of Martyrs.—Hon. H. R. Pease.

The book is written with deep feeling, yet with a personal repression in the writer, that, under the circumstances, reaches the sublime.—Mary Clemmer.

The book itself is a monument to Judge Chisolm and his dutiful and heroic children.—R. B. Stone, late Chancellor of Mississippi.

CHAPTER I.

William Wallace Chisolm, a sketch of whose eventful life and late tragic death will form, perhaps, the most important feature in the progress of this work, was born in Morgan county, Georgia, December 6th, 1830. At the age of sixteen years, together with his parents, he became a resident of Kemper county, Mississippi, a country which, then as now, was infested with great numbers of wicked and lawless men, the records of whose bloody crimes are still fresh in the memory of many of Kemper’s oldest and most respected citizens. So marked was the spirit of violence and so light the regard for human life that the growth and improvement of the country was very slow; a condition which has followed its fortunes up to the present time. The accession of sober, industrious and trustworthy families to a community like that of Kemper, in those days, was welcomed and hailed with delight by all good people far and near, and the Chisolm family were not long in establishing their claim upon the latter class, where they ever after took rank among the first.

In the month of March, 1851, the head of the family died, leaving William—then a boy nineteen years old—its guardian and protector. Three of the children were younger sisters, and on his death-bed the father exacted of the son the promise that he would discharge all obligations of the estate, which amounted to a large sum for those early times and primitive surroundings, and that he would also educate the three sisters and provide for them comfortably in life. To the faithful performance of this duty young Chisolm at once set himself at work. How well he carried out this pledge the creditors or their heirs, and two of the sisters in good homes, surrounded by happy families, are still living to attest, while the mother, now at the ripe old age of seventy-four years, is provided with a neat cottage, situated on a farm which yields her a bountiful support, and that within sight of her early home in Mississippi, where all her children were reared and around which the survivors and their descendants are clustered today, if not happy, certainly honored and revered.

The 29th of Oct., 1856, the subject of this sketch was married to Emily S. Mann, an accomplished young lady, a daughter of John W. Mann, who was a native of Amelia Island, Florida, a prominent lawyer and a gentleman of high literary and social culture. The career of the Manns, in the early settlement of Florida, was somewhat remarkable. The grandfather of Emily S. Mann, who owned a large tract of land under a Spanish grant, was the first settler, and built the first house where the city of Fernandina now stands. In the dispute between the early American settlers in Florida and the Spanish authorities, in which the former sought to take from Spain the lands claimed by that government, the Manns, among others, took prominent part, and by virtue of superior intelligence, skill and bravery soon rose to distinction. These settlers were, many of them, driven from their homes, while others were put to death outright or carried off and compelled to drag out a life of refined torture as prisoners in Moro Castle, Cuba. Whether the theory is correct or not, it is one of the inherent elements of human conjecture to credit and foster the belief that the strong characteristics which may in any way distinguish the conduct of individuals are sure to mark and mould, in some degree, the fortunes of their lineal posterity. Perhaps the bold and venturesome spirit which characterized the lives of this family in generations past, when the iron rule of Spain was laid heavily upon these early settlers, has had its influence in shaping the remarkable life and character of Emily Mann Chisolm.

The education acquired by young Chisolm, up to the date of his marriage, was only such as could be gleaned at odd times in the common schools of the country, which were then very poor; but with the assistance of a dutiful and fond wife, his acquirements were soon made to equal the spirit of enterprise and just emulation already settled upon his heart. This dates the beginning of an eventful and prosperous life.

Full of vigor and manly strength, young Chisolm first entered upon the business of farming, almost the only legitimate pursuit then open to the young men of the country, most of whom preferred a life of idleness and debauch to one of uninterrupted toil.

The 30th of January, 1858, W. W. Chisolm, at a special election held for the purpose of filling a vacancy in the office of magistrate, was elected to that important and honorable position in the beat or township in which he lived.

It was on the eleventh of February, 1858, that Cornelia Josephine, the first fruit of the marriage of W. W. Chisolm and Emily S. Mann was born. The sublime character of this pure girl, who, nineteen years after, fell a victim of savage outlawry, and died while defending her father against the assault of a bloodthirsty mob, is worthy the emulation of America’s most exalted womanhood. Her young life, yielded up on the altar of filial love, and devotion to those principles of justice and right, which ever inspired the hearts of parent and child alike, cannot have been given in vain. The lesson taught by her example will live on, after the generation and the spirit which prompted these inhuman acts shall have been forgotten or numbered with the things of the past. As time advances and the proud names of our country’s noble women are recorded, that of Cornelia Chisolm will be written in golden letters on the brightest page.

From this slight digression, the reader is brought back to the historical events in the order of their occurrence, which enter into the ground-work of this narrative.

In October, 1858, at a general election, young Chisolm was again made the choice of the people of his district, who re-elected him Justice of the Peace for a term of two years, which time he served with honor and credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his constituency. At all events, so well were the duties of this office performed, that in November, 1860, he was made Probate Judge of the county, a place which he held almost uninterruptedly until the year 1867, when he resigned in favor of John McRea, who was appointed by the then Provisional Governor of the State. During the long term in which he held this important position, Judge Chisolm was elected three times, running against Judge Gill, an older man, and one said to have been, next to Judge Chisolm, the most popular ever elected to an office in the county.

In all these years in which he enjoyed the confidence of his countrymen to such a high degree, Judge Chisolm was a pronounced Union man of Whig proclivities, and an uncompromising enemy of the party which precipitated and hurled head-long upon the country the terrible consequences of the rebellion. When the tide of secession swept over Mississippi like a devouring flame, he, with thousands of others like himself, who shuddered at the thought, in an unguarded moment, through force and intimidation, cast a vote favoring the disruption of the Union, an act which it is known he regretted all the remainder of his life. As a civil officer and citizen he was always opposed to the fratricidal contest, to which he steadily refused to lend any personal service, and never entered the army save only in the thirty days militia, and then under protest. The popular voice of the county, in the meantime, was in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war, even unto the last ditch.

Against all these odds Judge Chisolm was continued in office, from term to term, Whig and Unionist as he was.

Young and inexperienced in politics, there must have been in him, from the beginning, something which won the hearts of his fellows and called around him the elements of his unbounded success. At the close of the great struggle, he was among the few Southern men who early declared themselves in favor of reconstruction and the principles of the dominant party of that day, and to which he ever after adhered with a steadfastness and zeal amounting to patriotic devotion. Such were the leading characteristics of Judge Chisolm in youth and early manhood, and which gathered strength as time and age advanced, and through life marked the conduct of his public and private career.

Through an acquaintance with the people of Kemper county, as they were found in an early day, before the spirit engendered by rebellion could have had anything to do in moulding Southern character, the reader will be enabled more clearly to comprehend the peculiar state of morals which is found to have existed among them in later years; and which it must be believed is the natural outgrowth of a long-neglected and depraved condition of society. To make this point clear, the two following chapters are written. That there were then, as now, many good and true men and women living in this wild and unreclaimed region cannot be doubted, and they have nothing to fear from this record. To them every meed of praise is given, and should the eyes of any such chance to meet these pages, it must be borne in mind that only the wicked flee when no man pursueth.

CHAPTER II.

For many years before the war and at its close, Kemper county, if not the whole State of Mississippi, might well have been included with Kentucky in her historic designation of the dark and bloody ground; for its population was, to a great extent, made up from a class of men who disregarded alike the laws of God and man, and upon whom the multiplied villanies of nature swarmed in unwonted profusion. But unlike Kentucky, the deeds of barbarity committed within the borders of Kemper were not chargeable upon the untutored red man. None but the pure Anglo-Saxon race, and those to the manor born, were in any way responsible for the facts which are here recorded. Against this class, the efforts of the better citizens were often powerless and futile; and the officers entrusted with the execution of the law, either did not have the ability or were wanting in the disposition to arrest and punish.

In the little town of Narkeeta, in the year 1837, there was a tavern kept by one Geo. Capers, and a grog shop which was presided over by a rare genius named Nicholas Caton. The courts of the country at that time had very little influence in controlling the actions of men, as the judge, the sheriff or the juries were sure to have friends on one side or the other of the question to be settled; hence brute force became the only arbiter of peace. As a natural consequence of this, little neighborhood factions would spring up, hold brief but absolute sway for a day, or a month, and then as quickly give way to the temporary rule of another, which had proved itself more valiant in the use of the pistol or knife. For many years at Narkeeta there were two parties of the kind described, which alternated in the brief establishment of their authority, sometimes extending all over the county. These were led by the Doughtys on one side and the McLeans on the other. Horse racing, rapine, robbery and murder were of almost weekly if not daily occurrence throughout that and other sections. It is impossible, at this time to furnish the details of all the diabolisms that were then and there witnessed, as they would furnish a record of crime containing volumes. Only the most aggravated case, the details of which are still fresh in the memory of Narkeeta’s oldest citizens, is here recounted. It will be sufficient to say, that from the year 1837 to 1842, there were committed, in the neighborhood spoken of, eighteen murders, the most diabolical of which occurred in the year 1839; in which George Capers waylaid and shot Nicholas Caton by the roadside. Caton, it appears, was apprised of his danger, and fearing death from a concealed enemy, while making a short journey through the country on horse-back, took up before him on the saddle a little child, eighteen months old, believing that its tender years and innocent prattle would form a temporary safeguard against the assassin’s bullet. But in those days, as has been proved in more modern times, the presence of childhood had no power or influence in staying the hand of violence. While passing through a thicket, Caton was shot from his horse and fell to the ground dead, still clasping in his arms the innocent child.

In the early spring of 1860, Adam Calvert had on his place two colored boys, the property of some heirs for whom a Mrs. Davis was guardian. The negroes, when hired to Calvert, had just recovered from an attack of measles. Mrs. Davis stipulated in the contract, before letting them go, that they should be subjected to no unnecessary exposure to the weather.

Ferguson, Calvert’s overseer, a man of low instincts and beastial habits, had these two boys at work hauling rails, one day in the early spring, when there came up a very heavy and driving rain. Ferguson himself repaired to a shelter, leaving the injunction with one of the lads that if he should stop his team to take shelter from the rain it would be done at the peril of his life. But the storm came thicker and faster, and the poor fellow, chilled, benumbed and blinded, took refuge, for a few moments, under a large tree near by. When the rain had passed, Ferguson gave him a terrible beating, and left him with the promise that he would renew the punishment on the following day. The boy, then suffering from a raging fever, fearing that Ferguson would kill him, ran back to his mistress, Mrs. Davis, to whom he told the story of the cruel treatment he had received. It will be borne in mind that the penalty for harboring, or in any way aiding a runaway slave, was very severe; and, although Mrs. Davis’ heart bled for him, she was compelled to send the boy back, with a note to Mr. Calvert, asking him not to inflict too severe punishment, and not any until he should recover from his fever. Mr. Calvert, it appears, had gone from home that morning, and when the slave reached his place he handed the note to Mrs. Calvert. Before sunrise of the next day Ferguson took him out behind a stable, stripped and tied him across a log, and, with a large rope, having knots tied in the end, whipped him in a most shocking and outrageous manner. The victim’s screams were heard by the neighbors living a mile and a half distant in every direction, and then to conclude, the brute jumped upon his back and stamped him with