Light in a Dark Place

By Betsy Chandler

Sharing biblical principles to reconcile others to the Lord Jesus, and to free my Grandfather and family from any taint of outlaws and gangsters, is the prime joy of my latter existence on this earth. Then, to top it all, anticipating the amazing wonders of the song Just think of stepping on shore, and finding it heaven; touching a hand, and finding it God, my own personal Savior. He paid for everyones penalty for sin, but what thrills my soul, He forgave my sin. Unbeatable! Please join us.

Remember, dear reader, Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to God that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Today hear His voice (Rom. 14:11; Heb. 3:7). Finally Home. Song by Don Wyrtzen.

Betsy W. Chandler

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503538184

Betsy Chandler

Imagine, almost eighty-six (born October 1928, Pauline Elizabeth Wilson) and happily experiencing peace and joy about my decease, whether it is by the rapture or whatever the Lord has for me. At seventy-five, a fall off my bicycle nearly finished me up. Since that didn’t work, this last year should have: a cancer operation and broken hip surgery. Thank the Lord I don’t worry about where I’m going. That was settled fifty-nine years ago when I realized I was a sinner and that the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for me that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him. O happy day. My sport days, tennis, swimming, golf, were over in my late sixties. During my teen years, my father, older brother, and I played lots of tennis, usually on our lighted tennis court behind the house, playing often after midnight with neighbors and friends. Having graduated at Morehead High School in 1945, my days at Elon College (now a university) in Burlington, North Carolina, were cut short after my freshman year by getting married to Joe W. Chandler Jr. at eighteen, in 1947. Then, my husband was accepted at the new school of pharmacy in Laramie, Wyoming. Two months after our marriage, we took off. We had a ball for three years although near poverty (Joe had three jobs; I was secretary to Dr. David O’ Day, head of the pharmacy school) and loving it all. Joe graduated in 1950, and we were elated to be back home with our several-month-old son, Joe W. Chandler III, even then a real cowboy. We happily settled in our hometown (now Eden, North Carolina). My most important happening in my entire life was when I was saved on July 3, 1955. I was a new creation in Christ Jesus; old things passed away, all things became new, and I dearly love the Lord Jesus that He so loved the world (John 3:16). The Lord miraculously added two girls, Beth and Lisa, to our family tree when our son was fifteen. Joey graduated at the University of South Carolina on a football scholarship, a certified public accountant. His sisters, Beth and Lisa, one married after two years at Jerry Falwell’s Christian College, and the other graduated in nursing at Bob Jones University. Being without my husband these last four years has been very sad and hard, at the same time, rejoicing. The Lord is certainly a wonderful help in time of need; however, Joe and I were married sixty-three years. The Lord has helped me tremendously, directing my writings and keeping me busy. We now have grand, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The ones of us who are saved serve a wonderful risen Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He lives, we live also. See you in heaven.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Betsy Chandler.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015901185

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5035-3816-0

                Softcover         978-1-5035-3817-7

                eBook               978-1-5035-3818-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by the Zondervan Corporation.

Rev. date: 06/09/2015

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

670125

CONTENTS

TOUGH LOVE

Preface Massacre AFTERMATH

Affidavit

Invalidating All They Wrote

Last-Minute Insertions

Floyd Allen, Claude Allen Found Guilty, Given Death

The Allen Case Again July 31, 1915, the Roanoke Times

Ongoing Preliminaries

Dear Reader

Foundational

LOVE THAT STAYS

Two Birthdays

~Grandpa~

An Admired Grandfather

OUT OF FELLOWSHIP WITH

Two Massacre Responses 2010 Last, FIRST

2004 RESPONSE: First, LAST

About the Documentary

(Summary) Overcoming Politics

LOVE WORKS

About the Author, Husband and Family (and TV)

Joe’s Newspaper

The House That Joe Built

Thank you, Grandfather,

for your

prison memoirs.

IGNORE HILLSVILLE’S

MASSACRE AFTERMATH

1964 CONFESSION:

SHOOTING FIRST PREMEDITATED?

ONE HUNDRED YEARS

ALLEN WHOOP-DE-DO

Fabrications and Theatrics?

I Think Not.

"But where sin abounded, grace did much

more abound" (Rom. 5:20).

"Let us go forth therefore unto him (Lord Jesus) without

the camp, bearing his reproach" (Heb. 13:13).

image002.jpgimage003.jpg

(Back and front views) Allen home place

image006.jpg

To

Joe III, Lisa, and Beth,

With my love

Peace be to the brethren, and love

with faith, from God the Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace be with all them that love

our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.

Amen.

Ephesians 6:23–24

image008.jpg

Mrs. Elizabeth Chandler Owen

(Opts for her Mrs. Degree after two years at Liberty Baptist University)

47043.png

We have also a more sure word of

Prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take

Heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark

Place, until the day dawn, and the day star

Arise in your hearts:

Knowing this first that no prophecy

Of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

For that prophecy came not in old time

By the will of man, but holy men of God spake

As they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

—2 Peter 1:19–21

image016.jpg

Only one of Grandfather’s tables is left in our family,

given to me by one of my two wonderful brothers,

placed in my personal Allen museum in a corner of the

living room.

image018.jpgimage020.jpg

Top and bottom of one of Sidna Allen’s tables in detail

image023.jpg

To the right: A young Grandpa Allen

image025.jpgimage027.jpgimage029.jpg

J. SIDNA ALLEN

THREE PARDONS

One: People/Governor of Virginia, 1926

Two: Clerk of Court’s Confession fifty-two years later (1912-1964)

Three: Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:24)

‘This man went down to his house justified rather than the other’ (Luke 18:14). A plaque on my desk says, and my Grandfather Allen would concur with me, I’m not perfect, just Forgiven.

image031.jpgimage033.jpg

Placed in the Hillsville Courthouse Museum

image036.jpg

Photo taken by Barbour Studios

image037.jpgimage039.jpg

Dedicated to

and in Memory of

Joseph W. Chandler Jr.

March 11, 1926–April 9, 2010

M y dear husband for almost sixty-three years, thankfully, with cherished harmony, not only agreed with our family’s Allen tragedy conclusions but also encouraged them by making the reprinting of Grandfather Allen’s book possible and the publishing of this one also—remembering that all good comes from the Lord.

(How I miss you, dearest, let me count the ways . . .)

image041.jpgimage043.jpg

Pauline Allen

Almost a teenager

image045.jpgimage047.jpg

Acknowledgments

S incere thanks are due to those who helped me get this book completed, with much appreciation for their many kindnesses to the little ole lady crossing the st reet:

Most of all, I thank my remarkable grandfather for his responsible, courageous, persevering, upright-from-the-heart, and humble Christian behavior and integrity in the years I knew him. Especially in prison and afterward—of which his granddaughter witnessed and admired after he was pardoned from prison, just a few years before his victorious entry into heaven, forever with the Lord. Later it was extremely touching to me, and I treasured reading his Sidna Allen memoirs book, amply portraying the Lord Jesus’s character during his imprisonment. Without this lovely, humble characterization, I may not have come to know the Lord Jesus as my own personal Savior. Thank you, Grandfather. And thank you, Lord.

And thanks to my dearest son - Joe III - who deserves much credit for keeping me supplied with loads of paper, ink cartridges, and use of his copy machine.

To Marilyn Holley and Elizabeth Hurd, it is with a grateful heart for their capable assistance, clearing the way for me to spend time at the computer and used by the Lord to keep me strong when I’m weak as He promises in 2 Corinthians 12:9, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Many thanks go to missionary Donel Rodriguez and his friend Jabez Tenorio, from the Philippines, for their wonderful fellowship in the Lord and introducing me to Xlibris Book Publishers. And much appreciation to Robert Hurd, Elizabeth’s son, who just graduated from college, UNCG, and for the last year his expertise at the computer has been inestimable, particularly his work with the multitude of pictures and getting order out of chaos.

With heartfelt gratitude, I thank the Lord and all of you.

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise, unto the LORD

all ye lands

Serve the LORD with gladness:

Come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the LORD he is

God: it is he that hath made us, and not

we ourselves; we are his people, and the

sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,

and into his courts with praise; be thankful

unto him, and bless his name.

For the LORD is good; his mercy is

everlasting; and his truth endureth to all

generations.

Preface

Massacre AFTERMATH

But he (Lord Jesus) said, Yea, rather, blessed are they

that hear the word of God and keep it.

—Luke 11:28

T o recapture the 1912 courthouse tragedy in Virginia, my grandfather’s book, Memoirs of J. Sidna Allen: A True Narrative of What Really Happened at Hillsville, Virginia (1912), must be read. The only other occurrence that took over the news one hundred years ago, for a short while, was the sinking of the Tit anic .

The first section of this book chips away at the aftermath of the massacre’s absurd Allen outlaw publicity theatrics and fabrications, their whoop-de-do over it all, especially and particularly in light of the 1964 confession by the then clerk of court (the other party). Other than implementing biblical principles, the aftermath of the tragedy is all that is written about. Only in passing is the courthouse horror mentioned.

Reiterating the theme, "The Allens were never outlaws, may weigh you down, but try cushioning it with related Scriptures. One century to untangle. Circumstances surrounding the massacre, now known, present an entirely different corroborated story. Yet, the courthouse partisan followers still ignore the beyond-reproach lives Sidna Allen’s family lived this past one hundred plus years—outlaw" propaganda entirely refuted! The passing of time tells the true story.

Historians, journalists, newspapers, media, and others, with a high look, hoist with their own petard! (Shakespeare)—not forgetting the unacceptable Allen documentary.

image050.jpg

Invalidating All They Wrote

S ince this is the summation of all my writings that revolve around the aftermath of the Allen tragedy, at times called the Hillsville Courthouse Massacre, regressing from back to front, it completes, thankfully, all this book. It is understandably refreshing to confide: this is for sure All she wrote (discounting another published Allen Outlaw whatever grabbing my attention, begging to be sile nced).

Or shall I introduce instead Murder She Wrote, indicating that Mr. Quesinberry, the clerk of court, confessed fifty-two years later verbally—and there was an affidavit—that he went to the Hillsville courthouse to kill Floyd Allen the day of the 1912 tragedy. Sadly, not in time to rectify the verdicts, but future conscientious historians may take note. So far, this confession is exposed to little light of day other than my writings.

And for the ones who can’t understand how a massacre and the Bible can possibly be interwoven, you’ll be amazed how easily it is done. Other than the next two newspaper insertions, this entire book mixes the secular with God’s love: Light in a Dark Place.

The 1964 confession by the clerk of court to the tragedy in Virginia exactly one hundred years ago, March 14, 1912, changes the name Allen Outlaws to the Hillsville Courthouse Massacre literally. It changes the history of it into the most magnificent subterfuge of the truth, as it was circulated in this country and the world. So goes the political arena: Southern Historians, journalists, and the media. Sidna Allen’s family members were never outlaws, they did not become outlaws, they are not outlaws, and they were never a gang.

The courthouse happening aroused much ado about something seriously catastrophic, but not the rigmarole plastered over the world in its day or trying to make a comeback in this day either, or any other day.

From Grandfather’s foreword in his book, 1929 Memoirs of J. Sidna Allen, the following is partially quoted:

"If you read the newspapers during the spring and summer of 1912, you doubtless recall the tragedy I have reference to. It was widely heralded at the time as an unparalleled atrocity, and both I and the members of my family were branded as vicious desperadoes of the worst sort. How well we deserved this appellation I shall leave the reader to judge after he has read here the only version of the tragedy and events leading thereto that have been written by any of those charged with bringing it about.

For while a number of books dealing with the affair have been published, none of them have given the Allen’s side of it. In these books we have been pictured as men wholly bad, intolerant of the restraints of civilization and oblivious of the rights of others; but if we have been pictured correctly, then I am a stranger both to my family and myself."

In 2004, I began responding to the Journal of Southern History May 2004 massacre booklet by refuting unverified claims of the various incredulous cooked-up prevarications centered around my family, the so-called infamous Allen Outlaws. Contrary to the journal’s Allen addiction, there was never an Allen gang, and as it turned out in 1964, it was proven that the Allens were innocent of starting the courtroom shooting. Thus, the overblown misrepresentation of the century, and it still continues. I wonder if everyone knows that the devil is the father of lies. The Lord Jesus Himself, God manifest in the flesh, informs us, When he (the devil) speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it John 8:44. If anyone is unacquainted with this truth, this verse shines light in a dark place. All the Scriptures illuminate always, but it is contingent on each individual’s receptiveness to God’s Word: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God John 1:12.

The multitudes favor unreceptiveness: But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2:14.

While Jesus was on earth, He said, I am the light of the world. Since His resurrection, He says to believers, Ye are the light of the world or Ye are lights in the world. John 9:5; Matt 5:14. The apostle Paul puts it this way: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the Word of Life Phil. 2:15–16.

I had no idea that my first 2004 response to the Journal of Southern History’s stirring-up, exciting Allen Outlaw tales would turn into the last piece concluding this book. It was forgotten in my computer for six years, 2004 until 2010, thus explaining the back-to-front sequence of most of this book.

Then… I began hearing of the one-hundredth-year celebration of the Hillsville 1912 Courthouse Massacre! Well, really!

Am I the only one who thinks it’s crudely improper—uncivilized—to insist on making your mark by parading a devastating massacre? a heartbreaking tragedy? Whether it is by inflating individuals, a city, a county, or all three combined? Not only is it a disappointment, but it is also insensitivity at its worst. Especially if Hillsville’s massacre depends on one wrong premise to gain attention, or it doesn’t work—the premise being the Allens have to be the outlaws.

My confrontations to all the entire lamentable untruths of it go from back to front until now, with hopes fading that this combination of writings meets any kind of deadline before the big climactic event.

In case you tire of my going on and on and on some more, think of combating one hundred years of Carroll County politics and the other parties’ Allen Outlaw political strategies. Coming up are several pieces and responses, with a personal Admiring Grandfather Allen Glimpses sandwiched in between, and before that, My Miraculous Second Birthday; of course I couldn’t leave that out.

Does the reader observe one birthday or two? Can you put your finger on the second one? That is, the Spirit of God, by the new birth introducing you to the risen living Savior and Lord, the Lord of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ, with the reason for it all: That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. Phil. 3:10.

If only one birthday, Jesus compares it to a net (Gr., dragnet) cast in the sea of humanity, separating the bad from the good and throwing the bad away (the bad: depicting unrighteous ones; the good, ones declared righteous by God). So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Matt. 13:47–50. Remember the just are the justified ones, who are declared righteous by God through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, we have peace with God. Rom. 5:1. Not our righteousness, we have none. We have only His righteousness of which to boast throughout eternity. How wonderfully gracious is our Savior. Examine yourself: Are you declaring yourself righteous? Or has God declared you righteous? Heaven/hell is in the balance.

Lots of scriptural doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness are headed your way. It’s up to you, the reader to make the most of it, determining your qualification, appropriation, and destination. For, believers, with Scriptures quoted, you’ll find yourselves in harmony with rightly dividing the word of truth; unbelievers, now is the day of salvation, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts 2 Tim. 2:15, 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:2; Heb. 4:7. And Isaiah 8:20:

"To the law [first five books] and to the testimony [history]: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

* * *

Last-Minute Insertions

D ue to ones who may be entirely in the dark about the 1912 Hillsville tragedy, and as this endeavor otherwise is to do with the ‘ aftermath’ of the political clash, I’m, at the last minute before this book hits the presses, inserting two articles: The first is the fourth and last part from the Danville Register & Bee , Danville, Virginia, written in 1991: Floyd Allen, Claude Allen found Guilty, Given Death. This piece gives the uninformed reader an idea, in a measure, of what the much-publicized lamentable affair is about. It renders a passably unbiased account of the sad consequences to the regretful, out-and-out political courthouse happening, at least in comparison to other news reports. Also, the 1964 confession by the clerk of court is mentioned, of which the first section of this book is all about. This confession completely clears the Allens of starting the shooting and other offenses as well. My grandfather’s brother, Floyd Allen, and his son Claude would not have been electrocuted had the confession been made known at that time—politics as u sual.

The other insertion is a short letter, The Allen Case Again, written in 1915 in the Roanoke Times, which is a different perspective of court proceedings back then.

Moreover, of course, you can always obtain our book, 1929 Memoirs of J. Sidna Allen: A True Narrative of What Really Happened at Hillsville 1912, and my addition, Tragedy to Riches in Christ.

Danville Register & Bee, Danville, Virginia

Monday, June 17, 1991

Floyd Allen, Claude Allen Found Guilty, Given Death

by ADRIAN O’CONNOR

Staff Writer

(Last of four parts)

H illsville—Wytheville, roughly 35 miles to the northwest, was selected as site for the trials of the captures Allen family fugitives and, on April 30, 1912, Floyd Allen, charged with killing commonwealth’s Attorney William Foster, once again stood before the bar.

The 15-day trial was fraught with conflicting testimony. Floyd insisted he did not draw his revolver until he himself had been shot and denied he ever said to a man named Sam Weddle that, if convicted, he would kill Foster before sunset. It took more than 24 hours for the jury to decide his fate.

Conspiracy on the part of the Allen family was never proven, yet when the jurors did hand down a verdict, there was no ambivalence whatsoever: Guilty as charged, and a sentence of death in the electric chair.

Three days later, Floyd’s son, Claude, went on trial for the killing of Judge Thornton L Massie. Before a guilty