Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 20, 1993 TAG: 9309210206
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Sallie Anna Bishop. The market vendor who was robbed and beaten by a black assailant. From either Troutville or Cloverdale. Later recovered from her injuries.
Henry Bishop. Her husband, a farmer. He was home sick while his wife went to market. The Bishops had at least two sons, one who worked for the railroad, another who accompanied his mother to Roanoke that day.
ON THE MARKET
Jeff Akers. Ran a grocery store at 102 1st Street in the City Market. The injured Bishop made her way into his store and first recounted the attack.
Robert E. Coleman. Clerk of the City Market. Apparently summoned while Bishop was still at Akers' store. Bishop told him the story, too. Coleman later seemed to favor releasing the prisoner to the mob.
George Bishop. The victim's 14-year-old son. When first summoned to the Roanoke and Southern saloon, he couldn't identify his mother until he recognized her voice. "Then the lamentations of the boy were pitiable, indeed." Returned home later in the day and spread the news to his neighbors.
Dr. J.N. Lewis and Dr. J.L. Stone. These physicians soon arrived and "dressed the wounds as well as possible."
THE POSSE
William Edwards. A young black man apparently in the mob that pursued the suspect along the railroad tracks. When the suspect jumped onto a rolling eastbound freight, Edwards "bravely leaped into the car after him" and tried to make a citizen's arrest. Both men fell onto the ground and the suspect fled.
W.P. Blount. Bishop's cousin lived at 917 Tazewell Avenue Southeast. He and Samuel Aliff were standing outside talking when they spotted a black man run past. "Knowing full well there was some cause for his flight," they, too, set out to pursue him.
William G. Baldwin. Headed the railroad's detective force, a position of great authority in early Roanoke. He played three key roles in the events of Sept. 20-21.
First, Baldwin captured the suspect and took him to the jail. Later, when the mayor asked Baldwin to help guard the jail, Baldwin refused to send his railroad detectives. Instead, he offered to guard the prisoner in his office, an offer the Roanoke authorities refused. Finally, Baldwin provided the armed escort to protect the mayor while he was hustled onto a private railroad car the following night.
Went on to the head the notorious Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency often hired by coal companies in disputes with unions.
James A. McConnell and L. Blair, Sr. Part of the posse that Baldwin recruited in the market that morning.
THE SUSPECT (and eventual victim)
Thomas Smith. An "idle vagrant" from Vinton who once worked in an iron furnace. Married.
THE AUTHORITIES
W.O. Hardaway. Roanoke's commonwealth's attorney. When the crowd first surrounded the jail, he gave a speech urging calm and promising a speedy trial.
Henry S. Trout. Roanoke's mayor. President of First National Bank. Former Confederate officer and state legislator. Once owned the land where the Hotel Roanoke now stands. Had made professionalizing the police force one of the hallmarks of his administration.
Walter H. Turner. A judge. After the mob first formed, he joined Hardaway and Trout in urging calm. About 3 p.m., vetoed the police chief's proposal to send Smith out of town. Said a city Roanoke's size should be able to protect its own prisoners.
John F. Terry. Roanoke police chief. Brought in to instill discipline in Roanoke's 15-man police force, but after the shooting broke out, suggested the prisoner be turned over to the mob. Indicted for conspiring with the mob; charges dropped. Then Trout fired him.
Alexander H. Griffin. Police sergeant. He and Officers Austin and Eakin were escorting Smith when the mob captured the prisoner. Indicted; charges dropped. Later demoted.
J.B. Traynham. The city jailer. He was among the officials suspended as part of the settlement with the mob.
Mac Morris. A police officer who was singled out by the mob. He, too, was suspended.
John Bird. Captain of the Roanoke Light Infantry Blues, the militia that fired on the mob.
W.S. Pole. A lieutenant colonel in the state militia who also tried to defend the jail. Just before the shooting started, he changed into civilian clothes and slipped through the crowd to the telegraph office. He wired the governor that "a mob of 5,000 people [has] surrounded the jail" and without reinforcements would be "wiped out shortly."
Philip W. McKinney. Governor. He was at the Chicago World's Fair and didn't find out about the riot until after it happened. Condemned the mob and backed the militia's use of force. "The military when ordered out will carry loaded rifles, and will use them . . . "
THE DEAD
S.A. Vick, proprietor of the St. James Hotel. "Had just been saying there was no danger of any shooting being done, when a bullet from one of the deadly rifles put an end to his life in the twinkling of an eye."
William Sheets, railroad fireman.
Charles Whitmire, railroad conductor.
J.B. Tyler, a railroad section master. From Blue Ridge.
George White.
W.E. Hall, railroad fireman.
John Mills, farmer and distiller from Back Creek.
George Settles, a popular semi-pro baseball player from Vinton.
THE WOUNDED
Besides the mayor, the wounded were:
William Berry, J.H. Campbell, N. Dooley, Sarah Dooley, Will Eddy, Otho C. Falls (pronounced "mortally wounded" but apparently recovered), C.W. Figgatt, Mr. Hall, Walter P. Huff, Luther Inge, W.H. Karnes, David Kennedy, George Leigh (clerk at the Ponce de Leon Hotel), J.B. McGehee, Charles Moten, George O. Munroe, T.E. Nelms, Thomas Nelson, C.P. North, J.F. Powell, David Ruggles, J.B. Sheppard, Emmett J. Small, R.J. Small, N.E. Sparks, O.B. Taylor, J.E. Wayland (post office clerk), Wilson Wertz, Edgar Whaling, Leroy White, M.N. White, Frank Wills, and "unknown" black woman "shot in the head."
AFTER THE SHOOTING
J. Allen Watts. Lawyer. Pleaded with rioters to disperse. "In vain did he call on them."
John W. Woods. A judge. After the shooting, he mounted an "improvised platform" and tried to reason with the mob. "But his voice was drowned in the cries of the multitude who were demanding that the mayor be brought out . . . " Later presided over the grand jury that investigated the riot.
AFTER THE LYNCHING
William C. Campbell, minister of First Presbyterian Church. When rumors spread that the mob intended to drag the body to the mayor's house, Campbell raced to the scene and implored the mob to halt. Instead, the mob decided simply to burn Smith's body.
Robert B. Moorman. President of Roanoke Water, Power and Land Co. and an elder at Campbell's church. Helped Campbell plead with the mob "to desist from the terrible and outrageous undertaking." He called for the wagon to carry Smith's body to the funeral pyre.
THE OFFICIAL RESPONSE
Dr. H.V. Gray. The coroner. He summoned a jury to view the body while it still swung from the tree and launched the first investigation that day. The jury consisted of W.P. Camp, F.O. Williams, W.A. Burke, J.H. Curry, D.H. Summers and E.W. Staples.
Thomas W. Miller. A lawyer who offered his services to the coroner's inquiry. W.A. Glasgow Jr. and William Gordon Robertson also volunteered.
R.A. Buckner. The acting mayor who took charge in Trout's absence. Issued proclamation urging citizens to "at once return to their homes and resume their usual occupations."
Joseph H. Sands. Vice president of the railroad. Summoned railroad workers to a meeting on Sept. 21 and asked all employees willing to obey the law to raise their hands. All did.
R.T. Boswell, John Carr, Andrew J. Davis, G.R. Henderson, Charles Lunsford, A.M. Nelson, C.C. Shockey, George L. Stephens, W.I. Thompson. Members of the grand jury which later investigated and indicted 16 men, including the police chief.
Charles T. O'Ferrall. Elected governor six weeks after the riot. Vowed to crack down on unrest, whether lynch mobs or unions. "Let it cost what it may, in blood or money," he said in his inaugural address.
CONVICTED
S.W. Fuqua, carpenter. Convicted of a misdemeanor, sentenced to one day in jail and fined $1.
D.D. Kennedy, railroad worker. Convicted of a misdemeanor, sentenced to one day in jail and fined $1.
James G. Richardson, Botetourt County farmer. Witnesses identified him as the mob leader. Convicted of breaking into hardware store to steal guns. Sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $100. Sentence commuted to one day in jail.
RECOGNIZE ANY OF THESE NAMES?
Have any of your ancestors passed down first-hand accounts of the Riot of 1893? If so, we'd like to hear about them and share them with our readers. Please write: Riot of 1893, Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010.
WANT TO READ MORE?
For specific accounts of the riot of 1893, see:
"Like an Evil Wind" by Ann Alexander in the April 1992 issue of the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
"History of the City of Roanoke," by Raymond Barnes.
For more general information, see:
"Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930," by Fitzhugh Brundage.
by CNB