Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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NIHT RID1R SECRETS. mber of Band That Lynched Capt Rankin Testifies-Iron-Clad Oath Taken by the Members is Aevealed. Union City, Tenn.. Deeember 21. The State practically completed it; case today against the eight allege night riders on trial for the murde1 of Capt. Rankin. when it drew fron Frank Feliringer. a member of thA band, who turned State's evidence, detailed statement of the Rankin, af fair, and a score or more of .1-the: outrages. It also called to the stant Mrs. Emma Thurman Johnsdn, one o: the two women said to have beei whipped by the band, and-had her tel her story. The startling testimony of Fran] Fehringer, who '' confe'ssed, accusinl the men on trial of being actual parti cipants in the murder of Capt. Ran kin, give With an exactness of de tail, I=ed the people who thronge' the 'ourt room. Then, as Mrs. John A's name was called, a murmur o: satisfaction arose. She walked rapid ly to the stand and- removed her vei reluctantly, on the judge's instrue tions, that she might be heard by tho jury. Mrs. Johnson had married Jo4 Johnson, a man 30 years older thai she, and lived with him four years when a child was born. Last Augusi she sued him for divorce, chargin cruelty, and asking maintenance. Ear. ly in September the riders visited he father's -home and left word that shi must withdraw the suit. She failei to do so and on a second visit hei father was whipped. On both occasions she was at he sister's home. The riders seem t< have realized this, for on. Septembej 30, about 11 o'clock at night. thei went to the sister's house. Mrs Johnson awoke beside her child t< find her bed room filled with maske( and armed men. A man whom sh4 said she recognized as Fred Pinion one of the defendants, was standinc 4c close that she could touch him. "We have come to tell you for th( last time that you must dismiss tha1 divorce suit." Pinion is charged witl saymg. "I will not withdraw it,'' she re plied. "You will before we get througl with you,'' was the reply. "If you dismiss it, now we will' see that he supports the child, but yor Smust not touch his property.'' Mrs. Jo'hnson insisted that she would press the case. Then the met withdrew into the yard to consult. Ir 'a few moments they returned. Pinior stepped over to the young womnan ' bed and said: "Come with us." Two others of the band seized her and dragged her 'from the bed in hei night clothes. They hurried her abou1 250 yards away and one of them beat her across the shoulders with a strap After the first beating they asked her if she would dismiss the suit. Sh4 Isaid no. Then she was again whipped. This time her fighting spirt was brok en, and she sobbingly said she wouk give in to their demands. "Let's give her another,'' said one of the band. *"No,'' she said, Pinion replied, "he has had enough." Mrs. Johnson told her story under strong objections from the defence. Judge Strengthens Guard. Judge .Jones sent out the jury be. fore court adjourned and said: "There are 'eight defendants here charged with a capital- offence. They are not handea.ffed and are undei guard of only two deputies, and I de not- think this is safe. Therefore I order the sheriff to handcuff these men and ask the military to detail ten armed men to serve as guards." The defence strongly objected, but the court refused to withdraw the or der. Later Attor~ney General Caldwell said: " De order was made advisedly up. on the information whieh reached the officers of the court. which informa. tion was serious enough to justify us in, taking every possible and legal precaution." Surrounded by a detail of six fully a'rmed soldiers Fehringer was brought into court. At the court room 'door eeM4he soldiers armed with rifles ted. Four other soldiers armed on with revolvers took Fehringer in rge. Four armed deputy sheriffs ared a way through the crowd in aisles, and Fehringer was led to stand. he soldiers sat down inside the ling facing the throng. Deputies, ed heavily, took positions in var is parts of the room. It was a tense ment. The witress, a diminutive n. seemed to be composed but pale crossed his legs and tossed his d brimmed hat on the toe of his ny in the crowd surge dup clos t r. b)ut a dr from theI ~i jdg :wc oIn-ei them bae]-binto their seats. Fehringer said he was one of thi first me,-nbers of the band. Fehringer's Testimony. Fehringer knew all the defendanti and had accompanied them on man: rides prior to the killing of Capt Rinkin. The night riders' garb con siisted of long black coats. black mask 1,immed in white, and so:e had false beards attached to the bottom. 01 one occasion Deputy Sheriff Mays since resigned, and who was one o. - the riders. came to a meeting unmask ed. At this meeting Garrett Johnsoi was chosen chief and other captain! were named for different localitie. Sand authorized to order raids when ;ever the riders of a certain localiti thought something needed regulating C Sometimes a few riders failed to ap pear for rides, and upon those occas - ions the riders went after the miss. - ing men and forced them to go on th( - raids. The night rider oath- in full was: "You do solemnly swear in tho presence of Almighty God and theso witnesses, that you desire to becomi a Night Rider; that you will nol write, talk or tell to anyone the se crets of this order of Night Riders; that if you do talk, write or tel to any person any of the secrets oJ the Order, we axe permitted to d< with you as we see it. You knov death, hell and destruction will b( your portion and that your body wil not be buried in a graveyard. D< you willingly and freely submit to al this, so help you God?" Fehringer frankly admitted that h< had sold liquor illegally."'had beei indicted, tried and convicted for thi. offence, both in Tennessee and in Ken tucky. However, he never denied hi. guilt and never per.jured himself ti escape punishment. The witnAs wa a Tartar under cross-exam'nati'n Once when asked about a date he re plied that he did not keep a "da-, meKning a diary. When the defend. ants' attorney attempted to quiZ hi.x about milk the witness said: "I uer it when I was small, I'm toid, bui h., en't since." rehringer Summoned Riders. ''Tid'' Burton, one of the defeni1d ants, told Fehringer to notify th band to meet that night to attend t' Rankin and Taylor. Fehringer zoi one of Garrett Johnson's horse:, auil rode all day, summoning the hand The riders met near Johnson's tiha1 Lnight. The band included the eigh1 defendants. They proceeded to the hotel aftt' Garrett Johnson had forced ''Ed' Powell to take the rider there,. Wit. ness said that Garrett Johnson wa: the spokesman and gave the orders tc Rankin and Taylor to dress. On the march to the densely wood. ed bank of the slough, where Ranka was slain, witness said Johnson did all the talking, the others, about fif ty in number, including the defend ants, following iantly as the rope was put around Rankin 's neck. Feh. ringer said to the victim: -"Do you want to say anything tc the Lord?i If you do, say it n9w.' Rankin replied: ''I have attended 'to that.'' Just as; they pulled the rope, wit ness said. Bob Huffman shot R2ankiL and Sam Applewhite then said: 'I know he is dead, for I put a load of bicycle ball bearings in him. ' Witness declared that Jesse Carter, one of the defendants and a man yet to be tried, put the rope around Ran kin 's neck. Whien Col. Taylor jumped intq the jslough everybody shot into the water adFehringer beat around in it with a pole. Meantime the men holding the rope let it go and Rankin 's body crumped up and dropped to the grouind. His stiff hat fell beneath his head, holding it off the ground,his glasses dropped back into the hat, which rapidly filled with blood from the wound in the temple. Just 'before the body fell a rider, not on trial, emptied six 38-ealibre bullets into the hanging man. The riders then went to where their horses were hitched and where four men had been left on guard. Witness said that Garrett Johnson addressed them 'before they dispersed, saying: ''Burn your masks and say nothing about this night 's work.'' During the testimony the soldier guard was increased. As soon as the court took luncheon recess the armed sentries marched in and took Fehring er out. Then the court asked the newspaper correspendents not to men tion the names of those implicated by the witnesses who are not on trial. CASH IN ADVANCE. In March, 1887, I became a part owner of The Herald and News anrt have been connected with the paper continuously since that time. I wa.s with the paper a couple of years prior to that time when under other own ersipn I hae, therefore, been the Attentlo EWART=I HAVE DECIDE EVERY ARTICLI AOTUAL NEV TI Come with the mon Gobble up Suits,.Sh wear, Hosiery, Hal Etc., AT ACTUAl SALE CONTINUI Remember we have N Merchandise to offer. I the-Minute. This Sale Ewart= I AOF SOUTH CAROLINA, OTY OF NEWBFRRY. otof Common Pleas. V axter Kinard, G3race Kinard, The C neL. Sligh, Alva C. Kinard and dese fi etM. Kinard, Plaintiffs, ber 27, 1 Against ~se Epting, Grace Kihard, the in, Fred Kinard and Emmime Loans.... nard. IFurniture omplaint for Partition. Overdrafts -yoder of the court herein, I will Cash and tpublic action, to the highest e,a,t Newberry Court House dur elegal hours of sale, on Mon ,4hJanuary, 1909, all that tract Cailst adlying in the county and State CPoitsi ls ea, containing .lifty (50) acres, Dividends orless, lying on the west side Cashier's( teroad leading from Newberry Re-dicout Poria, and bounded by lands of Deposits ater Kinard, Laura Koon, and Individt r,the same being part of the Banks.. rmerly belonging to John G. r, and by him conveyed to nn Kinrd rm. One-third of the purchase eyto be paid cash, the balance a dit of one and two years, the ortontobeseurd y on puaser, and a mortgage of the T mie sold, with interest thereon dy of sale, at the rate of 8 per mper annum. with leave to pur erto anticipate payments, the' hser to pay for papers and re- JNO. M. I igof thre.mortgage. Presid H. H. Rikard, 10,a908 Master. n Bueyrs ERRY CO. D TO CLOSE OUT IN THEIR STORE AT V YORK COST! ilS IS HOT AI TLK ey and Gobble, Gobble, oes, Hats, Shirts, Under dkerchiefs, Suit Cases, COST. : : : *: : ES FOR..30 DAYS 0 OLD or SHOP WORN .verything New and Up=to= will continue for 30 days. jerry Co. STATEM ENT. >mmercial Bank of Newberry, S. C., con ym report to State Bank Examiner Novem 908. RESOURCES. ..................................$268,751 87 and fixtures..................... - 3,116 93 ... ...... .. .. . . .. ...... ... 12,645 6o due from banks..... ..... ........i10 ,81 65 $385,696 o05 LIABILITIES. k............ ....-..-.- - -- - $,00o0 expenses taxes paid..... .......--..- 54,677 53 unpaid. ... ........---...-- ....... 1,277 00 Thecks...............-------.......55500 ts......... ......... ...--..--...--..--- . -- - 15,000 00 a1...... .............. $261,000.0" . ... .. .. . .. .---- . - 3,486.49$264,486 52 $385,696 05 Commercial Dank, NEWBERRY,S. C. INARD, 0. B. MAYER, J. Y. McFALL, ve Vc-Presicict. Cashier. edit.or for:nearly twventy-five years. During that time my duties have al so been to keep the books and sub scription accounts. I have always had great faith and! confidence in the honesty of the peo ple and their purpose to pay their, debts. For that reason I have never: believed I could conduct a strictly cash in advance subscription. For the past few months I have been giving a closer study to the sit iation than ever before. When the postoffiee department is sued its order that a subscription to a semi-weekly more than nine months in arrears could not be accepted at the second-elass rate we endeavored to comply with the ofder and had to - cutt off about 650 names. We first sent each subscriber at least two let ters calling attention to the raing be sides mention of it was made in the' paper. This fall we have sent an other letter to these persons bnt we have received no response. These 650 owed us over $5,000. Many of them not only did not pay v!at they owed but weni directly and subseribed LJ o-r ecemporary and paid for it. We have no objection to that but we mention it as a reason for the shaking of our faith in the honesty of the people. It certainly was a striking evidence of ingratitude. We still have a good many sub scribers who are in arrears. . State ments have been sent or will be sent in a few days to all of these. During the 25 years of our connec tion with this newspaper we have lost in unpaid subscriptions at least $20.000. We have no one to blame but ourself and the people would have thought more df us if we had made them pay it. We are not com plaining but we propose to stop this leak or go out of the business. After the first day of February The ferald and News will be run strictly on the cash in advance plan. A post card will be mailed you giving you .thirty days notice so that you may! have time to send in your renewal and to remind you if you should-over look it. There are doubtless some .errors in the credits. If you- will call our at tention to these we will gladly make the correction and in every case will give the subscriber the benefit of the doubt. It takes too much of our time to send statements and to pay postage. We will keep no books except our receipt stubs and a eash book and the mailing galleys. We shall hate to part with any sub-[ scribers but we cannot longer be an-I noyed with trying to collect these lit .tle' amounts and then not get them. The post office rule does not permit us to carry a delinquent longer than nine month~s and we had just as well put it on the cash ba.'i We find that for a eleven months of this year only about 1000 have' paid anything at all. Just about one half of the present list. We can not pay our debts and keep up this rate of' collection of what is due us. And we do not want to offer compromise ifj we can help it.I 'Remember you have two months to put yourself financial. If you can't 'pay all of your back dues give us your note and pay the advance3 subscrip tion.. The rule we adopt wvill be followed strictly. No doubt some of those who have been indulged will show the!r appreciation by getting mad and tak- - ing the other paper as some have done. S We will not raise any objection for we will have the satisfaction of know ing that you will no longer get a pa per without paying for it.F. Those who pay no heed to what they Ro owe us will have their accounts turn ed over to a collection agency. 4 We have worked hard to serve the yo, people of this community and we de- Ki serve what we have earned. The Herald and News will continue ] to be an up-to-date paper and we sel hope all of our subscribers will ap- bi preciate the situation that it costs ina money to buy paper and pay printers Ida: and it is much easier for each one to of pay us than it is for us to be contirn- afc *ally hunting up these little amounts. mo If any man's subscription is in ar- of rears and he has a claim against us to we will thank him to .present his claim W and if we owe it we will try to pay it.ot IRemember after February first The Herald and News is going to be cash ;in advance. E. H. Aull, Editor. mc on cre Attention Pensioners. of I will be in the auditor's office each pre Saturday in January. 1909. to pre- fro pare applications for piensions. Those en on the roll do not have to aply una che Call promptly anid gret your bLm:?. pm11 W. G. P ram eo Pension C'ommnisioner'.