Lynchings in Pocahontas County

 

Lynchings in Pocahontas County

 There have been no lynchings in the County for two generations and the three we have record of took place during the Civil War. 

The following is taken from the Pocahontas Times for January 28th 1932 and was written by Calvin Price. In January 1862, a colored man belonging to John W. Warwick was taken by a mob, from the jail in Huntersville, and hanged on a tree.

 Reverend Henry Arbogast and Eli Buzzard were taken from their homes and shot near the roadside. Their body's were found the next day. ( I have sent something on this before)

 Timothy Alderman of Douthard's Creek was taken from his home and shot to death in the woods near the bridge at Minnehaha Springs. His body was not found for three weeks. Whether all were killed the same night, I do not know. I do know that Timothy Alderman was murdered the night of January 22, 1862. 

The reason of the inflamed feeling against these men, was the fact that they were Union sympathizers and had been accused of giving information to the Federal Forces.

 Large bodies of Confederate soldiers were camped in various parts of the County that winter. Timothy Alderman was one of several that had warning that they were in danger. He was preparing to hide himself in the mountains and was waiting for his clothes to dry when the lynchers came for him.

 He was 56 years 11 months and 28 days old the day he was murdered, January 22. He was found February 9. He left a widow and 8 small children, the youngest a daughter of two years, who sickened and died with dyptheria about the day her father was found.

 They were buried in the same grave. Two of his grandaughters, Mrs. C. H. Kellison and Mrs. Lanty Underwood sent me a poem some years after by Mary Ann Alderman and here it is. 

For three long weeks in hopeless woe, Friends searched for him in vain; When lo, one stormy winters eve They him beheld again. Yes, there the loving father lay The murdered man was found; His face was buried in the snow, 

Mrs. John Lee another grandaughter gave me this clipping when I was at her home getting material on their church. She says that a man claimed to have a dream and he said that he saw Alderman's body at a certain spot. They went to this place and did find the body, but they always thought this man knew more then just having a dream.