Lynchings in Maury County

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The following is a list of lynchings that are known to have occurred in Maury County, Tennessee. For this list, a lynching is considered an act of racially-motivated murders conducted by a vigilante mob in Maury County.

This list does not include lynchings that took place outside of Maury County, even when Maury residents were involved (see, for example Amos Miller, who was lynched in August 1888 in Franklin after being accused of raping a Maury County woman).[1]

This also does not include racially-motivated killings committed by single individuals (rather than by a mob). For example, this does not include the assassination of Robert Wilson (a 16-year old black boy) by Dorris Twomey in the Maury County courthouse on June 27, 1924. Wilson had been tried for the assault of Twomey's sister; the killing occurred in the courtroom just after Judge Lytle had set aside the jury's guilty verdict for lack of evidence.[2] This also does not include deaths that occurred during larger episodes of racial violence, such as the two prisoners who were killed at the county jail during the Columbia Race Riot of 1946.


Lynchings in Maury County, Tennessee
Date Victims Location Description
1862 Gilbert Dowell James Gregory's farm, northwest of Columbia. Enslaved African-American man lynched by a crowd after allegedly burning down farmer Gregory's barn in retribution for Gregory selling his wife and children.[3][4] Gail Wiliiams O'Brien describes this as a "transitional" event between the era of quasi-legal punishment of slaves by their owners and the era of illegal/vigilante mob lynchings.[5]
January 11, 1869 Seymour Barmore Train station, Columbia. White detective from Ohio, who had been sent by Gov. Brownlow to Pulaski to investigate the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, was taken from a Nashville-bound train by a group of Klansmen, who presumably murdered him; his body was later found in the Duck River.[6][7][8]
November 27, 1877 Frank McGhee
a/k/a George Roper 		Maury County courthouse, Columbia.[9] African-American man accused of raping and attempted murder of a white woman, a daughter of a local minister; was hung from the third floor of the county courthouse; local authorities appear to have been openly involved in this lynching (later acts were officially condemned and law enforcement generally denied responsibility).[10][11]
May 30, 1890 George Warner Duck River bridge, Columbia. African-American man charged (but not tried) of attempting to rape a white woman, was dragged from the courthouse after his arraignment and hung from the Duck River bridge in Columbia.[12]
April 1, 1891 Grub Mayberry Bryant Station (between Culleoka and Lewisburg), near the Marshall County line. African-American man with a reputation for "lewdness" and being "exceedingly obnoxious" was found hung from a cedar tree with a note stating "We did this to protect our wives and daughters." According to his wife, had been abducted by a large mob in the middle of the night shortly before he was found dead.[13][14]
May 27, 1891 Green Wells Duck River bridge, Columbia. African-American man accused of murdering John Fly, a white man; he was dragged from the jail by a mob and hung in broad daylight from the Duck River bridge.[15][16][17] Some sources state that this occurred in Lawrenceburg in Lawrence County,[18] but contemporaneous sources generally agree that this lynching occurred in Columbia.[19]
November 11, 1927 Henry Choate Maury County courthouse, Columbia. 17-year old African American boy was lynched after allegedly assaulting a white girl; lynch mob stormed the Maury County jail demanding he be turned over to them, after which he was hung at the county courthouse.[20][21]
December 15, 1933 Cordie Cheek Glendale 17-year old African American boy was lynched after being falsely accused of raping a white girl; after being removed to Nashville for his own safety, was abducted by a mob, brought back to Maury County, and dragged, hung, and mutilated.[22][23]

References

  1. ↑ "Quickly Put to Death. Amos Miller, the Rapist, Lynched at Franklin." Nashville Banner. 10 Aug. 1888. Web (newspapers.com). 5 Feb. 2021.
  2. ↑ "Columbia Court Room Scene of Fatal Shooting." The Nashville Tennessean. 28 June 1924. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com). 10 Feb. 2021.
  3. ↑ The Gilbert Dowell incident was quite notorious in its time, as it was referred to in a vicious political speech given during an 1868 congressional race. "Arnell: The Infamous Record of a Rebel Renegade." The (Nashville) Republican Banner. 9 Oct. 1868. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com). 5 Feb. 2021.
  4. ↑ O'Brien, Gail Williams. The Color of the Law: Race, Violence, and Justice in the Post-World War II South. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1999, pp. 111-113. HeinOnline through Vanderbilt University library. 5 Feb. 2021.
  5. ↑ Ibid.
  6. ↑ Turner, William Bruce. History of Maury County, Tennessee. Nashville, Parthenon Press, 1955, pp. 357-58. Web (hathitrust.org). 5 Feb. 2021.
  7. ↑ Ikard, Robert W. No More Social Lynchings. Franklin, Hillsboro Press, 1997, pp. 5-7. Web (hathitrust.org). 5 Feb. 2021.
  8. ↑ "Barmore." The (Jonesborough, Tenn.) Union Flag. 5 March 1869. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com). 5 Feb. 2021.
  9. ↑ Note that this is not the same courthouse that stands today; the current courthouse was built in 1904.
  10. ↑ "The Rope for Roper." The (Nashville) Daily American. 28 November 1877. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com). 5 Feb. 2021.
  11. ↑ Auut Studios. "Monroe and Florence Work Today: Map of White Supremacy's mob violence." 2016. Web (plaintalkhistory.com). 5 Feb. 2021.
  12. ↑ "A Hanging at Columbia." Nashville Banner. 30 May 1890. p. 3. Web (newspapers.com). 5 Feb. 2021.
  13. ↑ "A Higher Tribunal: Mysterious Lynching near Bryant Station." The (Nashville) Daily American. 4 April 1891. p. 3. Web (newspapers.com). 5 Feb. 2021.
  14. ↑ Harcourt, Edwin J. "'That Mystic Cloud': Civil War Memory in the Tennessee Heartland, 1865-1920." 2008. Vanderbilt U, dissertation. pp. 167-168. Web. 5 Feb. 2021.
  15. ↑ Auut Studios. "Monroe and Florence Work Today: Map of White Supremacy's mob violence." 2016. Web (plaintalkhistory.com). 5 Feb. 2021.
  16. ↑ "Jerked Meat. Green Wells at the End of His Rope." The (Nashville) Daily American. 28 May 1891. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com). 5 Feb. 2021. It is recognized that this headline is extremely offensive by modern standards but reflects the attitude of the local press at the time.
  17. ↑ Harcourt, Edwin J. "'That Mystic Cloud': Civil War Memory in the Tennessee Heartland, 1865-1920." 2008. Vanderbilt U, dissertation. pp. 167-169. Web. 5 Feb. 2021.
  18. ↑ See, for example, "Hanged to a tree. Green Wells, the murderer, lynched at Lawrenceburg, Tennessee." St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 27 May 1891. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com). 5 Feb. 2021.
  19. ↑ "Echoes of the Lynching" (roundup of coverage from other Tennessee newspapers about the Green Wells lynching). Columbia Herald. 12 June 1891. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com). 5 Feb. 2021.
  20. ↑ Banks, John. "'That sends you to hell': The 1927 lynching of Henry Choate." John Banks' Civil War Blog. 29 March 2020. Web. 5 Feb. 2021.
  21. ↑ Ikard, cited supra at pp. 7-8.
  22. ↑ Wikipedia contributors. "Cordie Cheek." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 25 Nov. 2020. Web. 5 Feb. 2021.
  23. ↑ Ikard, cited supra, at pp. 8-9.
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