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The
Massacre at Hillsville |
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From
early March of 1912 until mid-April when the Titanic sank, the big
news in the nation was the gun battle in the Carroll County,
Virginia courthouse that took place during the trial of Floyd
Allen. The battle, which only lasted about two minutes,
resulted in the death of five people and the wounding of seven
others. The aftermath produced the state execution of a
father and son, the incarceration of four of the participants and
the probable related executions of three others. |
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Floyd
Allen, born in 1858, lived below Fancy Gap Mountain not far from
the North Carolina state line and was something of a community
leader though he was noted for his temper and his fighting
ability. He and his brothers had some awesome battles around
the county as well as with each other. Being a tight family,
they were quick to defend family members against attacks from
others. Being mountaineers, they were fearless, proud and
probably more than a little defiant. |
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The
Allens were staunch Democrats in a county that had turned
predominantly Republican since the end of the Civil War. As
a result, they were not on the best terms with the local county
administration. He had refused to serve a one-hour jail
sentence for wounding a neighbor and was often heard to declare
that he "would never spend a minute in jail as long as the
blood flowed through his veins." |
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On
Thursday morning, March 12th, members of the Allen family
exchanged over 50 shots with county officials and lawmen in a
courtroom crowded with over 200 people. |
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Although
the actual root of the conflict is traceable to the struggle for
political control of the county, the gun battle itself stemmed
from one of the nephews of Floyd Allen kissing the wrong girl at a
corn shucking in 1910. Having found a red ear of corn,
Wesley Edwards kissed the girlfriend of Will Thomas and then had
words with young man. Next morning, they had a fight at
church services being held at the Thomas Schoolhouse on Fancy Gap
Mountain. This altercation led to criminal charges filed
against Wesley and his older brother, Sidna, and they fled to
North Carolina. |
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They
were arrested by Surry County, NC law officers and delivered to
the state line where they were met by Carroll County deputy Thomas
Samuels and another man he had deputized for the occasion, Peter
Easter. The Edwards boys kept trying to escape and the
lawmen tied them in the back of the buggy and set off to
Hillsville, some fifteen miles distant. Samuels chose to
travel the road over Fancy Gap Mountain over objections by Easter.
This road led by the homes of both Floyd Allen and his
younger brother, Sidna Allen, who also owned a store along the
same road. He could have taken a shorter road by way of
Ward`s Gap. |
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As
they passed by Sid Allen`s store, Floyd stopped the deputies and
demanded that they untie the Edwards boys and transport them like
men instead of animals. Words were exchanged and Floyd gave
Samuels a pistol whipping. History isn`t clear whether the
deputies set the Edwards boys free or if Floyd took them. Regardless,
he turned them into the sheriff the next Monday morning and they
were tried, convicted and served brief jail terms. |
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Samuels
brought charges against Floyd, his brother Sidna and his nephews,
Friel and Barnett Allen. After about a year of
postponements, Floyd`s trial was finally held. In fear of
his reaction, the county court officials armed themselves and were
ready. Floyd was found guilty of rescuing prisoners and
sentenced to a year in prison. When the sheriff started
toward him to escort him to jail, he stood up and declared
"Gentlemen, I ain`t a`going." |
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| Clerk
of Court, Dexter Goad, then pulled his gun and shot at Floyd and
was in turn fired upon by Floyd`s brother, Sidna along with
Floyd`s son, Claude. The prosecuting attorney and the Deputy
Clerk pulled their guns and returned fire. This
brought on fire from Floyd`s two nephews, Friel Allen and Wesley
Edwards along with five deputy sheriffs also stationed in the
room. |
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judge, the sheriff, the prosecutor, a juryman and a witness were
killed in the crossfire. Floyd and Sidna Allen were wounded
along with the Clerk of Court, a jury member, two bystanders and a
deputy sheriff. Floyd was wounded in the hip and knee and
was unable to ride so he spent the night in the Elliott House
Hotel in Hillsville accompanied by his oldest son, Victor. The
rest of the family thought he was dying, said their good-byes and
fled. |
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Governor
William Hodges Mann commissioned the Baldwin-Felts Detective
Agency to run them to ground… the same agency that was later to
gain notoriety in the coal mining wars in West Virginia in the
1920`s. They arrested Floyd in the hotel next morning and
began a reign of terror on the county. Within a month, they
had captured or negotiated the surrender of the rest of the Allens
except for Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards who fled to Des Moines,
Iowa where they were betrayed by Wesley`s girlfriend six months
later. |
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Friel
Allen`s father, Jack, negotiated his son`s surrender in exchange
for a five-year prison sentence. Floyd`s son, Victor, (who
had no part in the shooting) was arrested as well as a neighbor,
Burden Marion. |
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Floyd
and his son, Claude, were sentenced to death by electrocution.
Sidna Allen drew 35 years, Wesley Edwards drew 27 years,
Sidna Edwards and Friel Allen both drew 18 years. Victor
Allen, Barnett Allen and Burden Marion were cleared. |
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| Jack
Allen began making a lot of noise about
his deal with Thomas Felts for a five-year sentence for his son
Friel. Jack was shot in a roadhouse in 1916 and the man who
shot him was put to work the next week for Baldwin-Felts in West
Virginia. However, before long, another detective shot him,
allegedly for cheating at cards. |
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| Burden
Marion was prosecuted for moonshining not long afterwards and sent
to Federal prison in Moundsville, WV. He officially died
from pneumonia in November 1913, but family members say every bone
in his body was broken. |
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| To
this day, bullet holes in the steps of the old courthouse can be
seen and descendants of the participants still feud over who was
right and who was wrong. Historians simply mark it down as a
footnote to the troubled post-Civil War era in the South. |
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It
was a dark and cloudy day when I visited the old court room and
I was the only one there. Even the young lady from the
Clerk`s Office, who had so kindly unlocked the door for me, had
stepped into the other room on some legal errand. There,
alone in the quiet and the gloom, as I stood reflecting on the
men and the emotions that had filled this room on that day, I
decided yes… if you tried really hard, you could once again
smell the wood smoke, wet woolen clothing and tobacco of almost
a hundred years past.
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And
I was sure that if you closed your eyes halfway and concentrated
on the vaporous scenes that play on the very limits of your
vision, you could once again see dark clad and somber men in
mustaches and beards. And there in the silence, I knew…
if you listened really hard, with the blood rushing through your
ears with a sound like a waterfall, once again you would hear
a ghostly voice proclaiming over the ages; "Gentlemen, I
ain`t a`going."
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| By
Ron Hall |
| Author
"The Carroll County Courthouse Tragedy" |
| Howard
Smith, The Carroll County Historical Society, Carroll County,
Virginia |