I have tried to categorize the clippings in my 'miscellaneous' drafts into posts sorted by decade, and then by topic. For some topics, the clippings are mainly editorials or other more general articles that do not currently fit into other posts. Also, these topics are not comprehensively covered by the clippings here. Several of these clippings are not fully transcribed.
The topics within this particular tangent post are as follows:
The topics within this particular tangent post are as follows:
DESCRIPTIONS OF LOCALITIES - ROADS, RAILROADS, BUILDINGS, ETC
CIVIL WAR
FREEDMEN’S BUREAU IN KY / FEDERAL TROOPS
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM EFFECTIVENESS / PENALTIES & SENTENCING
PARDONS
GUNS / GUN LAWS
POLITICAL FEELING / PUBLIC OPINION ABOUT CRIME
CRIME STATISTICS / UBIQUITY OF CRIME
REGULATORS / MOB VIOLENCE
ALCOHOL AND CRIME
NEWSPAPER META
MISCELLANEOUS
(if you Ctrl+F search for an equal sign "=" then you can skip down through each topic heading)
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DESCRIPTIONS OF LOCALITIES - ROADS, RAILROADS, BUILDINGS, ETC
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[] Excerpt from "Pulaski County." Kentucky Advocate, Danville, KY. September 15, 1871. Page 1. Newspapers.com.
[September 15, 1871] -
There are four Churches in Somerset, vis: Methodist, Christian, Baptist, and Presbyterian, eight dry goods stores, four groceries, one drug store, four blacksmith shops, one carriage shop, one hotel, two saddlery shops, one cabinet shop, three merchant tailors, five physicians, six lawyers, two regular pastors, one bank (National). Population about twelve (1200) hundred. []
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[] Excerpt from "From Rockcastle." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. January 17, 1873. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1873-01-17/ed-1/seq-3/
[January 17, 1873] -
Our county [Rockcastle] is to have a new court house. The court of claims appropriated sixteen thousand dollars for its construction. The contract will be let out in the spring. It is to be built of brick on the site of the old one. The enterprise reflects credit upon the officers of the county, and meets the unanimous approbation of the tax-payers of the county. We think Livingston station has a company of soldiers. It is thought for the purpose of checking illicit distilling. Look out "moonshiners." []
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[] Excerpt from "From Rockcastle." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. June 13, 1873. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1873-06-13/ed-1/seq-3/
[June 13, 1873] -
Mt. Vernon, Ky., June 10, 1873.
On last Saturday evening the derrick, which had been erected a few hours previous, for hoisting heavy stone for the erection of the court-house, fell. Two of the hands were slightly injured, making a very narrow escape with their lives. The foundation rocks are now being put down. []
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[] Excerpt from "Pulaski Column." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. July 11, 1873. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1873-07-11/ed-1/seq-3/
[July 11, 1873] -
Somerset, Ky., July 7th, 1873.
We hear many of our citizens complaining of the filthy condition of certain localities in our town, and in their behalf, we must again urge the board of trustees to look to the cleanliness of our streets, alleys, cellars, yards, etc. Would it not be wise to appoint a committee for this purpose, with directions to make a strict and careful examination and report all places of malarious character and the localities infected with filth. Our hogs have been driven from the streets and enclosed in close pens, some of them being located immediately upon main and other public streets, and we venture to say that there is now one hog pen on main street, near M. E. Church South, that is sending forth a greater stench and creating more filth than did all the hogs which run at large in our town some weeks since, and we, in the name of our good citizens, pronounce this filthy pen an outrage and a great nuisance, and demand its immediate abatement, together with all others of a similar character. Read the news from Franklin, Kentucky, and other small towns, and let it be a warning, and see that the health of our town is protected at all hazards. The Board of Health, at Paducah, have recently declared hogs to be good scavengers, and ordered them all to be set at liberty from their pens; which had better be done here, rather than suffer and tolerate so much filth and such sickening odors as arise from the hog pens in our midst. The cellars, particularly those on the public square of our town, remain in a very filthy, sickening condition, and should the cholera make its appearance here, much of the blame must rest upon those who have promised to look to the cleanliness of our town, and to the health of our citizens. We think it our duty to make these suggestions while dangers are so threatening, and hope something will be done immediately. []
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[] "Pulaski County Department -- Point Isabel." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. May 1, 1874. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1874-05-01/ed-1/seq-2/
[May 1, 1874] -
Point Isabel.
On Wednesday last, we had the pleasure of spending the day with a number of friends at this enterprising place, 9 miles south-east of Somerset, at the head of navigation on the Cumberland, and is destined to be the most prominent point for many kinds of business on the line of the Cincinnati Southern R. R. The railway bridge will cross the Cumberland some three or four hundred yards above where the two rivers form a junction, which will give the point both the advantages of river and railway transportation. A new hotel has recently been built near where the towers are to be erected, which is now in readiness to accommodate the prospector and traveler generally, under the control of Messrs. Owens & Dabney, formerly of Virginia.
Immediately at the Point, our friend Joseph Ballou has been engaged since the war in the mercantile, warehouse and commission business. He is a polite and affable gentleman, full of energy, and a reliable man in every sense of the word. He keeps a large and splendid stock of goods, while his popularity and standing in the community as a good and useful citizen has built up for him a most excellent and lucrative trade. His farm, a beautiful valley, is bounded both by the Cumberland, South Fork of the Cumberland, and the railroad line, while the prevailing opinion is that the depot must be as a necessity located near the residence of Mr. B. His farm furnishes beautiful sites for buildings of all kinds, business houses, mills, manufactures, residences, hotels, etc., and we predict that the day is not far distant when a flourishing town of much enterprise and business will have been built at the Point. In fact that eventful day has already dawned, and friend Ballou feels it and knows it well, but his motto being enterprise and progress, he is willing to divide his soil with those desiring town lots or location at or near the Point.
Point Isabel is the old, original name of this place, and we, like friend Ballou, insist upon calling it by its rightful name. General Burnside has no right, title or claim to the name; no more so than to have any other prominent point in Kentucky called for him. He is, no doubt, a meritorious gentleman, but we Pulaskians claim the name of Point Isabel, in fee, prescription, custom and limitation, which is certainly a bar to all other names, and we will contend for it and continue to call it Point Isabel.
Messrs. Harvey and Pettus own the land across the river immediately opposite Point Isabel, upon which many excellent and suitable sites are also found for building purposes. Saw and other mills, door and sash factories, planing mills, cedar-ware factories, and immense lumber yards will be numerous at this place, having the advantage of both rivers as well as the railroad. Timber of all kinds abounds in the vicinity, and easy of access to both rivers, and can be rafted to the junction at little cost.
We are informed that e'er long large business houses for mercantile and other purposes will be built upon the lands of Messrs. Harvey and Pettus.
Much heavy work is now being done on the section of the railroad line, south of where the bridge crosses the river, particularly by contractor Clark.
We advise all those coming to our part of the State, on prospective tours, not to return before paying Point Isabel a visit. []
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[] Excerpt from "Lincoln County News." The Kentucky Advocate, Danville, KY. May 8, 1874. Page 2. Newspapers.com.
[May 8, 1874] -
Messrs. Reid & Flannery have undertaken to complete the tunnels and the bridge at Burnside's Point. Mr. Flannery done the masonry of the Ohio River Bridge, over the Falls, at Louisville. This work is a standing monument to his genius for all time to come, and stamps him as a man of no ordinary character, and is also a guarantee that their present contract will be done in the most thorough and scientific manner. The genial Reid passed through here, to-day, in the direction of this work. He goes to perfect his arrangements for the commencement of operations at once. They have their own steamboat, and will transport the larger part of their stores direct to the place. The same is now under way, loaded. []---
[] Excerpt from "Notes of an Excursion Across the State of Kentucky." The Stark County Democrat, Canton, OH. August 13, 1874. Page 1. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84028490/1874-08-13/ed-1/seq-1/
[August 13, 1874] -
We stopped Wednesday night at Stanford, which is the county seat of Lincoln county, and one of the oldest towns in Kentucky, containing about 600 inhabitants. The next morning we took a hack for Somerset, the county seat of Pulaski county, distant from Stanford 34 miles, arriving at Somerset at about 5 P. M. Our route lay over the military road made, or rather transformed, during the war of the rebellion by General Burnside. The first seven miles of this road are McAdamized and good; but the rest of the way it is largely made of cross pieces or ties made of split logs, horrible to ride over, or of coarsely broken stone, scarcely less ugly. General B.'s military road continues beyond Somerset 9 miles to Point Burnside on the Cumberland river, and even further; we took no note of its Southern terminus.
Somerset, like Stanford, is an old town, and contains 700 or 800 inhabitants. After staying here over night we hired a mule and open buggy to take us over the rest of the way, for public conveyances now failed us. We were forewarned of the badness of the road we were to travel, and of the difficulties and dangers we had to encounter, all of which we found on trial not to be overstated. It would be tedious to describe, if description were easy, as it is not -- the perils and hair-breadth escapes of the residue of our journey of 50 miles from Somerset into the edge of Tennessee and back. Suffice it to say that our surefooted mule never failed us in any of our manifold emergencies, and that we escaped broken bones and even dislocated joints, but not entirely superficial scratches.
Arriving at the Cumberland river we were ferried over it to Point Burnside on its southern bank, a place of perhaps half a score of buildings, counting as such every sort of structure. To this point the Cumberland is navigable for from four or five to eight months in the year. This was the last place having a name, and here was the last frame building we saw until our return; all houses and out-buildings farther south being made of logs. Although the road is an old one, and formerly the leading road from Somerset to Knoxville, and although the country began to be settled fully three-quarters of a century ago, yet, excepting the new shanties of railroad contractors, there are few houses along it -- not more, on an average, than one in four or five miles. The scattered clearings in which the houses are located scarcely prevent the country from presenting the appearance of an unbroken forest. Not more probably than five acres in a hundred have ever been cleared; perhaps not more than two acres.
The people, so far as we came in contact with them, appeared to be remarkably unsophisticated and innocent. They were always good-natured, affable and obliging; eager to answer all inquiries and generally giving information very minutely and intelligently. Ignorant it would seem they must be, for we saw no signs of any opportunities to obtain any education. After passing the Cumberland river we saw no building which could possibly be either a school-house or a church. At the house where we stayed over Sunday, June 28th, we fell in with a remarkably bright girl about ten years old. On being asked if she could read, she answered no. Do you know your letters? No; but there will be a school after awhile, when I shall go and learn to read. How far will you have to go? A mile and a half. A house where we stayed over night June 26th, called "Coffey's" from the name of its occupant, and which he hand his parents had occupied for more than half a century, was 30 miles from Somerset, the nearest post-office in one direction, and 17 miles from Marsh creek, the nearest post-office in the other.
[... talks about apple orchards, coal, timber, etc. ...]
There is one feature which we noticed as characteristic of the people, that deserves particular mention. It is that the women and children do the larger part of the work that gets done at all. The grown men either lounge lazily about, or amuse themselves at little gatherings here and there; or else they perform only the least repugnant labors. Here we found, in actual use in every family, the old spinning wheel, and in many, the little wheel and distaff which men of our age remember that our mothers used when we were children fifty or sixty years ago. The yarn is here woven into cloth by the hand loom, and flax is spun as it then was by our mothers; for the men will not buy anything which the labor of women and children can make. In one field we saw two women pulling up by the roots the flax which was doubtless destined to the distaff of the domestic household to which they belonged. The fuel used for cooking is bits of wood gathered by women and children from the neighboring forest. At the only place where we had a light to sit by in the evening (south of the Cumberland) it was a light made on the hearth by blazing pine splinters gathered in the same way. These are specimens of their entire system of industry. 
But now that the Cincinnati Southern Railway is about to penetrate into the land of these old forest homes, we may anticipate that a more or less rapid change will take place, and that these stagnant abodes will awake to a new life. This road is being graded from the Ohio river through Kentucky and some distance into Tennessee. From Somerset south our route lay very near that of the railroad all the way, and the contractors' shanties and their work are already beginning to give an air of activity to the rugged wilderness. When the road is completed it will open to the markets of the world, not only an immense mineral region, but also vast tracts of forest, in which the quantity of lumber now appears almost inexhaustible. In a few years this part of Kentucky will wear a new face, inasmuch as a progressive and enterprising population will be added to the stationary and sluggish one which has so long occupied it to so little purpose. []---
[] Excerpt from "Local and Personal." The Kentucky Advocate, Danville, KY. December 25, 1874 Page 3. Newspapers.com.
[December 25, 1874] -
Mr. John O. Fox, Inspector of Masonry on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, is in Danville for a few days. He has charge of eleven miles of work, on the line south of the Kentucky border, in Tennessee. He confirms the reports we get from every source with regard to the satisfactory nature of the work and the rapidity of its execution. He says, however, that the demoralization of society in that part of the country is fearful. Murder and robbery are almost every day occurrences, and crime goes unpunished. Recently a contractor was missing, and his partner became uneasy, and put out his entire force of laborers to search for hi. It turned out that the contractor had gone to Louisville, but the search brought to light the bodies of three persons who had been murdered and concealed in the brush! We are told that railroads are great "civilizers," and if the construction of the Southern road does nothing more than civilize the natives of that benighted region, it will be a good thing. []---
[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. February 5, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-02-05/ed-1/seq-3/
[February 5, 1875] -
Lark Edge says that a man can't drive a stage from this place to Somerset and be a Christian. The mud is so deep, and the road so long, that a Christian man would lose all patience with himself, his coach, his horses, and the road, before he got as far as Waynesburg. After he reached that point, Job himself, would get out of heart before he reached his destination. []---
[] Excerpt from Column 3. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 5, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-03-05/ed-1/seq-3/
[March 5, 1875] -
We made a hasty trip on business, to Somerset, the Metropolis of South-eastern Kentucky, last week, but the bad roads over which we had to travel, were enough to put one in an exceedingly bad frame of mind. However, on arriving there, the cheerful faces of the people, the air of thrift and business, caused us to get in a good humor with ourself and everybody else. The most attractive object which meets the eye on entering town, is the magnificent Court House, recently built at a cost of nearly $35,000, it is one of the handsomest public buildings of the kind, in the State. All over town are seen marks of improvement. If the three excellent hotels had a few coats of paint, well laid on, the appearance of the Public S[q]uare would be vastly improved. The attention of the traveler will be attracted by the beautiful new sign of the "Hicks House." For information as to who painted this artistic piece of handy work, enquire of the gentlemanly proprietor, who will also take pleasure in convincing you that he is up to snuff in the management of a hotel. We met many of the patrons of the Journal who renewed their subscriptions cheerfully, and we had their promise to aid us in its further circulation. When the C. S. R. R. shall have been completed, we see nothing in the way of a rapid progress of the town, in fact, there are already many evidences of advancement.We predict that Somerset will double its population in the next few years, as it will be a general trade centre for a large scope of country. So mote it be. []
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[] Excerpt from "Pulaski County News." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 19, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-03-19/ed-1/seq-3/
[March 19, 1875] -
Point Isabel, Ky., March 16, 1875.Correspondence Interior Journal:
In our last we promised to give you a description of our embryo manufacturing city. Point Isabel (named after Alfonso's mother,) is situated on a level valley at the junction of Cumberland and South Fork Rivers, at the head of navigation for same, and is 10 miles from Somerset, and we believe is destined to be a place of some importance. We have the Point Isabel Hotel, by Messrs. Burrett & Poague -- the largest in the county -- The Greenwood Hotel, by Mr. Otho Owens, with the celebrated cook "Aunt Bettie," presiding in the kitchen -- and the Ballou House, being fitted up by Mr. Jno. West, for another. Our place will have quite an acquisition in the family of Mr. West. A number one Dry Goods Store by Mr. M. E. Jones, and two large warehouses by Strubbe & Pearcy. Mr. W. G. Strubbe is the owner of all the lands of the town proper, and has laid it off in streets and lots. His warehouse is a very large one, and is filled every week from steamboats from Nashville, with supplies for the contractors along the C. S. Railway line, and the country merchants. Mr. Sam. Pearcy has his warehouse well filled with 3000 barrels of cement and other consignments. Quite a large business is done here from the fact of it being at the head of steamboat navigation. In speaking of steamboats -- it is quite a novel and pretty sight in this wooden country, to see from some high point, large vessels coming up the river; and the shrill shriek of the whistle, has something very city-like in its noise. We notice a number of very nice looking men on our streets, inquiring into the merits of our place with a view of locating. The country around Point Isabel is quite thickly settled, and the citizens kind and hospitable. Our ferry is another important item, and does a business of from two or three thousand dollars a year. Our new ferry-boat "Stella Baird" was launched with a very impressive ceremony, the other day. Mr. Strubbe, the owner, never made a more eloquent speech in his life than when naming his boat "Stella" after Cincinnati's brightest star in its firmament of wit and beauty. Long may she float -- the animated saccharine star, I mean.
The scenery around Point Isabel is very picturesque and grand, and the meeting of the rivers when viewed from some of the high bluffs adjacent, is truly magnificent. How an artist could feast on these lovely sights. The cars coming from a tunnel immediately onto the Cumberland Bridge, 150 feet high, will be the only instance of the bridge and tunnel compound that we ever heard of. The bridge will be one thousand six hundred feet long, including the approach and the track curves, both on the approach and the tunnel. From Tower Bluff, Somerset 19 miles distant, is plainly seen, and a view from Cedar Cliff, and a visit to Newell's Cave, is well worth a trip from Stanford. When we have pleasant weather the bright-eyed belles of Somerset, Richmond and Lexington, come down, and we subsist on the glorious recollection until the kind fates bring them again. But enough, the half cannot be described, so come and visit us and we promise to introduce you to some of our sweet flowers.
GALLATIN. []
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[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 26, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-03-26/ed-1/seq-3/
[March 26, 1875] -
Point Isabel, Ky., March 22, 1875.
Correspondence Interior Journal:
Since our last, we learn from one of our leading citizens, that we were in error in regard to the naming of our city. It was so called by its first settler, Mr. Withers, from a town in Mexico, and not for Ex-Queen Isabella, of Spain. []
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[] Excerpts from "Some Pulaski County Items." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. November 17, 1876. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1876-11-17/ed-1/seq-3/
[November 17, 1876] -
It is generally understood that a telegraph line runs to this place [Somerset]. Well, its true, but it is sort of a private, one-horse enterprise, and no dependence can be put in it, when the fact of the business is, it's down half the time and not in working order the other half. At the present rate of progress we are expecting by the next presidential election, to have a railroad running to this place, and then we wont have to wait for the news via Stanford and the stage passengers.
...
...
C. S. R. R. -- The great bridge across the Cumberland is about finished. It is indeed a grand structure and worth coming many miles to see. It is daily the resort of sight seers, but on Sundays the crows reach the climax, numbering sometimes as many as several hundred .... Contractor, P. F. Smith, expects to finish three miles of his contract this week. This will enable him to get the reserve percentage on it, which is the heart's delight of the average contractor .... We learn from high authority that no ballast proposals will be entertained for the present. We suppose the money is needed for more important purposes. []---
[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. November 24, 1876. Page 3. LOC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1876-11-24/ed-1/seq-3/
[November 24, 1876] -
One of the most important undertakings of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, is the magnificent Iron Bridge across the Cumberland River, which has just been completed. The masonry for the work, and the section composing it, was let in the Spring of 1874, to one Hoblitzell, who failed to come in time. It was re-advertised, and subsequently let to Messrs. Reid & Flannery, who completed it last Spring. The masonry consists of abutments, numerous pedestals and two piers, which are built from a solid foundation at the bottom of the river, to a height of about 140 feet above. The superstructure, which is of wrought iron, was built by the Chicago Bridge Company, for the sum of $100,406.02. From abutment to abutment, including the iron trestle, the bridge is 1,257 feet long, is 156 feet above the bed of the river, and 74 feet above high water mark. Commencing immediately from the portal of a tunnel, the passenger, who is ushered from its darkness, into the mid air light of the bridge, will feel a thrill of surprising wonder as from his lofty perch he scans the picturesque scenery of the surrounding country. It will, indeed be worth a trip to see; but we opine that the citizens, who live thereabouts, will be content to behold from a safe distance, many trains of cars passing over it before they intrust their bodies upon them. This work has been under the immediate charge of Capt. H. R. Week, as Division, and John E. Earley, as Resident Engineer, assisted by Messrs. J. M. Richardson and T. H. Reed. It is a triumph of engineering skill, and we doubt not that these gentlemen will, in retrospecting their railroad career, regard it as the crowning work of their lives. []---
[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. August 31, 1877. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1877-08-31/ed-1/seq-2/
[August 31, 1877] -
By the time this is in print, we shall have annexed "ourself" with a sledge-hammer and gone to knocking the fire out of some of those beautiful flinty boulders with which our State road is paved. This State road business is a humbug. Every fellow must work six days in the year unless he belongs to that fortune class who are unable [able?] to furnish substitutes. And yet the road from here to Crab Orchard is so wickedly and inexpressibly rought that we defy the most meek and saintly ministers, in whose God-like presence crime ever blushed and hid its face, to ride over it one trip without giving vent to his bruised feelings in the utterance of such "cuss words" as would shock the organs of hearing of the most degraded set of bar-room bullies that ever sought the bottom of a drinking cup. []---
[] "Among the Mountains." The Courier Journal, Louisville, KY. December 29, 1877. Page 2. Newspapers.com.
[December 29, 1877] -
AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.
Magnificent Scenery on the Knoxville Branch of the L. and N. Railroad -- All about the Coal Mines at Livingston -- An Embryo City
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[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. February 22, 1878. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-02-22/ed-1/seq-2/
[February 22, 1878] -
burning well in rockcastle
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[February 22, 1878] -
descrip of Brodhead
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[] Excerpt from Column 4. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. June 28, 1878. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-06-28/ed-1/seq-3/
[June 28, 1878] -
NOTES ON A TRIP TO SOMERSET. -- A trip to Somerset is not what it used to be. Eighteen months ago when we visited that city that is to be, a whole day and a portion of the night was consumed in jolting in a rickety old stage coach over a road in some places macadamized with rock as big as a water bucket, in other places repaired with logs and fence rails, and still others in which the bottom seemed entirely dropped out. Monday, an hour's drive over a nice turnpike brought us to McKinney Station, where, entering a "Palace Car," we were soon taken to Somerset, the whole trip having been made from Stanford in two hours and a half, without ever a jolt or a jostle. Somerset we found to be in a thriving and growing condition, and the improvements so great that the place was scarcely recognizable. Handsome residences and substantial business houses have taken the places of those of ancient architecture and general dilapidation, and an air of thrift is apparent on all sides. The Bank building, which was formerly a little one-room concern, has spread itself into metropolitan dimensions. In the same building is a commodious store room, and [...] is Will Owens' new Opera House, [...]ly the pride of the town. It is ad[mirably?] constructed, can seat 350 persons, and the stage and scenery would do credit to [...]ity of far greater pretensions. Among the many other improvements, the new Hicks House and J. R. Richardson's Drug Store are particularly noticeable. The former is a large brick building, and fills the bill in the long felt want of a good Hotel establishment in an excellent manner, and we have only to remark that Sim Hicks is the proprietor to assure the public that it is kept in first-class style. The Baptists have taken down their old church, which was situated on one of the most inaccessible hills near town and are preparing to build an edifice on Main street worth of that large and growing denomination. A saw mill, an ax-handle and other factories, are giving employment to numbers of laborers. [] ---
[August 30, 1878] -
LONDON.
It was our good fortune to be allowed last week, the pleasure of paying a visit to our neighboring town of London. We only remained one night, but in that time saw enough to form quite an agreeable impression, both of the place and the people. Circuit Court was in session, his Honor, Judge Randall, presiding with his usual grace and dignity. J. H. Tinsley, the popular Commonwealth's Attorney for this District, was, we regret to say, very unwell, suffering from a severe attack of bilious fever. London, the County seat of Laurel county, has a population of about 400 souls. It is pleasantly situated, and contains some neat private residences. The public buildings are not what they should be. There are seven hotels in the place, so that no one need ever go to bed hungry. Six stores furnish goods and groceries to the country round about. The Male and Female Academy is a handsome brick structure and does honor to the town. There is one church (Christian) which is a neat and commodious building. Messrs. Pearl, Boyd, Brown, Craft, Newell, Moran and Canifax, constitute the bar, and are a formidable set of attorneys. Miss Grace Hammet, a charming young lady, and an accomplished teacher of music, from Cincinnati, has charge of a class of young ladies. In the person of Mr. W. H. Jackson, who keeps the best hotel in the mountains, we found a most accommodating "mine host." Mr. W. L. Brown, a popular young lawyer, and the County Judge elect, placed us under lasting obligations for courtesies extended to us during our stay. We shall, the Lord willing, visit London again. []
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[] Excerpt from "The Trial of Sam Williams and other Casey Court Items." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. December 5, 1879. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-12-05/ed-1/seq-3/
[December 5, 1879] -
The old [Liberty, Casey County] Court-house stands as a reminder of the style of architecture of public buildings in vogue in the years long gone by, and is not a pretty or pretentious building by any means, but as County Clerk, Wash, would say, it is paid for and serves all practical purposes. It is a square building with chimneys at each corner, and has two stories. Court is held below, and the jury rooms are up stairs. Speaking of the Court-house, we were informed by Judge Winston Bowman, who has held the position of County Judge for a number of terms, and who has been a citizen of Liberty for 72 years -- that the first Court ever held in Casey, was in a bark-house. Subsequently a substantial log-house was built and used as a Court-house for a number of years. A small brick building followed this, but in 1834 it was destroyed by lightening, and in 1835 the present Court-house was erected. []---
[] Excerpt from "Casey County - Liberty." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. December 19, 1879. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-12-19/ed-1/seq-3/
[December 19, 1879] -
Green River has been out of its bank for the last three days; consequently we [Liberty, Casey Co.] got no mails during that time. []
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[] Excerpt from " The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. December 26, 1879. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-12-26/ed-1/seq-3/
[December 26, 1879] -
Lincoln's Court-House
An Interesting History of it, and Other old-time Notes worthy of A Careful Perusal, By John Blain
[2.5 columns long]
---
=---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CIVIL WAR
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[] Excerpt from "Lincoln County News." The Kentucky Advocate, Danville, KY. May 5, 1871. Page 2. Newspapers.com.
[May 5, 1871] -
BURIAL OF THE CONFEDERATE DEAD AT CRAB ORCHARD. -- Next Thursday the 11th of May, the remains of the unknown Southern Soldiers killed at the battle of Wild Cat, will be interred with appropriate ceremonies in the Cemetery at Crab Orchard, Ky. Distinguished speakers, comrades of the dead, are invited and are expected to be present. The ceremonies to begin at 3 o'clock P.M. All who feel disposed to pay this last tribute of respect to the hitherto unhonored and unburied dead of the "lost cause" are respectfully invited to attend. []=---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FREEDMEN’S BUREAU IN KY / FEDERAL TROOPS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[] Excerpt from "Letters From Louisville." Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Cincinnati, OH. February 28, 1870. Page 1. Genealogybank.com.
[February 28, 1870] -
The Government officers whose duty it is to enforce the laws in Kentucky are compelled to undergo hardships and privations at times almost equal to the severest campaigns of the late war. Indeed, to perform these duties in portions of Kentucky, where the laws are violated and the officers are defied, where desperadoes band together to protect themselves against the penalty of the law--requires the bravery, determination, and patriotism of a soldier. The hardships which some of the officers have endured even recently can not be recounted and if the truth was told if would be doubted in many instances, even by good people living in the neighborhood in which the most shameful scenes are enacted. []
---
[] Excerpt from "The Duty of the Governor." The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY. August 29, 1873. Page 2. Newspapers.com.
[August 29, 1873] -
The Duty of the Governor.
Governor Leslie has made a faithful Executive, and has rendered too much service to the State for us to make captious complaints of his administration. We have often commended him, and we are anxious to commend him again. The Kuklux question is the most important one that has arisen since his election, and we, in common with the people of the entire State, whose confidence he commands, sincerely desire that he will use all the authority within his reach to drag the marauders to justice. In addition to the power conferred upon him by the late Kuklux act, section 1 of the act of February 16, 1866, provides as follows:
The Governor shall have power to call the militia of this Commonwealth, or any portion thereof, into active service for the purpose of repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, rebellion, and riot and to aid civil officers in execution of the laws of the State, where he is fully satisfied by proof made to him, by affidavit or otherwise, that the combination against or the resistance to the execution of the laws are too powerful to be met and put down by an ordinary posse comitatus in the county where such resistance takes place, and provided further, that said militia shall be immediately disbanded after the objects for which they were called out have been accomplished.
We have been unable to find any act repealing this; and, if it is now the law, it is sufficient authority for the suppression of the Kuklux at once by military force. If we mistake not, Governor Stevenson, in 1867 or 1868, enlisted under this law a company of militia in Woodford county, under Captain Leavy, and with them effectually suppressed the "regulators" of Boyle, Lincoln, Marion, and Washington. []
We have been unable to find any act repealing this; and, if it is now the law, it is sufficient authority for the suppression of the Kuklux at once by military force. If we mistake not, Governor Stevenson, in 1867 or 1868, enlisted under this law a company of militia in Woodford county, under Captain Leavy, and with them effectually suppressed the "regulators" of Boyle, Lincoln, Marion, and Washington. []
---
-----
A bill was introduced into the House of Representatives providing that the Governor shall offer a reward of $1,000 for the capture of every person concerned in outlawry in Kentucky, and the punishment for Ku Klux crimes be imprisonment in the penitentiary. Such a law conscientiously enforced would soon redeem the State from the disgrace under which she now exists. []
The Louisville Daily Gazette is encouraged by a letter from Stanford, from which it quotes as follows: "Your article upon the escape of Wilson has won you many admirers in this locality. The people want an influential journal, that has the boldness to take hold of individual criminals. They have no confidence in these sensational sheets that talk of crimes in general, and throw the blame upon all sections of our State alike." It promises to continue its warfare against the influence of money in shielding crime from punishment. It says: "Kentucky must be relieved from the opprobrium that covers her name with infamy all the country over. And we never can relieve her until we dissolve the mutual admiration society which has been the bane of Kentuckians for so man[y] years. We must realize the fact that a Kentuckian is better than anybody else only when his conduct is better than anybody else's conduct. We must learn to look upon murder when committed by a Kentuckians as foul as a crime as when committed by a citizen of some other State. We must, above all things, disabuse our minds of the erroneous idea that Kentuckians are too good to be hanged. We must use the gallows industriously, and put a summary stop to imprisonment as a punishment for murder. God is wiser and more just and impartial than any Legislature, and He provides DEATH as the penalty for murder. That's first principles. That's sense.
The facts developed in the trial of the parties accused of the murder of Ferill at Millidgeville last week fully warranted the judgement of the court. Though Ferill was upon the aggressive during the day, and violated the peace and good order of the village the killing could easily have been averted had the parties whom he maltreated placed that reliance in the strong arm of the law which it warrants, and have had him promptly arrested for his disorderly and brutal conduct towards unoffending citizens. We must rely more upon the laws of the land, and promptly cause the arrest of all evil-doers--those who are guilty of the slightest misdemeanors as well as the perpetrators of the most shocking crimes--and depend less upon our strong arm and well loaded revolvers and shot-guns for protection. So long as we are cursed with the prolific parent of the crime, whisky, in our midst, making blood-thirsty savages of peaceable and orderly citizens, we must enforce the law against those who patronize this fountain of crime and thus become law-breakers. Hang murderers, imprison homicides, and promptly punish all minor offenses, is our motto. Desperadoes must be punished--but it is not necessary that everybody turn executioner to insure their punishment! []
HANGMAN'S DAY. -- There were three legal neck breakings in the United States last Friday, and for a variety, Kentucky had a good old fashioned hanging. It seems rather a pity that a poor old negro should have been the victim when there are so many white scamps that deserve the halter, but then it is pretty good as it is, for it will show that hanging is not "played out" entirely. The negro referred to was Phillip Watson, who was hung at Covington for the murder of his wife committed some time in September last. He confessed his crime and as he stood upon the trap, with the halter around his neck he delivered himself of this little speech: "Farwell, vain world! Ise g'wan home. Soon I'll see my Maker. Dar's a mighty sight of rascals left behind me, too, an some of dem will follo' me into da torments of hell." Immediately after it the trap was sprung, and the old man was launched into eternity almost without a struggle. The Sheriff deserves credit for his skillfulness in the matter. []
It will be seen by our Legislative reports that An act re-establishing the whipping post has been passed by the House. This is good, but when the Senate passes it it will be better, and when we see some sneak thief get nine and thirty on his naked back it will be the superlative of our delight. We hope Speaker Turner's bill against carrying concealed weapons at all, will become a law. []
It will be a blessing to this community, as well as to all others, if the establishment of a whipping-post can be effected. There is no jail here to even confine the violators of the law. It is an expense to send prisoners to jail, and it is a greater expense to keep them in jail several weeks or months, as is often the case, and why not, for small offences, give the offender, on the naked skin, about forty hard and well-proportioned licks, then turn him loose? []
[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 1, 1878. Page 1. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-03-01/ed-1/seq-1/
[March 1, 1878] -
editorial on how the whipping post is not cruel and unusual, also includes some penitentiary cell crowding details
[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. November 16, 1877. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1877-11-16/ed-1/seq-2/
[November 16, 1877] -
first column, editorial on the army as a standing police force to prevent mob violence
-----
=---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM EFFECTIVENESS / PENALTIES & SENTENCING
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[] The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. February 21, 1873. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1873-02-21/ed-1/seq-2/
[February 21, 1873] -
A bill was introduced into the House of Representatives providing that the Governor shall offer a reward of $1,000 for the capture of every person concerned in outlawry in Kentucky, and the punishment for Ku Klux crimes be imprisonment in the penitentiary. Such a law conscientiously enforced would soon redeem the State from the disgrace under which she now exists. []
---
[] Excerpt from Columns 1 and 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. October 9, 1874. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1874-10-09/ed-1/seq-2/
[October 9, 1874] -
The Louisville Daily Gazette is encouraged by a letter from Stanford, from which it quotes as follows: "Your article upon the escape of Wilson has won you many admirers in this locality. The people want an influential journal, that has the boldness to take hold of individual criminals. They have no confidence in these sensational sheets that talk of crimes in general, and throw the blame upon all sections of our State alike." It promises to continue its warfare against the influence of money in shielding crime from punishment. It says: "Kentucky must be relieved from the opprobrium that covers her name with infamy all the country over. And we never can relieve her until we dissolve the mutual admiration society which has been the bane of Kentuckians for so man[y] years. We must realize the fact that a Kentuckian is better than anybody else only when his conduct is better than anybody else's conduct. We must learn to look upon murder when committed by a Kentuckians as foul as a crime as when committed by a citizen of some other State. We must, above all things, disabuse our minds of the erroneous idea that Kentuckians are too good to be hanged. We must use the gallows industriously, and put a summary stop to imprisonment as a punishment for murder. God is wiser and more just and impartial than any Legislature, and He provides DEATH as the penalty for murder. That's first principles. That's sense.
A murderer once hanged and buried cannot commit other murders. The grave is a penitentiary from which executive clemency cannot rescue the murderer, and turn him loose to again prey upon his fellow-men the first time he gets drunk. Holding to these opinions, we opposed the law leaving it to juries to imprison or hang, as they may choose. It is silly, it is mischievous, it is infamous. This year the murder calend[a]r in our State has been more than doubled already, and a quarter of the year yet to come; ad this infamous act of the General Assembly, is the cause thereof. We must work for its repeal, every one of us who value our own lives and the lives of our neighbors, and the good name of our commonwealth. We also must work for the removal of the barricades the statutes have erected around the murderer, and which effectually resist every attempt of justice to sustain the majority of the law, and exact of him the penalty of his crime. All these things the people of Kentucky must accomplish, for the honor of our grand old State. []
---
(also in leads)
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. October 9, 1874. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1874-10-09/ed-1/seq-2/
[October 9, 1874] -
The facts developed in the trial of the parties accused of the murder of Ferill at Millidgeville last week fully warranted the judgement of the court. Though Ferill was upon the aggressive during the day, and violated the peace and good order of the village the killing could easily have been averted had the parties whom he maltreated placed that reliance in the strong arm of the law which it warrants, and have had him promptly arrested for his disorderly and brutal conduct towards unoffending citizens. We must rely more upon the laws of the land, and promptly cause the arrest of all evil-doers--those who are guilty of the slightest misdemeanors as well as the perpetrators of the most shocking crimes--and depend less upon our strong arm and well loaded revolvers and shot-guns for protection. So long as we are cursed with the prolific parent of the crime, whisky, in our midst, making blood-thirsty savages of peaceable and orderly citizens, we must enforce the law against those who patronize this fountain of crime and thus become law-breakers. Hang murderers, imprison homicides, and promptly punish all minor offenses, is our motto. Desperadoes must be punished--but it is not necessary that everybody turn executioner to insure their punishment! []
---
[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. February 8, 1878. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-02-08/ed-1/seq-2/
[February 8, 1878] -
HANGMAN'S DAY. -- There were three legal neck breakings in the United States last Friday, and for a variety, Kentucky had a good old fashioned hanging. It seems rather a pity that a poor old negro should have been the victim when there are so many white scamps that deserve the halter, but then it is pretty good as it is, for it will show that hanging is not "played out" entirely. The negro referred to was Phillip Watson, who was hung at Covington for the murder of his wife committed some time in September last. He confessed his crime and as he stood upon the trap, with the halter around his neck he delivered himself of this little speech: "Farwell, vain world! Ise g'wan home. Soon I'll see my Maker. Dar's a mighty sight of rascals left behind me, too, an some of dem will follo' me into da torments of hell." Immediately after it the trap was sprung, and the old man was launched into eternity almost without a struggle. The Sheriff deserves credit for his skillfulness in the matter. []
---
[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. February 8, 1878. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-02-08/ed-1/seq-2/
[February 8, 1878] -
It will be seen by our Legislative reports that An act re-establishing the whipping post has been passed by the House. This is good, but when the Senate passes it it will be better, and when we see some sneak thief get nine and thirty on his naked back it will be the superlative of our delight. We hope Speaker Turner's bill against carrying concealed weapons at all, will become a law. []
---
[] Excerpt from "Lincoln County -- Crab Orchard." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. February 22, 1878. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-02-22/ed-1/seq-3/
[February 22, 1878] -
WANTS THE WHIPPING POST.
It will be a blessing to this community, as well as to all others, if the establishment of a whipping-post can be effected. There is no jail here to even confine the violators of the law. It is an expense to send prisoners to jail, and it is a greater expense to keep them in jail several weeks or months, as is often the case, and why not, for small offences, give the offender, on the naked skin, about forty hard and well-proportioned licks, then turn him loose? []
---
[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 1, 1878. Page 1. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-03-01/ed-1/seq-1/
[March 1, 1878] -
editorial on how the whipping post is not cruel and unusual, also includes some penitentiary cell crowding details
---
[] Excerpt from "Local News." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. April 12, 1878. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-04-12/ed-1/seq-3/
[April 12, 1878] -
A FEW TIMELY WORDS. -- For years this county has been ridden by bands of lawless men who have held an almost undisputed sway of terror. Cold blooded murders, assassinations, burglaries, highway robberies, and every conceivable crime have been committed. Life, limb and property were in constant danger, and those who had suffered were warned, under pain of instant death, not to lay their grievances before the Grand Juries. This state of affairs grew out of the fact that officers were afraid to do their duty because the cowardly Jurors and the more cowardly public failed to give them sufficient support to put an end to the reign of terror. But the straw that was to break the camel's back was destined to come some day, and so bold had the rascals become that the people arose in their power last December and decided to end these murders and robberies by shutting the perpetrators in jail. Since then Lincoln county has enjoyed a season of comparative rest from these terrors, and it only now remains for the Jurors of the approaching Court to finish the work so nobly begun. The Grand Jury has a powerful duty to perform and it behooves them, man to man, to stand up and do their whole duty, investigate thoroughly all the cases that have come to light, and use their utmost endeavors to bring to light the scores of others that we hear of but as yet, are not sufficient materialized to make public. Recent developments show that our officers and others, who have assisted in the good work of bringing criminals to justice, are in imminent danger of their lives being taken by lawless parties. Protect these officers and citizens, and above all, throw the protecting arm of the law around the witnesses that are to testify in the cases to be tried. Every day we hear of intimidation and threats of violence toward them, and some have been compelled to leave the country to save their lives. This must be ended, justice must be done, and Lincoln must be restored to her former honorable position. Therefore, we urge upon our Jurors the importance of standing squarely to their oaths and doing their whole duty. We do not wish to see a single innocent man suffer, but we do want to see murderers and thieves get the full extent of the law. []
---
There are now fifty men in the Kentucky Penitentiary serving out life sentences, and the Frankfort Yeoman estimates that in ten years, unless the penalty of murder is changed to death, instead of leaving it discretionary with the juries to return verdicts of death or imprisonment for life, that there will be men enough convicted for life to completely fill the Penitentiary as it now stands. The law is, however, a good one, for our average tender-hearted juryman would rather let a murderer go free than sentence him to dangle from the gallows. []
---
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 21, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-03-21/ed-1/seq-2/
[March 21, 1879] -
---
[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. April 18, 1879. Page 1. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-04-18/ed-1/seq-1/
[April 18, 1879] -
An extract from Judge Buckner's speech before the Bar Meeting at Frankfort: "The old murder law should be revised. Experience shows that the greater the enormity of the crime and the greater the popular indignation, the poorer is the material of which the jury is composed. All intelligent men now read the newspapers. This debars them from acting as jurors, and as a consequence the jurors are elected from a stratum below the intelligent citizens who read the papers." []
---
[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. July 4, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-07-04/ed-1/seq-2/
[July 4, 1879] -
---
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. December 19, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-12-19/ed-1/seq-2/
[December 19, 1879] -
In discussing the recent decision of the special Court of Appeals granting Buford a new trial, the Bowling Green Intelligencer makes the startling but true assertion that at least one thousand white men have committed murders in Kentucky since the war, for which but one man has been hung, and not exceeding twenty-five or thirty have been given life terms in the penitentiary. The result, it continues, is that emigration has been kept away, and the people having little faith in the courts as avengers of wrong, have taken the administration of justice into their own hands, and in many sections of the State have resorted to Lynch law. Murder must be made odious by the swift punishment of murderers, or Kentucky will have to content herself with a seat away back in the progress of the States. []
[April 12, 1878] -
A FEW TIMELY WORDS. -- For years this county has been ridden by bands of lawless men who have held an almost undisputed sway of terror. Cold blooded murders, assassinations, burglaries, highway robberies, and every conceivable crime have been committed. Life, limb and property were in constant danger, and those who had suffered were warned, under pain of instant death, not to lay their grievances before the Grand Juries. This state of affairs grew out of the fact that officers were afraid to do their duty because the cowardly Jurors and the more cowardly public failed to give them sufficient support to put an end to the reign of terror. But the straw that was to break the camel's back was destined to come some day, and so bold had the rascals become that the people arose in their power last December and decided to end these murders and robberies by shutting the perpetrators in jail. Since then Lincoln county has enjoyed a season of comparative rest from these terrors, and it only now remains for the Jurors of the approaching Court to finish the work so nobly begun. The Grand Jury has a powerful duty to perform and it behooves them, man to man, to stand up and do their whole duty, investigate thoroughly all the cases that have come to light, and use their utmost endeavors to bring to light the scores of others that we hear of but as yet, are not sufficient materialized to make public. Recent developments show that our officers and others, who have assisted in the good work of bringing criminals to justice, are in imminent danger of their lives being taken by lawless parties. Protect these officers and citizens, and above all, throw the protecting arm of the law around the witnesses that are to testify in the cases to be tried. Every day we hear of intimidation and threats of violence toward them, and some have been compelled to leave the country to save their lives. This must be ended, justice must be done, and Lincoln must be restored to her former honorable position. Therefore, we urge upon our Jurors the importance of standing squarely to their oaths and doing their whole duty. We do not wish to see a single innocent man suffer, but we do want to see murderers and thieves get the full extent of the law. []---
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 7, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-03-07/ed-1/seq-2/
[March 7, 1879] -
There are now fifty men in the Kentucky Penitentiary serving out life sentences, and the Frankfort Yeoman estimates that in ten years, unless the penalty of murder is changed to death, instead of leaving it discretionary with the juries to return verdicts of death or imprisonment for life, that there will be men enough convicted for life to completely fill the Penitentiary as it now stands. The law is, however, a good one, for our average tender-hearted juryman would rather let a murderer go free than sentence him to dangle from the gallows. []---
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 21, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-03-21/ed-1/seq-2/
[March 21, 1879] -
Owing to the crowded status of the Penitentiary, the convicts are shuffling off their mortal coil at a lively rate. We hope that the terrors of death in the Penitentiary, if the Penitentiary itself has none, may cause a diminution of crime. []
---
[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. April 18, 1879. Page 1. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-04-18/ed-1/seq-1/
[April 18, 1879] -
An extract from Judge Buckner's speech before the Bar Meeting at Frankfort: "The old murder law should be revised. Experience shows that the greater the enormity of the crime and the greater the popular indignation, the poorer is the material of which the jury is composed. All intelligent men now read the newspapers. This debars them from acting as jurors, and as a consequence the jurors are elected from a stratum below the intelligent citizens who read the papers." []---
[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. July 4, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-07-04/ed-1/seq-2/
[July 4, 1879] -
There are sixty-five life prisoners in the Penitentiary, and the number is constantly increasing, and will increase until the law is changed to make death alone the penalty for murder. Our Solons altered the law under the belief that life punishment is a more humane one, but really it is not. Who ever heard of a hardened murderer sentenced for life, getting religion and bearing evidence that he was going straight to glory when he died? No body. They don't hanker after religion, but after a dreary life, die and go to the devil. But sentence a man to be hung, and no sooner, he goes to work to make his peace, his calling and election sure, and no matter how hardened or abandoned he is, his salvation is assured, and he usually dies with a word of warning to sinners on his lips, and an earnest entreaty for every body to meet him in heaven. The conversion of such fiends could not be accomplished any other way, and if our next Legislature has a desire to save souls, put an end to murder and cut off a useless expense to the State, it will change the law and makes it discretionary with the jury to say whether a man should be hung or be clothed and fed at the expense of the State for the balance of his natural life. []
---
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. December 19, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-12-19/ed-1/seq-2/
[December 19, 1879] -
In discussing the recent decision of the special Court of Appeals granting Buford a new trial, the Bowling Green Intelligencer makes the startling but true assertion that at least one thousand white men have committed murders in Kentucky since the war, for which but one man has been hung, and not exceeding twenty-five or thirty have been given life terms in the penitentiary. The result, it continues, is that emigration has been kept away, and the people having little faith in the courts as avengers of wrong, have taken the administration of justice into their own hands, and in many sections of the State have resorted to Lynch law. Murder must be made odious by the swift punishment of murderers, or Kentucky will have to content herself with a seat away back in the progress of the States. []
=---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PARDONS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 24, 1876. Page 2. LOC.
[March 24, 1876] -
A singular, not to say, a laughable resolution was passed by the State Senate, last Monday, which recommends the Governor to pardon twenty-five convicts a month, until the number of prisoners confined in the Penitentiary is reduced to suit the prison accommodations. We are glad to know that the House did not act upon the resolution, but would be happier to learn that they indignantly rejected such a thing. The Senate, composed, as is thought, of grave and thoughtful men, should know better than to offer such a resolution. They had as well resolve to request the Circuit Judge and Commonwealths Attorneys, to dismiss all prosecutions of criminals until the State built another prison. Are felons and common thieves to be pardoned by the two dozen, in regular monthly installments, simply because we have no Penitentiary in which to confine them? Would it not have been better, for the good of the honest people of the country, to have made an appropriation sufficient to build another prison, or extend the one now at Frankfort? Where would the Senate have the Executive begin his list of pardons? Atwood is a shining light in the gloomy walls of the Penitentiary. Would he do to head the list of pardons for the month of April? Others are there, convicted of heinous crimes, from murder to manslaughter, to arson and horse stealing. Who would be first, and who last, in the monthly roll of pardoned convicts, until room shall have been made, for others, who, perhaps, may be guilty of a smaller offense. We would suggest to the Kentucky Senate, if it were not too late for them to act upon gratuitous suggestion, that they offer a resolution, imploring the Governor of our beloved Commonwealth to insist upon a general pardon by Congress, of all the thieves, murderers, burglars, and other criminals, in all the Jails and Penitentiaries of the States, and present those pardons, signed, sealed and enrolled as the law directs, as a Centennial present to all criminals. []
---
[March 24, 1876] -
A singular, not to say, a laughable resolution was passed by the State Senate, last Monday, which recommends the Governor to pardon twenty-five convicts a month, until the number of prisoners confined in the Penitentiary is reduced to suit the prison accommodations. We are glad to know that the House did not act upon the resolution, but would be happier to learn that they indignantly rejected such a thing. The Senate, composed, as is thought, of grave and thoughtful men, should know better than to offer such a resolution. They had as well resolve to request the Circuit Judge and Commonwealths Attorneys, to dismiss all prosecutions of criminals until the State built another prison. Are felons and common thieves to be pardoned by the two dozen, in regular monthly installments, simply because we have no Penitentiary in which to confine them? Would it not have been better, for the good of the honest people of the country, to have made an appropriation sufficient to build another prison, or extend the one now at Frankfort? Where would the Senate have the Executive begin his list of pardons? Atwood is a shining light in the gloomy walls of the Penitentiary. Would he do to head the list of pardons for the month of April? Others are there, convicted of heinous crimes, from murder to manslaughter, to arson and horse stealing. Who would be first, and who last, in the monthly roll of pardoned convicts, until room shall have been made, for others, who, perhaps, may be guilty of a smaller offense. We would suggest to the Kentucky Senate, if it were not too late for them to act upon gratuitous suggestion, that they offer a resolution, imploring the Governor of our beloved Commonwealth to insist upon a general pardon by Congress, of all the thieves, murderers, burglars, and other criminals, in all the Jails and Penitentiaries of the States, and present those pardons, signed, sealed and enrolled as the law directs, as a Centennial present to all criminals. []---
[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. January 25, 1878. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-01-25/ed-1/seq-2/
[January 25, 1878] -
about governor clemency (column 1)
---
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. September 5, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-09-05/ed-1/seq-2/
[September 5, 1879] -
Gov Blackburn speech on pardoning power and concealed weapons (column 2)
---
[] Excerpt from "Notes of Current Events." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. October 17, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-10-17/ed-1/seq-2/
[October 17, 1879] -
A mass meeting of the citizens of Pendleton county passed resolutions censuring Gov. Blackburn for pardoning one George Beard, who had been sentenced to six and a half years for Kukluxing and robbery, but who had served buy six months of his time. There had been no petitions for his pardon. []
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[] "Bobbitt at Lebanon." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. November 7, 1879. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-11-07/ed-1/seq-3/
[November 7, 1879] -
Bobbitt at Lebanon.
[Fontaine Fox] Bobbitt spoke at Lebanon, last Monday, to a large audience. A synposis of his speech is given in the Courier-Journal, from which we copy his remarks concerning the wholesale pardoning by Gov. Blackburn. He said that "the pardoning power was incorporated in the State Constitution to relieve against hardships, and was to be cautiously and sparingly used. He was much opposed to the wholesale manner of turning criminals loose upon the country, and said that the people all over the State should hold indignation meetings to condemn the action of the Governor. He said the people were taxed to death to pay judges, commonwealth's attorneys, jurors and witnesses to send convicts to the penitentiary, and some of them never entered the portals of the penitentiary before the Governor pardoned them. He said by the law a boy of seven years of age could be convicted and hanged for murder, and that Blackburn overrode the law when he said no boy under 14 should be confined in the penitentiary. He remarks on Blackburn for pardoning pregnant women were very amusing, and showed that it offered inducements to privilege one crime by another. He said the pardoning power had not been properly exercised. He said the blood-stained murderer, red with human gore, the incendiary who applied the flaming torch to the sleeping man's dwelling, the thief that stole the honest man's property while he slept, the forger and the rapist who had blighted forever female honor, had all shared in the sympathy of this humane Governor. The applause showed that the feelings of the people were with the speaker, and we think it high time that the Governor should call a halt in this matter."
---
[] Excerpt from "Pulaski County." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. November 21, 1879. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-11-21/ed-1/seq-3/
[November 21, 1879] -
Gov. Blackburn on retiring from office ought to collect his pardoned convicts and with them, sail for Robinson Crusoe's "Desolate Isle," and colonize. There he might use his Executive clemency to his heart's content and none dare to molest or make him afraid. []
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GUNS / GUN LAWS
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[] "Carrying Concealed Weapons -- Both Workings of the Law." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. February 12, 1875. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-02-12/ed-1/seq-2/
[February 12, 1875] -
about concealed weapons (column 5)
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[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. February 26, 1875. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-02-26/ed-1/seq-2/
[February 26, 1875] -
[February 26, 1875] -
Notwithstanding the new law, which punishes guilty parties with fine and imprisonment for carrying concealed, a deadly weapon, it is a safe calculation that half of the men are guilty of the offense, and not one in fifty is convicted. []
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[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. April 2, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-04-02/ed-1/seq-3/
[April 2, 1875] -
[April 2, 1875] -
Why, sir, we happened to be around at the birth of several children, and the expectant father always stood at the door with a pistol in his hand, ready to send it to his boy, if such it chanced to be. The cowardly habit of carrying a pistol ought to be stopped, and until it is done, life is not safe in this country. There is never the slightest bravery shown, for those who carry concealed weapons never give you a chance, or act on the square, in the slightest degree. -- The quickest hand on the trigger is their motto. The idea of calling you out and having a good, old fashioned 1,2,3 is entirely unheard of here. []
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[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. September 10, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-09-10/ed-1/seq-3/
[September 10, 1875] -
The law against carrying concealed deadly weapons is almost a dead letter. Not a day passes that we do not hear of some one, black or white, being guilty of a violation of the statute. We predict a lively time before the Grand Jury of the coming October term of the Lincoln Circuit Court on account of a violation of this very proper law. []---
[] Excerpt from Column 3. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. April 18, 1879. Page 1. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-04-18/ed-1/seq-1/
[April 18, 1879] -
THE TURNER WEAPON LAW. -- The worst law, in many respects, on the Statute Books is the Turner weapon law, passed by the last Legislature. It arms the desperado and disarms the respectable citizen. A man who cares nothing for law, and always carries his pistol (and there are thousands in Kentucky who do so,) is always ready to shoot, while the honest citizen, who out of respect for the law never wears a weapon, is defenseless before the rowdy. There is no terror in the land to draw the pistol from the hip-pocket of a bad character, but it does forbid a good citizen to arm himself when threatened. We ought to have an anti-weapon law, but one which will give honest men a chance to meet villains, and to save his life when threatened. -- [Lexington (Ky.) Transcript. []---
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POLITICAL FEELING / PUBLIC OPINION ABOUT CRIME
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[] Excerpt from "Cincinnati Southern Railroad." Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, Cincinnati, OH. March 28, 1870. Page 2. Genealogybank.com.
[March 28, 1870] -
The political necessity of this road [the Cincinnati Southern Railroad] is even greater now than when Lincoln wrote, more than eight years ago. Kentucky is not loyal in feeling to day as then, and of all the States in the broad extent of our Union she is the only one where the pernicious theories which [?] dated, inspired and supported the rebellion control legislation. No change can be for the worse where the arm of the law is paralyzed where the Ku Klux Klan controls the Courts and mocks justice by hanging negroes and poor white men for petty crimes, while the rich can murder with impunity; which glorifies Washington by eulogizing him as the "first rebel," and shuts the doors of justice against one fourth the citizens born and raised within her borders. The commercial necessity of the road is demonstrated by the willingness of the citizens of Cincinnati, and a large part of the citizens of Kentucky and Tennessee, to provide the means for its construction and equipment. The necessity of this road as an educational measure is known to all who are familiar with the mental condition of the people in South eastern Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee, who have suffered since the first settlement of these regions for want of proper mail facilities. One may travel there for miles and miles without sight or sound of a human being.
I shall not soon forget that while traveling less than a year ago along the lonely "post road" which passes from London via Sublimity Springs to Somerset, I was asked by a 'native:' "You ain't got no news from no whar, is yer?" Nor shall I soon forget the eager interest with which the poor fellow listened to a relation of something that had been going on in the great world beyond him, to which he was almost as much a stranger as was Daniel Boone a century ago. The United States owes a debt of gratitude to the people of Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. They can, in part at least, repay by authorizing the construction of this road. Poor and ignorant as many of them are, they never forgot their duty to country, and their blood was shed for the Union in every battlefield in the West. It is but just to the survivors of these brave men, their widows and their children, and a fitting rebuke to the rich rebels of Western Kentucky, that Congress should do what the Legislature failed to do, and provide means for increased mail facilities among a people who have born with manly fortitude the heaviest burdens of the Union, and have enjoyed few of its benefits. []
---
The election is not over yet, with some of our town gas-bags. It is the general opinion that it is much better for a man to be preparing the necessaries of life for his dependant family, rather than pacing the streets, hunting some one to whom he may pour fourth his political effluvia. We generally find, that those who have the worst political epithets, and who delight most to use them, are the men who remained at home during the late war to "protect women and children." Their sympathetic organ was large. We would like to see the vagrant act enforced in a few instances, so that we might purchase a couple of the soft-muscled gentry to work the garden, &c. []
[] Excerpt from "Pulaski County News." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. August 13, 1875. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-08-13/ed-1/seq-2/
[August 13, 1875] -
[August 13, 1875] -
The election is not over yet, with some of our town gas-bags. It is the general opinion that it is much better for a man to be preparing the necessaries of life for his dependant family, rather than pacing the streets, hunting some one to whom he may pour fourth his political effluvia. We generally find, that those who have the worst political epithets, and who delight most to use them, are the men who remained at home during the late war to "protect women and children." Their sympathetic organ was large. We would like to see the vagrant act enforced in a few instances, so that we might purchase a couple of the soft-muscled gentry to work the garden, &c. []
---
[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. July 4, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-07-04/ed-1/seq-2/
[July 4, 1879] -
One fruitful source of crime in these parts is the importance that silly, politic people give to criminals, which the ignorant construe into almost hero-worship. For instance, let an individual steeped in crime get out of jail on bail, and no sooner than he does so, than hundreds of cowardly boot-lickers crowd around him, vieing with each other for the honor of first shaking his hand, saying by their actions, if not by their words, "I am for you--I stood by you in your troubles!" or, "I never did believe the charges brought against you!" This species of cowardice ought to be frowned upon; and no person of ordinary self-respect will be caught honey-fuggling a scamp who, if he had his deserts, would be dangling from the end of a rope or shut up on a Penitentiary. Public sentiment has more to do in keeping down crime than the laws themselves, and so soon as that sentiment is educated to abhor the criminal, as well as the crime, will evil-doers awake to their senses. Ostracise that class of cattle, and crime will decease forthwith. []
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CRIME STATISTICS / UBIQUITY OF CRIME
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[] Excerpt from "Amnesty." Daily Illinois State Journal, Springfield, IL. December 28, 1870. Page 2. Genealogybank.com.
[December 28, 1870] -
A correspondent of a Cincinnati Gazette, writing to that paper from Kentucky, says:
Were I to mention every Ku-Klux outrage that occurs in this State, my weekly letters would contain little else. Within the past ten days, five men were hung or shot, two at one time, two at another, and one at another. The recital of these crimes is horrible. The last one occurred in this way: A party of men disguised go to a farm house, search through the cabins for their victim, shoot him with a pistol. He falls, but not dead. They then take the negro's own musket, and blow his brains out. The men ride off, and that is the end of it. It may be that the Governor will issue his proclamation offering a reward for the murderers, but no one will be arrested: no one will be tried or punished for the crime. What has become of the vigorous prosecution and suppression of these gangs of Kentucky outlaws be the Federal officers? is now impatiently asked. []
---
The course of the Kuklux inquiry has shown, if it has shown anything, that violence at the South, like violence everywhere, is the result of a purely criminal and by no means political process. The developments which recently appeared in these columns show the same thing. Kukluxism seems to have become a convenient name for all sorts of outlawry. Certainly the Kuklux are not organized, they do not move in concert, they have no party belonging or object, they are not confined to any class. That which is called murder in Massachusetts and burglary in Ohio becomes Kukluxism in Kentucky. That which is ascribed to viciousness in Illinois is ascribed to Democracy in Georgia. Had the late New York riots occurred in South Carolina they would have been set down to the account of the disloyal people of the South. []
---
[] "Current Topics - The Pistol in Kentucky." The Kentucky Advocate, Danville, KY. August 21, 1874. Page 1. Newspapers.com.
[August 21, 1874] -
Current Topics.
THE PISTOL IN KENTUCKY.
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Courier Journal, Louisville, KY. July 28, 1871. Page 2. Newspapers.com.
[July 28, 1871] -
The course of the Kuklux inquiry has shown, if it has shown anything, that violence at the South, like violence everywhere, is the result of a purely criminal and by no means political process. The developments which recently appeared in these columns show the same thing. Kukluxism seems to have become a convenient name for all sorts of outlawry. Certainly the Kuklux are not organized, they do not move in concert, they have no party belonging or object, they are not confined to any class. That which is called murder in Massachusetts and burglary in Ohio becomes Kukluxism in Kentucky. That which is ascribed to viciousness in Illinois is ascribed to Democracy in Georgia. Had the late New York riots occurred in South Carolina they would have been set down to the account of the disloyal people of the South. [][] "Current Topics - The Pistol in Kentucky." The Kentucky Advocate, Danville, KY. August 21, 1874. Page 1. Newspapers.com.
[August 21, 1874] -
Current Topics.
THE PISTOL IN KENTUCKY.
---
[] "Crime." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. November 19, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-11-19/ed-1/seq-3/
[November 19, 1875] -
---
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. October 5, 1877. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1877-10-05/ed-1/seq-2/
[October 5, 1877] -
---
Six or eight men were killed in Fayette and Madison counties on Saturday and Sunday last. If the desperadoes alone were killed in the carnival of murder now cursing the State, we would rejoice, but unfortunately they escape while the respectable man bites the dust. []
A Cincinnati paper states that a panic was created in that city one night last week, by the report of a pistol somewhere on the streets. Better move out this way awhile. We are unable to sleep without this gentle lulaby. If we don't hear a shot every hour in the night we conclude that something is out of joint. []
---
---
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. April 18, 1879. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-04-18/ed-1/seq-3/
[April 18, 1879] -
Among the criminal cases are some of great importance, there being three or four charges of murder, and our juries will be called on to perform some very unpleasant duties, but relying on the reputation that this county is making, in desire to mete out justice and punishment to all classes of offenders, we have no doubt that those duties will be faithfully and unflinchingly performed. And when it is thoroughly understood that swift and commensurate punishment must always follow crime, its commission will continue to decrease till Lincoln will be entirely redeemed and placed on the high scale of morality and prominence that its many natural advantages entitle it. Our only hope is in the Courts and juries, and if they are faithful to their oaths and duties, all will be well for us. []
---
[] Excerpt from "Rockcastle County." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. April 25, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-04-25/ed-1/seq-2/
[April 25, 1879] -
CIRCUIT COURT. -- The Spring term of the Circuit Court will convene next Monday, 28th inst. The docket, which is quite a large one, is made up of 230 criminal cases, 51 Equity and 27 Common law. Of the criminal cases, 24 are felonies, 7 being for murder, and 3 for manslaughter. []
---
Those who murder and rob do so simply as murderers and robbers, influenced by the motives which ordinary incite men to commit these crimes. One of the worst desperadoes in Kentucky served in the Union army during the war; but he and his band murder Rebels and loyalists alike, as may best suit their purposes, at one time claiming to be Ku-Klux, and at another to be anti-Ku-Klux. Although there may be special organizations of outlaws, in particular localities, under the name of Ku-Klux, I am of the opinion that no such general organization now exists in the Southern States. It is probable, however, that outlaws not unfrequently assume this name in order to intimidate the weak and credulous, especially when calculated to increase their own importance. []
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KU-KLUX OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY.
---
It is a question of no little concern to the people of this State how men support themselves who spend their nights riding about the country on Kuklux expeditions. They have horses, saddles and bridles; they have clothes, and they must eat and drink. All these things require money. The question is, how they get it. It is evident they don't work. Men who for months have been playing Kuklux, putting on hideous disguises, wearing masks, committing murders and burning houses, and then retreating to some place of concealment to elude justice, have no time to earn their living, and they are not men who have incomes that enable them to live without work. But every now and then robberies are committed, sometimes on the highway, sometimes houses and stores are broken open and robbed, sometimes we hear of counterfeit money being put in circulation, and sometimes valuable horses and mules are stolen. In many instances these robberies, burglaries and thefts are evidently committed by experts. They are done in a skillful manner, that indicates the job is the work of a practiced hand, who had the aid of confederates. Here are various crimes, artistically perpetrated on the one hand, and on the other, evidence of the existence of organized outlaws in the State, who have no honest employment. Is it not probable that the Kuklux are also professional highway robbers, burglars, horse-thieves and passers of counterfeit money? It is not nearly a certainty. Society can not afford to give the Kuklux the benefit of a doubt as to their accumulated and various guilt. They are prima facie not only trespassers and murderers, but also house breakers, highwaymen, horse thieves and counterfeiters. They must be hunted to their dens and exterminated without mercy. The families that harbor the scoundrels are also guilty of a high crime, and should be marked out and branded with infamy. []
The Detroit Tribune is mistaken in attributing the Kuklux outrages in Kentucky to "political animosity against equal rights." These outrages have no political significance whatever. Democrats live in the same terror and are as often the victims of the assassins as Radicals. It is pretty well known, indeed, that the Radical party is well represented in the Klan, and that the entire organization is nothing more than a cowardly band of freebooters and highwaymen, bound together by the common purpose of plundering and of gratifying private revenge. It seems indeed to be entirely distinct from the Kuklux order which existed in the South some years since. Its members are masked, it is true, but their acts indicate that they are in no way controlled by political sentiment. They unite in a body to gratify a private rancor against their neighbors for some individual grievance, which they are too cowardly to avenge in a mere open and manly way. []
After all, the inventiveness of the enterprising newspaper man is not exhausted. The Louisville Courier-Journal proposes a plan which, if put in practice, will not merely be fruitful in notoriety but will result in appreciable good to two or three Kentucky counties. Commenting on its correspondent's latest accounts regarding the ku-klux outrages, it offers, if the governor has not means or power at his command, to equip a company of men to proceed against the outlaws, and will pay all expenses necessary in organizing an efficient company for that object. This proposition is very much to the purpose, and, if affairs are really in the condition in which they are represented to be, is credible to the newspaper an otherwise to the Kentucky state government. []
Wayne county is in a state of insurrection at present and "times are squally" superinduced by the effort upon the part of the Government to bring to justice the "moonshiners" whose name is legion. On Thursday night last, a band of men armed to the teeth, forcibly entered the jail and released Frank Phipps and Reuben Ard, who were incarcerated the same day. There seems to be a compact organization, extending even into Tennessee, of men of this kind, for the purpose of resisting the law. Last night (Sunday,) a squad were on the street again, demanding John Lovelace, who was bailed a few hours before. Nothing would satisfy them until the Jailer showed them the inmates. Just before day three more appeared for the same purpose. This proves the extent and determination of the recalcitrants, and we are fully of the opinion that the end is not yet. Their hostility is all confined to the United States Government, and what Uncle Sam will do in the premises we shall not say. Yet, Nous Verrons -- Our good judgment compels us to say that the Government officials adopted a bad plan in clothing certain characters with authority in this business, which, in the nature of things, would breed unusual resentment. []
Somerset Weekly Reporter, owned and edited by J. B. Rucker & W. C. Owens, made its debut on Friday last. The neat appearance of the initial number, its newsy contents and attractive make-up should cause a feeling of pride in the breast of every Pulaski citizen for their county paper, and cause them to give it a most hearty support. We welcome it to our table and predict for it a long and prosperous career. []
[] Excerpt from "Pulaski County News." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. July 16, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-07-16/ed-1/seq-3/
We can shut our eyes and tell that our old friend, W. B. Hansford, who used to furnish us with Somerset items over the nom de plume of “What Not,” has a finger in the Reporter pie. He is a clever gentleman, a good writer, and never shows his insanity unless a certain subject is broached; then he gets as crazy as a bed bug. It is hardly necessary to name the subject. []
[] Excerpt from Column 3. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. August 9, 1878. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-08-09/ed-1/seq-2/
The citizens of Danville were greatly alarmed on yesterday, learning an attack on their Banks by the James and Younger brothers. The Banks were well defended. Many citizens had their arms in readiness, and had the robbers come, they would have had a warm reception. Our Stanford citizens are also prepared to receive them. []
The terrible conflagrations which have occurred in other towns during the Christmas holidays, by reason of the firing of sky rockets, fire-crackers, and other things of the kind, have admonished our town authorities to be on their guard. Hence, there has been a town ordinance enacted prohibiting the use of such things within their corporate limits. The law is right, and should be rigidly enforced. What is the little pleasure of a child, or man either, when compared to the safety of the houses and other property of our citizens? It is well-known that a single firecracker has been the means of burning up thousands of dollars worth of property. Therefore, let our town trustees see that these destructive things are not fired in places where they might cause great destruction of property. []
HOUSE BURNED. -- The house occupied by William Decker and family, near Highland, was burned this week. Nothing of consequence was saved, and as there was no insurance, the loss falls very heavily on Mr. Decker, who, besides being a poor man, has been confined to his bed by sickness for several months. A subscription paper is being circulated in his behalf, and we have no doubt that our citizens will respond liberally. []
[] "Crime." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. November 19, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-11-19/ed-1/seq-3/
[November 19, 1875] -
Crime.
We do not know it to be a fact ourself, as we were not in this section of the world at the time, but our information is that during the several years occupied in building the the Knoxville and Richmond branches of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, not one man, or scarcely one, was killed or wounded by violence, and but few, if any were killed in any way. This, too, just at the close of the late war, when crime was most rampant and the minds of men had not yet cooled from the heat and passion of the civil strife. How is it, then, that so many lives here have been maliciously taken, and so many people purposely wounded on the Cincinnati Southern railroad? We learn that not less than ten have been killed outright in open broils and secretly and as many wounded maliciously, on this new road. We learnt hat this state of things can be accounted for very easily. That is, there has been a grog-shop at nearly every crossing of the road, and at every prominent point along the line, where the traffic has been carried on, and liquid death dealt out to those who were laborious upon the work. Had the legal authorities done their duty in quelling this vile business, there would have been fewer lives lost, and their respective localities had earned a better name. []
---
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. October 5, 1877. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1877-10-05/ed-1/seq-2/
[October 5, 1877] -
Kentucky is the loveliest place in the world to run a newspaper. An ordinary sized sheet could be filled weekly with accounts of murder, &c., but murder has become so very common that people will take but little interest in it. We will, however, remark en passant that there have been 13 murders in Madison county within twelve months, with several of the back precincts to hear from.[]
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[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. October 19, 1877. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1877-10-19/ed-1/seq-2/
[October 19, 1877] -
Six or eight men were killed in Fayette and Madison counties on Saturday and Sunday last. If the desperadoes alone were killed in the carnival of murder now cursing the State, we would rejoice, but unfortunately they escape while the respectable man bites the dust. []
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[] Excerpt from "Lincoln County News -- Hustonville." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. February 15, 1878. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-02-15/ed-1/seq-3/
[February 15, 1878] -
NOTHING LIKE GETTING USED TO IT.
A Cincinnati paper states that a panic was created in that city one night last week, by the report of a pistol somewhere on the streets. Better move out this way awhile. We are unable to sleep without this gentle lulaby. If we don't hear a shot every hour in the night we conclude that something is out of joint. []
---
[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. January 3, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-01-03/ed-1/seq-2/
[January 3, 1879] -
[January 3, 1879] -
From criminal statistics published it appears that an average of at least one person a day met a violent death in Kentucky during the year 1878, and for all the crimes no one suffered the death penalty. But one execution occurred during the year, and that for a crime committed in 1877. []
[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. April 18, 1879. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-04-18/ed-1/seq-3/
[April 18, 1879] -
Among the criminal cases are some of great importance, there being three or four charges of murder, and our juries will be called on to perform some very unpleasant duties, but relying on the reputation that this county is making, in desire to mete out justice and punishment to all classes of offenders, we have no doubt that those duties will be faithfully and unflinchingly performed. And when it is thoroughly understood that swift and commensurate punishment must always follow crime, its commission will continue to decrease till Lincoln will be entirely redeemed and placed on the high scale of morality and prominence that its many natural advantages entitle it. Our only hope is in the Courts and juries, and if they are faithful to their oaths and duties, all will be well for us. []---
[] Excerpt from "Rockcastle County." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. April 25, 1879. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-04-25/ed-1/seq-2/
[April 25, 1879] -
CIRCUIT COURT. -- The Spring term of the Circuit Court will convene next Monday, 28th inst. The docket, which is quite a large one, is made up of 230 criminal cases, 51 Equity and 27 Common law. Of the criminal cases, 24 are felonies, 7 being for murder, and 3 for manslaughter. []---
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REGULATORS / MOB VIOLENCE
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[] "Helleck on the Condition of Affairs in the South." The Sweetwater Enterprise, Sweetwater, TN. January 13, 1870. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89058302/1870-01-13/ed-1/seq-2/
[January 13, 1870] -
Those who murder and rob do so simply as murderers and robbers, influenced by the motives which ordinary incite men to commit these crimes. One of the worst desperadoes in Kentucky served in the Union army during the war; but he and his band murder Rebels and loyalists alike, as may best suit their purposes, at one time claiming to be Ku-Klux, and at another to be anti-Ku-Klux. Although there may be special organizations of outlaws, in particular localities, under the name of Ku-Klux, I am of the opinion that no such general organization now exists in the Southern States. It is probable, however, that outlaws not unfrequently assume this name in order to intimidate the weak and credulous, especially when calculated to increase their own importance. []---
[] Excerpt from "Lawlessnesss in Kentucky." Cininnati Daily Gazette, Cincinnati, OH. March 25, 1870. Page 1. Genealogybank.com.
[March 25, 1870] -
LAWLESSNESS IN KENTUCKY.
Correspondence of the Cincinnati Gazette.
LOUISVILLE, March 21.
In some parts of this State the Regulators, Ku-Klux, Lynchers, Vigilance Committees, or whatever the outlaws may be called, not only have full sway, committing depredations on the highway, whipping negroes, shooting white Union men and destroying property, but they seem to have taken possession of the Courts, and now sit on the bench and perform the functions of jurors, and clothed with the authority of the State, have exercised that authority by condemning the innocent and setting at liberty the murderer, the plunderer and house burner. []
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[] "Ku-Klux Operations in Kentucky." New York Tribune, New York, NY. December 31, 1870. Page 11. Genealogybank.com.
[December 31, 1870] -
KU-KLUX OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY.
To the Editor of The Tribune.
SIR: The following is a short history of the Ku-Klux operations in Kentucky, wherein is detailed a part of their doings, and is explained the mode of Democratic electioneering. In order to a complete understanding of the matter, I will give a history of things in Kentucky since the return of the men who rode and raided with the Morgans, Jessies, Dukes, and others of the Rebel partisan leaders. We had an election in August, 1865, a few months after the surrender of Lee, and at that election the Republicans carried the State, electing four of the Congressmn, and getting a majority upon the general ticket. By informality in the count this majority was lost. The Republicans that year polled 54,000 white votes. Then we had the Rebels disfranchised. That year Gen. Palmer was busy catching and hanging such Rebel guerrillas as Sue Mondy and one-armed Berry, and the Rebels were disheartened and rebellion unpopular. The next year the Legislature was elected, and the Conservative Union men (i.e., those who were, like Mr. Crittenden, in favor of the Union, if Slavery was not disturbed, and who remained Union men until 1863) bidding for the support of the pro-Rebel Democrats, secured their co-operation by promising to repeal the State laws which expatriated the men who had left the State to join the Rebel service. The result of the election was that the Kentucky Senate was a tie, and the House Democratic.
In that Assembly, in the Winter of 1865, commenced the first Ku Klux operations. To get the necessary control of the Senate, several Republicans were unseated in a summary manner. They were returned to their constituency, now enlarged by the repeal of all laws forbidding the suffrage to Rebel soldiers, and were, in every instance save one, succeeded by Democrats. Thus, Conservative Union men were connected with the inauguration of the scheme of persecution which has been put in practice so successfully since. Observe the result. The poll of white votes for Republican candidates went down from, say 50,000 in 1865, to 25,000 in 1867. At the first general election after the inauguration of, this policy, only about 34,000 were polled by the Republicans. This was raised to 39, 000 in 1868, and fell again to 25,000 in 1869. Not more than 25,000 white Republican votes were polled in 1870. So the Ku-Klux, as an electioneering means, became a success. By it not less than 15,000 white Republicans have been kept from polls every year. How was the thing dun?
During the part of the year 1866, and the most of 1867 and 1868, the Ku-Klux Democracy employed business and social motives. Republicans were "cut" in social life; were shunned in the house of God; were avoided in the streets. To deal with one who was at all a manly adherent to his principles, was a thing scarcely known. The result was that timid people surrendered their principles and preferred to stay away from the polls, or to go right over to the Deomcracy. Merchants began to compromise by employing Rebel clerks or taking in Rebel partners. Republicans were omitted when invitations to social gatherings were given. Rebel church members became aggressive and refused to listen to preachers who had sustained the Union. School teachers "tainted" with loyalty were dismissed from public and private schools. Northern printed or written school books were exchanged for trashy pro Rebel ones. Republican lawyers were briefless in the Court-House. Republican doctors got few patients. So far did this thing go and so high did this reactionary wave rise that some soldiers of the Union army, who were candidates for office, actually said in public speeches that they were ashamed of the uniforms they once wore. No doubt this humiliating confession was required of them. Then came, to encourage this, the defection of Andrew Jackson, and his tampering with the political virtue of once honored and true Republicans. Some Union soldiers were seduced and went after the gold calf of office. A few politicians of note were tempted by lust of patronage and fell. These were the dark days for white Republicans in Kentucky. The year 1868 was ended with these troubles. Stevenson, a Rebel who had sought a position in the Cabinet of Jeff. Davis, was Governor of the State, and of his kind were all its officers. Outrages were rife, and civil war was raging in a few counties. The State militia in the disturbed districts was called out, and the Rebel participants in the civil strife formed the State companies, and, with State officers in command, and State arms in their hands, took vengeance upon their old enemies, the Union men.
Here and there a Union man was hung; here and there one was whipped. After the outrage he was charged with some crime, generally that of horse-stealing. But it was more customary first to whip him, and then brand him. Just previous to the election in 1868, these outrages increased in number and violence. Poor, obscure men were now not the only victim of these disguised devils. Prominent Republicans were ordered out of the State and were threatened with direct vengeance if they did not go. The election of President Grant for a time quieted the Ku-Klux. He had promised to punish them, to put an end to their doings, and they for awhile feared that he would do so. But for some cause no vigorous policy against them in this State was inaugurated. Then came the prospect of negro suffrage and with it a violent outbreak of the Ku-Klux. The lull in their doings for 1869[?] has been succeeded by hundreds of outrages committed in 1870. I say hundreds, and speak advisedly. If the record of all the negroes who have been threatened, whipped, shot and hung could be gotten together it would be the roll of a full regiment. But, not to rest satisfied with these general statements, here are some particulars.
Some months ago the passengers between Richmond and Lexington, Ky., looked out of of the stage windows when six or eight miles from the latter place, and saw, hanging to a tree, two negroes who had been accused of hog-stealing. Not long afterward, the passengers in the stage from Lancaster to Nicholasville saw in the early morning a dead negro hanging from the limb of a tree. He also accused of stealing. Negro settlements were visited night after night and their houses searched. School-houses used by negroes were burned, negro churches were burned. As the time for the election approached, white Republicans were threatened. One of these suspected of advising these poor wretches was visited by the disguised gang, and a letter for him put under his door. This was his warning. Against this man's life, public or private, nothing could be said. He was a good Christian, good citizen, an industrious farmer, a good neighbor; but he was suspected of giving advise to negroes in their extremity. These Ku Klux seemed never to have any trouble in getting at their victims. Their organization was perfect and their movements rapid. They have been known to gather to their rendezvous in a few hours, though scattered widely over counties, and ride 12 or 15 miles for their victim, execute him, and be at their homes by the time the gray dawn appeared. Just previous to the election in this State last August, it was found that the Ku Klux organizations were not efficient enough. So at once the State Democratic press was seized with a sudden fear of violence to the white people from the new negro voters, and militia organizations were demanded to protect these poor white Democratic voters from the terrible negroes. These companies were organized and armed with muskets which belong in the United States Government. For a week or so prior to the election, drilling was the “duty of the hour.” Infantry and cavalry were organized. Rebel soldiers were in gray uniform once more, and Rebel officers were in command. Horsemen, armed, rode about the country at night, and the foot-soldiers were drilled in the towns and cities. Into these companies no Republicans went, and none were wanted. These men guarded the polls at some voting places in Kentucky on election day. Now the results of this was not exactly what was expected. The negroes, through all these months, had been under a system of discipline intended to intimidate them, but wherever these negroes were at all backed or led by white Republicans, they went to the polls and voted. The other result was that more white Republicans than black ones were intimidated. In some places, after the election for State officer in August, lists of those who voted the Republican ticket were printed and circulated. Of course such things were anticipated by those who had wares to sell to Democrats, and this was a kind of advertising they did not wish. It was boldly advised in newspapers that Republican merchants who voted the Republican ticket at that election should be given to understand that their Democratic customers had sought other places to make their purchases. But it was quickly observed that neither the previous actions of the Ku Klux, nor the sight of soldiers in gray uniforms with muskets on their shoulders, had so intimidated the negro as to destroy his usefulness as a Republican voter, and a new policy was inaugurated, which was at once put in force. The theory upon which this policy was based, as given in a Democratic newspaper, was, “that the negro preachers could control the action of the members of their flocks.” So several of these colored ministers were murdered in different portions of the State. In one instance, the executioners boldly rode into town and to the preacher’s house, and popped away at him with their pistols util he was killed. In another place the old man was taken from his cabin, whipped, shot, dragged to a tree, and hung. The authors of these villainies are a cruel set of fiends. They have been known to drag their victims at their horses’ heels for miles, lacerating the flesh of the unfortunates by the sharp abrasion of the rocks.
Among the most recent outrages have been the following: In Garrard County, since the election, prominent white Republicans have been threatened with violence unless they left the county. The cause of that is this: Previous to the election the Republicans organized well, met the Ku Klux on their own ground and whipped them. The county went Republican. The Democrats there are determined that such a result shall not again occur, and hence their vigorous persecutions of Republicans. A congregation of negroes in the county were holding, on Saturday night, a religious festival. This social reunion was broken in upon by a drunken white man, who fired into the crowded room of men, women, and children. The negroes defended themselves by returning the fire, and killed the white man. Five of the negroes who did the shooting were arrested; but the Ku Klux took several of them from the hands of the civil authorities and hung them. But why go on detailing these scenes of blood? They are of frequent occurrence, scarcely a week passing without their happening.
Now, strange as it may seem, this Ku-Klux business is justified by a Democratic paper printed at Lexington, Ky., called The Kentucky Gazette, edited by H. H. Gratz. He is a little bolder and more shameless than others, for they only receive the doings of these marauders without censure. One or two Democratic journals have ventured to denounce them, but without effect. Democratic editors known their patrons, and furnish the pabulum which pleases their palates. Republican journals have not failed to denounce these things. The Governor has been asked to suppress their authors: he pleads want to authority, and the Legislature refuses to pass the necessary law. Grand jurors will not indict in most instances; and, if they do, the Courts manage never to convict and punish. Who ever heard of a Ku-Klux being punished in a Kentucky State Court? Who ever heard a hearty denunciation of the Ku-Klux by an influential Democratic politician? The Governor has been asked to suppress the partisan militia organized all over the State. This he will not do; he says he has no authority.
Now does not all this demand interference by the National authorities? These Ku-Klux fellows are known in every neighborhood where they operate. The necessary affidavits for their arrest will be furnished whenever it is understood that they will be so severely punished as to stop their atrocities. But if they are to be arrested only to be turned loose again to persecute the witnesses agains them, it is asking too much of Union men in Kentucky to appear against them. We, here, hope that President Grant will succeed to making his subordinates understood their duty in this matter, and do it. It may be that it would be advisable for the National Government to take the quota of arms allowed this State way from the State authorities. There is no use for this State militia. They do not protect anybody against Ku-Klux. In conclusion, it is any great wonder that the Republican which votes in this State have decreased so largely? Is it any wonder that Democrats carry elections here by such tremendous majorities?
UNION.
*****, Ky., Nov. 29, 1870. []
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[] "Kuklux." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. August 30, 1872. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1872-08-30/ed-1/seq-3/
[August 30, 1872] -
Kuklux.
[August 30, 1872] -
Kuklux.
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[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY. August 21, 1873. Page 1. Newspapers.com.
[August 21, 1873] -
A correspondent writing from Lexington urges that the aid of the Federal Government be invoked to put down the Ku klux. Such suggestions are frequent, and the fact that they are frequent furnishes a sad commentary upon the dignity and power of the State. Of course we do not favor such a resort, but we do say that, if the State authorities can't arrest and punish the small bands of outlaws who are bringing such reproach upon Kentucky, the fact is a bitter shame and a disgrace. []
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[] "A Remedy." The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY. August 22, 1873. Page 2. Newspapers.com.
[August 22, 1873] -
A Remedy.
It seems that Kuklux outrages can not be suppressed by the local constabulary and the perpetrators brought to justice and punished by the ordinary machinery of grand juries, sheriffs and courts. The Legislature demurs to the proposition that the Governor shall be authorized to pay large rewards for the detection of Kuklux on the ground that the adoption of such a system would fill the State with a corps of spies and informers like those who plagued her people during and just after the war -- a band of miscreants who violated the sanctity of domestic life, pried into the secrets of private business, and, after distilling an atmosphere of distrust, espionage and treachery into the common intercourse and every relation of society, ended by subjecting to the penalties which followed their denunciation the innocent far oftener than the offending. The militia even were it efficiently organized, which is not the case, would be unavailing to reach and check crimes like these.
In the first place it would be too unwieldy. It would be difficult to get it together in time, and to transport it to the scene of action. That being done, its effectiveness would be in inverse ratio to the zeal and care bestowed upon its employment, for the more certainly that the Governor meant business, and equipped and provided his militia accordingly, would the rascals take the alarm and hide or flit until the coast is clear again. Then the very composition of the militia unfits it for such service. It is composed of young men who are, as a general rule, engaged actively in business pursuits, whose time is valuable, and who would serve unwillingly if called out for a raid upon the Kuklux. They would make, as many of them have made, excellent soldiers if enlisted for sure-enough war, they would, in time, make first rate Kuklux catchers, if that were their business, but to be forced away from usual and profitable avocations, sent off to some back country and kept there just long enough to become heartily sick of the matter, without becoming habituated to the work required of them, or acquiring any special interest in it, would be as good a thing as the K. K. Ks. would want. Now, if regular United States soldiers were stationed in the infested counties, there might be some chance of practical results.But there are many and serious objections to this plan.
In the first place, we frankly admit that we feel the full force of the prejudice against that sort of interference in our State affairs, and would consent to it only after every other remedy had been exhausted. There are more real objections. Just as certainly as the soldiers were sent to the localities where the corrective discipline is needed would a false and unhealthy sympathy be gotten up for the criminals. It would be very senseless, very ridiculous, very wrong, but it would be sure to spring into existence. Men who now heartily pray for the suppression of this terrible grievance -- yea, who are its victims -- would, with that singular inconsistency and obliquity of both judgment and feeling which human nature displays nowhere so charmingly as in Kentucky, instantly lift up their voices in testimony against the soldiers and in lamentation for the martyred maskers and murderers.
Nor can we ever bring ourselves to advocate or even in this extremity excuse the application of lynch law. We deprecate therefore the formation of vigilance committees, although we believe in our soul that, as far as these scoundrels themselves are concerned, they ought to be killed wherever found, as a settler kills snakes. Then we are logically forced, after [?]ing shown the impropriety or impotency of all the others to present and urge our remedy. Let the Legislature, immediately upon its assemblage, pass a bill empowering the Governor to enlist into the service of the State, as a regular, standing police force, a company of cavalry, to consist of sixty privates, three lieutenants and one captain. Let them be sworn in for three years “or the war.” Let these men understand that their vocation is to be the hunting of K. K. Ks., and that they are to be always ready for that service to the exclusion of all other business. Let them be thoroughly drilled and instructed, perfectly armed and kept at Frankfort in barracks except when needed for the field. Let no man be admitted to this corps who is not a man of discretion, sobriety and tried courage and fidelity. Let the officers be selected with especial care, and let every precaution be adopted to insure in this body the strictest and best discipline. The advantages to be derived from this method are obvious: First—Secrecy and dispatch in the employment of the force to be used against the evil-doers — desiderata which, as we have shown, can never be obtained in the use of the militia, and which are guaranteed by this plan. Their importance and value can not be overestimated. At the first hint of disorder—immediately that the telegraph warns the Governor that the masked banditti are stirring or th pale courier spurs into Frankfort with the news and begs protection for the endangered community—the order may be issued to the commanding officer to take his entire company, or a detachment, as the exigencies of the case may require, and in twenty minutes the horsemen may be on the march, riding day and night until they reach the ground. Then when they are upon the scene of action they will know what to do. Their proceedings will be conducted with the systems and sagacity which experience teaches. They will go about the work professionally and con amore.
They will feel a pride in doing the work well, and they will be troubled with none of the disgust and impatience which assail men taken from their regular business and put at something so very unlike it. And there is another consideration of no little importance. Men living in the neighborhoods haunted by the Kuklux, and who, perhaps, know the scoundrels well — men who now, for prudential reasons easily appreciated, hold their tongues and give no information — who would fear to furnish information to a militia commander in whose discretion or efficiency they could feel no confidence — such men would readily and gladly give intelligence to an officer of such a police force as we have described. This plan will cost something, of course. Such a force ought to be well paid — the privates, say, fifty dollars; the officers seventy-five per month. Officers and men might be required to furnish their own horses, the State to pay for them, if lost in the service, upon a previous valuation. We may estimate the expense as follows: Pay of officers and men, ……… Now is $72,465 per annum too much money for Kentucky to pay for the suppression of an evil which is disgracing her people, branding her fair name with a stigma which will be ineffaceable if she does not act decisively and emphatically and promptly, and which is now working an incalculable injury to her best interests? []
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[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY. August 26, 1873. Page 2. Newspapers.com.
[August 26, 1873] -
It is a question of no little concern to the people of this State how men support themselves who spend their nights riding about the country on Kuklux expeditions. They have horses, saddles and bridles; they have clothes, and they must eat and drink. All these things require money. The question is, how they get it. It is evident they don't work. Men who for months have been playing Kuklux, putting on hideous disguises, wearing masks, committing murders and burning houses, and then retreating to some place of concealment to elude justice, have no time to earn their living, and they are not men who have incomes that enable them to live without work. But every now and then robberies are committed, sometimes on the highway, sometimes houses and stores are broken open and robbed, sometimes we hear of counterfeit money being put in circulation, and sometimes valuable horses and mules are stolen. In many instances these robberies, burglaries and thefts are evidently committed by experts. They are done in a skillful manner, that indicates the job is the work of a practiced hand, who had the aid of confederates. Here are various crimes, artistically perpetrated on the one hand, and on the other, evidence of the existence of organized outlaws in the State, who have no honest employment. Is it not probable that the Kuklux are also professional highway robbers, burglars, horse-thieves and passers of counterfeit money? It is not nearly a certainty. Society can not afford to give the Kuklux the benefit of a doubt as to their accumulated and various guilt. They are prima facie not only trespassers and murderers, but also house breakers, highwaymen, horse thieves and counterfeiters. They must be hunted to their dens and exterminated without mercy. The families that harbor the scoundrels are also guilty of a high crime, and should be marked out and branded with infamy. []
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[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. August 22, 1873. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1873-08-22/ed-1/seq-2/
[August 22, 1873] -
kuklux legislation
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[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY. August 27, 1873. Page 2. Newspapers.com.
[August 27, 1873] -
The Detroit Tribune is mistaken in attributing the Kuklux outrages in Kentucky to "political animosity against equal rights." These outrages have no political significance whatever. Democrats live in the same terror and are as often the victims of the assassins as Radicals. It is pretty well known, indeed, that the Radical party is well represented in the Klan, and that the entire organization is nothing more than a cowardly band of freebooters and highwaymen, bound together by the common purpose of plundering and of gratifying private revenge. It seems indeed to be entirely distinct from the Kuklux order which existed in the South some years since. Its members are masked, it is true, but their acts indicate that they are in no way controlled by political sentiment. They unite in a body to gratify a private rancor against their neighbors for some individual grievance, which they are too cowardly to avenge in a mere open and manly way. []
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[] Excerpt from "." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. August 29, 1873. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1873-08-29/ed-1/seq-2/
[August 29, 1873] -
kuklux legislation
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[] Excerpt from Column 1. Hartford Daily Courant, Hartford, CT. September 11, 1873. Page 2. Genealogybank.com.
[September 11, 1873] -
After all, the inventiveness of the enterprising newspaper man is not exhausted. The Louisville Courier-Journal proposes a plan which, if put in practice, will not merely be fruitful in notoriety but will result in appreciable good to two or three Kentucky counties. Commenting on its correspondent's latest accounts regarding the ku-klux outrages, it offers, if the governor has not means or power at his command, to equip a company of men to proceed against the outlaws, and will pay all expenses necessary in organizing an efficient company for that object. This proposition is very much to the purpose, and, if affairs are really in the condition in which they are represented to be, is credible to the newspaper an otherwise to the Kentucky state government. []
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[] Excerpt from "Wayne County News." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. November 30, 1877. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1877-11-30/ed-1/seq-2/
[November 30, 1877] -
Wayne county is in a state of insurrection at present and "times are squally" superinduced by the effort upon the part of the Government to bring to justice the "moonshiners" whose name is legion. On Thursday night last, a band of men armed to the teeth, forcibly entered the jail and released Frank Phipps and Reuben Ard, who were incarcerated the same day. There seems to be a compact organization, extending even into Tennessee, of men of this kind, for the purpose of resisting the law. Last night (Sunday,) a squad were on the street again, demanding John Lovelace, who was bailed a few hours before. Nothing would satisfy them until the Jailer showed them the inmates. Just before day three more appeared for the same purpose. This proves the extent and determination of the recalcitrants, and we are fully of the opinion that the end is not yet. Their hostility is all confined to the United States Government, and what Uncle Sam will do in the premises we shall not say. Yet, Nous Verrons -- Our good judgment compels us to say that the Government officials adopted a bad plan in clothing certain characters with authority in this business, which, in the nature of things, would breed unusual resentment. []
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ALCOHOL AND CRIME
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ALCOHOL AND CRIME
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[] "The Source of Crime." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. August 16, 1872. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1872-08-16/ed-1/seq-3/
[August 16, 1872] -
editorial on crime caused by alcohol
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NEWSPAPER META
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[] The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. January 2, 1874. Page 3.
[January 2, 1874] -
The following is the list of our regular correspondents [and their pseudonyms]:
[January 2, 1874] -
The following is the list of our regular correspondents [and their pseudonyms]:
Somerset, Pulaski County, Will C. Curd; Monticello, Wayne county, Tom. McBeath, "Bion;" Monticello, Wayne county, Dr. J. B. S. Frisbbre, "Occasional;" Mt. Vernon, Rockcastle county, Dr. J. J. Brown, "U Know;" Shelby City, Boyle county, Dr. R. H. Grimstead, "Wide-Awake;" Middlesburg, Casey county, E. Tarrant, "Ethelbert;" Pine Hill, Rockcastle county, L. S. Jones, "Jinks."
In Lincoln county we have the following: Hustonville, Rev. J. A. Bogle, "Falstaff;" Crab Orchard, J. R. Pherigo, "P." North Side, Rev. J. W. Walters, "Rover;" Highland, J. D. Bastin, "B;" Waynesburg, L.G. Gooch, "G." []
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July 16, 1875. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-07-16/ed-1/seq-2/
[July 16, 1875] -
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[July 16, 1875] -
Somerset Weekly Reporter
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[] Excerpt from "Pulaski County News." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. August 4, 1876. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1876-08-04/ed-1/seq-3/
[August 4, 1876] -
Somerset Republican
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[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. August 18, 1876. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1876-08-18/ed-1/seq-2/
[August 18, 1876] -
Hansford, Home What-Not
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[] Excerpt from "Pulaski County News." The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. September 1, 1876. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1876-09-01/ed-1/seq-2/
[September 1, 1876] -
Somerset Republican
Somerset Republican
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[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. September 8, 1876. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1876-09-08/ed-1/seq-2/
[September 8, 1876] -
Somerset Reporter
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[] Excerpt from Column 1. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. January 25, 1878. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-01-25/ed-1/seq-2/
[January 25, 1878] -
Somerset Republican
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[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 1, 1878. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-03-01/ed-1/seq-2/
[March 1, 1878] -
We can shut our eyes and tell that our old friend, W. B. Hansford, who used to furnish us with Somerset items over the nom de plume of “What Not,” has a finger in the Reporter pie. He is a clever gentleman, a good writer, and never shows his insanity unless a certain subject is broached; then he gets as crazy as a bed bug. It is hardly necessary to name the subject. []
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[August 9, 1878] -
Hansford, Pulaski Citizen
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[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. October 18, 1878. Page 2. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1878-10-18/ed-1/seq-2/
[October 18, 1878] -
Somerset Reporter
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MISCELLANEOUS
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[] Excerpt from "." July 2, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-07-02/ed-1/seq-3/
James and Younger in Danville 1875?
[July 2, 1875] -
The citizens of Danville were greatly alarmed on yesterday, learning an attack on their Banks by the James and Younger brothers. The Banks were well defended. Many citizens had their arms in readiness, and had the robbers come, they would have had a warm reception. Our Stanford citizens are also prepared to receive them. []
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[] Excerpt from "." December 24, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-12-24/ed-1/seq-3/
fireworks
[December 24, 1875] -
The terrible conflagrations which have occurred in other towns during the Christmas holidays, by reason of the firing of sky rockets, fire-crackers, and other things of the kind, have admonished our town authorities to be on their guard. Hence, there has been a town ordinance enacted prohibiting the use of such things within their corporate limits. The law is right, and should be rigidly enforced. What is the little pleasure of a child, or man either, when compared to the safety of the houses and other property of our citizens? It is well-known that a single firecracker has been the means of burning up thousands of dollars worth of property. Therefore, let our town trustees see that these destructive things are not fired in places where they might cause great destruction of property. []
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http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1876-02-11/ed-1/seq-2/
[February 11, 1876] -
[February 11, 1876] -
col 2, concurrent jurisdictions
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[] Excerpt from Column 2. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. March 21, 1879. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1879-03-21/ed-1/seq-3/
[March 21, 1879] -
HOUSE BURNED. -- The house occupied by William Decker and family, near Highland, was burned this week. Nothing of consequence was saved, and as there was no insurance, the loss falls very heavily on Mr. Decker, who, besides being a poor man, has been confined to his bed by sickness for several months. A subscription paper is being circulated in his behalf, and we have no doubt that our citizens will respond liberally. []
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http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1877-12-14/ed-1/seq-2/
[December 14, 1877] -
[December 14, 1877] -
custody over a grandchild of liberty langford
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