Thriller Thursday - Murdered by Fugitives from Justice, 1882

The following article appeared in the May 16, 1882 edition of the Chester Times in Chester, Pennsylvania:

Transcription:

Murdered by Fugitives from Justice.

MEMPHIS, May 15.--Captain Jerry Hutchinson, of the River Mail Service, was killed near Trinity, Louisiana, May 7, while attempting to arrest Appleton and James Atkinson.  The Atkinsons were fugitives from justice, having been convicted and sentenced to be hanged for the murder of Mrs. Atkinson, wife of the one and mother of the other, in Pumiscot, Missouri, some time last summer.  

Captain Hutchinson, accompanied by Mr. Will T. Hudson, hearing that the Atkinsons were in the vicinity of Trinity, Louisiana, passed down a few days ago for the purpose of making the arrest, but the criminals were on the alert, and when the officers approached, the younger Atkinson shot and mortally wounded Hutchinson, who in turn shot and killed the elder Atkinson.  

The younger Atkinson made good his escape.  The sheriff of Trinity with a posse of men is scouring the woods in search of the escaped murderer, and a reward of $500 has been offered for his arrest besides the reward offered by the Governor of Missouri for his first crime.

Thriller Thursday - Desperado Shot Down by Actor at Troyville, 1888

The following article appeared in the August 8, 1888 edition of the Ouachita Telegraph in Monroe, Louisiana:

Ouachita Telegraph 8/8/1888

Transcription:

CATAHOULA

A Desperado Shot Down by an Actor.

NATCHEZ, MISS., Dec. 4.--The news comes today of a shooting scrape at Troyville, La., which resulted in the death of one man and the wounding of another.  L. L. Stubbs, who was in charge of a stave factory, a short distance above Troyville, was a quiet man when sober, but when too much under whiskey's influence was a desperate man.  He has been noted for his escapades, especially his insults to ladies when drunk.  Last night at Troyville he grossly insulted a lady who has charge of a hotel.  Not satisfied with this he repeated his insulting remark to the wife of a member of the Nickel Plate show, which left this city for Troyville last week.

The lady's husband interfered, resenting the insult which had been offered both ladies, when Stubbs, true to his reputation, fired upon and wounded him, and in return received a shot which produced death.  The slayer made his escape.

Stubbs, it is said, has a very unsavory reputation and was recognized as a desperate man, and his taking off is looked upon as a good deed.--Times Democrat.

Thriller Thursday - Tragedy in Louisiana, 1859

The following article appeared in the June 14, 1859 edition of the Booneville Warrick Democrat in Booneville, Indiana:

Thriller Thursday - Assassination Attempt on Catahoula Sheriff, 1888

The following article appeared in the August 4, 1888 edition of the Colfax Chronicle in Colfax, Louisiana:

Transcription:

An Attempt to Assassinate the Sheriff of Catahoula.

A mostly cowardly attempt at murder was perpetrated upon the streets of Harrisonburg, Catahoula parish, Monday, July 30, at 10 o'clock.  It seems that Dr. W. E. Robb, the newly elected sheriff of Catahoula parish, missed some $350 whilst acting as sheriff in place of John P. Routon, an adjudged defaulter, in 1866, and accused the Hollomon Brothers, in whose safe the money was deposited, of allowing the same to be extracted.

Last week Cary Hollomon for Hollomon Brothers wrote Dr. Robb a note denying all knowledge of the missing money.  Dr. Robb replied, saying the money was missing from their safe and refused to retract a word.

Monday at the time above mentioned Dr. Robb went to the post office, and upon his return was fired at without any warning by Wm. H. and Henry Hollomon, from their store, eleven buckshot penetrating his legs and terribly shattering his left thigh.  Three shots were fired, two by W. H. Hollomon and one by Henry Hollomon.

As soon as the news reached Trinity (Robb's home), a crowd at once organized and chartered the steamer Teal, lying at Troyville, and proceeded to Harrisonburg, brought Dr. Robb to Trinity, where he now lies in a critical condition.

The whole country is aroused, and there is no telling where it will end.

No cause whatever can be assigned for the attempted killing of Robb.  He did not speak a word, nor had he for three or four days to the Hollomons.  It looks like a premeditated affair.  

Hollomon after the shooting, surrendered and claimed protection from expected mob law, which was talked of.  There has never been such an excitement in the parish.

Thriller Thursday - 1935 Tornado Hits Harrisonburg and Sicily Island

The following article appeared in the April 7, 1935 edition of the Monroe Morning World:

Transcription:

Lake Providence In Path Of Devastating Winds Last Night

DAMAGE WIDESPREAD

Harrisonburg, Wisner And Sicily Island Areas Are Victims

At least nine persons suffered more or less serious injuries and serious property losses were entailed in a violent tornadic storm which swept through two areas of northeast Louisiana shortly after 6:30 o'clock Saturday night.  The storm passed over Monroe about 5 o'clock, marked by heavy black clouds and a slight rainfall.

Sicily Island reported three persons injured; Lake Providence three; Wisner two, and Harrisonburg one.  No fatalities occurred, though an unverified report said that three white men and two negroes had been killed in Lake Providence.

Two devastating storm cones fell from the skies almost simultaneously in northeast Louisiana, one at Lake Providence and the other near Sicily Island, about 75 miles south of Lake Providence. Residents in both sections reported the storms hit at 6:30 p.m.  High winds prevailed throughout northern Louisiana along the Mississippi border.

Several houses were blown down at Lake Providence and two members of the family of L. S. Cook, living three miles south of there, were reported injured when their home was demolished.  Wind, rain and hail raged in a destructive medley.  Many small buildings were blown down and the grandstand at the ball park was blown into a bordering highway.

The tornado that struck in the Sicily Island vicinity centered its fury on the Bondurant community, four miles east of Sicily Island, where three members of a family named Flowers were reported injured where the twister crumpled a number of residences and other buildings there.  The Frank Girault family and several visitors escaped death or serious injury by ducking into a potato "pump" house [tator punk house - D.E.B.] just before their home was splintered by the winds.

A freak of the storm was reported by Dr. R. U. Fairbanks of Sicily Island who said a huge waterspout shot into the air out of the Ouachita river as the storm was forming just before it tore onto the land, carving a strip 50 yards wide and a half mile long.  The storm traveled northeastward from Sicily Island, he said.

Roofs of a number of houses at Oak Grove were reported badly damaged by a hail and wind storm that struck there early last night.  No one was reported injured.

Thriller Thursday - A Brother's Vengeance, 1875

The following article appeared in the August 11, 1875 edition of the Greensburg Standard in Greensburg, Indiana:

Thriller Thursday - Duel on Horseback, 1877

From an article appearing in the March 10, 1877 edition of the New Albany Daily Ledger in New Albany, Indiana:

Thriller Thursday - Earthquake in South Louisiana, 1842

The Indianapolis Indiana Journal reported the following on June 15, 1842:

Transcription:

EARTHQUAKE IN LOUISIANA

The St. Martinsville Creole states that "on Saturday last, the 7th inst at about 3 o'clock, P. M. an earthquake, which lasted two or three seconds, was felt in that parish.  A respectable inhabitant of Catahoula, who was angling at that time, in company with some ladies, on the banks of the lake, told us that as soon as the shock was felt, they were all struck by a kind of giddiness, and that one of the ladies fell down in a swoon.  He also assured us that the lake rose, during the space of two minutes, to more than six feet.  Several inhabitants along the banks of Bayou Teche affirm the unaccountable elevation of that river at about the same time.  We suppose that this extraordinary ascension of the waters was but the result of the commotion caused by the phenomenon.  One of our friends, who arrived from Opelousa yesterday, told us that the shock was also felt in that part of the country.  From the delcaration of the oldest inhabitants of this parish, this would be the second earthquake felt in Attakapas."

Note:  The Catahoula mentioned in this article is a community in south Louisiana; not to be confused with Catahoula Parish in central Louisiana.

Thriller Thursday - Ancient Sea Serpent Bones Found in Catahoula Parish

From the December 18, 1918 edition of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Indiana:

From the October 31, 1918 edition of the Bedford Democrat in Bedford, Indiana:

Thriller Thursday ~ Possible Prehistoric Human Bones Unearthed

From an article appearing in the January 9, 1951 edition of the Monroe News Star:

This is the first time I have heard or read about this incident.  I have yet to find follow-up articles stating the findings of L. S. U. anthropologist, Dr. Fred Kniffen.

Thriller Thursday ~ Fishermen's War

Hattiesburg American - 8/25/1949

Thriller Thursday ~ 1884 Flooding of Catahoula Parish

From the May 22, 1884 edition of the National Tribune in Washington, D.C.:

Courtesy of Chronicling America

Transcription:

Appeals for relief continue to pour in upon the Secretary of War and upon General J. Lloyd King from the residents of the flooded districts of North Louisiana.  Almost the entire congressional district represented by General King, an area larger than the entire State of New Jersey, is under water, and the condition of affairs there is most distressing.  A letter from Mrs. H. E. Bowman, postmistress at Wild Wood, Catahoula parish, says that the nearest dry land is thirty miles distant.

The 1884 flooding of Catahoula Parish was caused by the overflow of the Ohio River which in turn caused private levee failures on the lower Mississippi River.

Thriller Thursday ~ The Last Chapter of the Jones-Liddell Feud

From the March 10, 1870 edition of the Anderson Intelligencer, Anderson, South Carolina:

Courtesy of Chronicling America

Transcription:

The Last Chapter
The culminating crime of a series took place in the northeastern part of Louisiana, on the 15th instant.  Twenty years ago a lady of Natchez, sojourning at General St. John Liddell's house, in Catahoula Parish, took offense at some personal remark attributed to a neighbor, Colonel Jones.  Liddell went with his guest to the house of Jones to demand an explanation, and then and there the lady drew a pistol and shot Jones in the face and body.  Jones, long recovering from these severe wounds, considered Liddell responsible for bringing the gun-powder woman to his gate.  Any number of assaults and duels were threatened, and plenty of fight between Jones and Liddell resulted.  Their mansions became fortresses, their plantations military posts; they went about armed to the teeth, and the feud shook the county with alarms.  On one occasion a shooting party was to have been made up to utterly wipe out Liddell's friends, but the leader of the party, while on the war path collecting recruits, riding past the Liddell plantation, was shot dead in his gig.  Men with such stomachs for a fray found favor in the Confederacy, and General Liddell, having learned experience in private fortification, commanded the desperate defense of a fort near Mobile.  When the larger war was finished, the neighborly strife began again, and a certain John Dixon, Jr., somehow involved in it, was not long ago killed in a club-room.  The latest murder of the series took place on the steam boat St. Mary's, on the Black river.  General St. John Liddell, having come on board from his own plantation, was eating dinner when the boat passed the Jones' location.  There Col. Charles Jones and his two sons came on board, and, as the Captain of the St. Mary's neatly phrases it, "did the killing."  It only remains that Colonel Jones and his sons should be hung.  The conditions of society which encouraged the vendetta have departed, and, when all who engage in it are also gone, the rest of the world will experience relief.

Thriller Thursday ~ Alligator Charmer

From the April 18, 1896 edition of The Evening Star in Washington, D.C.:

Courtesy of Chronicling America

Transcription:

                                

"Alligators are supposed to be very fond of the colored race as food," said C. P. Beufort of Trinity, La., at the Normandie, "but there is a strange case in Catahoula parish, where I live.  A negro boy about twelve years old is an alligator charmer.  There are not many of the saurians left in Louisiana, what there are being found almost altogether in the Boueff, Little, Black and Ouachita rivers, that form a junction at the town of Trinity.  On Boueff river especially there are a number of alligators, although not nearly so many as there were a few weeks ago.  It is here that the negro, Jeff Phillips, has his cabin.  He feeds the 'gators, announcing his coming by playing on a mouth organ.  He claims to charm them with his music, but as I have never known them to be affected by music, I don't place much reliance in that theory.    But for several years Jeff has gone regularly to the river bank and fed the alligators.  In hot summer weather he will lay stretched out on a log, playing his mouth organ, while around him will be half a dozen alligators, two or three of them large ones, sunning themselves upon the same log, and paying no attention to Jeff.  The alligator tamer is looked upon with superstitious awe by those of his race, and is usually avoided, some of the people claiming that he is possessed of a devil in the form of an alligator."

Thriller Thursday ~ Delving for Gold

From the June 19, 1895 edition of The Louisiana Democrat in Alexandria, Louisiana:

Courtesy of Chronicling America

Thriller Thursday ~ Cyclone passes over Catahoula Parish

From the November 2, 1883 edition of the Bismarck Tribune in Bismarck, South Dakota:

Courtesy of Chronicling America

Thriller Thursday ~ Panther Attacks, Child Escapes

From an article in the November 9, 1889 edition of the Richland Beacon:

Courtesy of Chronicling America

Transcription: 

Mr. D. F. Stacy, one of the railroad engineers, tells the Natchez Democrat of a "very thrilling occurrence in the Sicily Island neighborhood, on the Tensas river, a day or two ago.  It appears that a little daughter of Mr. Isham Chisholm, with two elder sisters, was in a cotton field on their father's place when a panther dashed out of the woods nearby and assailed the little child.  The little one screamed, thus attracting the attention of the elder sisters, and their cries frightened the animal off.  It is probable that the panther did not see the elder girls when it attacked the child, and but for them in all probability the fierce beast would have killed her and carried her body to the woods to be devoured at its leisure.  As it was, while the child escaped any serious injury most of its clothing was torn off, and its escape was remarkable." --Vidalia Sentinel