She Smiled as She Cut Down the Dead Body of Her Ravisher (1893)

Macon Weekly Telegraph, Georgia
27 February 1893

SHE SMILED

As She Cut Down the Dead Body of Her Ravisher.
Knoxville, Tenn. Feb 26 -- The lynching at Jellico last night of the negro Joe Payne for ravishing Miss Fannie Cecil was in itself a very tame affair. He confessed his crime and was swung up to the nearest tree without any noise.

The mob pinned a placard on his back vowing death to any one who should disturb the body until 10 o'clock today.

At that hour fully 5,000 people had gathered from the neighborhood.

Miss Cecil, who was not badly injured, sent word that she would take pleasure in cutting the body down. She severed the rope with a sharp knife and the body fell to the ground. She smiled as she cut the rope. Her act was greeted with cheers from the vast crowd. She is a very handsome young woman of 18 and of good family.

Len Tye, who ravished Miss Bryant on the same spot last December, has been located in West Virginia and will be brought to Jellico in a day or two. He will be lynched as soon as he arrives.

The negroes of that locality are wrought up over the affair.

Died (1839)

Macon Georgia Telegraph
31 December 1839

DIED
On 21st inst THEODRICK L. SMITH, aged 40 years, a native of Virginia but for many years a highly respected inhabitant of this city. He died of a chronic pulmonary complaint and has left a mourning family and a large circle of friends and acquaintances to lament his premature decease -- He was interred Monday evening with the usual honors by the masonic fraternity.

In Washington on the 18th inst Miss ELIZA J. BARNETT, daughter of Mr. Samuel Barnett, in the 23rd year of her age, of pulmonary consumption.

On the 9th inst in Twiggs County, Mrs. ELIZABETH MILLER, consort of James S. Miller, Esq.

Rev. John Howard Departed this Life on Monday Last (1836)

Macon Georgia Telegraph
Thursday, 25 August 1836

The Rev. John Howard, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, departed this life on Monday last. Mr. Howard had long been engaged in the Gospel Ministry, and stood high as a man of talents and powerful preacher. His death will be an irreparable loss to the Church and to the community at large.

Obituary.
Departed this life, on Monday, the 22d instant, at 12 o'clock, the Rev. John Howard, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the 45th year of his age.

His mortal disease was of a few days continuance, painful in its progress, but brief in its duration.

Though a mournful task, yet it is one not unmingled with pleasurable emotions, to recur to, and recount the circumstances connected with his death-bed.

With what unshaken confidence did he rely on the all sufficient merit of his Redeemer, and with that calmness and serenity undergo the bitter pangs of death, exclaiming, "though I pass through the valley and the shadow of death, yet will I fear no evil, for thou, O Lord, art with me to comfort me through!"

His dying testimony abundantly satisfied his surviving friends that he was going to that "sweet sweet home" about which he loved in health to sing and tale[?], and to which it was the business of his life to allure his fellow men. He retained through all his sickness his reason unimpaired, and died in full possession of his mental faculties, so that his last evidences of the power of the religion he preached are peculiarly satisfactory and gratifying. To all with whom he conversed on the subject, he gave assurances that "no cloud intervened to darken his skies, or hide for a moment his Lord from his eyes." He is gone to the Land of Eternal rest, after which his soul panted so ardently and long, leaving an afflicted family, a mourning community, and a weeping Church, to lament the sad dispensation.

Mr. Howard was a tender husband, a devoted father, an ardent friend, and a faithful minister. Few men have lived more usefully, or died more regretted.

Obituary (1829)

[Originally posted at the Southern Graves blog.]

Macon Telegraph (Georgia)
11 July 1829

Obituary

COMMUNICATED.

Departed this life, on Thursday the 9th instant, after a painful illness of seven days, Mr. ELISHA HAMMOND superintendent of the Macon Academy, in the 53d year of his age.

Mr. Hammond was born in Massachusetts, in the year 1776, and after receiving a collegiate education at Dartmouth College, he emigrated to South Carolina, where he was called to take charge of the Mount Bethel Academy; which from a state of prostration, he soon raised to notoriety and eminence. From thence he was called to the honorable station of professor of languages in the South Carolina college; and from his urbane and conciliating deportment, secured the esteem, the respect of all with whom he was connected. -- From Carolina he removed to Georgia, and after a short time spent in Augusta, accepted an invitation to take charge of the Macon Academy; and in June 1828 became, and continued to the period of his death, a citizen of this place. As was the case at Mount Bethel, Mr. Hammond assumed the management of the institution under circumstances altogether discouraging. With but a few scholars, and those generally very youthful, he entered an institution the fame of which had never extended beyond the precints of its own immediate neighbourhood; but he brought with him that experience and those habits of patient industry, which require only time to be known, in order to be appreciated and rewarded; -- and for after one short year devoted to these his useful labors, the citizens of Macon enjoyed the cheering prospect of beholding this (heretofore neglected) institution assume a position at once gratifying to them, and highly honorable to himself.

In private life, Mr. Hammond from his dignified and amiable deportment, had secured to himself a circle of friends, whose expressions of bereavement bear ample, and undoubted testimony to the esteem in which while living he was held; and that though dead he will long be remembered. Taken away in the midst of his usefulness, Mr. Hammond has left a widow, and four children to mourn his irreparable loss; -- but if the sympathy of a community can afford consolation in such extreme affliction, their tears will soon be dried, for the citizens of Macon consider this afflictive dispensation as a public calamity.

Farewell! my friend; -- when I beheld thy dying eyes (intelligent even in death,) upraised to Heaven, and after the power of utterance had left thy palsied tongue; methought thy spirit did commune with those ethereal messengers commissioned by that Saviour (into whose merits while living you so earnestly inquired) to convey your disembodied spirit to mansions of eternal rest. Farewell!

Awful Catastrophe (1832)

[Originally posted at the Southern Graves blog.]

Thomas Ellis was born about 1798. His "untimely exit" came way too soon, about 34 years later, and under some interesting circumstances. His obituary ran in the Georgia Telegraph, Macon, on Wednesday, 10 October 1832:

Awful Catastrophe! -- Early on Wednesday morning last, in a rencontre with Henry Byrom, Mr. Thomas M. Ellis, long known as one of the most industrious and enterprising men in Macon, received a pistol ball in his abdomen, of which he died in about three hours. This afflicting occurrence has thrown a gloom over the whole town. Mr. Ellis was greatly respected for his moral virtues, his uprightness of conduct, his enterprising genius, and his untiring industry. One of the first settlers of Macon, the town owes much to him for its rapid growth and unprecedented prosperity. What Girard died for Philadelphia, Mr. Ellis was doing for Macon. He pried into every department of industry; and in every one was his influence felt.

Of his unfortunate connexion with the Macon Bank, (which was believed to be the occasion of the rencontre,) though we have for ourselves full faith in the innocence and integrity of Mr. Ellis, we are not prepared to satisfy the public. We know that he was preparing a full development of his relation with that institution; and we have no doubt, had he lived, that his innocence would have been fully established.

Mr. E. was a native of Philadelphia, and was about 34 years old. He was a respected member of the Baptist Church; a Vice President of the Georgia Agricultural Society; and a member of several other religious and charitable associations. He has left a bereaved widow, two helpless orphans, and a long train of relations and friends to mourn his untimely exit.

Byrom surrendered himself to the civil authority and has been bound over to answer his appearance at court.

A few earlier newspaper articles show that a Mr. Robert W. Fort was President of the Bank of Macon. This institution failed, and many of the public held him responsible. Thomas Ellis publicly backed Mr. Fort. Maybe this angered some folks.  It seems Mr. Byrom thought Mr. Ellis was connected to the failure somehow, but I'm not sure why this agitated Byrom so.

In the latter part of November 1832, less than two months after the death of Mr. Ellis, Henry Byrom was charged and tried for his murder. The testimonies of the courtroom drama were retold in the Georgia Telegraph: "The unfortunate rencontre of the defendant in this case with Thomas M. Ellis, in the streets of Macon on the 3d October last, which resulted in the lamented death of the latter, having produced a good deal of excitement in this community, we annex the following summary of the trial, which took place in this town last week, before his honor Judge Strong..."

First up for the prosecution were John Ellis and William Ellis, brothers of the deceased. They each described the scene after "hearing the report of pistols." Both found their brother on the ground, raised up on one elbow, on the street in front of his home (on Walnut street in Macon). Henry Byrom was standing near him, and Thomas supposedly said to Byrom, "Draw a pistol on me, will you?"

In the cross examination of William Ellis, he could not recall what other witnesses were present or whether or not they were white. John Ellis admitted his brother Thomas was armed. Other individuals were heard to have said Thomas Ellis was a "fighting man" and a "rascal."

Witnesses for the defendant claim Thomas Ellis had "a pistol drawn on" Byrom.

"...The trial consumed the best part of two days, The case was submitted to the jury about 11 o'clock P.M. on Thursday, who, after being absent about half an hour, returned with a verdict of Not Guilty.

Mr. Ellis was laid to rest in Macon's Old City Cemetery. His bricked box tomb is one of the few still standing.

Died (1841)

The Macon Georgia Telegraph
5 January 1841

Died,
In this city, on the 3rd inst. of consumption, Mrs. Eliza S. Davis, aged 32 years, wife of Charles Davis, Jr. of Roxbury, Mass.

In Jones county, on the 18th inst. Mr. Benjamin Finney, in the 56th year of his age.

In Augusta, GA on the 24th inst. of consumption, Mr. Charles B. Tinniswood, of New York.

In Augusta, GA on the 27th inst. Capt. Benjamin F. Lyons.