History of Greene County
In 1906 by H. B. Crowley
4th Installment
Benjamin Crowley, Pioneer Citizen and soldier tells of Ku Klux
and Carpetbaggers and Equal Rights after the Civil War
The Ku-Klux Klan originated east of the Mississippi and was said to have been headed by General Forrest. It was a very strong organization in Arkansas in 1868 and no doubt, gave ground for the belief that its mission was to affect the overthrow of the then state government. But it had no such object in view. The members almost to a man, were in favor of the enforcement of the evil and criminal laws of the land and pledged to the maintenance of peace and good order. These men had been through the war, and had surrendered and laid down their arms and returned to the South with the intention of becoming good law-abiding citizens, if permitted to do so. But being tantalized and provoked by the Negroes and their white allies and frequently reminded that the Negro was as good as the white man, and his equal before the law on top, and that the bottom rail was at last on top. And that the former slave had succeeded to the control of the lawmaking power of the country, and would enslave the whites for a while to show them how it felt, and like insults to the dominating race. It is true. The members of the Ku-Klux Klan often went to their rendevous smarting under the repeated insults and injuries with motives and feelings not of the most patriotic. Their place of meeting was usually on top of some high hill, and the time was on moonlight nights, or whenever the exigencies of the situation seemed to demand a meeting.
All members wore masks, with tall hats or caps, made of white paper or other bright material, which gave the wearer a most grotesque and unearthly appearance. The horses were also disguised with heavy blankets, and the midnight appearance of one of these dark and mysterious companies was enough to frighten a person of a less superstition nature than the Negro. The Klan would call at the cabin of the turbulent or vicious Negroes and ask for water at the most unusual hours of the night, and to add mystery to the visitation, the leader would apparently drink two or three buckets of water, stating how refreshing it was, being the first he had drank since the battle of Shiloh, leaving the impression that the visitor was a spirit of some soldier killed in the bloody encounter and had not tasted water since. The old southern darky being a very superstitious creature and believing implicitly in ghosts and hobgoblins was completely awed by these visitations and would remain quiet and humble in their cabins for several days after such an experience.
The order of the Ku-Klux Klan in Greene county was gotten up more
to counteract the work and influence of the Union League than
from any other cause. This Union League was a secret organization
brought to the south by the carpetbaggers and used to make the
Negroes act in concert in carrying out the wishes and schemes of
their new bosses, the imported scallywags from the north. Only
Negroes among our people could join the Union League, and all the
meetings of the League was surrounded by mystery, and the Negroes
all had the secret password, grip and other dark signs of the
order. The Negro members were all sworn to vote for no one but
their fellow leaguers and as they were only white adventurers
lately from the north, the Negro choice of candidates was
confined to a few designing men who owned them body and breeches.
The darkies were taught at these meetings that the white people
of the south were their bitterest enemies, and were put under a
solemn oath to trust and vote for no one except their new found
friends from the north. Having the freed slaves tied to him in
this manner, and all the native white people disfranchised, the
carpetbagger had a cinch on the offices of the country.
It is proper in this connection to say that the brave and true
Federal soldier was never found among the political freebooters
who plundered the southland after the smoke of battle had lifted
from over the country. The union soldier could never have
degenerated to the depths of depravity and brutality that
characterized the unscrupulous gang of demagogues that over ran
and tyrannized over the Southern states after their subjugation
by the Federal Government.
To resist this horde of political brigands from the north and
their ignorant allies the freed Negroes of the South, the
Southern people banded together for their own protection and
safety.
If the Negro had been left alone and not been prejudiced against
their former owners, but left in the care and guidance of the
Southern people there would have been no trouble then, and no
threatened race war now. The band of interlopes that came into
the South after the war to inflame the freed Negroes against the
white people, little dreamed that they were sowing a wind that
would some day develop into a whirlwind that would involve the
whole country, both North and South, in a bitter controversy, if
not in a war of races. The Southern man understands how to live
in peace with the black man, and to get the best results out of
him, in the way of service and development of his race. Our
people have been associated with the darkies in an industrial way
for generations, and they know the nature of the African people
as no other class of people ever can understand them. For
centuries the two races dwelt together as one people, but as
superior and inferior races, and there was never any friction
until the coming of the carpetbaggers just after the war. Even
then and ever since the Southern people have and are the best
friends the Negro has, and until his mind was poisoned by false
promises and teachings, such a thing as lynching of a Negro was
never heard of. Thousands of instances might be given to which
women and children were left unprotected among large numbers of
Negroes, and miles away from any other white settlement, but no
black man was ever known to attempt such an assault, or betray
the trust of his master in leaving his wife and daughter under
the care and protection of his slaves.
One case of this kind which occurred in the home of the writer
will illustrate the confidence the southern white man placed in
his Negroes, and how faithfully the old darky stood by his trust.
In the year 1868 the Republican Governor of the state appointed
James Hanover, and old exslave, a justice of the peace in
Lawrence County. This Negro was one of the slaves that Benjamin
Crowley\plain \f4 brought with him to Crowley\rquote s Ridge when
he settled there in 1821. This same darky came ahead with the
Crowley boys when they returned to build a house and get things
ready for the family and stock, as previously narrated. James
Hanover wed the logs that went into the first house ever built on
Crowley\rquote s Ridge, and he remained with the family on the
place, through all the years of adventure and growth of that
period. At the death of the old man Crowley the Negro Hanover was
left in charge of the place, including the other slaves, stock,
lands and literally the head of the family, subject to the
supervision of his old master the widow.
Faithfully and ably did he discharge his responsible trust, as
foreman and general manager of the vast plantation. He was an
upright and honorable man, and everyone held him in the highest
esteem, and respected his judgement in a business transaction. At
the death of the widow of Benjamin Crowley, old Jim and the other
slaves and personal properties were sold at a public auction, and
he became the property of John Michael of Gainesville, Michael
took the contract to build the court house at Gainesville, and
old Jim had charge of that work, and really did the greater part
of the work. At the death of Col. Mitchell, Jim and his wife were
bought by L. Hanover & Co. of Pocahontas, the leading
merchant of northeast Arkansas. At the close of the war Jim was
left in Lawrence county, near Pocahontas, and not far from the
place where he entered the state forty-five years ago. By this
time he was getting quite old, and no one could ever guess why he
was appointed justice of the peace, as he could neither read nor
write.
Jim was a large man, and in the fall of 1868 while he was in the
cotton patch, seated picking cotton, being too old and portly to
walk or stoop, some men came along the road and shot the old man
to death. These men came out to where old man George W. Wright
had a mill, and stopped, and began telling what they had done. It
was grinding day, or Saturday, and several men were at the mill,
and the boasting about the brutal murder of old Jim met with
little favor among the men assembled there. The mill was near old
Crowley's home and everyone knew and loved the old darky, he
having almost raised the Crowley boys.
As the cowardly and brutal fellows were jokingly telling how they
shot the old man as he was seated in his chair, they were told by
Capt. Willcockson who was among those at the mill that they had
better keep that performance to themselves, and if they valued
their lives they had best continue their journey on out of the
country. They took this advice, and got away before any of the
Crowley boys appeared on the scene, or they might have been in
serious trouble over the circumstances, as they as well as many
of the neighbors held old Jim in the highest regard, and would
have fought for him. There was a belief that his cruel
assassination was the act of the Ku-Klux Klan, but this was not
true, especially as regards to the organization in this section
of the state.
There has always been a tender feeling between the old slaves and
their former master's children and that attachment has not yet
been broken by the lapse of years. The anti bellum darky was as a
rule honest, truthful and as loyal as a Greek to his friends. As
a general thing they had better care taken of them than they now
receive, and many of the slave owners read the Bible to their
Negroes, and explained to them the immortality of the soul and
the plan of redemption as taught in the Holy Book.
The Indians that roamed through the country at that day were shy
and suspicious of the white people, but were very confiding to
the Negroes. It is believed that the red man made several
attempts to incite the slaves to an insurrection, and together
they were to exterminate the whites. Be it said to the credit of
the good old darkies of those days that they always turned a deaf
ear to all plots to injure their white masters. The old Jim
referred to above was one of the Indian's confidential advisers,
and he often told us that they had their Council House, in former
times, on a bluff just north of the old Wily Crowley residence.
This hill is the last one of the Ridge, or until you cross the
Cache and the Black rivers. Old Jim said the Indians in large
numbers would meet at this place once a month in grand council,
and that they would go away and be gone several days, and then
return with a lot of lead, which they mold into bullets to be
used in their hunting expeditions. The Indians would never tell
Jim where they got the lead, or where it came from, but he
believed it was found somewhere on Poplar Creek, near where
Samuel Willcockson had a stream, saw and grist mill, the first
one put up and run in the county.
There has always been an impression that there is a lead mine in
the county, and this belief is founded on the tradition handed
down from old James Hanover. It is evident that there is a mine
of this ore near the old council house, or else the Indians
brought the lead to some nearby point on the pack-ponies. The
supposed location of this mine is about section 10, township 16
north, range 4 east. On the banks of Poplar Creek at this point
is: a fine red clay or dirt which was used by the people in the
early days to make paint. After being burnt, it makes a very
pretty red paint and was used by our forefathers to paint their
furniture, wagons, etc. During the war the women used this same
paint to color their homemade cotton dresses with, and it dyed
the cloth very nicely. There is belief that this clay will be
extensively used in the manufacturing of mineral paint. The
property now belongs to Esquire P.M. Cothern of Walcott.
But let us return to the subject of military rule, the Union
League and the Ku-Klux Klan organization that followed the war.
Had it not been for the so-called Union League, carpetbaggers and
the reconstruction laws passed by the congress and the
reconstructed legislatures, there would never have been any
necessity for the Ku-Klux in the South, and such an organization
would never have existed.
The writer feels that he can speak advisedly of this organization,
or Ku-Klux Klan, as it was commonly called, as he was one of them.
In the summer of 1868 he went back out to Scott County and
remained there until fall, when he returned to Greene County with
his half brothers and sisters. They had been living on Fouche
Lave River near Scott county, at a point near Parks, and at which
place our mother died in the year of 1861. Father was captured at
the Arkansas Post together with General Churchill, and he was
carried prisoner to Camp Douglas, where he died with smallpox in
1863.
When the writer returned to the county the Ku-Klux were in full
blast, all through this part of the state, and he joined them,
being mustered in by Dr. George B. Croft and John Clark, and was
soon after elected as 2nd in command of a company. Dr. D. B.
Johnson was the captain, or Grand Cyclops, and Dr. T. H. Wyse was
Col., or Grand Giant of the county. We were installed in the
Cache bottom by Col. Wm. Edgar and Maj. R. Broadway. There were
several companies of Ku-Klux in the county, and as previously
stated, we organized for self-defense, and for the protection of
our homes and families. Soon after our organization, the county
was put under martial law, but for what cause, we were never able
to ascertain, as there were no acts of violence or lawlessness in
this section of the state, except such as the civil authorities
could manage, and no call was made upon the governor for the
militia, or even a complaint to him that military force was
needed up here.
The first notice that we were under martial-law was the arrival
at Jonesboro of three or four hundred soldiers, with orders to
arrest all the leading men there because they were Democrats, and
suspected of being members of the Ku-Klux organization which was
in a large measure true. Dr. Johnson ordered our company out to
resist the militia, even the protest of the writer, and of nearly
all the members of the command, but we obeyed orders, and went
into camp. We had one man who had been an old scout, whose name
was Andy Campbell. He was dispatched by Captain Crowley to
consult with Dr. Wyse at Gainesville, who was always a very
prudent and clearheaded man, and one who always sought to avoid
any trouble.
We kept up regular communication and agreed upon a plan of
operations, which in part was to guard the line between Greene
and Craighead counties. But Dr. Johnson thought different, and
ordered us over the line to Greenboro, and there he made a detail
of fifteen men, and putting them under Steve Kitchens, a young
man who was as resolute and tenacious as a bulldog, and sent him
and his detail down the road between Jonesboro, with instructions
to locate the militia, if they were outside of Jonesboro. As soon
as Kitchens and his detail had left us, Dr. Johnson mounted his
horse and announced that he was going back to get reinforcements,
including Capt. Nath Bowling, and others, leaving Capt. Deberry
of Woodruff county in command. He at once ordered the company to
fall back, to a point just north of Greenboro, and dismount, and
prepare to receive the enemy. Pretty soon he ordered the writer
to take the men and return to the south of the town, in the
direction in which Kitchens detail had gone out scouting for the
enemy. The men in our command became disgusted with Deberry's
whims and decided that the writer assumes command, which he did.
Dr. Johnson never returned to his command again, and we never saw
him any more while the trouble lasted. The pickets soon ran into
a company of about one-hundred of the militia, and the fun began. Kitchens gun warned us that the game had been jumped, and
we hurried on to join in the battle.
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Crowley