Newfoundland, Kentucky Newfoundland (also Crackers Neck) is an unincorporated community Elliott County, Kentucky, United States. It lies along Routes 7 and 32 north of the city of Sandy Hook, the county seat of Elliott County. The area is known locally as Crackers Neck - the story goes that the road was so crooked, he cracked his neck driving along it. Cracker Neck,Kentucky .. The Kentucky Regulators of Elliott and Carter County After the Civil War, Kentucky became a place of lawlessness with vigilantes roaming the land. A group called The Regulators ruled. An uprising began in Elliott Co in 1877 after outlaws burned part of Sandy Hook - the county seat. Attacks on women were waged in 1879 and the citizens of Elliott County decided to take care of the Regulators themselves. Judge Lynch told the people that lawlessness would not be tolerated. On the 20th of October 1879, 200 Regulators, dragged two supposed outlaws from the jail and hung them. This started a time of terror against all lawbreakers in the area. Men who rode on horseback and were masked, road the countryside and drove the lawless out of the area. By the spring of 1880 the movement widened to include the counties of Morgan, Rowan, Carter, Boyd and Lawrence. Judge James E. Stewart, 16th judicial district, although threatened with bodily harm, stated that he was holding the line. He contacted Governor Luke P. Blackburn, asking for state troops to assist. He promised clemency for the Regulators who surrendered. On 28 May 1880, 200 Lawrence and Carter County Regulators surrendered. By 1881, the Elliott and Morgan County Regulators had disbanded. When local law enforcement proved inadequate to keep up with lawlessness, many people got fed up with the system. If the sheriff couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it, the civilians would. Inspired by similar groups from the pre-Revolutionary war southern frontier, vigilante groups, known as “Regulators” began springing up sporadically after the Civil War ended. It wasn’t until 1879, though, that the Regulators gained widespread attention. The late 1800’s wasn’t the first time people resorted to taking the law into their own hands. Before the Revolutionary War, in 1760-71, thousands of people were under the corrupt rule of colonial law officials (Anderson). Citizens from several counties in North Carolina rebelled, even rioted, against the corrupt officials, demanding the return of just law. These uprisings were referred to as the “War of the Regulation”. It was these very uprisings that paved the way for future groups to do the same -- to take the law into their own hands, and to call themselves ‘The Regulators’. With all the post-war violence and lawlessness after the Civil War, law-enforcement in rural areas such as Elliot County, Kentucky, where my ancestors had settled, was lacking. Violence and crime had reached a high point. With the justice, honor, respect, and integrity people had always cherished quickly diminishing, the people were willing to fight to get them back. An uprising began in 1879 to enforce the laws themselves. On October 20, 1879, 200 masked and armed men raided the county jail and hanged two criminals from a tree in the courthouse yard. That act demonstrated that there were serious consequences for lawbreakers, and the Regulators would enforce them. Although the most famous demonstration that officially started the second regulator movement was in Elliot County, Kentucky, it soon spread into neighboring counties and even other states. While this vigilante movement focused on lack of law enforcement, sometimes those charged with enforcing the law were on the other side of it. William Alexander Thomson served as the sheriff of Elliot County during the time of the ‘Elliot County Regulator Uprising of 1879’. Despite being sheriff, Thomson was also listed as a Regulator, as were many other well-known men of the area. This group of vigilantes ruled Eastern Kentucky through force and intimidation. Thieves, criminals, and suspected lawbreakers were all watched and warned. Because the Regulators wore hoods, and covered their horses faces with cloths to risk identification, one never knew whether they were just talking to a friend, or a Regulator. The Regulators not only upheld and demanded laws be obeyed, but also that the moral guidelines of the community be respected. They warned the offender once, and if no change in behavior was made, the Regulators would whip and beat the offender until the change was promised. One recollection reports a man who neglected his family, letting them starve, while he “ran around with another woman”. The Regulators told him he better straighten up and take care of his family or else he would face the consequences. He stubbornly refused to be bullied, but after 40 lashes with a hickory switch, and a promise of hanging if he still refused to care for his family, changed his mind. He supported his family from that point on, and lived a normal life. Unfortunately, some members used the guise of the Regulators to commit crimes rather than punish them, even killing innocent men for their own gain. As this became more of a problem, authorities, including state troops, finally stepped in and tried to put an end to the Regulator movement. In 1881, the Governor, Luke P. Blackburn offered a pardon to any regulator who surrendered and agreed to stop participating in regulating. This essentially ended most of the regulator movement. A list from a Lawrence County judge records 390 people pardoned of “kukluxing”. After the mass pardoning, things concerning the regulators calmed down significantly, except in Elliot and Carter counties. Individual vigilante acts continued across the area. Some men did not turn themselves in to be pardoned because they refused to allow lawlessness and discord to run in their communities again. Regulators were still active even into the 1920s, though more sporadically as time went on. WILLIAM FRANKLIN MASON JOURNAL**************************************** To the day grandfather died, at the age of 91, he had kept diaries. In 1954 he wrote a 252-page Journal on legal paper from diaries and from memory. Included were three hand-drawn maps of the area showing names of homes, schools, churches, rivers and routes. In the Journal he wrote about his family and neighbors, the customs and dress, the superstitions, events, what the churches and schools were like (he taught in one-room schools)and how the houses and stores were built (he also worked for owners of stores or owned the store himself). About 1877 or 1878 there were outbreaks of lawlessness in Elliott County, and, as the authorities did not control the trouble, citizens banded together under the name of “Regulators” to stamp out the worst crimes and criminals.CARTER STEPHENS, of a nearby neighborhood, left his wife and small children without support while he ran around with another woman. His wife and children came to our place and Mother and Father took them in and cared for them several days, they being entirely without food. Word was sent to CARTER [STEPHENS] by a leader of the Regulators to look after his family or else they would deal with him. He was reported to have sent word back that they might hang him as high as Hamon, but he wouldn’t beg or take orders from them. That was enough. They searched him out and found him and the woman together and whipped them both with hickory switches. It was said he got 40 and she 20 strokes - laid on by strong men and that he was told to go back to his family and take care of them or they would hang him. Although he was said to have boasted beforehand, now he said, “Whatever you say to do, I’ll do it.” He looked after his family after that. I knew him well until I was grown. A mob hanging More school One night we heard a noise as of horses going by up the creek and could see shadowy figures of men and horses in the darkness. Next morning I ran out to look for tracks in the road and found about 30 feet of rope dropped by someone. That day or the next word came that a body of men, supposed to have been Regulators, from all over the County, had taken two men from the County jail at Sandy Hook and hanged them dead. Their names were a Mr. KENDALL and a Mr. MCMILLIN. Both, until then, had been respected citizens. DICK WATSON, a respected man, had been robbed of his meat stored in his smokehouse and the robbers took his wheat sacks to carry it away in. In some way suspicion had been turned to KENDALL & MCMILLIN and when they were arrested and their homes searched the meat was found and WATSON knew both the meat and the sacks and claimed them. It was said that the children at one of the homes cried when WATSON started away with his meat and that he cut off a generous piece and gave it to them. WATSON had been using his sacks to store some wheat and the beard of the wheat was still in the sacks and clung to the meat and this was one of the identification marks. Anyway the men were hanged and several innocent orphans were left without fathers. I went to school with some of them in 1893 at Crackers Neck. The Regulators degenerated and became a menace to the country. Men with ulterior motives - spite or envy or plain meanness - joined and used the organization to commit crimes - sometimes murder - until the authorities finally aroused, stamped it out. One may wonder how I, as a child, could be aware of some of the things related here. I was quick to learn and had considerable curiosity. Country people passed information and neighborhood news around by word of mouth. We were not distracted by modern things. There were almost no newspapers in circulation there. But we gave attention to what was told and attention makes memory.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 15:56:36 +0000
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