[ Return to Index ] [ Read Prev Msg ] [ Read Next Msg ] J.D. BEAVERS - KILLED BY NEGRO BEAVERS, SUDDETH Posted By: Nancee Seifert (email) Date: 12/14/2009 at 16:47:27 Decatur County Journal Leon, Iowa Thursday, November 2, 1911 J.D. BEAVERS, son of Mr. and Mrs. B.A. BEAVERS, of Villisca, former residents of Decatur County, was shot and killed by a negro known as ED SUDDETH, at Coweta, Oklahoma, Sunday evening, October 22. Mr. BEAVERS was City Attorney of the town of Coweta and was prominent in the affairs of that section of Oklahoma. He was born in Decatur County but moved to Villisca when quite young with his parents. He was a graduate of the State Teachers College at Cedar Falls, having graduated in the same class with Prof. J.M. Pierce, a former superintendent of the Leon public schools. Mr. BEAVERS had been married about six years but had no children. CHARLES BEAVERS, of near Leon, an uncle of the murdered man, departed Wednesday afternoon of last week for Villisca to attend the funeral, the remains having been taken there for interment. The funeral services were held on last Thursday afternoon at 2 oclock. The following account of the tragedy and the threatened Negro uprising, since averted was telegraphed from Coweta to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in which publication it was printed on October 23: Coweta; Oklahoma, October 22 -- ED SUDDETH, a Negro, was shot to death tonight by a mob of citizens, who had armed themselves, following a battle this afternoon between blacks and whites, in which SUDDETH killed J.D. BEAVERS, City Attorney, and wounded Carmen Oliver and Steller Thompson, white men. Oliver and Thompson may die. SUDDETH was wounded and was then strung up to a water tank, but was cut down before he died and locked in a vacant building. Tonight Deputy Sheriff Flowers attempted to take the slayer to Wagoner to jail. As SUDDETH was being taken to an automobile a mob opened fire on him and riddled him with bullets. Probably fifty shots entered his body. Large numbers of enraged Negroes are arriving tonight from the surrounding country and a race war seems inevitable. The white men of the town are patrolling the streets and guarding their homes as best they can. They are afraid to bring the women out of the homes and send them to Muskogee on the last train out. They also declare they will not dare to try to get them on the next train which passes through Coweta at midnight. Oliver was taken to Muskogee on a passenger train this evening and placed in the Baptists hospital where doctors are probing for the bullets. He was shot through the abdomen. The trouble started yesterday afternoon. A telegraph operator named Swazer was walking with a young woman when Ed Ruse, a Negro, in passing, pushed the girl from the sidewalk into the mud. Swazer struck at the Negro, and another white man, whose name is being kept secret, seized Ruse and Swazer beat him with his fists. Today Ruse had been walking the streets with a long knife in his pocket, seeking the man who held him. City Marshal Hart ordered the Negro to give up the knife and Ruse shot at him. At that instant ED SUDDETH ran out of a house across the street and opened fire, isntantly killing City Attorney, BEAVER and wounding Oliver and Thompson, all of whom were passing at the time and had taken no part in the trouble. SUDDETH took cover in a nearby house, which was bombarded with guns and revolvers by several white men. The house was set on fire and SUDDETH fled. He was shot, but not fatally injured. He was taken to the water tank, a rope placed around his neck and he was swung up, it was then decided, however, that to kill him would precipitate a general race war and he was cut down. ---------------------------------------------------------- Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert December 14, 2009 [email protected]
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 18:06:34 +0000
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