McDowell, Earlington Bee, March 19, 1908

Bring Fearful Chain of Tragedies in Webster County.

DEPUTY MARSHAL CHILDERS AND TWO TRAVELING MEN VICTIMS

Ambuscade Formed to Stop Mob and Sight seers are Shot.

MCDOWELL MAKES SERIOUS CHARGED AND SAYS HE SHOT CHILDERS IN SELF-DEFENSE.

Dixon, Ky., March 15 – Rising to save a guilty member of their race from possible lynching by a white mob for fatally wounding Deputy Marshal Smith Childers, of Providence, men in ambush fired on four and wounded two traveling men between here and Providence Saturay night.

They believed that the men–J. B. Barry, of Louisville, and P. B. Parks, of Chattanooga, Tenn., – were the van of the white mob which was seeking the life of Jake McDowell, the negro who shot Deputy Childers Saturday.

Both travelers were seriously wounded.

Alleged Ambushers Arrested.

Tom Fuqua, Tom Miller, Will McDowell and an unknown negro have been arrested for complicity in the wounding of the traveling men and for being members of the black ambushers. Jake McDowell is at the Henderson jail, being protected by the entire police force from possible lynching. Childers is dying here, and his sweetheart, Miss Fannie Gallion of Hopkins county, is hovering over him, trying to soothe his last hours.

This is the epitome of the wildest night in the history of Webster county, and McDowell.

Mob Persued McDowell.

The white people of the county heard of it, and from Providence seventy-five men were at once recruited, pursuing McDowell who in charge of Marshal Sutton, had been brought to this city, where the jail was searched. The mob was close on his track, and McDowell was taken to Henderson at once, where he was placed in jail. Sutton returned ot Providence to establish quiet in the excited community. He has posses scouring the county in every direction for the negroes who participated in the ambush.

Childers had been looking for McDowell for some days, and he came upon him Saturday about 1 o’clock. McDowell at the jail in Henderson gave out the following statement, which was corroborated in the main by Deputy Sheriff Gib Hubbard, of Webster:

McDowell’s Statement.

“Mr. Childers was in trouble over a negro girl in the negro district of Providence,” said McDowell, who is a yellow negro about fifty-one. “I persuaded the other negroes not to hurt him, as they had intended, and finally on Saturday morning I saw Mr. Childers on the street. We had some words, he threatened to kill me if I mentioned the trouble he had had in our quarters on Friday night. Then he followed me and pulled an automatic pistol. I struck my thumb between the trigger and the ring and then wrested the pistol from Mr. Childers. Then I shot at him three times. Marshal Sutton came up and fired once at me. The he arrested me and took me to Dixon.”

McDowell had $60 on him when put in jail at Henderson. He had been taken to Dixon at 5 o’clock on Saturday, as the mob was forming, and at 9 o’clock Deputy Sheriff Hubbard and L. G. Walls and Fred Watson, a jail guard, took him to Henderson.

The mob arrived here shortly afterward. When they came they heard that Barry and Park had been shot by the negroes in ambush between here and Providence, and they set out at once to hang every negro they could implicate in the ambuscade. Besides Miller and Fuqua, Will McDowell, a cousin of Jake, and an unknown negro were arrested late today.

Subdued Excitement.

Dixon and Providence are quiet today, but the subdued excitement is high. The posses are still in the country and the crowds gather on the streets to hear the reports of Childers’ condition. Henderson is thirty-five miles from here, and the chances of a mob attempting to break the big jail are small. Nevertheless, there was some talk tonight that the party was on its way there. Thai is not believed.

Deputy Sheriff Hubbard says that Childers was not after McDowell for a misdeameanor, and says that the negro has always been peaceable. General belief is that Childers was mixed up in the negro settlement in some unpleasant way. The fatal blunder was the wounding of the travelers.