I
have taken this story from “EARLY DAYS IN
I have
taken liberty to correct several spelling errors.
(Norman
L. Newton,
THE UNION LEAGUE IN
By C. N. Jones
But Indian depredations were by no means the only
source of
trouble in Cooke county. In the eastern part of the county in
the "Cross Timbers" were many northern sympathizers, termed abol-
itionists or Black Republicans who perfected a secret
organiza-
tion called the Union League with degrees, signs,
passwords and
secret places of meeting where they met to confer and initiate
new members. So well concealed were
their purposes and so quiet-
ly did they operate, that they had perfected a strong
organiza-
tion with a military company of from one hundred and
fifty to two
hundred members before the authorities knew anything about it.
Their commander and drill master was a man by the name of GARRI-
SON, and many of our neighbors were members.
In fact one of
their regular meeting places was only a few miles from our home.
On one occasion one of my older brothers went down
on Rock
Creek one Sunday afternoon to go in swimming.
Many of the mem-
bers of the League were in bathing and they nearly
drowned him
before he could get out of the water and even then, after he had
dressed, they threw him back, remarking, "Old man HOFF sent his
half-witted boy down here to spy on us, but reckon he won't send
him back again."
Great excitement followed the discovery of the
existence of
the organization in Cooke county and well authenticated report
was circulated that the members of the League were going to meet
on a certain Wednesday night, march to Gainesville and Sherman,
and capture the stores of powder at those places but when the
time arrived a heavy rain and windstorm came up and the expedi-
tion did not materialize. At about this time two brothers, Joe
and Newt CHANCE, who were in the Confederate army, came in on a
furlough. Joe CHANCE,
was from Tarrant county and had seen ac-
tive service in
CHANCE heard of the existence of the Union League and managed to
get into a conversation with a strong northern sympathizer by the
name of CHILDS, who, it later developed, was an
officer of the
League. In the course of their
conversation CHANCE intimated
that it looked to him as though the South was going to lose and
that he was getting tired of it. CHILDS
then revealed that he
was
an officer of the Union League and suggested that CHANCE be-
come a member, stating that they had a strong organization and
that he would be glad to have him meet with them at their next
regular meeting the following Wednesday night and take the first
degree of the order. CHANCE agreed to
this plan, promising to be
on hand and inquired if it would be alright for him to bring his
brother, stating that he also was tired of war and would be in
sympathy with their plans. To this
CHILDS agreed and the follow-
ing Wednesday night both brothers were present and
took the first
degree. At this meeting they learned
more of the purpose of the
League, many of its plans for the future, its membership and the
names of its officers and many of its members.
This information
they immediately communicated to the authorities at Gainesville
and as a result the county was put under military law and orders
were issued requiring every able bodied man in the county to re-
port at once to Brigadier General HUDSON, at Gainesville. Sold-
iers were immediately sent out and CHILDS and two
other officers
of the League together with many of its members whose names had
been revealed including a man by the name of HARPER, were arres-
ted and pending an investigation were thrown into a vacant store
building under guard. Every able bodied
man who failed to report
was brought in and if he failed to give a satisfactory account of
himself, was also thrown into prison with the others. Men were
being arrested every day and a reign of terror followed.
At about this time an incident occurred that added
fuel to
the fire. A man by the name of DICKSON,
whose home was in Gaines-
ville, was at that time visiting his father-in-law,
Col. TITUS,
who lived on
and was unable to perform military duty, although able to get a-
round. One day shortly after his arrival
in company with his
brother-in-law, TURNER TITUS, a boy fifteen years old, he went
deer hunting down in the bottom of Hickory creek about three
miles from the TITUS home. Here DICKSON
was shot at from the
brush and killed. TURNER escaped and
hurrying home reported the
sad news. Runners were sent out at once
on horseback to spread
the alarm and a small posse was organized immediately thereafter
and started out on the same mission under command of Col. YOUNG.
YOUNG was under the mistaken impression that DICKSON had been
killed on the east side of
The country on east side of the creek was broken and brushy and
before they knew it they ran into an ambush and were fired on by
a body of men hidden in the brush. It
had been raining all day
and many of the guns of the attacking party missed fire. Other-
wise the slaughter would have been frightful as there were from
twenty to thirty men concealed in the brush and the shots were
fired at short range. A bullet pierced
the brain of Col. YOUNG
and killed him instantly, and the attacking force fled through
the brush and disappeared.
It was generally believed all over the county that
the assas-
sins of both DICKSON and YOUNG were members of the Union League
for GARRISON, their leader, and many of his followers, left the
country immediately after this occurrence and it was later reported
that GARRISON had enlisted in the Northern army. Some time after
the death of DICKSON the report became current throughout the
county that his murderers had mistaken him for Jim PATE, Col.
YOUNG's overseer, and whom the members of the League
hated, and
who bore some resemblance to DICKSON.
The death of Col. YOUNG caused great excitement and feeling
through out the county. He was a man
widely known and universally
loved and esteemed by everyone who knew him and it was felt that
only a deep and settled hatred against the South could have Pro-
mpted the deed.
The people were deeply incensed, no one felt
safe and it was determined that something must be done.
A mass meeting was called and a committee appointed
to se-
lect a jury to try those in prison and under
accusation. Twelve
of the leading citizens of the county were selected including two
ministers of the gospel, one of them a Christian preacher and the
other a member of the Baptist denomination.
Dr. LONG, who after-
wards married Col. YOUNG's widow, was also a member
of this jury.
All of these men, in fact, most of the actors in this great drama
have long ago passed into the great beyond.
In the course of the trial many of the prisoners
were inter-
rogated as to their motives in joining the League and
the purpose
of the organization. One of them, a man
by the name of MARTIN,
stated that it was his understanding that they were to make an in-
discriminate slaughter of the secessionists, including women and
children. When asked why they were to
kill the children, he re-
plied that "Nits would make lice."
Mr. MORRIS, another prisoner,
stated that he joined because he was opposed to slavery, that he
had lived an abolitionist and expected to die one.
The prisoners were tried on two accusations, treason
against
the Confederate States of
murder of Mr. DICKSON and Col. YOUNG.
After a full and complete
hearing the jury passed the death sentence upon forty-two who
were executed at
ago. Among those executed were Mr.
CHILDS and Mr. HARPER of whom
I have already written, and also a brother of Mr. CHILDS. A
little later four other men under suspicion, including three ren-
egades from Kansas, one by the name of COTTERAL, and
two broth-
ers by the name of JOHNSON, and another man whose
home was up on
Elm, were caught at his home by a posse headed by Jim YOUNG, a
son of Col. YOUNG, and were taken out and hanged.
Another victim of the wrath of the People was a man by the
name of WELCH, who was suspected of being the man who fired the
short that killed Col. YOUNG. He was a
member of GARRISON's com-
pany and left the country right after the killing of
Col. YOUNG.
He was finally located down near the
brought back and carried to the place where Col. YOUNG was killed.
After failing to make him confess, he was executed. Jim YOUNG
was also the leader of the party which executed WELCH. On the
day of the hanging of WELCH, all of the slaves of Col. YOUNG were
allowed to attend the execution. Every negro from the plantation
was present except one old, crippled negro woman and she cried
because she could not see the hanging of the man who killed “Massa Bill”.
I was only a boy, thirteen years old, when
these executions
took place and I look back with horror to those days. Many of the
victims were our neighbors and I knew several of them intimately.
Whether
they deserved death I cannot say. It was
one of the tragedies
of
the war. I am satisfied, however, that
the members of the jury
who imposed the death sentence sincerely believed they were doing
their duty and their action gave general satisfaction. At any rate
these executions marked the end of the Union League in Cooke county
and gave the soldiers an opportunity to turn their attention to
Indian
depredations.