|
|
|
where North Augusta and North New Street meet. Why was it called Gallowstown you might ask ? Well it is actually the location where the town's hangings took place thus the name Gallowstown. written by Dale Brumfield. beside a house belonging to John Gordon on Oct. 16, 1793, at what is today the intersection of North Augusta and North New Streets. The first hanging there was of a young man “of feeble intellect” named John Bullitt. Deputy Sheriff James Bell – at age 21– officiated at the hanging. Present also was a local prominent Pastor, Rev. John McCue, and he reportedly displayed great personal anguish at the legal travesty. The saying for many years afterward was that if a child went to John Gordon’s house and asked “John Bullitt, what were you hung for?” Gordon would acerbically answer “Nothing.” experience that remained a bizarre mystery for many years. On December 11 of that year a young African-American slave girl was hanged for drowning her owner’s baby. Like in Bullitt’s case, there was much public sympathy for the girl, as many believed the baby drowned by accident. Nonetheless she was found guilty in the county court and hanged in Gallowstown. night she died an unearthly groaning awoke almost the entire town. People ran into the streets, horrified that the girl was returning to exact revenge for her unfair execution. In fact, word quickly spread that many people had actually seen an apparition of the girl sitting on the courthouse steps. finally revealed. A two-story building at the corner of New and Courthouse Streets (now E. Johnson Street) contained a store belonging to Ben Morris. Morris had a young employee who eventually confessed to going up on the roof through a trap door the night of the execution and groaning through a large brass “speaking-trumpet,” an early type of bullhorn commonly used at the time for political speeches and by firemen.
gallows moved from Gallowstown to near what is now the White Star Mills Restaurant. Two months earlier, on April 30, the badly beaten and lifeless body of 16-year-old Lottie Rowe was discovered in a ditch beside the railroad tracks in an area known as “Pinchtown.” Dances – also called “Pinchtown Germans” or “Ghost Dances” were popular near the national cemetery on Saturday nights. They were open to all classes and races of people. Heavy drinking at them was commonplace. Lawrence Spiller, who was a blacksmith at Bodley’s Wagon Works and seen drunk in the same area as the Rowe girl. He and two policemen approached Spiller at his home and told him they needed his help at the station identifying a boy. He agreed, and when they reached the jail Dawson informed Spiller he was under arrest “for the murder of that girl.” to killing Rowe with a rock. He was found guilty of murder by a mixed-race jury and sentenced to hang. To add to Spiller’s troubles, his four-year-old son died on May 30 after a short illness. coffee, Spiller was marched out to the gallows just after 8:00 a.m. A shroud was draped over his body, a black cap pulled over his head, and he was hanged by the neck until dead.  |
Copyright 2022 © GHOSTS OF STAUNTON & Marty Seibel
