Hodges, John

My great-great-great grandfather, Richard Stanford Leigh (about whom you wrote a few postings ago), had a propensity for saving newspapers relating to local murders and hangings. I still have those and have looked at a few this afternoon. In November 1879, Robert Boswell of Durham was hanged in Hillsboro (Durham was still in Orange County until 1881) for the murder of his wife and two small children. In his confession, he implicated a woman with whom he had an affair, Rebecca Ann Lyon, of the murder of her husband (also in Durham) two years earlier. I have no idea what happened to Rebecca. The Herald reported that the crowd was small and subdued at the Boswell hanging, perhaps because their blood lust had been sated earlier in the year. May 16, 1879 produced a bumper crop of executions and the New York Times the next day ran the heading 'Six Men Legally Killed.' Three of the men were hanged in Hillsboro and all three had Durham connections. Four of the six executions were botched. Wallace Wilkerson in Provo, Utah, writhed for 27 minutes after being shot by a firing squad. In St. Louis, the rope intended to hang John I. West broke. 'He was picked up and speedily raised to the trap again, and, while being held by four or five men, was dropped a second time. This time he swung, and in 11 minutes was pronounced dead.' About 8,000 people watched, including West's father, who had come from Chapin, Ill. Here's what The Times had to say about Hillsboro. (And note that all three men were convicted of aggravated burglary.) 'Henry Alphonso Davis and Henry T. Andrews, both white, and Lewis Carlton, colored,the notorious Chapel Hill burglars, were hanged today, at Hillsboro, the county seat of Orange County, where their many crimes were committed. Each of the culprits proclaimed his innocence to the last moment. Carlton spoke for an hour, and said his salvation was sure. The parting between Andrews and his sister on the scaffold was most affecting, and moved the crowd of witnesses to tears. All the doomed men bore themselves firmly,and showed no sign of wavering. The hanging took place at 2:30 P.M., and was very badly conducted. The ropes around the necks of Davis and Carlton were too long, and their feet rested on the ground. They were raised up and the ropes retied, causing death by strangulation. A terrific thunder-storm raged during the entire proceedings, and the scene was wild and terrible. At least 8,000 people were present.' Maybe St. Louis could easily produce 8,000 spectators at a hanging in 1879; but Hillsboro?!!! And in a terrific thunder storm? At any rate, Lewis Carlton was born in the Garrett Road/Kelly Drive vicinity on the plantation of Daniel Carlton, R. S. Leigh's father-in-law. Henry Andrews was a close relative of S. Weldon Andrews, Orange County sheriff and husband of one of R. S. Leigh's 98 grandchildren (yes, 98; the last 2 of whom have died since 2000, Ruby Lee Markham Drakeford in Durham and Nancy Leigh Humphries in Chapel Hill.) I still have two more Durham cases to relate, but I am tired and the gruesomeness has probably offended everybody. I also don't want to imply that R. S. Leigh was ghoulish. He had relatives involved in every case (easy, when you have 118 children and grandchildren and most of them have spouses). Oh, and here's what The New York Times had to say about the sixth execution on May 16, 1879: New-Orleans, May 16-- Robert Cheney, colored, was hanged here to-day for ravishing Amelia Voight in June, 1878. The execution passed off quietly.

What did the cat do? I agree, it looks guilty of something. Of course, all cats are guilty and this sinister one especially. Look at the company he kept. Okay, I'm betting no one gets the location of this photo.

Hi Gary. I am in awe of this site. I transplanted here for NJ in 1996, and have loved reading up on the history of Durham. I lived in Durham until 2009 and until falling on your site, never would have known the history of it. I have a question. I drive by a J.A Whitted School (abandoned) every morning and would like to know something about it. I have not found anything on your site as of yet, but I could be searching incorrectly?

Hopefully that mean cat got hung too

Tryon and North Carolina militia troops marched to the region and defeated the Regulators at the Battle of Alamance in May 1771.[3] Several trials were held after the war, resulting in the hanging of six Regulators at Hillsborough on June 19, 1771

Durham County (even as a portion of Orange County) just wasn't a very populous place until the 1870s-1880s - and if there were any 'legal' hangings, they would have occurred at Hillsborough, the county seat, prior to Durham becoming a county in 1881. (I don't know that there were - I don't know enough about early current-Orange County history.) The centers of population were definitely to the west and east, and there were fields on Main Street, 'downtown' in the late 1860s. So I don't find it hard to believe that there weren't any lynchings/hangings in Durham County prior to 1907 - nor would I be surprised to find out that someone has uncovered previously undiscovered hangings. GK

Here is an interesting list that seems to back you up Gary. Except for some unknown locations, 1907 does seem to be the first.... http://www.ncgenweb.us/mcdowell/misc/ncexecutions.htm

The LAST person hung in the town I grew up in was 1833 Course, I wasnt there :>)

I said I found it hard to believe the first hanging in Durham was 1907. It could be true. I dont know of any before that, but I havent looked. I wasnt challenging your facts...just find it hard to believe.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oRgcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=91AEAAAAIBAJ&pg=… Says she was invalid, like the Peterson case...jury took 20 minutes.

And it would not shock me in the least to find that there were lynchings in Durham County, or the later-Durham portion of Orange County. At the very least, the two hangings (of the two postcards) were evidence of the prevailing inequitable standards of justice. The man pictured was hanged for murdering his wife. The other man hanged, who was African-American, was convicted of aggravated burglary - of a white family's house in East Durham. The stories were unclear on whether he physically assaulted the woman in the house in some way in order to carry out the burglary. But I try to be accurate with Durham history, so I'm open to finding out that there were lynchings in Durham County, but I know of none. GK

I don't know of a lynching in Durham County, but Edward Roach, 'a black Durham laborer, was lynched for alleged assault of a white girl in Person County' in 1920. Jean Anderson recounts the horrific event in her history of Durham. She also relates the Durham Herald's report that 'the lynching party performed its task quietly and in a well organized manner.' To his credit, Nello Teer, for whom Roach worked, excoriated the press and the community 'in the interest of truth and justice . . . with the hope that this fearful crime may shock our people as to make its like again an impossibility.' Roach was innocent and was on the job at a Teer site in Person County when the alleged assault occurred.

Which Durham County lynchings are you referring to? GK

1907...I find it hard to believe this was the FIRST man ever hung in Durham County. I guess if you dont count lynchings....

Creepier still, this is actually a real photo postcard and it has a companion- another man who was executed at the same time. Several years ago, I placed an example of each in the Elsie H. Booker Collection at the Southern Historical Collection at UNC.

I have that same exact picture that belonged to my great aunt. David S.

@NJ Anonymous - I believe this is the post you are looking for: http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2008/12/hillside-park-high-school-…

@Erik Thank you!

I've actually found an article by Wyatt Dixon since posting this that also states that it was in the old jail, and that the cat was 'Hodges' constant companion.' It goes on for awhile about the cat climbing on the gallows under construction and 'sensing something was wrong.' The old jail was roughly in the middle of the block bounded by South Church, East Main, South Mangum, and East Peabody - I have photos of it here. GK

A note to Durhamite and to Gary regarding the location and the ownership of the cat: Older-timers-than-I, who had attained their majority by 1907, indicated that the photos were taken in the old jail shortly before the hanging and that the cat was the jailhouse mouser that Hodges had taken a liking to. He apparently requested that said cat be included in the 'commemorative' photo. I think the jail at that time sat on the south-east corner of Main and Church about where the monuments are clustered today.

George Lougee Jr.'s book, 'Durham: My Hometown' (1990) has more on this (page 109): 'Hodges asked for and was given a chair. ... On the chair which was moved to him sat Tom, a cat given to him as a kitten by Sheriff Harward. The photographer asked Hodges to pose standing up with the cat on the chair. Hodges obliged.' Lougee wrote articles for the Durham Herald during the 1940s-1970s.

this is really fascinating stuff. thanks for all you do, Gary!

Actually saw one of these postcards come up on ebay a few years ago- it sold for an exorbitant amount of money (well, for a postcard anyway).

I am the great-grandson of John Hodges and I find this amazing. would be grateful for any info anyone can forward to me regarding this man's hanging.

I am also a descendant of Hodges. My grandmother always told us that he was the "last man hung" in Durham not the first. This seems to make more sense as the electric chair had already been invented and had been in use in the United States for nearly 20 years by 1907. Whatever history book that picture came out of must have just made a misprint. Or perhaps he was the first man hung that day?