The lynching of George Ware

Subject

Community; lynching

Description

These are several newspaper articles related to the lynching of George Ware in 1883. Ware admitted to killing and robbing an orphan boy named Robert Bethune, a former employee of the Muscle Shoals Canal, whose age was variously reported as "between ten and twelves years of age," and "between 12 and 15 years of age," on Friday, April 20, 1883.

The murder of Bethune and the subsequent lynching of Ware was covered by several local papers (the Florence Banner, Florence Gazette, Lauderdale News, etc.). The Gazette and News reports are featured below. Several regional and national papers also reported this story and the  Evansville (Ind) Courier and Press had a correspondent "WER" on the scene who witnessed the events and wrote a detailed description for his paper, also featured below.

Upon returning from the canal headquarters with some money owed him and headed home along the towpath, Bethune was allegedly accosted by Ware, who demanded the boy's money and a plug of tobacco, and upong receiving them threw the lad into the river, then began pummeling him with rocks, killing the boy.  

Thomas Scott, who was plowing on the bluff a short distance away, heard Ware's alercation with Bethune and was a witness to the killing. Scott alerted Capt. Allison of the Canal Works, and soon he had Ware under arrest. Ware was escorted back to Florence by Sheriff Samuel Spencer "SS" Ives (1880-1883) and Mr. HP Harrison. 

The next morning, Saturday, April 21, the streets of Florence were thronged with people, white and black, male and female, young and old, waiting to see what would happen. Ware made a preliminary confession to Sheriff Ives stating that he and another man named Reynolds had robbed Bethune, but while Ware got $2.50 of Bethune's money he insisted that he haddn't kill Bethune, Reynolds did. Before his actual lynching however Ware recanted this testimony and admitted his guilt, admitting that he had acted alone in robbing Bethune of $5.05 then killing him and deserved his fate. Thomas Scott made a desposition and identified Ware as Bethune's murderer then Florence resident John W. Blair (brother of Florence's City Marshal [chief of police] William E. Blair) noted that Ware would be tried later that day and that a jury would soon hear his case.

Meanwhile, Gov. Edward A. O'Neal (1882-1886), who was at home in Florence from Montgomery, upon hearing rumors of a plan to lynch Ware, wrote Sheriff Ives, instructing him to appoint extra guards at the jail to "protect the prisoner and preserve the peace," then wrote Judge Speake, ordering him to convene a special court to try Ware however, on the day appointed for the preliminary hearing, after the solicitor the Hon. Henry C. Jones (1821-1913) arrived, he found the magistrate to whom the warrant was returnable was out sick, and the defendant's counsel couldn't be located, hence, a Florence mob--consisting of both black and white citizens--fearing Ware would escape justice, over the protests of solicitor Jones to let Ware have his day in court, took matters into their own hands. According to the Lauderdale News, twenty men, black and white from among the "vast gathering" were deputed by the rest to enter the court room, gather the evidence and decide Ware's fate. These men, armed with sledgehammers, then forcibly took the keys to the jail from Sheriff Ives, drug Ware out, and hung him from a tree facing the river near the M&C RR depot, after allowing black pastor JD Hay (Ray?) to pray with Ware.

The Florence Gazette reported that "a more orderly crowd never assembled to do justice to so diabolical a murderer" and estimated the crowd as between "800 to 1,000" people. According to the Huntsville Democrat, the lynch mob allegedly removed their caps and waited quietly until Ware's prayer was finished; the Evansville correspondent noted that "a more orederly concourse of people I never saw, but their determination was awful." Then, also according to the Huntsville Democrat, Ware was stood on a barrel and a rope thrown over a tree-branch, with the murdered Bethune's brother kicking the barrel out from beneath Ware.

The 1880 federal population census of Lauderdale County enumerated a 21 year-old single Black man named George Ware in the house of 22 year-old Agfrican-American Florence residents Peter Turner, his wife Melinda and their children. Ware, a "laborer," was one of three African-American men boarding with the Turners in 1880.

According to the Evansville Daily Courier's Florence correspondent, George Ware's father, a slave near Rome, Georgia, had at some point killed his master. And the George Ware in the 1880 census was from Georgia, as were his parents, which indicates they're likely the same man.

In March of 1881 George Ware was sentenced to 142 days hard labor, 20 days to cover fines he owed to the county and 122 days additional fines, for an unknown offence (the circuit court minutes don't specify). Ware was indicted at the March term of the circuit court under the name George "Weir," and would not allow the original indictment to be amended to the proper spelling of his surname, thus a second indictment had to be processed. 

So far, this is all we know about George Ware's history.

In the 1880 Lauderdale County federal population census, a 13 year-old Robert "Bathune" (census-takers were "hooked on phonics") was enumerated in the household of his brother Thomas (1861-1923) and his first wife Nancy (1862-bet. 1880-1891) in the Center Star area of Lauderdale County. This is probably the murdered Robet Bethune above, thus, assuming the 1880 census was correct with regards to his age (not a given), Robert would've been 15 in 1883. That census records the birthplace of the Bethune brothers as Tennessee. According to the U.S., Register of Civil, Military, and Naval Service, 1863-1959, Vol. I, 1885, p. 316, in 1880 (on Amazon.com's Library Ed.) Thomas Bathune (1861-1928) also worked on the Muscle Shoals Canal.

Thomas Bethune's first wife either died or they separated between 1880 and 1891 as he married Elizabeth "Lizzie" Alexander (1875-1946) in December of 1891 (and a Nancy Bethune married JS Peck in 1886). The couple would have several children. Thomas Bethune and his second wife moved to Florence from Killen around 1923 shortly before his death and both are buried in the Florence City Cemetery.

Source

1-2. Lauderdale (AL) News
3. Montgomery (AL) Daily Advertiser
4. Montgomery (AL) Daily Advertiser
5. Selma (AL) Morning Times
6. Carson City (Nev.) Morning Appeal
7. Scottsboro (AL) Citizen
8. Evansville (Ind) Daily Courier
9. Southern (Augusta) Kansas Gazette
10. Huntsville (AL) Weekly Democrat
11. Scottsboro (AL) Citizen
12. Eufala (AL) Daily Times
13-16. Florence (AL) Gazette
17. Alabama Beacon (Greensboro)
18. Tuskaloosa (AL) Gazette
19. Coosa River (AL) News
20. Selma (AL) Morning Times
21. Florence (AL) Gazette
22. Florence (AL) Times
23-25. Lauderdale County, Alabama Circuit Court Minutes, 1879-1881.
27-30. 1880 US Census, Lauderdale County

Publisher

1-20. Newspapers.com
21-22. Bell & Howell Micro Photo Division
23-26. Lauderdale County, Alabama Circuit Court.
27-30. Anestry.com Library Edition.

Contributor

Lee Freeman

Rights

Images are available for educational and research purposes. This image may not be reproduced for commercial purposes without the express written consent of the copyright holder. It is the responsibility of the interested party to identify the copyright holder and receive permission.

Format

JPG

Language

English

Type

Still Image

Identifier

ware1.jpg (1)
ware2.jpg (2)
thelatemurder1.jpg (2)
thelatemurder2.jpg (2)
thelatemurder3.jpg (2)
thelatemurder4.jpg (2)

Original Format

Newspaper

Files

ware1.jpg
ware2.jpg
George Ware The_Montgomery_Advertiser_Tue__May_1__1883_.jpg
George Ware 2 The_Montgomery_Advertiser_Tue__May_1__1883_.jpg
South The_Selma_Times_Tue__May_1__1883_.jpg
Telegraphic The_Daily_Appeal_Tue__May_1__1883_.jpg
Murder and Mob Law Huntsville_Weekly_Democrat_Wed__May_2__1883_.jpg
A Brutal Murderer Evansville_Daily_Courier_Wed__May_2__1883_.jpg
A Mob Southern_Kansas_Gazette_Thu__May_3__1883_.jpg
Did All They Could Do Huntsville_Independent_Thu__May_3__1883_.jpg
A Horrible Murder The_Scottsboro_Citizen_Thu__May_3__1883_.jpg
The Alabama Lynching The_Eufaula_Daily_Times_Thu__May_3__1883_.jpg
thelatemurder1.jpg
thelatemurder2.jpg
thelatemurder3.jpg
thelatemurder4.jpg
A Negro Man Alabama_Beacon_Tue__May_8__1883_.jpg
The Remains The_Tuskaloosa_Gazette_Thu__May_17__1883_.jpg
George Ware The_Coosa_River_News_Fri__May_18__1883_.jpg
We Had Thought The_Selma_Times_Sat__Jun_16__1883_.jpg
The Lynching Spirit FG Thu May 9 1895 p 3_.jpg
Aftermath of the Hardin Case.jpg
Ware 1 (2).jpg
Ware 2 (2).jpg
Ware III (2).jpg
Ware IV.jpg
George Ware 1880 p 100A.jpg
George Ware 1880 p 100A (2).jpg
Thos Bathune 1880.jpg
Thos Bathune 1880 (2).jpg

Collection

Community

Citation

“The lynching of George Ware,” Shoals Black History, accessed April 16, 2024, https://shoalsblackhistory.omeka.net/items/show/715.