Hopedale HIstory July 1, 2017 No. 327 Col. Bristow and the Klan Hopedale in June Now and Then - Park Street Prefabs Recent additions to existing pages on hope1842.com - Now and Then - Inman Street (More photos of Inman Street houses, taken in 1921, added near the bottom of the page.) Deaths <><><><><><><><><><> Twenty-five years ago - July 1992 - In Miami, former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering violations. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton accepts his party's presidential nomination.
July 25 – August 9 – The 1992 Summer Olympics are held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Fifty years ago - July 1967 - The EEC joins with the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Community, to form the European Communities (from the 1980s usually known as European Community [EC]). The town of Winneconne, Wisconsin, announces secession from the United States because it is not included in the official maps and declares war. Secession is repealed the next day. In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city: 43 are killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned. News items above are from Wikipedia. Hopedale news below this text box is from the Milford Daily News (1967 and 1992) and the Milford Gazette (1917). <><><><><><><><><><> Col. Bristow and the Klan This article about Benjamin Helm Bristow is from one of many binders of photos, letters and other material on the Bristow family compiled by his granddaughter, Dorothy Draper Gannett Hamlen, one set of which is now at the Hopedale Community House. While Mr. Bristow never lived in Hopedale, he had descendants here from the time his daughter Nannie married future governor Eben Sumner Draper in 1883, until 2016 when William "Bill" Bristow Gannett moved from his Freedom Street home to New Hampshire. Bristow was originally from Kentucky, but he moved to New York in 1878 and resided there until his death in 1896. It would have been a fairly easy train trip for the Bristows to visit their daughter and son-in-law at The Ledges on Adin Street, so I presume they were here in town a number of times. Not only would they come to see Nannie and Eben, but also to visit their grandchildren, Benjamin Helm Bristow Draper, Eben Sumner Draper, Jr, and their future biographer, Dorothy. Col. Bristow resigned his seat in the Senate of Kentucky in 1865, and removed to Louisville, where he entered upon the practice of his profession. In the following year he was appointed U.S. District Attorney for Kentucky. The duties of this position were extremely arduous. The rebel element had returned from the war, and the pro-slavery faction of the State, including those who had taken refuge temporarily in Canada and elsewhere, had organized numerous Ku Klux bands to harass and murder the freed man and white Unionists. A reign of terror was inaugurated, which could be extinguished only by the civil power of the government, acting through the courts of law. Col. Bristow threw himself into this world with all the energy of his nature, and so zealously did he pursue the lawless bands that were patrolling the State, that during his term of office he procured twenty-nine convictions before Kentucky juries for various crimes under the enforcement act, from common assault to willful murder, and was only stopped at last by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States declaring that the court below had no jurisdiction of that class of offences, That decision was made in the case of the United States vs. Blyew, the legal aspects of which will be more particularly referred to hereafter. John Blyew and George Kennard had been indicted and tried by Col. Bristow for the murder of a whole family of colored persons. The case caused great excitement in Kentucky and when the jury brought in a verdict to guilty of murder in the first degree, the Ku Klux fraternity were stricken with terror, not merely in Kentucky, but throughout the whole South. Sentence of death was pronounced upon the prisoners, but they took an appeal to the Supreme Court, with the result already stated . Among the convictions obtained by Col. Bristow was that of a wealthy Kentuckian who, shortly after the ratification of the 13th Amendment, gave a brutal whipping to a Negro woman named Rose Ann McIlroy, whom he claimed as a slave. Col. Bristow caused him to be indicted in the Federal Court. This was something entirely novel in the annals of Kentucky, and when it was found that the indictment was serious and that the case would surely be tried, great efforts were made by the friends of the culprit to get the case dismissed. Among others who visited Louisville for this purpose was a distinguished member of Congress. This gentleman called upon Col. Bristow and said that one of his neighbors, a very respectable man, had got into trouble and been indicted. "For what offence?" asked Col. Bristow. "Oh, he only flogged a Negro woman," was the answer. "Flogged a woman!" exclaimed Col. Bristow, "then, without knowing the particulars, I should say he ought to be hanged." This was the only satisfaction given to the member of Congress for his respectable constituent. But the efforts of the indicted party and his friends did not end here. Delegations of respectable people came forward, and long petitions were prepared and signed, setting for the good character of the accused. Col. Bristow stood firm, and declared his intention to make and example of a woman-whipper, and to prosecute every case of the kind brought to his notice to the last extremity. The offender was convicted. Col. Bristow then instituted a civil action for damages, and secured a judgment for the sum of one thousand dollars on behalf of the colored woman whom he had so mistreated. The money was collected and paid over to her. It is believed that only in Kentucky were the Enforcement Acts sought to be carried out. For more on Benjamin Helm Bristow, see No. 295 and No. 296. Ezine Menu HOME . |
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