The Great Hanging at Kingstree

A month ago, South Carolina's governor signed legislation requiring inmates on death row to choose between the electric chair and the firing squad as the means of their executions. In the 1880s, those found guilty of a capital crime were likely sentenced to "hang by the neck until dead." Exactly 139 years ago today, on June 23, 1882, Williamsburg County witnessed perhaps its most publicized  hangings, when Lucinda Tisdale, Anderson Singleton, Boston Singletary, and Abram Anderson were all hanged simultaneously on one scaffold.

The Williamsburg County Courthouse where the three men and one woman

who were hanged on June 23, 1882, were tried.

Four-and-a-half months earlier, a small article had appeared in many newspapers across the country, announcing the arrest of Lucinda Tisdale, age 25, and Anderson Singleton, 35, charged with the murder of Lucinda's sister, Phoebie, 26. Some of the stories described a brutal altercation, which apparently took place on January 31, 1882, in which Singleton had crushed Phoebie Tisdale's head with a shovel, while Lucinda stabbed her sister in the heart. They then allegedly disposed of the body in a deep ditch. They were awaiting trial in the Williamsburg County Jail.

Then, on March 9, 1882, a store in downtown Kingstree, owned by Sheriff S.P. Brockinton, burned to the ground. Arson was suspected, and after some investigation, five men, Titus Pendergrass, William Wilson, Boston Eaddy, Boston Singletary, and Abram Anderson were arrested and charged with burglary and arson. 

All of the defendants were tried at the June term of General Sessions Court. Because of the notoriety of these two cases, the courtroom was filled to overflowing. 

In the arson case, Pendergrass and Wilson, in an attempt to save their own necks, turned state's evidence against the other three. Testimony indicated that all of these defendants were active in the local Methodist Church, with at least three of them serving as Class Leaders. It was also divulged that the plot to break into the store was hatched at a church meeting. 

They decided, the story went, that they would break in at midnight when everyone in the village should be asleep.  According to testimony, the five met behind the store. There Pendergrass and Wilson announced that they had decided that once they had taken what they wanted from the store, they should set it on fire. The others were opposed to this plan, but after some argument, Pendergrass and Wilson wore them down. Three of them entered the back of the store through a window they had jimmied open while the other two stood guard. All were reportedly heavily armed. After filling several large bags with merchandise and rifling the till for any money they could find, they lit the fire and fled the scene. 

Two young attorneys, J.F. Dargan and J.R. Lambson represented the five at trial. William Wilson was acquitted by the jury, while Pendergrass and Eaddy were sentenced to life imprisonment. Although Anderson and Singletary pleaded "not guilty," the jury was not convinced, and the judge sentenced was them to death. South Carolina law had recently changed to make arson a capital offense, and this were only the second case in which defendants were sentenced to death for arson. Both Anderson and Singletary appeared not to have realized they could be sentenced to death, but showed no remorse. In fact, in the days between their sentence and their execution, they tried several times to break out of jail, and not succeeding, became "troublesome prisoners."

Capt. John A. Kelley

In the murder trial, Capt. John A. Kelley, representing the defendants, moved that Lucinda Tisdale and Anderson Singleton be arraigned and tried separately, a request the judge granted. Singleton was tried first, pleading "not guilty." The jury was composed of 12 white men. Several black men had been drawn, but the defendant rejected all of them. Singleton wept openly during the trial, and completely broke down when the jury returned a guilty verdict after only 10 minutes' deliberation.

On the other hand, Lucinda Tisdale pleaded guilty, but took the opportunity when making her plea to inform the judge and jury that they should not punish her as she had killed her sister in self defense. Her story was that both she and her sister worked for a family whose home was a mile from Anderson Singleton's, Phoebie's common-law husband. Lucinda and Phoebie walked to and from work together each day and, Lucinda said, on the evening of January 31, while on the way home, they had quarreled resulting in Phoebie pulling a knife on her. Lucinda maintained that in order to save her life, she picked up what she thought was a piece of wood, but in reality was a hunk of iron, and bashed Phoebie in the head three times. She said Phoebie did not seem to be hurt badly, however, and wandered off into the woods, where she afterwards died.

Other testimony, however, painted a different story. Anderson Singleton had taken Phoebie Tisdale as his common-law wife. (The 1880 census shows Phoebie (Phiby) Tisdale, occupation cook, living with James Singleton, a divorced laborer. James could have been Anderson's first or middle name.) They appeared to get along well until Phoebie's sister, Lucinda, started hanging around the house. Anderson was attracted to her as she was younger and prettier than Phoebie, so he and Lucinda began plotting ways to get rid of Phoebie. They hid an iron pipe on the route Lucinda and Phoebie took coming home from work, and that afternoon, Lucinda started an argument, reached for the pipe and smashed her sister's head in. The physician who performed the autopsy testified that any one of the three blows could have killed her.

Anderson then appeared, and he and Lucinda carried the body to Anderson's house where they stashed it in the crawl space until after dark. Then they carried it into the woods where they buried it in a shallow grave beneath a pine tree. They obviously assumed no one would find the body, but the next day a laborer walking through the woods, stepped on the grave and his foot sank into the earth. He and three friends exhumed the body and carried it to Kingstree. The coroner quickly empaneled a jury which was about to return a verdict of murder by person or persons unknown when Lucinda arrived and asked for permission to make a statement. She confessed to killing her sister and also implicated Singleton. The jury also found her guilty, and the judge sentenced her to death, the first woman in Williamsburg County to be hanged. The evidence presented against the two was so convincing that no attempt was made to get the governor to stay their execution.

Friday, June 23, the day of their executions dawned clear and hot. Although the hanging was to take place on the jail grounds behind a high fence at noon, crowds began streaming into Kingstree early that morning. The New York Herald sent a reporter to cover the hanging. He began his story, "Early this morning while the residents of this peaceful little town were in their sweetest slumbers, I made a visit to the County Jail for the purpose of interviewing the four criminals who were sentenced to die on the gallows today."

He wrote that the four were confined in separate cells on the second floor of the jail. He first talked to Lucinda Tisdale who he said appeared happy, laughing flippantly as she continued to assert that she had killed her sister in self-defense. Anderson Singleton, however, was found lying on the floor of his cell while his mother, outside the cell, tried to console him. The reporter noted that Singleton was emaciated, saying he had neither eaten nor slept in four days. He told the reporter that the jailers had been kind to him, but that knowing he was to be killed for a crime he didn't commit was driving him mad. But he knew his sins had been forgiven and that he was going to his God.

Both Singletary and Anderson also spoke to the reporter, saying that one of their fellow defendants had given false testimony against them at the trial in order to save himself. They both felt that God would intervene at the last moment, and they would be freed.

At 11 a.m., dressed in new clothes provided by the sheriff, they were led out of their cells where three African-American ministers counseled them. The reporter wrote, "All knelt down and one of the most fervent, eloquent and powerful prayers I have ever heard from mortal lips was offered by a young mulatto preacher named Beaman." A psalm was read and the whole group sang "Come let us join our friends above..." with Anderson Singleton and Lucinda Tisdale singing in loud, shrill voices.

At 11:30, they marched down the stairs and out to the back of the jail where the gallows stood. It was surrounded by a high fence to conceal it from the crowds. Members of the Kingstree Light Infantry were drawn up in a line around the inner circle of the enclosure.

At noon, after the sheriff had secured their arms and legs, settled the nooses around their necks, and adjusted the black caps above their heads, the signal was given, and the hatchet descended "with force and precision, severing the stout rope which held up the platform." When the platform dropped away, the four fell five feet. "The woman's neck snapped like a whipcord," and she died without a struggle. All three of the men, however, strangled, suffering violently before death. Anderson Singleton, in particular, died a very hard death. Twenty-five minutes after the rope was severed, the four were cut down from the gallows.

The Herald reporter wrote "During the execution, an immense crowd of men, women, and children were gathered in the streets near the jail, and the houses, fences, and trees on every side were filled with spectators." The Chicago Daily News noted, "Fifty persons witnessed the execution, but thousands were in the streets near the jail."

In the aftermath of the hangings, many newspapers portrayed Lucinda Tisdale as a brazen, hard-bitten killer, while others believed she had more courage than any of the three men executed with her. She remains the only woman ever hanged in Williamsburg County.

Denise Roffe includes the story of Lucinda Tisdale in this book.

In Ghosts and Legends of Charleston, South Carolina, Denise Roffe includes the story of Lucinda Tisdale. While I am not sure of the exact location of the County Jail in 1882, Roffe believes it was located on the corner of Jackson and Short (then Jail and Nelson) streets, where the jail constructed in 1953 was also located. She writes, "An officer who once worked at the detention center said that many of the inmates have reported hearing a mumbling woman's voice on late, quiet nights. Others have reported being awakened by a feeling of someone being in the cell with them, only to see a glowing apparition of a young black woman mumbling and wringing her hands as she passes through the walls from cell to cell."

More Men of the 371st Infantry Regiment

Last week we looked at the lives of three men from Williamsburg County who served in the 371st Infantry during World War I. Today, we'll take a look at the lives of the other men from this area who spent their military careers in the 371st.

Headstone for John R. Rigens who is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Souce: Arlington National Cemetery

A native of Clarendon County, John Richard Rigens was born August 27, 1896. By the time he registered for the draft, he was a self-employed, married farmer living at Cades in Williamsburg County. Rigens was inducted as a Private into Company C of the 371st Infantry at Camp Jackson on October 28, 1917. This is the same company for which Cpl. Sandy Jones served as company clerk, and we can presume that Pvt. Rigens was one of the men Cpl. Jones sought out on the battlefield after the company's officers because war casualties and the surviving members of the company were scattered.

On his return to the United States after his honorable discharge on February 2, 1919, Rigens and his wife Ella settled in Washington, DC, where he was a janitor for the United States Department of the Treasury. He died on August 7, 1951, and is buried in Section 36, Site 856 at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Arthur Washington Burgess was a son of Robert and Hester Pressley Burgess. When he registered for the draft on June 5, 1917, he listed his occupation as working on his father's farm. However, T.J. Joye, the registrar, noted on the bottom of his draft card that his occupation was not really farming as Burgess had recently returned home from school.

He, too, was inducted as a Private into Company C of the 371st Infantry at Camp Jackson on October 28, 1917, and it's likely that he, too, was one of the men Cpl. Sandy Jones sought out on the battlefield in late September 1918. He was honorably discharged, like Pvt. Rigens, on February 22, 1919.

By 1930, he was working as a plasterer in Philadelphia, PA, where in 1933, he married Betty Jenkins. When he registered for the World War II draft in 1942, he was described at 5 feet, 4 inches tall, weighing 157 pounds. At that time he was employed at Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia in the ordnance department. Frankford Arsenal was the center for the United States Military small arms ammunition design and development until it closed in 1977.

Arthur Burgess died at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Philadelphia on November 12, 1954.  He is buried in Section P, Site 647 of Beverly National Cemetery in Beverly, NJ.

Beverly National Cemetery, the final resting place of Arthur Washington Burgess.

Source: Beverly National Cemetery

Another member of the 371st, who like Sgts. Walter Paul and Henry McClary began life in Cedar Swamp, was Calvin Green. A son of Frank and Sallie Green, he was born May 25, 1895. He was employed as farm labor on Watson E. Snowden's farm when he registered for the draft in 1917,

He was inducted as a Private in Company E of the 371st Infantry on October 6, 1917,  at Camp Jackson. Pvt. Green was in the thick of the fighting during the Meuse-Argonne offensive and was severely wounded on September 30, 1918. Perhaps because of his wounds, he shipped out of France on January 19, 1919,  ahead of the rest of the 371st. He was honorably discharged on February 11, 1919.

He and his wife Lizzie are listed in the 1920 Census as members of the W.E. Snowden household, working as housekeepers for Snowden and his niece. By 1930, the Greens had moved to their own farm, where they were raising four small children, all under the age of five.

According to the Veterans Administration Master Index, Calvin Green died June 8, 1938.

Emmanuel Morris was born near Greeleyville, a son of Wallace and Cinda Felix Morris. He was inducted into Company G of the 371st on October 6, 1917, where he was quickly promoted to Bugler on November 21. Buglers had a critical job on the front in World War I as they were the signalmen for the forces. Pvt. Morris was severely wounded on October 1, 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. He, too, left France ahead of the 371st, departing St. Nazaire on December 18, 1918, aboard the USS Rijndam. He was honorably discharged on March 29, 1919, with a disability of 15 percent.

The USS Rijndam, which transported Pvt. Emmanuel Morris back to the United States.

He married Emma Gailliard and by 1930, they were living in Greensboro, NC, where he was employed as a tailor. Emma died in 1947, and Morris at some point remarried and returned to Williamsburg County, where he died on June 15, 1964, survived by his wife Lucile. He is buried in Big Spring Cemetery near Greeleyville.

One other member of the 371st is listed in the Official Roster of SC Men Serving in World War I as a Williamsburg County resident. It seems likely, however, that William H. Rock was working in Trio at the time he registered for the draft but lived most of his life in Berkeley County. He was born in Eadytown, near Eutawville, on March 5, 1896, a son of Joe and Betty Ann Huger Rock. He was inducted into the Supply Company of the 371st on December 18, 1917. He was promoted to Private First Class on March 1, 1918. Henry Cleveland McClary served as Ordnance Sergeant for this company. There is no notation in the Official Roster of PFC Rock's sustaining serious wounds, but he was honorably discharged in October 1919, with a 100 percent disability.

He returned to Berkeley County where he farmed and apparently was also a minister, as his death certificate lists him as Rev. Willie H. Rock. He died June 13, 1953, of a fractured skull sustained in an automobile accident. He was dead on arrival at the hospital in Moncks Corner. He is buried at either Walnut Grove or Warnett cemeteries near Eutawville as records aren't clear. I have not looked closely at William Rock's family history, but there is evidence that he likely shares a family connection to comedian Chris Rock, whose roots run deep in Berkeley, Williamsburg, Georgetown and Charleston counties.

The City of Columbia welcomed the 371st back with open arms. Citizens put together a mass fundraising effort to provide a reception at Allen University for the returning troops. The event took place on February 29, 1919. Speakers included SC Governor Robert Archer Cooper, I.S. Leevy and C.A. Johnson.

The African-American newspaper the Cleveland Advocate noted in its March 15, 1919, issue that "this historic city has set a fine example for other cities in the south in its interest in the return of the soldiers of the 371st Infantry from France. ...Thousands of both races turned out to see the parade, these soldiers being the first to return in a body, having seen actual fighting. The white people dropped the color line and not only viewed the parade but joined in the shouting and crying for joy."

And yet, once the parade had passed by and the speeches were concluded, these young men came back to a world in which they lived under strict Jim Crow laws. Some of them, now with skills learned in the Army and with the courage gained from crossing the ocean and seeing things they had never dreamed existed, were able to secure better jobs and lives for their families than would have been possible otherwise. Still, for most of them, their lives were far from easy. 

Model of the proposed 371st monument, sculpted by

Maria Kirby-Smith of Camden

In December 2019, the board of the Gateway to the Army Association approved the placement of a monument in tribute to the men of the 371st Infantry at Fort Jackson's Centennial Park. Fundraising is ongoing toward making this monument a reality. For more details, visit   https://www.371stmonument.org/.

371st Infantry Went in Green, Came Out Heroes, Now Largely Forgotten

The 371st Infantry was an all African-American regiment, with white officers, formed at Camp Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, during the Fall of 1917. It was the only all-draftee regiment to participate in World War I. However, by the time it left for Europe in April 1918, it was declared to be the best-drilled unit at Camp Jackson. 

The 371st Infantry fought as a part of the French 157th Infantry, known as The Red Hand.

The American flag was added to the 157th battle flag to honor the men of the 371st.

Source: Wikipedia

A number of young men from Williamsburg County were part of the 371st for brief periods of time leading up to April 1918. However, for seven men from this county, the 371st Infantry was their only assignment during the Great War. Today, we will look at Sgt. Walter Paul, Ordnance Sgt. Henry Cleveland McClary, and Corporal Sandy Evander Jones. Sgt. Paul made the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life in battle, while Sgt. McClary survived the fierce fighting, only to die of pneumonia just days before he was scheduled to return home. Corporal Jones received the Distinguished Service Cross from President Woodrow Wilson for his heroism.

But first, let's get a general idea of what the 371st faced when it landed in France in 1918. All companies of the regiment sailed from Newport News, VA, on April 7, 1918, aboard the USS President Grant. Arriving in France, they were put under French command, in part because France desperately needed soldiers and in part because it was believed the French would more easily assimilate the Black troops.

What we know of their movements in Europe comes largely from Emmet J. Scott, Booker T. Washington's closest adviser at the Tuskegee Institute, who was called to Washington as Special Adviser of Black Affairs to the Secretary of War, and who wrote Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War in 1919. 

Source: 371stmonument.org

After the unit arrived in France, they trained with French troops until June 12, 1918, when they were sent into the trenches. For over three months, they held the line in the Avocourt and Verrières sectors northwest of Verdun. Then, in September, they were thrown into the great Champagne offensive. "The regiment captured many German prisoners, 47 machine guns, eight trench engines, three 77mm field pieces, a munitions depot, many railroad cars, and enormous quantities of lumber, hay, and other supplies. It shot down three German airplanes by rifle and machine-gun fire during the advance."

Casualties were high, with 1,065 of the regiment's 2,384 men killed, wounded or captured between September 28 and October 1.

One of those killed on the morning of September 29 was Sgt. Walter Paul, who was a member of Company G. Born in Cedar Swamp in 1896, he was the son Anthony and Nelly Paul, although he and his younger sister were living with their grandparents, Sandy and Jane Paul, on Cedar Swamp Road in 1910. By the time he registered for the draft, Paul was working as a farm hand of J.G. McCollough. He was assigned to Company G of the 371st when he was inducted at Camp Jackson on October 6, 1917. He was promoted to Private First Class on February 1, 1918, to Corporal on March 16, 1918, and to Sergeant on May 4, after the regiment arrived in France. Sgt. Paul is buried in Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial near Lorraine, France, in Plot F, Row 36, Grave 30. His name also appears on the Monument to the 371st Infantry which is situated in France near the location of some of the fiercest fighting. 

Sgt. Walter Paul's name is fifth from the top on the monument to fallen members 

of the 371st Infantry. This monument still stands in France although it was damaged

during fighting in the area in World War II

Henry Cleveland McClary was also born near Cedar Swamp, likely on Sims Reach Road, although he was 10 years older than Walter Paul. His parents were Sam and Susan Strong McClary. At one time McClary ran the barbershop at the Kellahan Hotel, and when he registered for the draft, he requested an exemption, stating that he was the sole support of his elderly father. However, he was inducted into Company E of the 371st Infantry at Camp Jackson on October 6, 1917. He was transferred to the 371st's Supply Company in December 1917 and became Ordnance Sergeant for that company on January 1, 1918. Sgt. McClary survived the battles in which the 371st was involved, and his name appeared on the passenger log of the USS Leviathan, scheduled to sail for the United States from Brest, France, on February 3, 1919. His name, however, is struck through, with the penciled notation that he did not sail as he had been admitted to a hospital. He died of pneumonia on January 27, 1919. 

On August 19, 1920, a small notice appeared in The County Record, which read: The body of Henry McClary, a colored man of this county, a barber by trade, who at one time conducted a shop in the Kellahan Hotel, was returned here last week from France. McClary went to France as a soldier and died in a hospital there during the war.

The war story of Sandy Evander Jones is one of which we should all be proud. Born in Taft in the southern part of Williamsburg County on December 26, 1894, to James E. and Rosetta McCullough Jones, he was a student at Allen University when he registered for the draft in 1917. He was inducted into Company C of the 371st Infantry at Camp Jackson on October 28, 1917. By December 1, he had been promoted to Corporal. As company clerk for Company C, Corporal Jones was left behind to protect the records when his fellow soldiers went into battle. During the fierce fighting of September 28-29, 1918, word reached Corporal Jones that all the officers of his company were casualties and that the company was now scattered. He moved forward and began to round up and re-organize the scattered soldiers even as the battle continued to rage. In 1919, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by President Woodrow Wilson for his actions under very dangerous and trying circumstances. 

Sandy E. Jones in uniform.

The official citation reads: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Corporal Sandy Jones, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism while serving with Company C of the 371st Infantry, 93rd Division,  A.E.F., near Champagne, France, September 28-29, 1918.

There was no mention in The County Record of Cpl. Jones receiving this honor.

On November 20, 1918, he was promoted to Sergeant. He returned to the United States, landing in Hoboken, NJ, on February 11, 1919, and was honorably discharged on February 27. By 1920, he was working as a messenger for the War Department in Washington, DC, where he would live for the rest of his life. He later worked for the Census Bureau at the US Department of Commerce. He married Annie Laurie Moore, and they had a daughter, Helen. Helen's son, David Daniels, remembers his grandfather on Ancestry.com as a man who always told his grandchildren stories with morals for them to emulate. Daniels also notes that the old saying that  "you can take the man out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the man" applied to Sandy Jones, who was always up and doing something by 6 a.m. before breakfasting on grits and gravy with biscuits. His grandson writes that in addition to his work for the government, his grandfather also did well in real estate, owning several properties in Washington, including one on which he planted a large garden.

Sandy Jones later in life.

Source: ancestry.com

Sandy Jones died at age 78 on August 24, 1972. He is buried in Block 6 at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, MD. State Representative Cezar McKnight is Sandy Jones' Great-Grand Nephew.

Next time we'll look at Arthur Burgess, Calvin Green, Emmanuel Morris, and John Richard Rigens.