State

Murder of “Chicken" Stephens He was a Republican leader in Caswell County, whose execiif ion by the Ku Klux Klan foreran tlick Kirk-lloldon war. Л vic¬ tim of the violent times in which he lived and labored. SOM К forty-odd years ago. when ho was a student at his “alma mammy,” Luther Carlton, able, successful, and lovable Roxboro law¬ yer. wrote an article, which was pub¬ lished in the Wake Forest official magazine organ It was in defense of his kinsman, .lohn W. Stephens, law¬ yer and Republican politician, who was condemned and officially mur¬ dered by decree of the Ku Klux Klan. This tragic incident foreran the fa¬ mous Kirk-IIohlen war. just shortly after the completion of the county's architecturally beautiful courthouse, n masterpiece of conscientious con¬ st met ion that broke the contractor before the lawn and the rock wall around it was completed. It was this failure that caused the contractor to take his own life. My father had a copy of that issue of the Wake Forest publication, which has been lost in the shuffle of time. 1 take it that Luther still pos¬ sesses a copy, 1 do not for a moment believe that bis fidelities to the Demo¬ cratic party have repented him of the efforts. labors and finding' of that defense of Stephens. Law Partner of Kitchin When I first knew and admired Luther, he was the youthful and bright law-partner of the brilliant William Walton Kitchin. afterwards Congressman for several terms from the "Imperial Fifth," ami later on. Governor of the State of North Caro¬ lina, and I believe Luther has pre¬ served the integrity of his heart, and the ability of his brain through all the succeeding years. I am not a historian. My mind does not assimilate dates ami details, and 1 have neither the time nor the patience for painstaking research and investigation. I sort of absorb the es¬ sential facts, store them away in the walls of memory, and let the rest go —as Dr. Gunn is said to have said about the correct pronunciation of the word "unique." Whenever he came across it in print, he called it "uni que," and went on. tty том iii:\im:rso\ I have never believed the character of John \V. Stephens was as bad as it lias oftentimes been (minted, mid. in my conversation with men who personally knew him, both at Went¬ worth. from which county seat vil- lage he was driven, under the odiutn of being a common chicken thief, and at Ynneeyville, whore he sought succor in an adopted home. 1 have never found one who has told me that he personally knew of any dastardly deed «lone by Stephens, deserving of such a dentil as was meted out t" him. I have talked with my father, then lately come from the battlefields and Granville Comity, and I have talked with our oldest and most ven¬ erable Democrat. 1 tnrzillai Shuford Graves, ex-sheriff and ex-clerk of the court, himself an uncle by marriage and kinsman by name of the lovely wife of I.utber Carlton. Mr. Graves personally knew John W. Stephens, and he has told me that he lias always felt that he was a victim of the vio¬ lent times in which be lived and la¬ bored. lie was П Republican ami a "nigger leader." when it was highly unpopular to be either in Caswell County. Undoubtedly, he wielded a powerful influence upon Negroes, to whose nostrils had come the incense of ill-prepared freedom ami citizen¬ ship, but there is little evidence that lie incited to arson and to murder. An Ill-founded Charge The charge of stealing chickens is ill-founded and asinine. John W. Stephens was a Confederate soldier. He came home to Wentworth on a furlough, to see his wife and chil¬ dren. The «lay lie was to set forth to rejoin his company on the battle- front. lie went down to his stable-lot to catch a couple of chickens, so that his wife might prepare them for his rations on the return from his fur¬ lough. In my opinion it is ridiculous to assume that he knew the two chickens he caught were chickens that had wandered from a neighbor's lot into his own stable. However, preju¬ dice was so strong when he returned at the end of the war to the home of his nativity, that a bullet of a would- be assassin almost ended his lif«- then. The threats of his neighbors drove him to seek safety for himself, his wife and his cliihlrvn in this county- seat village, some thirty mile* away, where less than three years later his murder was accomplished, under cover of Ku Klux Klan official con¬ demnation and judgment. Ever since my earliest boyhood I’ve heard the street side talcs of the assassination of Stephens. Many times my eyes have ga/c«| upon the drops of his heart's blood, stained into the howu-roek window-sill of the courthouse room, where today Holland McSwoin superintends the schools of Caswell County. I have often heard the story of the "Klan Klonklave" in the deep гессяае* «»f “Ivy Banks." on Country Line Creek, where "court" was held, sen¬ tence of death was passed, the execu¬ tioner chosen by "black button" drawing, tin* decree of «‘art hlv se¬ crecy enjoined and sealed by a bon¬ fire of “lightwood crosses." dipp«ad in self-pricked blood from the veins of individual klan-men. How the Murder Occurred I have heard the story of how Stephens was inveigled into leaving a political meeting, being held in the courtroom above, and induced to go to Ids office below, where Klniismen lurked in t he shadows of the fading sunset. I have often looked out «if the window of the death room mid east my eyes toward the yard of the home of Stephens and heard the ston of his request, that he be pcrniittc«l to take one last farewell look upon the forms of his little children, playing in the yard at the time. (Continued on page »