A Family Lynching

          “Why is that limb  in the closet next to the front door?” was a question I asked my Grandmother “Mama” Stowe in the 1940s.  That question would always lead to her abrupt change in the subject.  On the other hand, my family was dedicated to both written and oral history.  The cardboard boxes of paperwork  curated and passed down from generation to generation currently residing in my library  attest to this. One of my greatest sources of oral family history was my Great Aunt “Auntie” Owen (Emma Eliza Read Owen 1843-1947).

 

Photo at the Elms.  Standing Mrs. Rosie Read (Mama Stowe) boy is Noel Read Stowe,

seated Mrs. Emma Owen (Auntie) on her 100th birthday ( R. Stowe photo Dec 3 1943)

                When I was four or five it was my job and responsibility to drag “Auntie's” back across her bedroom floor every 30 minutes.  She would have a coal fire in her grate everyday of the year, including July and August and would rock closer and closer to the fire. Auntie, who lived to be nearly 104 years old, was a sister of my Great Grandfather Dr. Andrew Read.  When she was in her late 90s and before the onset of dementia, Auntie described to me, in detail, life in Talbot County in the second half of the 19^th and early 20^th Century.

                                        Daniel Grant Owen Family Home (R. Stowe photo 1946)

                When my Great Aunt Sarah Beaufort Read Owen (1839-1887) died my Great Uncle Dan married her sister, Emma Eliza Read.  In some cases, as in other families in the south, my family practiced a sororate. That is the custom that a widower should marry his deceased wife’s sister if she was unmarried.

In the late 1800s my cousin, Miss Sallie Emma Owen (1871-1896), daughter of Great Uncle Dan Owen and “Auntie’s” sister Great Aunt Sallie Read Owen, was murdered by a young dentist, Dr. Will Ryder.  Miss Sallie Emma and her sister, Lizzie Mae Owen (1874-1946), were both visiting at the

     Sallie Emma Owen (R. Stowe collection, Jabes Art Gallery, Auburn, AL 1800s)

 

John McCoy home in Talbotton, GA.  Earlier, Dr. Ryder had become smitten with Sallie Emma and was very jealous of her friends.  After attending the Talbotton Methodist Church in the evening Sallie Emma and Gus Persons returned to the McCoy home and because of the chilly evening air, were seated in front of the fire.  Shortly after that Jennie Beall, Emma’s sister (Lizzie Mae Owen) and Mary Matthews  joined them.  At about 9:00 Dilly Canty, a black man, saw someone standing in

Daniel Grant Owen and Sallie Read Owen.  Parents of Cousin Sallie Emma Owen

 (, R. Stowe Collection, Jabes Art Gallery Auburn, Alabama 1870)  

 

the shadows near the front door of the home.  Just after 9 PM there were two blasts from a shotgun and Miss Sally Emma slumped in her chair.  She had been killed instantly.  Ryder then raced back to his room at the Western House Hotel where he gulped down a handful of pills in an attempt to kill himself. From the rooming house Ryder fled to Pearson’s pond where he was later discovered partially conscious, muddy, bloody and concealed by lily pads.  About midnight, Dr. E. L. Bradwell, in an attempt to save Ryder, pumped his stomach and treated him for poisoning.  After a partial recovery he was thrown in jail in Columbus, GA.  The Grand Jury met and he was indicted for the murder of Sallie Emma.  Then followed a trial in the Talbot County Court house.  The ensuing trial consisted of both an outstanding prosecutor and defense under the direction of Judge William Butt.  Feelings ran high in that part of west-central Georgia.  Throughout the trial Ryder was kept under heavy guard by Talbot County Sheriff Burrell.  The State of Georgia vs. W. L. Ryder was covered region-wide by both the Atlanta Constitution and the Tabotton New Era.  The defense stated that many of these articles were inflammatory. 

                In one of these, a reporter describing the scene of the tragedy for the constitution wrote “Everywhere was blood, the bright warm, accusing blood of the most popular woman in the county.  The assassin (Ryder) did his work well.  Every drop of blood drained from the heart of his victim – it was in frightful evidence everywhere – on the carpet, chairs, pictures, everywhere.  With pitiful insistence it flowed about the floor – until to the horrified eyes looking on – it seemed to creep out the door, into the street, onto the courthouse nearby, into the great iron safe where the statute books are, and there write its fearful protest.”  Other reports called the killing “a senseless crime,” the “act of a madman,” and “murder by a jealous suitor.”  The front page story in the Constitution on April 7^th started off, “Never in the criminal history of Georgia has a chapter more sensational, more dramatic or more to be deplored been written than the one that was traced here last night.  Love, jealousy, murder and an attempt at suicide were the features of the horrible story …” Many other news stories referred to Ryder as the “murderer” though no witness ever identified him as being at the scene at the time of the shooting. (There was a Land:pp. 173-174)

 

Throughout the trial he was kept in the Columbus jail being moved back and forth to trial in Talbotton by Sheriff Butt and a squad of deputies. The trial was considered one of the largest in the history of Georgia courts.  After deliberation, the foreman brought back the verdict, which made the front pages of papers throughout the state “ROPE FOR RYDER”:

 

                The jury was out for a very short while when its foreman rapped on the door.  Returning to the jury box, Judge Butt intoned the usual query “Gentlemen, have you reached a verdict?”  When the foreman answered yes he told Sol. Gilbert to publish the verdict.  “We the jury find the defendant guilty.  This September 26, 1896. J. E. Garrett, foreman.”

                Without a recommendation of mercy, Dr. Ryder knew this meant death by hanging.  He looked ghostly white, his eyes glued to the floor as the verdict was read.  Judge Butt broke the deadly silence. “Bring the prisoner forward.”

                Dr. Ryder was helped from his chair by two guards.  As he faced the judge, he did not appear to hear or realize what was happening.  He never blinked his eyes when Judge Butt concluded the sentence with the words “and on January 15, 1897 be hanged by your neck until dead.” (There was a Land: 178)

 Upon hearing the verdict there was a clamor among Ryder’s friends that the sentence was illegal and demand made for a new trial because of errors in the original.  The new trial was scheduled for July 19,1897.  Sometime was spent during the initial trial investigating the possibility that Dr. Ryder was insane when he killed Miss Owen.  There were additional problems with the trial.  Judge Butt became sick and was replaced by Judge John C. Harn. Also, during the proceedings Ryder had attempted suicide numerous times.  In the late 1800s Georgia law required that when a trial ended in a capital conviction the guilty had to be executed in not less than 30 days – or more than 60 days.  The judge’s sentence took longer than 60 days to carry out and since the guilty had not been executed by that date a mistrial was declared.  Friends and family of the murdered girl decided that enough time had passed since the beginning of the trial, the guilty verdict, and the ultimate sentence. They became enraged and decided to take Ryder’s execution into their own hands.  The accused was transported by buggy from the courthouse to Waverly Hall where he was to be put on the train with his guards to travel back to his cell in Columbus.    A mob formed with the intent of overtaking the buggy and administering some quick Georgia justice.  The mob caught up with the buggy on the Alabama Road (Hwy. 36), which runs to Thomaston, outside Woodland, GA.  The mob initially planned to take Ryder back to the McCoy house where the murder had occurred and lynch him there.  The approach of Sheriff Richards and 20 deputies called for a change in plans.  Ryder was taken to a tree near the John M. Willis farm house.  His shirt was covered with blood where hand cuffs had cut into his wrists. The mob then tied a rope  around his legs  and another length of rope was made into a hangman’s noose.  In preparation for hanging he was allowed a final prayer. They then put Ryder on the shoulders of mob members. Ryder was then dropped and allowed to hang.

                Later, Dr. Ryder’s father and brothers claimed the body.  Subsequently, Pinkerton detectives identified members of the mob:
 

                After two days of investigation, the Grand Jury brought in its report on Tuesday afternoon, September 14^th 1897.  It simply said, “After investigating this matter diligently and examining a large number of witnesses, we have not secured evidence enough to indict anyone.”

                Thus ended the tragedy that affected, in one way or another, practically every citizen of Talbot County. (This was Their Land: 180)

 

 Sallie Owen's Grave in the Owen Family Cemetery, Pleasant Hill, Georgia (R. Stowe Photo 2006)

                It was more than 70 years after originally asking my Grandmother about the limb in the closet, that a cousin asked me if there was a liimb at my house, to which I said yes.  She also asked me about the murder of my cousin Sallie Emma and the resulting lynching of Dr. Ryder of which I had no knowledge.  This branch of the hanging tree was used as a reminder of the horrible series of events that had happened almost 100 years before.

The major sources for this Blog are:
The Atlanta Constitution Newspaper.
Davidson, William H. A Rockaway in Talbot (Vols. I-IV – 1893-1996).
Owen Family. Oral history and photographs.
“The Ryder Murder Case” in There was a Land. A Story of Talbot County, Georgia and its People. Robert H. Jordan 1971.
Stowe Family. Oral history and photographs.
The Talbotton New Era. Vol. LXXI Talbotton, Georgia, Thursday. Dec 3, 1943
http://www.columbusgeorgiaonline.com/cgo-features/ins-outs-of-harris-county/murder-talbot-county-part-one/
http://www.columbusgeorgiaonline.com/harris_county21htm