The Faulkner County Lynching (1905)
BY ROBERT W. MERIWETHER

During the 30-year period from 1889 to 1918 there were some 3,224 lynchings in the United States. (1) Around 78% of the lynch victims were colored (negro). Most of the lynchings occurred in the South--Arkansas, with 214 (32 white and 182 negro), ranked sixth behind Georgia (386), Mississippi (373), Texas (335), Louisiana (313). and Alabama (276). [The author notes that he will use the term "negro" in this account since this word and "colored" were generally used by both black and white Americans in the first decade of the 20th century.]

The greatest mass lynching to occur anywhere in the U. S. during the 30-year period was on March 26, 1904, in St. Charles (Arkansas County), when 13 negro men were killed in encounters with law enforcement officials and armed white citizens. (2)


A general acceptance

Although there was some strong sentiment against lynching in Arkansas and other Southern states, there was also a general acceptance, even approval, of the practice by most white persons. Some white leaders openly condoned lynching. In 1903, the Conway Log Cabin Democrat printed a statement made in Cleveland, Ohio, by the Right Reverend William M. Brown, bishop of the Arkansas diocese of the Episcopal Church: "While I do not justify lynching, I can find no other remedy adequate to suppress the crime for which this has been made a punishment by the people of the South. I am a Northern man, and used to look with horror on lynching, but since I have been South my eyes have been opened. Imprisonment does no good. I am of the opinion that it would be well to leave the solution of the negro question to the Southern people. They know best what to do." (3)

The most famous defense of lynching was by Jeff Davis, third-term Governor of Arkansas, at a public gathering in Little Rock honoring the visiting President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, on October 26, 1905. Using colorful and provocative language, Governor Davis stated that if a white man discovered that one of his womenfolk had been violated by a negro, "there is not a law on the statute books of Arkansas to prevent that father or husband or brother or sweetheart from avenging that crime AT ONCE AND WITHOUT APOLOGY TO ANY TRIBUNAL ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH."

President Roosevelt responded with a stern admonition to the governor and all other public officials to do everything in their power "to drive the menace and reproach of lynch law out of the United States."

However, even the editors of the Arkansas Gazette, which had opposed lynching for years and was very anti-Davis on practically every issue, said that Roosevelt might believe differently if he had been raised in a rural area of the South where negroes outnumbered whites. (4)

The above information is given to provide some background for a chilling but revealing series of events in Faulkner County. The inbred racism of Arkansas whites, even those who felt compassion for negroes, in the early 20th century is illustrated by the statements and newspaper accounts concerning the terrible events.

A "Horrible Crime"

On Thursday night, September 14, 1905, a horrible crime was committed in Conway which would lead to the only recorded lynching in Faulkner County. Mrs. Arlena Lawrence, a white widow living with her two sons in "the northwestern part of town," (5) was severely beaten and "criminally assaulted"; her son Elzey, 7, was killed; and her son Dewey, 3, was badly wounded. (6) The victims were discovered by a neighbor, Mrs. W. D. House, some 18 hours after the attack.

After recovering consciousness, Mrs. Lawrence stated that she had been confronted by a nude negro man who had struck her (with some sort of club) before she could cry out and had later slashed her with a knife. The children's wounds indicated that the attacker had killed Elzey with the club and had slashed Dewey with the knife. Mrs. Lawrence said that she would know her attacker by sight because he had come to her home for something to eat on two or three occasions. (7)

Citizens of Faulkner County who came to the Lawrence home or read the graphic descriptions of the gruesome details in newspaper accounts must have been overwhelmed with emotions of horror, pity, anger, and fear. Although little Dewey recovered from his wounds to the extent he could go out and play in six or seven days, Arlena Lawrence was in a semi-conscious and delirious condition while her life hung in the balance. Tenderly cared for by the women of Conway, she was not informed of the death of her oldest boy for nearly two weeks. (8)

On Saturday, the 16th, a mass meeting of Conway citizens was held to take some action in regard to the terrible crime. Col. G. W. Bruce was elected chairman and J.O. Lile was named secretary. A committee consisting of Capt. W. W. Martin, J. H. Stubbs, and L. Green was appointed "with full power to co-operate with the officers in the apprehension of the criminal" and "to care for the immediate wants of the stricken family." About $100 in cash was donated for the care of the family and $700 subscribed for a reward fund. When informed of the crime, Arkansas Governor Jeff Davis issued a proclamation making an offer of $500 for the arrest and conviction of the unknown criminal. (9)

Outrage is condemned

On Saturday evening, the "law abiding negroes of Conway" met at the colored schoolhouse to condemn the outrage. The Rev. H. Hawk, pastor of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, was elected chairman and W. H. Suggs was named secretary. "Strong speeches" were delivered by J. R. Nichols, Jas. H. Thompson, W. H. Suggs, A. Hawk, Voss Bowe, and others. A resolution was passed which strongly condemned the assault on the Lawrence family and pledged the support of "the law abiding and peaceful negro citizens. . . in apprehending and legally punishing the guilty party or parties." (10)

A week later, the Arkansas Democrat reported that Mrs. Lawrence still had not regained sufficient consciousness to identify her assailant, but that when she did "a mob could hardly be prevented taking the law in hand and dealing out partial justice to the brute who respects not virtue nor law, nor values human life."

Frank Brown, 30, a negro, had been arrested [by constable Wash Clibourn] as a suspect and was being held in the Faulkner County jail. Also, "a white man to whom the fingers of circumstances point as the guilty party, is being watched closely by those at work on the case." Allegedly, at the white man's residence there had been discovered "a bloody shirt, an iron club bearing blood and a woman's hair, and ... a towel with which blacking has been washed from some person or thing, the blacking being the exact color of some found on the sheet of the victim's bed." (11)

The sheriff of Faulkner County was J. H. Harrell, who was serving his second two-year term. (12) The sheriff arrested another negro, Will Stewart (or Steward), whom he believed was the perpetrator of the crime. Brown and Stewart evidently looked very much alike and were familiar figures about the streets of Conway. Leaving Brown in the Faulkner County jail, Sheriff Harrell took Stewart to Little Rock on Friday evening, September 22, to check out his alibi. On Saturday morning (nine days after the murder/assault), Mrs. Lawrence recovered sufficiently to give a description to her physician of the man who had attacked her, and the description allegedly fit Frank Brown.


Mob marches on jail

That night, a mob of some 40 to 200 men (depending upon the account), who made no effort to conceal their identity, assembled on the outskirts of town and
marched on the jail. (13) Most of the mob members were evidently from the country and were joined by a smaller number of townspeople. The Arkansas Gazette correspondent reported that "the work of the mob was accomplished so quietly that many residents of the town knew nothing of what was transpiring, and no attempt was made to interfere with the mob." However, the Arkansas Democrat reporter stated that both Conway Mayor Frank Robins and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Reuben Robins pleaded with the men to disperse, but were unsuccessful. (14) The Democrat also reported that County Judge W. B. Wilson heard of the intended attack and warned the jailer to remove his family from their living quarters in the jail.

Deputy Sheriff and Jailer J.S. Johnson and Deputy Sheriff A.G. Wolfe surrendered Frank Brown to the mob, which then took the prisoner in a buggy to the vacant Lawrence home. One report claimed that Brown confessed to the crime and begged not to be burned, but another source said the suspect "all along declared his innocence." Around 10 o'clock, Brown was hung from a tree and left there. By noon the next day, when acting Coroner J. F. Campbell took charge of the body, some 1,500 persons had visited the site of the lynching to view the hanging corpse. Campbell summoned a coroner's jury whose verdict was that "Brown came to his death at the hands of unknown parties." (15) Brown's body was buried by Pence Funeral Home in the "Colored Grave Yard" [Robinson Cemetery].

From all accounts, Sheriff Harrell was appalled at the lynching. When he heard the report in Little Rock, he made a statement to the Gazette that "I believe the people have got the wrong man. I know Frank Brown. . . and while he was a worthless negro, I do not believe that he was guilty of the crime for which he was hanged." Harrell indicated that he had more evidence against Will Stewart and that the two men were almost "doubles" in their resemblance to each other. The sheriff went on to say that if he had been there, "the good people of Conway would not have done this." (16)

Newspapers editorialize

Each of the three newspapers consulted took a different view of the matter. The Arkansas Democrat noted that if Brown was innocent, "his lynchers not only took the life of an innocent man, but they have also rendered the likelihood of the punishment of the guilty party extremely improbable." The Gazette used the incident to point out "one of the fundamental objections to lynching. In many cases there must be doubt whether the victim is the guilty man. Mobs do not stop to examine witnesses and conduct exhaustive investigations." The Log Cabin Democrat believed that, since the evidence against Brown was conclusive, "the mistake the mob made was not in lynching the wrong negro, but in taking the law into their own hands." The editorial went on to observe that public sentiment in
the South, "and, for that matter, the nation, upholds it [lynching] as a swift and terrible vengeance of an outraged people upon the perpetrators of such hideous crimes as the one committed here on September 14. (17)

Quite different was the reaction of two former Conway residents who were co-editors of the weekly Arkansas Methodist in Little Rock. The Rev. A. C. Millar had lived in Conway from 1890 to 1902 while president of Hendrix College; the Rev. James A. Anderson was a former pastor of the Conway First Methodist Church. In the September 27 edition of their paper the two editors declared that "with intense humiliation we record that a lynching occurred in the town of Conway last week. Certain lewd fellows of the baser sort hanged a worthless negro supposed to have committed a quadruple crime, to horrible to detail here." If the accused was not guilty, "it was a horrible crime for anybody to execute him. The good people who have made that town what it is are deeply humiliated that such things could occur there. We lift up our voice against both crimes, and no less against the last than against the first. One horrible crime does not remedy another."

The first page of the October 4 issue of the Arkansas Methodist was devoted entirely to a stinging condemnation of lynching entitled "The Death of Law." Using the Conway lynching as a platform, Millar and Anderson warned of the evil effects on social order when a mob takes the law into its own hands. In language reminiscent of the ancient Hebrew prophets, the two Methodist ministers ended their hard hitting essay: "Lawlessness begets lawlessness. Vengeance provokes vengeance. Hate kindles hate. Let it be writ large: LYNCHING IS THE CRIME OF CRIMES. IT STABS TO THE VERY HEART OF LAW. THE STATE, NOT THE CRIMINAL, IS THE REAL VICTIM." (18)

Grand jury invoked

In Conway, Sheriff Harrell continued to condemn the lynching. Deputy sheriff Wolfe and jailer Johnson (19) both were discharged from (or resigned) their offices "in consequence of their inaction on the night that Frank Brown was taken from the county jail without interference and lynched." Harrell then announced his intention to prosecute the leaders of the lynch mob and to go before the next Faulkner County grand jury (scheduled to meet in January) and attempt to secure the indictment of several members of the mob whose names he had in his possession. In a statement to the press, the sheriff said:

I have evidence in my hands to show that ten of the men who were responsible for the organization of the mob are not law-abiding citizens. It has been claimed that the mob was made up of good citizens, but I know that this is not true. There were of course a number of respectable citizens in the mob, but as is usually the case they were drawn into the thing after a few lawless men had started the movement. I know who some of the leaders were and I intend to lay the matter before the Grand Jury when it meets on the second Monday in January.

Harrell went on to say that the report that Brown had made a confession was not true. "If any confession was made, no one has been found who knows anything about it." (20)

The removal of the deputies and the sheriffs announcement that he would seek indictments "created a sensation" and "aroused considerable feeling" among the residents of Conway. Some citizens rallied to the support of Harrell and declared that they would aid him in his efforts to punish the mob leaders, while others were in strong opposition. The Log Cabin Democrat did not take an editorial stand, but the Arkansas Methodist stated that Sheriff Harrell "deserves the support of all good citizens in his effort to bring the lynchers of his county to justice." (21)

The issue attracted even more attention when the Pulaski County sheriff, C.C. Kavanaugh, followed Harrell's example and began efforts to prosecute the leaders of a mob which gathered in Little Rock on September 30 to attempt the lynching of a negro alleged to have assaulted a white woman. One of the leaders of the some 500 men and boys in the mob was identified as a man from Conway named "Krickenberg" who was apprehended and "sent off' by Sheriff Kavanaugh. Governor Jeff Davis intervened by granting a pardon to a mob leader fined $50 for carrying a pistol -- an action which caused a clash between the governor and the sheriff. Kavanaugh said that the governor's pardon gave mob members the power to shoot officers who were attempting to prevent a lynching. (22)

In an editorial on the actions of the two sheriffs, the Gazette commented that leaders of mobs were not always from the lawless element-- "the mob that lynched the Italians in New Orleans was led by the best men in that city." However, in most cases it was the "town loafers and the lawless element" who were the first to cry "Lynch the nigger!" Then, "by a fatal psychological infection, the minds of better citizens urge them to join the mob." (23)

The Faulkner County grand jury convened on January 8, 1906. (24) Although interest in the lynching had begun to wane, Sheriff Harrell made "a vigorous effort" to have the grand jury indict the members of the mob that had lynched Frank Brown some three-and-a-half-months previously. In his charge to the grand jury, Circuit Judge George M. Chapline said in substance:

When a black brute clasps a black hand about a white throat and breathes the breath of lust against the check of virtue and innocence, he ought to die. But how? Not by an unreasoning mob, but by the decree of a court and at the hands of a man authorized by law to put him to death. Lynchers stain their hands with the blood of their fellow men. With white judges and white jurors, I deny that justice is ever defeated. No black brute who is guilty will ever escape. The law is supreme and the mob spirit ought to bow to its will. The people respect the courts and the law, but if lynchers are allowed to have their way, where will it end? Some men would lynch a man for but one crime, but when they do that there are others who would lynch a man for a lesser crime. Gentlemen, uphold the law. It is your duty to investigate this matter. (25)

The grand jury heard several witnesses concerning the lynching of Frank Brown. The jury adjourned at noon on January 17, returning a total of 26 indictments in various criminal cases. However, apparently to no one's surprise, there were no indictments against any of the alleged participants in the lynching. (26) It should also be noted that no person, including the constable who had arrested Frank Brown, seems to have claimed the sum of $1,000 in reward money.


(1) All of the statistics are from Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918 (New York: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1919), as re-published by the Arno Press and TheNew York Times (New York: 1969). The total figures are exclusive of the victims of the riots in Atlanta (1906) and East St. Louis (1917).

(2) See the March 27, 1904, editions of the Arkansas Gazette and Arkansas Democrat, and subsequent issues.

(3) Log Cabin Democrat (Sept. 24, 1903), p. 6.
(4) Raymond Arsenault, The Wild Ass of the Ozarks: Jeff Davis and the Social Bases of Southern Politics (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1988), pp. 211-212

(5) The Lawrence house was "in a secluded location, not even on a street, being a part of the Ingram place between Clifton and Davis streets" about 200 yards from the closest residence. Log Cabin Democrat (Sept. 21, 1905) , p. 1.

(6) Elzey's name is also given as "Elzie" and "Elgin," and if he was indeed born on September 6, 1899, he was 6 years old. Both Pence Funeral Home records and the Oak Grove Cemetery census list the date of his death as September 16, but this was probably the date of his burial. Mrs. Lawrence's age was given as "about 35" and it was reported that she had been raised near Greenbrier with the maiden name of Butcher. She was described as a "poor but hard working and intelligent woman who has been earning an honest living at the wash tub, aided by the charities of friends." Ibid.

(7) Arkansas Gazette (Sept. 16, 1905), p. 1; ArkansasDemocrat (Sept. 16, 1905), p. 7. The two Little Rock daily newspapers ran stories on Saturday, five days before the weekly Conway Log Cabin Democrat ,which appeared on Thursdays.

(8) Arkansas Gazette (Sept. 26, 1905), p. 2.

(9) Log Cabin Democrat (Sept. 21, 1905), p. 1; Arkansas Democrat (Sept. 18, 1905), p. 8.

(10) The resolution was signed by A. A. Hawk, J. H. Thompson, H. C. Kilgore,
J.B. Washington, J.R. Nichols, S. Voss, C. Parrott, F.C. Gatewood, C.
Gatewood, H.C. Rooks, Geo. Olive, S.S. Alexander, Jno. Jones, W. A.
Lindsey, P. Delaney, S. Bledsoe, Chas. Jackson, G. Dancy, John Hill, S.W.
Bowe, C. Lyons, J. F. Clark, and twenty-five others. Log Cabin Democrat
(Sept. 21, 1905), p. 4.

(11) Arkansas Democrat (Sept. 21, 1905), p. 1. [The author could find no other report on the white suspect.]

(12) Harrell was born in that part of Prairie County which later became Lonoke County and had been a resident of Conway for 35 years.

(13) The Faulkner County Jail, on the courthouse square, is now the Faulkner County Museum.

(14) Frank (age 24) and Reuben (22) Robins were brothers. Mayor Frank Robins was also the editor of the Conway Log Cabin Democrat, but that paper never mentioned these reported pleas.

(15) Log Cabin Democrat (Sept. 28, 1905), p. 1; Arkansas Democrat (Sept. 23,
1905), p. 1; Arkansas Gazette (Sept. 23, 1905), p. 1.

(16) Arkansas Gazette (Sept. 23, 1905), p. 1.

(17) ArkansasDemocrat (Sept. 23, 1905), p. 4:Arkansas Gazette (Sept. 24, 1905), p. 4; Log Cabin Democrat (Oct. 5, 1905), p. 4.

(18) Arkansas Methodist (Sept. 27, 1905), p. 3; Ibid. (Oct. 4, 1905), p. 1. Both of these editorials were re-printed in the Log Cabin Democrat.

(19) J. S. Johnson would later serve two terms (1911-14) as sheriff of Faulkner
County.

(20) Log CabinDemocrat (Oct. 5, 1905), p. 1;Ibid. (Oct. 12, 1905), p. 1; Arkansas Gazette (Oct. 7, 1905), p. 1.

(21) Arkansas Methodist (Oct. 11, 1905), p. 3.

(22) Arkansas Gazette (Oct. 1, 1905), p. 1; Ibid. (Oct. 7, 1905), p. 1; Ibid. (Oct. 8, 1905), p. 2: Log Cabin Democrat (Oct. 12, 1905), p. 1.

(23) Arkansas Gazette (Oct. 8, 1905), p. 4.

(24) A Members of the grand jury (and their townships) were: J. T. Blessing (Benton), P. M. Douglass (California), O.W. Wright and O.T. Petty (Cypress), G.W.A. Wilson and W. M. Harrell (Cadron), W. E. Thompson (Danley), J.S. Graham (Harding), J.H. Lewelling (Harve), W. T. Maddox (Mount Vernon), C. Wooley (Matthews), J. A. Chism (Newton), J. R. Holmes (Palarm), J. W. Whitely (Walker), and B. F. Davidson and J. F. Martin (Wilson). All were white males. Log Cabin Democrat (Dec. 14, 1905), p. 1.

(25) Ibid. (Jan. 11, 1906), p. 1.

(26) Ibid. (Jan. 18, 1906), p. 1.