Pocahontas County                                 

                                                         Junanita S. Dilley
                                                         Clover Lick, WV
 

                                                       August 16, 1940



                                              
                                         Lynchings in Pocahontas County



     There have been no lynchings in the County for two generations and the
three we have record of took place during the Civil War. The following is taken
from the Pocahontas Times for January 28th 1932 and was written by Calvin
Price.

     In January 1862, a colored man belonging to John W. Warwick was taken by
a mob, from the jail in Huntersville, and hanged on a tree.

     Reverend Henry Arbogast and Eli Buzzard were taken from their homes and
shot near the roadside. Their body's were found the next day.
( I have sent something on this before)

     Timothy Alderman of Douthard's Creek was taken from his home and shot to
death in the woods near the bridge at Minnehaha Springs. His body was not
found for three weeks. Whether all were killed the same night, I do not know.
I do know that Timothy Alderman was murdered the night of January 22, 1862.
The reason of the inflamed feeling against these men, was the fact that they were
Union sympathizers and had been accused of giving information to the Federal
Forces. Large bodies of Confederate soldiers were camped in various parts of
the County that winter.
     Timothy Alderman was one of several that had warning that they were in danger.
He was preparing to hide himself in the mountains and was waiting for his clothes
to dry when the lynchers came for him. He was 56 years 11 months and 28 days
old the day he was murdered, January 22. He was found February 9. He left a
widow and 8 small children, the youngest a daughter of two years, who sickened
and died with dyptheria about the day her father was found. They were buried in
the same grave.

    Two of his grandaughters, Mrs. C. H. Kellison and Mrs. Lanty Underwood sent
me a poem some years after by Mary Ann Alderman and here it is.


Attend dear friends, while we relate

A sad and solemn story;

How treacherous friends and bloody men

With hearts and hands all gorey,


Three years ago, now past and gone

Here in this neighborhood;

Murdered a Christian Union man

And called it all for good.                  



He was a pious, harmless man

All wicked men did shun;

He told them that secession

Was anything but fun.



But oh, my heart, it bleeds to think

What sorrow did divide;

The murderers came at close of day

 And took this man aside.



They took him from his happy home,

And those he loved so dear,

 No more to see their smiling faces

 Nor their sweet voices hear.



They took him just three miles from home,

 Along the darksome way;
 
 And there the murderers murdered him,

 Down in a field he lay.



For three long weeks in hopeless woe,

Friends searched for him in vain;

When lo, one stormy winters eve

They him beheld again.



Yes, there the loving father lay 

The murdered man was found;

His face was burried in the snow,

And frozen to the ground.



But soon he was taken home,

And there was laid to rest;

No more to be with those he loved,

But he was with the blessed.



The widow and the ophans left,

To mourn their wretched lot;

Comforted like Rachel, they refused

Because their friend is not.



But God has said that he will be

A husband and a friend,

A father to the orphaned child

And aid and comfort lend.



Then weep no more, ye mourning friends,

 But ask to be forgiven;

Then you will meet the one you love

In that bright home in Heaven.



The rosebud is now bursting forth,

Around that peaceful spot;

Where slumbers his moulded frame,

But, he is not forgot.



Perhaps the learner of this song

His name would like to see;

Timothy Alderman it was
                                                                    
While he on earth did be.



     Mrs. John Lee another grandaughter gave me this clipping when I was at
her home getting material on their church. She says that a man claimed to have
a dream and he said that he saw Alderman's body at a certain spot. They went
to this place and did find the body, but they always thought this man knew more
then just having a dream.

( I am sending this because I thought it might help to show the feelings brought
on by the war )
 

                                                  
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