McClain County Oklahoma Genealogy and History - presented by Genealogy Trails

McClain County Data from Oklahoma Newspapers

Chickasha, I. T., July 2 [1906] - Will Davis, alias Will Newbright colored, was burned at the stake near Womack, Sunday morning. He assaulted Mary Robertson, aged 15 and when captured and identified by his victim, made a full confession.
The assault was made at a lonely spot in the country. The girl was on the way to the home of a neighbor when attacked by the negro, a man of about 30.
Upon reaching home the girl told of the outrage and a posse started in pursuit. Two hundred men joined the hunt. The negro was surrounded and captured in a cornfield about 9 o'clock at night.
The negro confessed the crime and was taken back to the scene. The little girl was called from the house and identified him positively. He gave two names to one person, the name of Will Davis, of Marshall, Texas, and to another the name of Will Newbright, of San Antonio. By the time he had been brought back fully 600 people had gathered.
Deputies from Chickasha and Purcell made formal demand for the prisoner, but were unable to get possession of him. He was taken to a spot on Walnut Creek less than a quarter of a mile from the scene of the crime, and a rope tied around his neck was thrown over a branch of a tree on the bank of the creek about eighteen feet from the ground. The negro was pulled up until he was strangled. Before life was extinct he was lowered to a pile of brush and logs that had been saturated with oil and was then set on fire. One or two groans were heard after the fire was lighted.
Some of the relatives of the girl came up after the fire had done its work and shot several times into the pile. No other shots were fired, and all the way through the mob was orderly. Deputy Marshals buried the body near the spot. During the hunt of the posse, and since, not a negro has been seen on the streets of Chickasha.
Mr. and Mrs. Robertson are respectable people, but poor. They own their own farm. It is thought that no effort will be made on the part of the authorities to find out who did the lynching.
J. T. Dickerson, United States Federal Judge for this district, has already served notice that a special jury will be impaneled to investigate the case and subpoenas will be issued for every man thought to have had a hand in the lynching. No one of the members of the posse who went from here made any attempt at disguise or concealment. If sufficient evidence can be had against them they will be held to await the action of the court. So far it has been impossible to find a man who was there and took part in it, or who remembers seeing anyone who he knew. This is the first lynching to take place in this part of the territory since the old and almost forgotten days of horse thieving, wild Indians and cowboy.
A message has come from the little town of Womack to the federal authorities here that the negroes of that neighborhood, of which there are many, are arming the expect to take vengence on the whites, and ask for assistance in the way of arms and ammunition.
A crowd of some twenty-five or thirty men have been formed, by deputy marshals and have started for the scene of the trouble. The negroes in that section are a bad lot with a mixture of Creek Indian blood and formerly gave the officers much trouble. For the past two years they have been comparatively quiet. More trouble is anticipated before the affair is ended and a clash may occur any moment.

Negro Ravisher Burned At Stake - Six Hundred People Gather to Avenge Brutal Assault on a Helpless Child of Fifteen Years - The Officers of the Law Outwitted.
Chickasha, I. T., July 2 - Everything is quiet at Womack today after the burning of the negro ravisher yesterday.
Judge Townsend will call a special grand jury to investigate and punish the leaders of the mob.
It is said that the department of justice has notified the federal officers here to probe the affair vigorously.
Mary Robertson, victim of the negro brute, will recover. [The Tishomingo News, Johnston County, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, July 5, 1906 - submitted by Sara Hemp]

NEW -- Five Perish in Accidents
By United Press International
A McClain County man was killed in a car-truck collision today and four died in two accidents on Oklahoma highways Monday. The state's 1964 traffic toll rose to 668, compared with 644 a year ago.
The dead:
Daniel Mecley, 24, Ryars.
Ocie C. Holliman, 34, Tulsa
Neva Hulliman, 32, his wife
Debra Hulliman, 2 their daughter
Carl A. Jackson, 54, Muskogee
Mecley was a passenger in a car driven by Joe P. Davis, 28, of Albaquerque, N.M., when it collided with a loaded semi-trailer truck driven by William Story, 40, of Pauls Valley. Davis was critically injured. Story escaped injury. The accident occurred on U.S. 77 just south of Purcell.
The three members of the Holliman family died in a two-car head on collision on S. H. 51 east of Broken Arrow. Their auto collided with a car driven by Verra Boatright, 71, of Tulsa. Mrs. Boatright and Holliman's 4-year-old son, Gregory were critically injured. Holliman was manager of operations for the du Pont Co. in Tulsa.
Jackson was killed when a car in which he was riding stalled on the Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks in Fort Gibson and was struck by a train. The driver, Jess Lavour Body, 58, of Muskogee, suffered minor injuries. The train's engineer was Claud Samuel Wofford, 62, of Van Buren, Ark. He was not injured. [Submitted by Nancy Piper]