Days of Darkness

by John Ed Ed Pearce

  Hon. W.O. Bradley, Governor of Kentucky, Frankfort, Ky.

  Dear Sir:

  I noticed a letter in yesterday’s Courier-Journal addressed to you from Stanford, supposed to be written by Jesse Barrett and James Baker, when in fact it was either written or dictated by one of the worst criminals that Kentucky has ever known, Thomas Baker, the father of James Baker and the man who caused and led James Baker and Jesse Barrett to the bushes within two hundred yards of his house and shot down two of his nearest neighbors and wounded A.B. Howard, a man of sixty-odd years of age. After shooting two of them down in the road, he went down to the road and finished them. They were arrested by my brother’s deputies, tried before the county Judge [who] ordered the sheriff, B.P. White, Jr. to deliver them to the Stanford jailer, which he did, unharmed, over the same road that these bushwhackers and midnight assassins are so uneasy now to travel. If they are afraid of anything it is that God will cause the trees and rocks to fall upon them and grind them to pieces when they go back to the scenes of the terrible crimes they have committed.

  I do not write you this to try to induce you or to prevent you from sending soldiers with them to Clay County, but I do write you to remove the slander that they have undertaken to impose upon my brother. They know they are doomed under the law and evidence that is against them, and that they are to die on a scaffold by a jury of their own selection or to remain in the penitentiary the rest of their natural life for the crimes they have committed.

  Governor, Tom Baker, as I have stated above, beyond any doubt is one of the worst criminals that have ever marked Kentucky soil from his boyhood up. His first act in his boyhood was to cut a man who was under the influence of liquor, and if he had not been prevented would have cut him to pieces. His next act was to visit New York city, obtain counterfeit money to take amongst his friends and neighbors of his county and distribute. His next act, as I remember, was to slip up behind a brother mason and strike him in the head with a rock, from which at least the size of a half of a dollar of skull was taken from his head. His next act was to get his cousin to go to the Kentucky River and buy rafts from the raftsmen and dispose of them at a sacrifice and divide the money and run his cousin off to the far West. … his cousin has never been heard of since that time. His next act was to lie in the bushes withing two hundred yards of his house, take his own son, James Baker, and this man Barrett and shoot two of his neighbors to death from ambush and seriously wound another. His next act he made two trips below where my brother lived to meet him and take his life, which he did meet him and shot him to death, and took money from my brother’s pocket.

  I would be very thankful to you if you would have this letter published.

  Your friend, John G. White.

  White’s effort served to bring a ringing response from Thomas Baker, who on September 13 wrote to the Hon. W.O. Bradley:

  Dear Sir:

  I see in this morning’s Courier-Journal a letter from John G. White pretending to say that Tom Baker was the worst criminal that ever walked Ky soil and pretending to give a history of the Clay co feud between the Baker and Howard and White factions. I will now give you a history and it is correct as every good man in Clay co will wittness to this. When Tom Baker was 15 years old Reuben Woods, a man 23 years old and 50 pounds heavier than Tom Baker and a man Tom Baker did not no [know] walked up to Tom Baker and knocked him down and was on him when Tom Baker cut his clothes several times. Baker was tried and acquitted & Woods was fined $5 as records of Clay co will show. The next act he said I went to N.Y. to buy counterfiet money which is a black lie. The next act he says I slipped up behind a Bro Mason & hit him in the head which is another lie. I did hit a man with a rock. It was in a difficulty & we was face to face when I hit him. the next act he says I drove off a woman & burned their house & burned a store house the same night which is another one of John G. Whites black lies, at the time they claim I burned the houses I was 5 miles away where my Bro was shot by one of these good deputies of B.R White who is sheriff. They was 21 men stayed with me that night who knows that I could not a burned the house for I was not away that night.

  Whites could only get two witnesses to swear that I burned the house, one is a mooneshiner who I arrested 3 years ago & is one of the worst characters in Clay co. The other is a half-witted boy who does not know right from wrong, he says Tom and Jim Baker and Jesse Barrett killed two men and wounded old man 60 years old which is another one of his lies. Tom Baker, John Baker and Charley Wooten was tried and acquitted. John G. White would have you believe that they Dan Hacker and Jim Robinson was afraid of Tom Baker to swear the truth on first trial when Tom Baker & all his bros was under arrest at the time they swore & could not even talk to witnesses & all they pretend to say is that they did not no where Jim Baker and Jesse Barrett was when the men was killed when on first trial they stated that they was with Jim Baker and Jesse Barrett when the killing was done & this is all the proof that was against them when they was refused bail & when the grand jury failed to indict them. When Tom Baker & Will White met White turned his horse before Baker & pulled his pistol & while in the act of shootin Baker Baker raised his gun & shot White & this is proof that Baker was convicted on. He had forgot to tell that 2 weeks before Will White was killed he Will White in Manchester drove an old woman 60 years old up to where my two lonely sisters lived who neither had father or mother to protect them & made this old woman when he had torn her clothes off of her and shot over her head and under her feet go up to my sisters house tell them to send out ans & Tom Baker that he aimed to kill them and all the rest of the Bakers as he came to them for murder was in his heart. It has been a few years ago that John G. White and his bro Will & his cousin Daugh White shot and murdered Jack Hacker and Dale Lyttle in the courthouse door and put all the witnesses in fear & never was indicted for this brutal murder & for the same case John G. White said he had to leave Clay Co and did so leave a short time ago & he John G. made open sport of his old uncle B.P. White and barked at him like a dog to try to get a difficulty out of him … his bro who is sheriff of Clay Co., a few years ago abused & shot under his old uncle’s feet B.P. White who a few days later was sent to asylum and came back a dead man from the abuse he received from this good man who is sheriff now of Clay Co. & he has forgot to tell you that since James Baker and Jesse Barrett was put in jail that Daw White & Felix Davidson a cousin of John G. White’s & a deputy sheriff of B.P. White waylaid and killed John Baker and Frank Clark near Manchester and shot them 36 times each & the people of Clay Co is afraid to have them arrested & never will be unless they is soldiers send to Manchester to give protection to the citizens witness in the case. And he forgot to tell that Gilbert Garrard of Manchester who was a candidate and run for sheriff against B.P. White last Nov. & was a friend of Tom Baker was waylaid and shot while on his way to Sunday school & since has had to leave Clay co. & he did not tell you about James Howard killing old man Geo Baker who was unarmed and never carried a weapon & was a peacemaker & Baker with his hands up begging for his life. I am surprise that John G. White would attack my character when every good man in Clay co know Tom Baker and the Whites too and their characters. But I will look over him for a streak of insanity runs in the White family old Daugh White drowned himself a few years ago & Hugh White hung himself over at Richmond Ky. & B.P. White killed himself in the asylum over the abuse that B.P. White, Jr. gave him & I hope that John G. White will miss this streak of insanity & kill himself when he thinks of the black murder he committed when he killed Jack Hacker and Dale Lyttle in Manchester & I hope he won’t have to call for the rocks and mountains to fall on him & hide him from the face of him that sits on high in the judgement day. … All I ask is a fair trial & investigation of all cases & I think as John G. White has given you one side of the case that you have here my side & I vouch for every word I have said to be true and refer you to any man in Clay co. who is not interested on either side…. Published so that the truth may be known. Yours truly.

  Thos. B
aker.

  In this letter, Baker protests his innocence of White’s charge that he, Baker, burned the home of a woman, though no such charge is contained in White’s letter. It is possible that White had accused him of the arson in a previous letter, though Bradley’s papers contain no such letter. Or the reference to the fire may have been evidence of Baker’s feeling of guilt. The incident to which Baker refers was, obviously, the burning of the Hall home and Campbell store after Hall and Campbell stopped Tom and John Baker as they were approaching Manchester and demanded to know where they were going. The Bakers declined to answer, a gunfight ensued, and John Baker was wounded. Tom was arrested and tried for arson but acquitted when he produced witnesses who swore he was miles away on the night of the fires.

  A note: When Tom says “the governor rewarded Howard,” he means that the governor put out a reward for Howard. I can find no other reference to this. When Judge Eversole had warrants issued for several Bakers and Howards, Jim Howard came into court voluntarily. No Bakers were reported as present when court began.

  Commenting on the two letters, the Courier-Journal reported that “fifteen men have been killed in Clay County during the past month.” The report did not list the victims.

  Meanwhile, back in Manchester, life went on as usual. Someone took a shot at William Treadway as he was sitting in the Lucas Hotel, but missed. “He is afraid of the Bakers,” said Reverend Dickey, “and is a wicked man,” a statement that might be considered the mother of all non sequiturs. It may also indicate that the reverend had his Howards and Bakers confused, since Treadway was a friend of Tom Baker and had had a gunfight with Beverly White.

  “A few weeks ago, Sheriff B.R White, Jr. got drunk and shot into Mrs. Lucas’ house and cursed her fearfully,” wrote Dickey. “He also shot into the Post Office.” And on December 4, Dickey noted that Theo Cundiff, jailer, was so drunk he had to be carried home on a board (which seems, in retrospect, a rather common-sense conveyance for someone in such a state).

  But then the reverend put his finger on the deep and tragic effects of the violence. “The two principal business firms of the town have consolidated,” he wrote, “leaving but two stores that sell dry goods, a little grocery store and a small Negro store. [Apparently blacks were not allowed to buy in stores that sold to whites.] Manchester is looking very seedy. The devil seems about to destroy the town. In the 21 families making up the town proper, only ten have children between 6 and 20 years, and two of these are leaving. There are only three young ladies and one is leaving in January.”

  Jim Howard’s trial was transferred to Laurel Circuit Court in London because, according to his account, “So great was the sentiment in my favor in Clay County that a change of venue was taken to Laurel County by the Commonwealth. After two trials and several continuances the case was practically abandoned.” This is a rather generous interpretation. Howard got a hung jury, then was found guilty but appealed and was awaiting the judgment of the Court of Appeals at home in Manchester when he became involved in the Goebel affair (to be described in a later chapter). He was never retried for the Baker murder. As he said, the case was just abandoned.

  So as the last year of the century approached, both Jim Howard and Tom Baker were at liberty. Manchester was a dangerous place—and, in Dickey’s eyes, licentious. When Dickey spent the night at the home of Henry Marcum on New Year’s eve, he was properly distressed when the family ushered in the new year with that tempter of the flesh, a dance. “Five young men, and as many young women,” he wrote, “were drunk, and danced past midnight.”

  And, on a more ominous note, about this time mention was made that Chad Hall had been seen visiting the Howards. Hall, a shadowy character who seemed often on the scene when violence occurred but was never himself implicated, had been involved in the earlier Howard-Turner feud in Harlan County and had reportedly been with Wilse Howard and his “gang” when, in the fall of 1889, the Cawoods were killed. A tall, slender, leathery man, Hall was an itinerant blacksmith and cattle dehorner. Born April 15,1859, he was the son of Alford and Sarah Hall of Lee County, Virginia, across the mountain ridge from Harlan. His father had been a fairly prosperous mill owner, but Chad chose to move to Harlan, where he married Susan Nolan and bought a house on Martins Fork. While Susan stayed home, Chad traveled through Harlan, Leslie, Clay, and Bell Counties dehorning cattle, trimming hooves, shoeing horses, and doing general blacksmith work. His sister Jane married Jim Shackleford, who was with the Howards when the Bakers killed Wilson and Burch Stores and wounded Bal. Chad himself was a friend of the Howards in both Clay and Harlan Counties, and a lot of people thought he was something of a hired gun for them. That is unlikely. Mountain gunmen usually worked out of loyalty or for revenge, but in the Clay County trouble most were attached to one side or the other much as cowhands were attached to ranch-owners in the West. General Garrard had as many as a dozen men who acted as guards around his Goose Creek home. Furthermore, though Chad Hall had often been spotted around the scene of trouble, or reported to have been seen riding out after trouble occurred, no one had ever pinned anything on him.

  In February 1899, the bitterness pervading Manchester exacted a further price when Allen Baker announced that he was moving to Breathitt County, and put his house up for sale. It was a sad commentary on Clay County when someone had to move to “Bloody Breathitt” to find a more peaceful environment. The next week Anse Baker said he was selling his saloon and moving to Barbourville. This was more understandable, since Manchester had been voted dry in December and the value of his saloon had undoubtedly depreciated. But this marked two Garrards, two Whites, and two Bakers who had left Manchester in eighteen months. The war was draining the town.

  The Turtle Calls for Bad Tom

  The morning of June 10, 1899, dawned warm and humid under a gray overcast. Tom and Emily woke and dressed in the unfamiliar confines of the tent on the courthouse lawn. They were joined for breakfast by Wiley, Allen, and James, who had been quartered in an adjacent tent. Afterward, they sat on the hotel porch watching the soldiers going about their duties. After an hour or so the Baker followers who had not spent the night rode in, and after what seemed like an interminable wait Judge Cook rode up and went into the courthouse. He was followed by the lawyers and court officers. After a few minutes a bailiff came out and announced that court was in session. Tom, Wiley, and James walked Emily back to the tent, then went into the courtroom.

  To one side of the room, near the table where Colonel Williams sat, two neatly dressed men watched the proceedings intently, writing hurriedly on loose sheets of paper. A.C. Lyttle told Tom that the men were newspaper reporters from Louisville and Cincinnati. Tom was impressed and watched the men closely throughout the proceedings.

  Much of the morning was taken up with arguments for and against a change of venue and in hearing witnesses. After dinner there was a sudden flurry of interest when Big John Philpot, all seven feet and 300 pounds of him, took the stand and was asked whether he thought the Bakers could get a fair trial in Manchester. Big John said if it was all the same, he’d rather not say.

  “Are you afraid to state your opinion?” the prosecutor asked, Big John looked at him calmly for a long minute.

  “I don’t guess I’m afeard of no man,” he said. “But you could say I’ve got a feeling for the Bakers.” Judge Cook thanked him, and Big John ambled out, nodding and smiling to Tom as he passed.

  Five other men were called. Those friendly to the Whites or Howards said that the Bakers could get a fair trial in Manchester. Those siding with the Bakers held that it would be impossible to find an impartial jury in Clay County. A little after four o’clock Judge Cook called the attorneys to the bench and, after conferring briefly, gaveled the court to order. He announced that in his opinion counsel for the defense had made a compelling argument and that in the interest of good order and a fair trial he was granting a change of venue to Knox Circuit Court. He directed Colonel Williams to provide a suitable escort to assure the safety a
nd security of the accused and to deliver them to the jailer in Barbourville as expeditiously as practical. In view of the hour and the distance involved, however, he directed that the transfer be delayed until the next morning.

  Outside, Tom talked for a minute with General Garrard, who had once more come in for the trial.

  “I want to thank you again, General,” he said.

  “Don’t mention it,” said Garrard. “I’m sorry about this, but I’m glad you got the change of venue. You’ll have a much better chance of a fair trial down in Barbourville. Try to get some rest and don’t let your men get out in town and start trouble. I’d say the sooner they get back to Crane Creek, the better.”

  “I’ll see to that,” said Tom.

  “Well,” said the general, “I guess I’d better be getting back. Try not to worry. I’ll be down to Barbourville for the trial. If there’s anything you need, I’ll see what I can do.”

  “I appreciate it.”

  The general drove off. Tom walked over to the tent that some of the soldiers referred to as the guardhouse and sat on a cot, talking with Emily, telling her of the change of venue, making plans for the morrow.

  “You might as well go on home,” he told her, “and try to get some rest. John and some of the boys will come with you down to Barbourville when it’s time. But you might as well go on now.”

  “I guess I’ll stay,” she said.

  A photographer from Louisville came up to the door of the tent and asked if he could take Tom’s picture. He had already taken James’s and Wiley’s. Tom said he guessed it would be all right, and he walked outside. One of the reporters was standing by, writing, as the photographer prepared to take Tom’s picture. Tom looked rumpled and dusty but stared unsmilingly into the camera. The photographer thanked him and asked if he could take a picture of Tom with his son James. Tom said all right, and James joined him. The soldiers looked on with obvious interest. The reporter got on his horse and headed down the hill.