The Huntsville Massacre

The Huntsville Massacre – The Civil War Forever Changes a Community

By

Joy Russell and Dr. Kevin Hatfield

Introduction

Whether or not one could refer to the events of January 10, 1863 as a massacre, one thing for sure is that the events of that fateful day would remind all that war, and its atrocities, are not limited to famous places like Antietam and Gettysburg. History quite often reserves itself to record only the big events. Many people, especially rural people, are left to believe that history and its accompanying events happen to other people in other places; that in certain respects, they are not a part of the grand scheme of things. More often than not, isolated rural people believe that their thoughts and actions do not contribute as much to the American fabric as others. To the people of Huntsville, war would leave a mark that would forever dash the dreams and visions of a small rural Arkansas community as several well known citizens, fathers, brothers, and cousins were sacrificed in the name of war. Whether or not this event fits the definition of a massacre is purely academic as that was the term most often applied to the event by the people of Huntsville. One of those who died was a trustee of the recently created Masonic college in Huntsville; one was a Baptist minister; one was a farmer and had been appointed a deputy U.S. Marshal in 1860. [1] By some accounts, there may have been as many as nine citizens executed shortly before sunrise on a cold, frosty Saturday morning on January 10, 1863.[2]

Most of the records and newspaper accounts of this atrocity have been destroyed or lost over time. Much of what we know is from memoirs of surviving family members, old family letters, as well as military records and journals. Some accounts were written many years after the fact and memory being what it is, we may never know exactly what happened and why. No matter what account or old letter you read, it happened and it appears that at least nine men were taken from a cold, dank guardhouse in Huntsville and led to a field on the Samuel P. Vaughn farm about 1 mile northeast of Huntsville and executed on the bank of Vaughn’s Branch near the road that led to Carrollton. [3] Those executed on that day would include:

Chesley H. Boatright: age 39 - a blacksmith, former county treasurer, Deacon of the Huntsville Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and prominent Mason;

William Martin Berry: age 60 - a prominent member of Odeon Masonic Lodge; brother of State Senator John Berry; John Berry was also the father to James R. Berry, son-in-law of Isaac Murphy;

Hugh Samuel Berry: age 31 - son of the aforementioned William M. Berry; Capt. in the Confederate army; home on leave

John William Moody: age 32 – nephew-in-law to Chesley H. Boatright; Deputy U.S. Marshal (1860 Census Enumerator), farmer; Confederate Army Captain

Askin Hughes and John Hughes: family or military connection unknown.

Watson P. Stevens age 29; cousin of the Berry’s;

Robert Coleman Young; age 56 – also known as – “Parson Young”; Baptist Minister; [4]

The identity of the ninth person may never be discovered. Letters belonging to the Berry Family mention the name Bill Parks [5] as being among those arrested and shot. The name John Parks, age 32 is listed in the 1860 Madison County Census along with his wife Sarah J. and two children, Frances and William. He was born in Tennessee around 1828. The International Genealogical Index lists a John Parks having married Sarah Gillett in Winston, Mississippi on December 28, 1854. He also commanded one of the five regular Confederate companies formed in Madison County in the summer of 1862, along with John W. Moody. No other mention of his name or connection to the others has been located. His name does not appear in the 1870 census of Madison County. The recollection of Mrs. Elizabeth Vaughan mentions that the lone survivor of the massacre left for Mississippi after he had recovered from his wounds. (See page 13)

Occasionally the name William Tweedy is mentioned as being among those shot. It is possible that he may have been arrested and detained but no record can be found that he was among the men executed that day. According to Tweedy descendent Hazel Hooper, William Tweedy died from measles during the Civil War. Another descendent, Ruth Anne Nelson wrote that she had heard a family story that he had been arrested and that his wife walked to Huntsville with a feather bed for him to sleep on. Both of them would die of a contracted illness, possibly pneumonia, later on. [6]

Besides the tragic loss of family and loved ones, this event would have far reaching affects on the community, including the demise of two early educational institutions. Had these two colleges survived, Huntsville might have been a quite different place today.

While examining the events that lead to “the massacre”, one naturally asks why the Union Army would enter Madison County and arrest so many local citizens, and then without trial or hearing, summarily execute them in violation of the 6th Article of War? (The murder of prisoners of war). What brought Isaac Murphy to Huntsville and what role did Isaac Murphy, E. D. Ham, and Col. James Johnson play? What role did Odeon Lodge and their two schools play and why did this event cause the closing of the Huntsville Institute and the Pleasant View Female Seminary? The events that lead up to that tragic day actually begin about ten years earlier, in 1854, about seven years before the Civil War begins. Here, begins our story.

The Arkansas General Assembly Incorporates

The Huntsville Masonic Institute and the

Pleasant View Female Seminary

On November 6, 1851, Odeon Lodge No. 44, Free and Accepted Masons, was chartered in Huntsville. During the Grand Lodge session of 1851, John Berry of Huntsville, also a state senator, was sent to Little Rock as the Lodge’s official delegate. During that session, much discussion was had concerning the plans for the establishment of a college in Arkansas to be sponsored by the Masonic fraternity. The formation of Saint John’s College in Little Rock would be the eventual outcome of that discussion.

Architect’s Rendering of St. John’s College in Little Rock

As there were no higher institutions of learning in Arkansas, the idea was one of the main topics at not only that session but at sessions to come. No doubt delegate Berry reported this idea to his local lodge and the idea of creating a college in Huntsville would be discussed for the next few years as the Huntsville Lodge grew. [7] On December 20, 1854, the Arkansas General Assembly incorporated the Huntsville Masonic Institute giving its Board of Trustees and faculty power to confer such degrees in the arts and sciences as are usually conferred in the United States. [8] Approximately three weeks later, the General Assembly would also incorporate the Pleasant View Female Seminary at Huntsville. [9] Although the Act referred to the school as an academy, it was known locally as a female seminary. The building was erected ¼ mile south of Huntsville on land donated by Mr. John Sanders.

Huntsville Masonic Institute and Odeon Loge No. 44

Isaac Murphy and his family move to Huntsville

Mrs. Mary Lowe Pierson of Washington County, who appears to have been the 2nd daughter of Isaac Murphy, was hired as teacher of the seminary and Mr. Isaac Murphy and two of his other daughters were hired to assist in the running of the seminary. [10] “Perhaps his selection of Huntsville was due to its need for teachers and his need for funds. Murphy had been the chairman of the Board of Visitors of the Far West Seminary in Fayetteville and had a great vision of public education for all citizens of the area. However, the new building for the seminary, of which he had invested not only time but money, was destroyed by fire in 1845. Mounting debts would soon cause him to travel to California in search of gold in 1849. Returning poorer than when he left, he was probably eager to accept the position in Huntsville. Records indicate that he and at least two of his eldest daughters handled the Female Seminary of Huntsville and another school.”[11] It is assumed the other school was the Huntsville Institute as the common school which was operating in Huntsville at the time would have had no need for a school administrator.

Isaac Murphy Elected to State Senate and

Elected a delegate to Convention on Secession in 1861

In 1856, Murphy was elected to the State Senate representing Madison and Benton counties, succeeding the deceased Senator John Berry who had sponsored the legislation creating the Huntsville Institute and the Pleasant View Female Seminary. Murphy’s connection to the Berry family would be more than political as Senator Berry’s son, James R. Berry married Murphy’s eldest daughter, Malilla. [12]

While his service to the county as Senator was distinguished, it would be his election as a delegate to the convention on secession that would forever leave his mark on Arkansas history. In February 1861, the citizens of Madison County elected Murphy as its delegate to the convention on secession on a Unionist platform, he receiving over 85% of the vote. [13] On March 18, 1861, the Arkansas secession convention voted 39 to 35 against secession, but then voted unanimously to put the secession question before the people of the state in an August 19th referendum. On the last day of the convention, a resolution was passed giving President David Walker of Fayetteville authority to call the convention back into session prior to the August election should “unforeseen circumstances” warrant it. Just such an unforeseen circumstance would soon manifest itself in the firing on Fort Sumter by the Confederates. [14] Judge David Walker, the convention’s president was pressured to call the convention back into session and on May 6, 1861, he did just that. The vote on the Ordinance of Secession of Arkansas from the Union was taken without debate with only five of the seventy-five delegates voting against Arkansas seceding from the Union: Isaac Murphy of Madison County, Dr. Henry Hunter Bolinger of St. Paul (Madison County), John Campbell of Searcy County, Thomas Montague Gunter of Washington County, and Samuel Kelly of Pike County. After the vote, Convention President Walker asked the five men to change their vote to yea so that Arkansas could go out of the Union as one voice from a unanimous convention.[15]

It is said that Murphy then stood alone saying:

I have cast my vote after mature reflection and have duly considered the consequences and I cannot conscientiously change it. I therefore vote no. [16]

Murphy would be the lone delegate to vote “no” on Arkansas’s secession from the Union. This should have pleased the people in Huntsville, after all, most were Unionist and not in favor of Arkansas leaving the Union. Upon returning to Huntsville, he was greeted well by the locals. However, this attitude would change as the war progressed and particularly as the war came closer to home. The secession element in Madison County was growing stronger. After all, Arkansas and Madison County were now part of the Confederacy. Although a majority of the people in and around Huntsville had been Unionists, sides were now being drawn. Home guard units were organized immediately by Patrick Sanders of Huntsville and Larkin Bunch of Kingston. These units would join Col. Carroll’s regiment of General N.B. Pearce’s brigade and fight at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek near Springfield, Missouri on August 10, 1861. [17]

War hits close to home – The Battle of Pea Ridge

On the night of March 6, 1862, Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn set out to outflank the Union position near Pea Ridge, dividing his army into two columns. Learning of Van Dorn's approach, the Federals marched north to meet his advance on March 7. This movement--compounded by the killing of two generals, Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch and Brig. Gen. James McQueen McIntosh, and the capture of their ranking colonel--halted the Rebel attack. Van Dorn led a second column to meet the Federals near the Elkhorn Tavern. By nightfall, the Confederates controlled Elkhorn Tavern and the Telegraph Road. The next day, Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, having regrouped and consolidated his army, counterattacked near the tavern and, by successfully employing his artillery, slowly forced the Rebels back. Running short of ammunition, Van Dorn abandoned the battlefield. The Union controlled Missouri for the next two years. [18]

Elkhorn Tavern at Pea Ridge

Murphy’s Life is Threatened

As far as the schools were concerned, most schools closed at the start of the war and it can only be assumed that the same happened to the Huntsville Institute and the Pleasant View Female Seminary. With the war being only about 30 miles from Huntsville, the reality began to sink in locally. Assassination was hinted at and soon, private threats were once again directed at Murphy and his family. A couple of times it was rumored that mob violence might be aimed against Murphy in Huntsville but nothing apparently happened. Shortly thereafter, a public notice against Murphy was nailed to the courthouse door commanding that he and all Union forces leave Huntsville within 10 days. James R. Berry, son-in-law of Murphy, wrote on page 20 of his memoirs:

After the adjournment of the convention, he returned to his home in Huntsville, Arkansas. The country at that time had become very much excited and agitated and notice was put up at the court house for Murphy to leave the country in ten days. I went up to the crowd there where they were commenting on the notice and learning of its purport, I told them that they could not compel him to leave; if so it would have to be done over my dead body.