April 07, 2008
Iredell’s history of hangings
Editor’s Note: This column contains language that may be offensive to some readers.
By O.C. Stonestreet
There have been about a dozen executions carried out in Iredell County since its formation in 1788. The quantity of written accounts of these murders and subsequent trials varies greatly, so this article should in no way be thought of as definitive.
In the old Landmark of Feb. 13, 1880, someone wrote in to discuss how many executions had taken place in the county.
“Speaking of hangings,” the article went, “some of the older heads have laid their heads together and produced a list of all persons who have ever been hanged in Iredell, from the date of the organization of the county up to the present time (1788 to 1880).
“The first was that of a Negro named Nichols, who had murdered his master. This was about 1800. He was hanged on the old Bell corner, at what is now the public square. ...
“The next execution was that of Fitzpatrick, a young white man, very handsome. He had been convicted of horse stealing. This was about the year 1820.
“A white man by the name of Millsaps was the next victim of the gallows. He had been convicted of wife-murder.
“Jim Stevenson, colored, was next. He was hanged for raping a white woman.
“Gallimore, a young white man of prepossessing appearance, was hanged for Negro stealing, the offense having been committed in Cabarrus. A reprieve from the Governor arrived after he had been hanged and was dead, but before the body was cut down.
“John Hoover, white, was hanged for the murder of a Negro woman. ... Hoover was taken down after having been pronounced dead, and would, but for official interference, have been resuscitated.
“Underwood, who with Duncan, murdered Peden in Wilkes, was hanged here. Duncan’s case was taken to Davie and he was hanged in Mocksville.
“Wilson Freeland, colored, murdered his mistress , aunt of our townsman, M.F. Freeland, Esq., for money, and was hanged.
“The next execution occurred ten years later, when Tom Dula was hanged for the murder of Laura Foster, in Wilkes. This was in 1868. His accomplice, Ann Melton, was acquitted and has since died.
“In 1876, William Meisimer (or Mesimer or Mecimore or Messimore) was hanged in the jail yard here for the murder of his mother-in-law (a Mrs. Helig), in Rowan.
“Jim Laxton, colored, was the last victim. He was convicted of rape committed in Caldwell County upon Nancy Barlow, white, and was hanged here in 1878.”
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We have more details about some of these men and their trials.
John Hoover was tried for killing his slave, a woman named Mira. From the number and degree of wounds on her body, it was evident to the jury that Hoover had gone far beyond any “normal” punishment to keep discipline.
Thomas Ruffin, chief justice of the State Supreme Court, declared in response to Hoover’s appeal that, “A master may legally punish his slave ... but the master’s authority is not altogether unlimited. He must not kill.There is, at the least, this restriction upon his power: he must stop short of taking life.”
Hoover was hanged in Statesville in 1839.
Wilson Freeland, a slave, was hanged on Oct. 22, 1858, for the murder of his owner, Peggy Freeland. It is interesting that with Peggy’s death, Wilson had become the property of Peggy’s nephew, Allison Freeland, who was required to pay “the cost of the prosecution.”
The execution was carried out by Sheriff Wasson on a gallows that was put up just south of the old Ritca hosiery mill. Very little has been found by this writer as to Wilson’s motive in the crime —l ess than $5 was missing — or why he was arrested and charged. There is no record of a confession.
The story of Tom Dula’s two trials and hanging in 1868 on Depot Hill in Statesville are well known in this county and have been written about by this columnist before.
N.D. Tomlin, writing to the Landmark in 1930, had details to share about William Meisimer’s trial. According to Tomlin, “Meisimer had watched her and found where she had her money concealed and he killed her and threw her dead body in a well.
She was missing for some six days and suspicion pointed to Meisimer. One day some wagoners passed and drew up some water and the men all drank except Meisimer but the horses refused to drink and this caused an investigation to be made and the body of the woman was found at the bottom of the well.”
Meisimer’s lawyers appealed for a change of venue and such was granted, so although the crime was committed in Rowan, Meisimer’s trial took place in Iredell.
Meisimer, once convicted, confessed that he had bludgeoned his mother-in-law and then thrown her body into a well.
“His Honor R. P. Buxton sentenced William Meisimer to be hanged by the neck till dead,” said Tomlin, “and on the 22nd of December, 1876, the last chapter of the case was written and William Meisimer was sent to his death at the end of a rope by Sheriff T. A. Watts.
“It was a sensational trial and Meisimer met his death with that same stolid indifference which had characterized him during the entire trial. ...”
Another account of Meisimer’s execution agrees substantially with the one given above and states, “He was led to the gallows by Sheriff T.A. Watts. He went unmoved and mounted the scaffold with steady steps. He refused to make a statement on the gallows and he died ‘sullen and full of nerve,’ as one newspaperman of the day expressed it.”
A September 1903 article in the Landmark tells more about Jim Laxton, informing us that “He denied his guilt to the end and there was serious doubt as to whether he was really guilty.”
The white woman he supposedly assaulted was “reported to be of low character and was shown to be an associate of Jim Laxton and other Negroes. This fact led to doubt of his guilt. Laxton protested his innocence to the last.”
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The last execution to take place in Iredell was that of a black man, Wilford Roseboro, in September 1903 for the murder of Mrs. Dovet (“Dovie”) Beaver, 49, a white woman on the previous July.
A pistol taken from the Beaver residence was found among Roseboro’s belongings and the old Landmark reported that he had a a “bad reputation,” but had been arrested “purely on circumstantial evidence — the fact that he was in the neighborhood and had opportunity to commit the crime.”
Roseboro’s case cries out to be re-examined and researched and the details involved require more space than can be written here. Suffice it to say that in spite of some very curious testimony, his trial took but a single day and the jury returned a verdict of guilty in just 23 minutes.
The Landmark noted: “He was a mystery. He was a Negro of considerable intelligence, yet why he remained near the scene of the crime for a whole day, and then, on going away, left so plain a trail that he was easily captured, when he had two days and two nights in which to secrete himself that he probably never would have been found, is hard to understand and will remain a mystery.”
You can read the old Landmark’s account for yourself in the Sept. 13, 1903, issue, which is on microfilm in the Iredell County Library.
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In the early 1900s, the electric chair was becoming the instrument of choice for delivering the condemned to his or her reward, and the state prison in Raleigh began to handle that chore for the counties, as the cost of “the hot seat” would have been considerably higher than that of a gallows and more expertise would be required to operate it correctly.
