Governor Holden’s impeachment and trial, 1870–1871

In the chronology

Dated events connected with this event, earliest first. See these 20 dated events in the chronology →

1. winter 1870-1871 Orange representative Frederick N. Strudwick presses the repeal of the Shoffner Act In the legislative session of 1870-1871, Frederick N. Strudwick of Orange helped bring forward the bill repealing the Shoffner Act of January 1870, under which Governor Holden had declared counties in insurrection; the repeal passed and took effect at once. Justice Thomas Settle said so before the Senate select committee in February 1871, adding that Strudwick introduced the impeachment resolution against Holden and had been named in testimony as one of the party sent to kill Senator Shoffner. People: Frederick N. StrudwickU.S. Senate, Select Committee, Report on the Alleged Outrages in the Southern States (1871), p. XVII
2. August 3-4, 1870 Josiah Turner Jr. dares Governor Holden in print to arrest him In a card dated at Hillsborough on August 3, 1870 and printed in his Raleigh Sentinel, Josiah Turner Jr. dared Holden to arrest him and charged that Holden's followers, stirred by talk of Turner as head of the Klan, had shot powder in Mrs. Turner's face and thrown a rock through her window near one of his children. Kirk's militia arrested Turner at Hillsborough two days later; Holden's counsel read the card at the impeachment trial on March 13, 1871 to show the spirit in which Turner had invited arrest. In a second letter dated at Hillsborough on August 4 and printed in the Sentinel on August 6, read by the House managers on February 18, he told Holden to come on with his chains. People: Josiah Turner Jr.Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 2, p. 2183
3. August 5, 1870 Captain Hancock at Hillsborough wires Burgen that he has news he cannot send without breaking orders On August 5, 1870, the day Josiah Turner Jr. was arrested at Hillsborough, Captain Hancock, commanding the state troops there, telegraphed his superior, Lieutenant Colonel B. G. Burgen at Company Shops, that he had a matter of great importance to report but could not do so without violating orders. Thomas Bragg, closing for the House managers on March 20, 1871, cited the telegram as evidence that Holden ordered the arrest and said the telegrams kept at the Shops were spirited away before they could be called for. People: Josiah Turner Jr.Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 3, p. 2496
4. August 5–19, 1870 Kirk's militia arrests Josiah Turner Jr. at Hillsborough On August 5, 1870, a detachment of Kirk's state militia seized Raleigh Sentinel editor Josiah Turner Jr. at the Hillsborough depot, took him by rail to Company Shops and then held him with Kirk's other prisoners in the Caswell County courthouse at Yanceyville. U.S. District Judge George W. Brooks ordered him discharged on August 19, 1870, on his habeas corpus petition. The impeachment article and the trial testimony name the officer as Lieutenant J. W. Hunnicutt, sent from Company Shops with about ten men by Lieutenant Colonel Burgen, and Judge Brooks ordered Kirk to pay the costs. People: William W. Holden, Josiah Turner Jr.Internet Archive: Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina, vol. 1 (1871)
5. August 5, 1870 Lieutenant Hunnicutt wires from Hillsborough that he has Turner under guard, and Burgen orders anyone who tries to free him shot On August 5, 1870, Lieutenant J. W. Hunnicutt telegraphed Lieutenant Colonel Burgen at Company Shops from Hillsborough that he had arrested Josiah Turner Jr., had him under the bayonet and wanted an extra train. Burgen answered that Hunnicutt should come up on the freight and shoot on the spot anyone who tried to release Turner. The telegrams, from the Hillsborough telegraph office, were read into evidence by the House managers at Holden's impeachment trial on February 18, 1871. People: Josiah Turner Jr.Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 1, p. 1005
6. August 5, 1870 State troops search Josiah Turner Jr.'s house outside Hillsborough and carry off his guns While Lieutenant Hunnicutt held Josiah Turner Jr. at the Hillsborough depot, two or three of his men went to Turner's house about a mile off to search for arms and came back with two pistols and two guns. Turner, testifying at Holden's impeachment trial on February 16, 1871, said one pistol came back only after he offered a $10 reward and the rest stayed with Kirk; a Sentinel editorial of August 9, 1870, read into evidence, said every room was searched without a warrant and his boys' shotguns taken. People: Josiah Turner Jr.Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 1, p. 893
7. August 5, 1870 The officer holding Josiah Turner Jr. at Hillsborough says he will arrest anyone who brings a habeas corpus writ At the Hillsborough depot, Lieutenant J. W. Hunnicutt told Senator John W. Graham that he had arrested Josiah Turner Jr. by Governor Holden's order and that he had a general order, passed down through Colonel Burgen, to arrest anyone who came with writs of habeas corpus, Graham included. Graham gave this account under oath at Holden's impeachment trial on February 16, 1871, adding that Hunnicutt said Burgen had detailed him to take ten men to Hillsborough for the arrest. People: John W. Graham, Josiah Turner Jr.Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 1, p. 916
8. December 9, 1870 Orange County representative Frederick N. Strudwick moves to impeach Governor Holden Frederick N. Strudwick of Orange introduced the House resolution to impeach Governor William W. Holden, which the House adopted on December 14, 1870. On December 19 he chaired the Committee of the Whole that adopted the eight articles of impeachment and elected the seven House managers. People: William W. Holden, Frederick N. StrudwickInternet Archive: Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina, vol. 1 (1871)
9. December 15, 1870 Strudwick of Orange goes with two other members to impeach Holden at the bar of the Senate Frederick N. Strudwick of Orange, with Thomas Sparrow and W. P. Welch, was named by Speaker Thomas J. Jarvis to go to the bar of the state Senate and impeach Governor Holden in the name of the House and the people of North Carolina. The three did so on December 15, 1870, and Sparrow reported back that the Senate had received the message. People: Frederick N. StrudwickTrial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 1, p. 3
10. December 1870 Strudwick is kept off the impeachment managers because of his Klan reputation After guiding the impeachment resolution through the house judiciary committee and the full house, Strudwick was not chosen as a manager for the senate trial. It was feared that his widely known association with the Ku Klux Klan would make the proceedings look like a Klan prosecution. People: William W. HoldenSearch the index · NCpedia: Strudwick, Frederick Nash
11. January 23, 1871 Holden answers that he never ordered Josiah Turner Jr. arrested in Orange County In his written answer read to the Senate on January 23, 1871, Governor Holden denied ordering Josiah Turner Jr.'s arrest in Orange. He said he had told the militia officers to arrest Turner only if found in Alamance or Caswell, that any arrest in Orange was against his orders and without his knowledge, and that when told Turner was under arrest in Alamance he ordered him held there and in Caswell. Holden also said he believed Turner belonged to the secret organizations and was urging citizens to drive out the militia, a charge the answer states as Holden's belief. People: Josiah Turner Jr., William W. HoldenTrial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 1, p. 45
12. January 23, 1871 William A. Graham of Hillsborough joins the prosecution of Governor Holden The House managers announced to the impeachment court that former governor William A. Graham of Hillsborough, with Thomas Bragg and Augustus S. Merrimon, would act as their counsel. Graham argued points of evidence for the prosecution through the trial. People: William A. Graham, Thomas Bragg, Thomas SparrowInternet Archive: Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina, vol. 1 (1871)
13. February 16, 1871 Josiah Turner Jr. of Hillsborough testifies at Holden's impeachment trial about his arrest Josiah Turner Jr. told the Senate court that on August 5, 1870, armed men from Company Shops, eight or ten white men and two Black men, came to Hillsborough on a freight train, ran at him with guns cocked as he rode away from the depot, and held him there under Lieutenant Hunnicutt from about eleven until near three while Captain Hancock paraded his company before the depot. He testified for the House managers on February 16, 1871, and on cross-examination denied any tie to the Klan but admitted saying in private talk that the militia ought to be shot. People: Josiah Turner Jr.Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 1, p. 892
14. February 17, 1871 Hillsborough telegraph operator Joseph G. Cooley declines to produce the militia telegrams at Holden's trial Joseph G. Cooley, 24, the Hillsborough telegraph operator, told the impeachment court that he had been subpoenaed on January 30, 1871, to bring every telegram sent or received about the state troops at Company Shops, but that his superintendent had ordered him to answer no questions about them as confidential and the office manager, Mr. Starke, had sent the originals away. After argument the chief justice ordered the telegrams filed with the clerk, and they were read the next day.Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 1, p. 925
15. February 24, 1871 Impeachment court admits Holden's 1870 letters with Pride Jones on the Orange Klan The Senate, sitting as the court of impeachment, voted 25 to 19 to admit Governor Holden's March 1870 correspondence with Dr. Pride Jones of Hillsborough, which the defense offered to show that Holden tried peaceful means against the Klan in Orange before he used troops in Alamance. The managers objected that the court had already shut out evidence of Klan activity outside Alamance and Caswell; the presiding officer let it in as bearing on Holden's motive, noting Holden's answer that Josiah Turner Jr.'s arrest was justified by the excitement Turner had stirred in Orange. Holden's secretary John B. Neathery then read Jones's March 4 letter, the March 5 recommendation by six Orange men and Holden's March 7 commission. People: Pride JonesTrial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 2, p. 1157
16. March 2, 1871 Ned Strowd of Orange testifies that disguised men whipped him in Alamance Ned Strowd, a Black man then living in Orange County with a Mr. Mebane, testified for Holden's defense that about three weeks before Christmas 1869 sixteen to eighteen disguised men called him out of his house on William Thompson's place in Alamance, broke his gun across a tree and made his family carry their goods out into the yard. They whipped him twenty to thirty licks while he hugged a tree and threatened to come back and kill him if he told.Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 2, p. 1454
17. March 7, 1871 Lucinda Morrow of Hillsborough testifies at Governor Holden's impeachment trial Called by Holden's defense, Lucinda Morrow, then living in Hillsborough, described disguised men breaking into her Cane Creek home in Orange County in the fall of 1869 and hanging her husband, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, together with her brother, at the time of fall oat sowing. She said she had not named the men at the inquest because she feared they would come back and kill her. Prosecution counsel William A. Graham objected to her evidence, and Augustus S. Merrimon argued it was irrelevant unless tied to Alamance County. People: William A. Graham, Jefferson Morrow, Thomas Jefferson MorrowInternet Archive: Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1871)
18. March 8, 1871 Three Black witnesses from Orange testify at Holden's trial on the Morrow hanging and the jail raid Anderson Morrow, who had lived on Cane Creek half a mile from the Orange line, testified that about twenty-five horsemen passed his house toward Orange around nine or ten o'clock on the night Jefferson Morrow was hanged and came back before day, and that he saw many fresh horse tracks on the Mount Willing road the morning after the Hillsborough jail raid, though he heard no one pass that night. Empson Moore and Haywood Beverley of Hillsborough then told of following the raiders' tracks with the sheriff. Holden's counsel offered the testimony to tie the Orange killings to Alamance men; the managers objected that the roads led elsewhere, and the presiding officer ruled that the jail raid was not yet connected to Alamance, so Moore was withdrawn.Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 2, p. 1840
19. March 16, 1871 The impeachment court refuses to swear three Black Orange witnesses called on the jail raid On March 16, 1871, the Senate sitting as the impeachment court voted 28 to 18 against letting three Black men from Orange County be sworn so they could be paid for weeks of attendance; Holden's defense had summoned them to testify about the taking of Black prisoners from the Orange County jail. Defense counsel Badger told the court their evidence had been ruled out because the defense could not prove that the roads where the raiders' horse tracks were followed connected with Alamance County. Senator Graham of Orange first moved to pay every summoned witness on both sides, which failed 22 to 24, and then voted against swearing the three. People: John W. GrahamSearch the index · Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 3, p. 2313
20. March 22, 1871 Senate convicts Holden on the article charging Turner's arrest in Orange County The state Senate found Governor Holden guilty, 37 to 12, on Article III, which charged him with the unlawful arrest of Josiah Turner Jr. in Orange County on August 5, 1870, and also convicted him on Articles IV through VIII. Senator John W. Graham of Orange then offered the order of judgment removing Holden from office and barring him from state office, which the Senate adopted. People: William W. Holden, Josiah Turner Jr., John W. GrahamInternet Archive: Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina, vol. 3 (1871)