Morrow family killings, 1869

In the chronology

Chronology entries for this event, in date order. See these 9 dated events in the chronology →

1. summer 1869 Three barns burn on one night after a Black tenant family is evicted in southwestern Orange After William M. Jones had a Black tenant family turned out by a writ of possession, served by officer James F. Minor with Jesse W. Morrow helping, the barns of all three men, newly filled with wheat, burned within the same ten minutes one night after harvest, according to George Laws, clerk of the superior court, testifying before the Senate committee on February 15, 1871. Laws said evidence in his court showed Jeff Morrow, a Black man, had meant to have satisfaction after harvest, and that the disguised men who took two prisoners from the Hillsborough jail and hanged others acted over these burnings; constable W. G. Turrentine counted two barns, and said the one prisoner tried on the charge was acquitted. Two Alamance men who admitted White Brotherhood membership, W. S. Bradshaw and George S. Rogers, also described barns burned in one night in that neighborhood near the Alamance line, Rogers placing it in 1868, and Josiah Turner Jr. testified that the fires came just after harvest. People: George Laws Place: southwestern Orange County, near the Chatham and Alamance lines · Also named: William M. Jones, James F. Minor, Jesse W. Morrow, Jeff Morrow, Josiah Turner Jr., W. G. Turrentine · Also mentions: Hillsborough jailU.S. Senate, Select Committee, Report on the Alleged Outrages in the Southern States (1871), p. 191
2. August 7–October 14, 1869 Washington Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow and Daniel Morrow are lynched Early on August 7, 1869, about 100 disguised white men took Washington Morrow and his brother Nelson from the Hillsborough jail, where they were held on barn-burning charges, and shot Washington as they fled; he died of the wound. On October 14 a mob hanged their father, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, and their uncle, Daniel Morrow. People: Washington Morrow, Daniel Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow Place: Countywide · Also mentions: Hillsborough jailJames Madison University, Memorializing Racial Terror: The Lynching of Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Daniel Morrow
3. summer 1869 Klansmen take two Black prisoners from jail and shoot one of them A few nights after three barns burned in late July 1869, two Black men accused of another barn burning were taken from jail. One was let go; the other was shot and died. Place: Orange CountyLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 118
4. August 1869, the morning after the jail raid Orange sheriff's posse tracks the Hillsborough jail raiders' horses toward Alamance On the morning after disguised men broke open the Orange County jail and shot two Black prisoners, the sheriff summoned Hillsborough men to follow the raiders' horse tracks from the bridge where the prisoners were shot. About three miles out, where the road forked, the tracks split toward Chatham and toward the Oaks in Alamance; Empson Moore counted forty or fifty tracks and picked up a stuffed cloth horn with blood on it, and Haywood Beverley followed twelve or fifteen riders about ten miles, to within two miles of Webb's store in Alamance. Both men described the pursuit at Governor Holden's impeachment trial on March 8, 1871. Place: Hillsborough and the roads southwest toward Alamance and Chatham counties · Also named: Empson Moore, Haywood Beverley · Also mentions: Orange County jailTrial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 2, p. 1849
5. October 20, 1869 Governor Holden warns Orange County it may be declared in insurrection Holden's proclamation of October 20, 1869, named Lenoir, Jones, Orange and Chatham counties and said that in Orange the jail had been forced, two Black prisoners taken out and shot, and three other Black men hanged. He warned that he would declare those counties in a state of insurrection and use the whole power of the state if the violence continued. People: William W. Holden Place: Orange County · Also mentions: Orange and Chatham countiesDigitalNC: Goldsboro Daily Messenger, October 25, 1869, page 2
6. January 31, 1871 Hillsborough constable describes Orange County Klan killings to a U.S. Senate committee W. G. Turrentine, a Hillsborough constable, told the Senate select committee in Washington that five Black men had been killed in Orange County and many people whipped, some for voting Republican. He described how, in August 1869, 75 to 100 disguised men forced the Hillsborough jail and shot a prisoner held on a barn-burning charge, who died. Place: U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. · Also named: W. G. Turrentine · Also mentions: Hillsborough jailInternet Archive: Report on the Alleged Outrages in the Southern States, Senate Select Committee, March 10, 1871
7. 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 Morrow Place: North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh · Also named: Lucinda Morrow, Augustus S. MerrimonInternet Archive: Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1871) · Also: Trial of William W. Holden
8. 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. Place: North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh · Also named: Anderson Morrow, Empson Moore, Haywood Beverley · Also mentions: Hillsborough jailTrial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 2, p. 1840
9. April 29, 2023 Soil collection ceremony at the Orange County courthouse honors Cyrus Guy and four other 1869 lynching victims The Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition held a soil collection ceremony for Washington Morrow, Wright Malone, Daniel Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow and Cyrus Guy, all lynched in 1869. One jar for each man was to go to the Equal Justice Initiative's memorial collection in Montgomery, Alabama, and a second jar was to stay in Orange County. People: Cyrus Guy, Daniel Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Washington Morrow, Wright Malone, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, Renée Price Place: Orange County Courthouse, HillsboroughSearch the index · Chapelboro: 'Do Not Forget Us': Soil Collection Ceremony Held for 5 Orange County Lynching Victims (May 1, 2023)