[Marshall] Texas Republican, August 11, 1860
The following letter is from the foreman of the Times newspaper office. Mr. Hartley recently resided in this place:
Henderson, Aug. 7th, 1860.
Dear Loughery:
Henderson is no more; Sunday night at 8 o’clock the town was fired by an incendiary, immediately back of Wiggins, Hogg, and Felton’s Drug Store, and in a few moments, the whole South side of the Square was in flames. The people being at Church, the flames gained the mastery, and the whole business portion of the town is in ashes. Loss $200,000. The greatest excitement prevails. We have a Vigilance Committee;–a Company of over a hundred; several arrests have been made, but as yet no one convicted. I shall be in Marshall soon, but for the present am detailed for duty, and cannot come until all is over. Era Office in ruins, Times saved, but all in pi.
Yours truly,
A. I. Hartley.
The whole square is in ashes.
A. I. H.
In addition to this intelligence, we were presented with the following letter, addressed to
Hon. C. A. Frazer, our District Judge:
Henderson, Aug. 7, 1860.
Judge Frazer:
You have before this learned the fate of our town. All from McDonough’s Hotel to Smither’s office, taking that entire block, and from Redwine’s store to Likens’s corner, running back to the Presbyterian Church, (which was saved,) is a scene of ruin and devastation; 10 stores, 2 drug stores, 8 or 10 law offices, 2 family groceries, &c., were consumed. There was a stiff South wind blowing at the time, and in two hours at most, every house which had caught burned down. The sparks reached out fully a half mile. Judge, it is a sad picture to visit the scene, where all but yesterday was life and energy, fine buildings and every evidence of thrift and prosperity, now burnt and crumbling walls, lonely chimneys, chared shade trees, and the rubbish, as is generally to be seen after such a calamity. Owing to the failure of crops, such a misfortune never could have found us so illy prepared to meet it in a pecuniary point of view. And when we consider it has not been the result of accident, but that it was fired beyond any sort of question by some fiend in human shape, who had only acted the part allotted him in all probability, in a common purpose, to set on fire our towns and perhaps to murder or poison our citizens, it has driven us to a state of desperation which can scarcely be conceived by one who has not witnessed it. All is alarm and excitement with our women and children. Our men are in arms. The most vigilant investigation is being had. The plot was so well conceived, the time of the night, a little excitement between two gentlemen had just occurred which attracted the crowd just as our citizens were assembling at Church, and before the guard started out, the fire was put in some shape into an old shop where there had been none for months. It was burning in every part of the house at once, and in less than five minutes it was on fire all over. As yet we have not been able to find out who it was that did it, whether white or black. No traces have been discovered. My own opinion is, that the negroes had but little to do with it. I have given you these particulars in haste. I will write again soon. I see no chance for us to have a Court. We can scarcely provide for those of our people left. I would like to hear from you and advise with you. Be on your guard, for you cannot tell how soon you will share the same fate with us.
Your friend,
M. D. Ector.
But more startling and terrible than even the burning of Henderson, is the intelligence contained in the following letter from Cherokee county, Texas:
Rusk, August 4, 1860.
Dear Oxe:
The coincidence of the fires at Dallas and other places, caused suspicion with us, and a number of our citizens a short time since, organized a watch and a vigilance committee. Many, including myself, were disposed to consider the whole affair as a needless alarm, until within the last day or two, when authenticated statements came to us, that in several places, poison had been found with negroes, and confessions made, that on the election day, this poison was to be administered in the food at breakfast, and deposited in the wells and springs; and that a general plot had been made, for an indiscriminate, wholesale destruction by poison and arms on that day. This caused us to search, and on last night and this morning, poison has been found with several negroes, and they have made confessions substantially the same as the above rumors, and have implicated several other negroes. We are taking prompt but deliberate measures to-day, to ferret out the whole matter. News came in this morning, that in Anderson and Henderson counties, similar developments on a more extended scale have been made. We are in the midst of considerable excitement, and I feel it my duty to write you, so that your town and county may be on your guard.
I am opposed, in principle and policy, to frequent alarms of this kind, and should not write, if I did not believe there is serious cause of alarm. Some of the most confidential negroes are implicated. Yours in haste,
M. H. Bonner.
Mr. Oxe Taylor, Marshall.