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Frank S. Edgerton, son of Sidney P. and Lucy A. (Clay) Edgerton.

Hannah Twitchell, daughter of Harvey Daniel and Elizabeth (Scott) Twitchell.

Frank S. Edgerton was recorded in the 1870 Federal Census of Mansfield (6th Ward), Desoto Parish, Louisiana residing in the household of George Harriet (pg. 526; dwelling #90; family #90; enum. June 8, 1870).  He was enumerated as, “Frank Edgerton, farmer, aged 23, b. Illinois, $500 personal estate”.

Frank S. Edgerton was elected Sheriff of Red River Parish and was serving as such during the time of the infamous “Coushatta Affair” in the latter part of the summer 1874.  Numerous accounts of this tragedy were depicted in the newspapers of the day.  A renactment of the events was presented as part of the Television Series, “The American Experience” (produced by PBS), depicting various racial conflicts in the years following the Civil War.  A video of this series can be viewed online at:  The American Experience (PBS).  Several newspaper accounts of the time provide conflicting viewpoints on the tragedy.  The following article published in The New York Times on September 4, 1874 seems to provide the most unbiased account of the events:

ACTION OF GOVERNOR KELLOGG.

REWARD OF FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS EACH

FOR THE COUSHATTA MURDERERS.

NEW-ORLEANS, La., Sept. 3 – Gov. Kellogg has issued a proclamation placing a reward of $5,000 a head on all persons implicated in the Coushatta affair, and accompanying this proclamation by the following statement:

To the Public:

Having felt it my duty to issue my proclamation offering a reward for the apprehension and conviction of the murderers in the Coushatta outrage, and to the end that the law-abiding citizens of the State may comprehend the magnitude of the crime committed, and be induced to render more active assistance to the officers of the law, I deem it proper to make the following statements.  These facts are gathered from reliable information received at the Executive Department:

On or about the 28^th day of August, 1874, a body of persons belonging to a semi-military organization, known as the “White League of Louisiana,” assembled in the town of Coushatta Parish of Red River, in this State, for the purpose of compelling by force of arms the State officers of that parish to resign their positions.  These officers were men of good character, most of them largely interested in planting and mercantile pursuits.  They held their positions with the full consent of an admittedly large majority of the legal voters of the parish, this being a heavily Republican parish, as admitted by the fusion returning boards.  The only known objection to them was that they were of Republican principles.  Frank Edgerton, the duly qualified Sheriff of the parish, in strict compliance with the laws of the State and of the United States, summoned a posse comitatus of citizens, white and colored, to assist him in protecting the parish officers in the exercise of their undoubted rights and duties from the threatened unlawful violence of the White League.  His posse, consisting of sixty-five men, were overpowered by a superior force assembled from the adjacent parishes, and finally, after several colored and white men had been killed, surrendered themselves prisoners, with the explicit guarantee that their lives would be spared if the more prominent Republicans would agree to leave the parish, and those holding office would resign their positions.  These stipulations, although unlawfully exacted, were complied with on the part of the Republican officials, who were then locked up in jail for the night.  The following named persons were among those who surrendered and resigned:  Homer J. Twitchell, planter, and Tax Collector of Red River parish, and Deputy United States Postmaster in charge of the Post Office at Coushatta; Robert A. Dewees, Supervisor of Registration, Desota Parish; Clark Holland, merchant, and Supervisor Registration, Red River Parish; W. T. Howell, Parish Attorney and United States Counsel; Frank S. Edgerton, Sheriff of Red River Parish, and M. E. Willis, merchant and Justice of the Peace.  On the following morning, Sunday, the 30th of August, these persons were bound together, two and two, and conducted by an armed guard to the McFarland plantation, just over the parish line of the Red River, within the boundaries of Bossier Parish, about forty miles east of the Texas line.  There they were set upon and deliberately murdered in cold blood.  On the night preceeding the murder, a body of forty members of the White League of Caddo Parish, mounted and armed, left the City of Shreveport, and were seen riding in the direction of the place where the murder was subsequently committed.  Their bodies were buried where they fell, without inquest or any formality whatever.

Signed, WM. J. KELLOGG, Governor.

For additional accounts of the “Coushatta Conflict”, see the following links:

-          The Coushatta Times, Extra Edition – Coushatta, Louisiana, September 5th, 1874

-          The Southern Massacre – article from The New York Times, September 1st, 1874

-          The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events  (Google Books)