OLD MAN HOWARD

Old Man Howard out near Evant, was Ves Howard’s father. He put on a show as a religious man, shouted and prayed. But the old man was charged with stealing a thresher and Constable Cooper was going out to arrest him. Sam Terry, the sheriff, told Mr. Williams, who usually carried a deputy’s commission, that he had better go along. [S. D. Terry was sheriff from 1884-1886. -E. Weathers]

When they got to the crossing on the Cow House on the old Evant road, they met three or four men who were strangers. They said they believed they would just go on toward Evant with them. Mr. Williams said if they were going, he might just as well go back. They hung old man Howard, he found out later. When he got back to Hamilton he told Terry. Rather, Terry told him that he had made a quick trip, and he told Terry that was probably the last of Howard.

The supposition was that the men had made it up with Cooper to meet him as he brought Howard in and that they would hang him. They were strangers. It was customary when a job was to be done, to get men from another county as they wouldn’t be recognized.

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