. [20] Sidna Edwards had scalded his foot some years before and was partially lame, and limped out of the courthouse, riding his mother's horse back to his home. Another younger brother, Sidna, was a successful businessman who had prospected for gold in Alaska, operated a store, owned a considerable amount of land and built a lovely Queen Anne-style home in Fancy Gap, and yet he was accused of being a counterfeiter who barely avoided jail time even though one of his associates was sent up the river. (Walter Allen had lost the bitterly fought race. Floyd Allen grew up in a large family in southern Carroll County, raised on a farm wedged between the North Carolina border and the front wall of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Allens could be a rough bunch, who fought with and shot at enemies which they had no shortage of, apparently and even each other. Felts and his team strode into action, quickly arresting a badly wounded Floyd Allen at a Hillsville Hotel during a staged scene for newspaper photographs. Jack came to and shot Floyd which ended the affair. The Hillsville Courthouse Shootout 1,426 views Jul 30, 2021 In 1912 a Carroll County, Virginia, man was sentenced to serve a one year sentence in the state penitentiary. However, Sidna Allen and his nephew, Wesley Edwards, fled Virginia. So was the judge. But it turned out that he actually had left behind one document about what he saw and heard on March 14, 1912. However, Goad denied firing the first shot in the fusillade. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He was tried in federal court, found guilty, and sentenced to a year in federal prison at Moundsville, West Virginia. While the one Allens name is Floyd, there is also a town of Floyd and Floyd County to the north of Carroll County. [29] He testified that one of the girls pointed out some of the Allens leaving the courthouse, when Sidna Allen came toward him, pointed his pistol at him, and fired. They were arrested by Caleb Haynes and Oscar Monday of the Mount Airy police department and brought to the state line. The was never a barber shop in this Mayberry, however. Floyd said he did it peacefully and lawfully, claiming that the deputies did not have proper warrants for arrest. Such tampering hindered the ability to link bullets to the guns fire or the direction from which they came. Soon afterwards, folks dug bullets buried in the walls as souvenirs. The Allen clan believed that Goad shot first. Some later turned themselves in. Baldwin-Felts detectives traveled to Des Moines, arrested the suspects, and returned them to Carroll County to stand trial. For example, Betty Ayers, who was killed in the courthouse tragedy, was a 4th cousin to Dexter Goad (clerk of court), 4th cousin, twice removed, from Woodson Quesenberry (deputy clerk), 2nd cousin, twice removed, from Floyd Allens wife and a 3rd cousin to the Edwards brothers, Wesley and Sidna. He found the murder indictment against Sidna Allen, Floyds brother who would be convicted and serve more than 13 years in prison. [22], The prosecution attempted to show that Floyd and Claud Allen prompted the gun battle by standing and pulling their pistols and opening fire. Sadler said that his grandfathers reputation was that of an attorney who possessed a great gift of gab and was a prolific letter writer, but he never left behind any record of what he saw or heard that day in the Hillsville courtroom. [25], Deputy Sheriff George W. Edwards, who became the sheriff of Carroll County after Sheriff Webb's death, testified that, as a deputy sheriff at the time, he had spoken with Floyd Allen just after Allen learned of his indictment. Hall himself had asked Horney, who died in 2020, about the whereabouts of the trial exhibits while doing his own research. Hillsville, Virginia is part of the Preserve America program. Contact us: By Mail PO Box 937 - Hillsville, VA 24343 | By Phone (276) 728 4113 | By Email carrollmuseum@yahoo.com | On Facebook https://facebook.com/CarrollMuseum | Or come visit us in the Historic Courthouse at: 515 North Main Street - Hillsville, VA 24343. It sounded like Mayberry, but only for a moment! A witness later testified that Floyd Allen had remarked that he "would not let any man talk to me that way."[14]. Being from below the mountain, as Carroll Countians described the community, the Allens and neighbors were cut off from the county seat in Hillsville, which in the late 1800s and early 1900s was a two-day horse ride over the peak through Fancy Gap. This sort of isolation probably meant that Floyd and his siblings grew up independent, resourceful and perhaps overly prideful and defiant. The jury set his sentence at one year. They were proud men, perhaps none more so than Floyd, who it could be said carried a log-sized chip on his shoulder. [1] Combs wanted the land badly enough to pay the asking price and bought it despite Floyd Allen's warnings not to "butt in. Floyd Allen was going to trial. Menu. Edwards was one of those involved in the fight at the church with the Edwards brothers and went on to be County Sheriff for numerous terms. Two were executed and a number went to prison for their part in the tragedy. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/JeffSpeed68/56171 Ft: Aussens@iter (tobias_weber), Gerd Kohlmeier, Audio Podcast WordPress Theme By VWThemes, Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Killed August 1, 1921, World War I Anti-Conscription Movement 1917, https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/49746687/download.mp3, The Hatfields and the McCoys: After the Feud, http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/ramblinglibrarian/41284. Yep, I think we do have similar tendencies. This story could have been written in a Creative Non-Fiction genre. I find myself more and more drawn to history. Former judge David Winton Bolen, who had been present during the shooting as one of Floyd Allen's defense attorneys, was the first witness the prosecution called at Floyd Allen's murder trial. One local historian interviewed by Williamson for The Roanoker magazine in 1982 stated unequivocally that Claude Allen, Floyds son, fired first. One shot. The police of 1912 were not exactly professional. However, no extradition order was issued. The detectives left at Hillsville have gone to the mountains, headed by Lee Felts. People were struck, some were wounded, some killed instantly. On March 28, 1913, barely a year after the bloodshed in Hillsville, Floyd and Claude Allen were executed in the same electric chair. Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. Some of the detectives bragged about how many miners theyd killed. The 1912 documents referred to in this story were scanned and digitally archived by Delilah Brady, a volunteer and director for the Carroll County Historical Society and Museum. Mob violence, the court. According to local legend, a headstone placed atop their graves read: Sacred to the memory of Claude S. Allen and his father, who was judicially murdered in the Va. Penitentiary March 28 1913 by order of the Governor of the State over the protest of 100,000 citizens of the state of Va.. Despite taking his nephews to jail himself, Floyd was accused that he did feloniously and forcably [sic] rescue his nephews, according to a grand jury indictment. But there they were, hidden in a drawer in the basement of the Wythe County Courthouse, where a longtime clerk discovered them in the fall of 2016. Carroll County Clerk of Circuit Court Gerald Goad opened the formal transfer of the papers from Wythe County in the very room where the shootout occurred - a circle completed some 100 years, nine months and six days since traveling to Wythe County. On May 18, 1912, the jury found Floyd Allen guilty. [4], Judge Robert C. Jackson, an attorney in Roanoke and Judge Thornton Massie's predecessor in the Carroll County courtroom, stated that, "Floyd Allen was perhaps the worst man of the clan overbearing, vindictive, high tempered, brutal, with no respect for law and little or no regard for human life. Then he found the original Floyd Allen indictment that bore William Fosters final written words. When all the smoke cleared, there were five dead, seven wounded. No autopsies were performed. He never carried a gun as a matter of course, but on his way to court, the first day of Floyd Allens trial, his cousin, Allan Webb, advised him to borrow a pistol. - Claude Allen did not take a gun when he went to Hillsville To Floyds trial. [29], Another witness, Walter Petty, also testified that the first shots were fired from the courtroom's northeast corner, where Claud Allen was standing. [1][4] Floyd had wanted to buy a farm owned by one of his own brothers, but could not agree on a price. Published in the SW VA Enterprise, Wytheville, Virginia Tuesday, July 4, 1939. Ron Hall, a local historian who has written a book about the shootout and is considered one of the best sources for factual information about the story, told Sadler that he was probably the first person to see those documents in 100 years. The prosecutor's case was based on the formation of a conspiracy by the Allens to kill the trial judge, local law enforcement, and others who had wronged them in the event of a guilty verdict. There are even questions as to what happened here. Mr. Allen stood and declared, "Gentlemen, I ain't a goin'." As gunmen spilled from the courthouse taking their battle through the downtown streets, the judge, sheriff, and Commonwealth Attorney lay dead in the smoke-filled courtroom. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The town's name was changed to Hillsville in the late 1820s to honor a local family. Accounts differ as to whether this was for a lack of evidence, or because Marion became a state's witness and admitted his role in aiding the Allens. A large collection of portrait photos, newspaper accounts, and a marvelous diorama of the 1912 courtroom scene are on display in the historic courthouse, as is the collection of folk marquetry furniture made by J. Sidna Allen. And forensic science was almost non-existent, at least in rural areas. [34] He also said he went to Blankenship's Livery Stable after the incident, where he met other family members and left Hillsville with Claud Allen, Wesley Edwards, and Sidna Edwards. No autopsies were ever performed and rumors flew of friendly fire casualties. Doing so, the opening details could easily be incorporated into the larger narrative. Allen once accused Goad of running liquor, which forced the clerk to resign from a prestigious post as federal commissioner. [2] In May 1889, Floyd's brothers, Garland and Sidna Allen, were tried for carrying concealed pistols and assaulting a group of thirteen men. Maybe the county leaders didnt want to find errant bullets from their own guns in the bodies of the dead, some county residents whispered. [1] Allen, who was before the bar for sentencing after being convicted of taking a prisoner from a deputy sheriff, allegedly triggered the shooting at the Carroll County Courthouse in Hillsville on March 14, 1912. The announcement of that sentence set off a gun battle that became one of the worst incidences of violence ever to occur in an American courtroom. Ronald W. Hall,The Carroll County Courthouse Tragedy(2013 printing, Hillsville VA: Carroll County Historical Society,1998). . The historical societys museum resides on the first floor of the old courthouse, which no longer is a government building but still majestically commands the high ground of Main Street like it did in 1912. - After his release from prison in 1922, Friel Allen came back to Hillsville and had Attorney John Alderman arrange a meeting with Dexter Goad. But the documents do bring humanity to a story often told through tintype pictures, brittle newspaper clippings, hazy memories and fables passed down through generations. [38], Victor Allen and Barnett Allen were acquitted. According to Wesley, Thomas and three friends assaulted him, and he defended himself with the help of his brother Sidna, who rushed to join the fight. Virginia law held that when a sheriff died his deputies lost all legal powers, so the shooting left Carroll County without law enforcement. Maybe so, but people just keep coming back to this story. [8] On February 1, 1908, the Allens were convicted of the charge and sentenced to ten days in jail and a fine of $10. The courtroom buzzed. Sidna Allen received a 35-year prison sentence, his nephews Wesley and Sidna Edwards and Friel Allen got lesser sentences. He proved to be right. The phone hasn't stopped ringing in the. You can also see some of Sidna Allens furniture craftsmanship and Claude Allens banjo on exhibit in the museum. Interesting story. Carroll County Clerk of the Circuit Court Gerald Goad sits behind the drawer that holds long-lost documents from the murder trials that followed the infamous "Courthouse Massacre" in 1912. [34] Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards then left Virginia, eventually reaching Des Moines, Iowa. - Commonwealths Attorney, William McDonald Foster, was a brother-in-law to one of Floyd Allens defense attorneys; Walter Scott Tipton. Sidna was released from prison, but he never set foot in his fine house again. At least two of the participants, Judge Massie and Sheriff Webb, had told friends that they expected trouble. Again, no thorough investigation of the courtroom happened, and the scene was almost immediately compromised by people who dug bullets out of the walls with pocketknives to keep as souvenirs. "Claude Allen Convicted: He Is Found Guilty of Murdering Commonwealth's Attorney Foster", Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Allen Clan Hillsville Courthouse Shootout", The Wheeling Intelligencer March 15, 1912 p.15, Transcriptions of contemporary newspaper articles, "Mug Shot Monday Special Edition: Floyd and Claude Allen", The UncommonWealth: Voices from the Library of Virginia at the Library of Virginia, The UncommonWealth: Voices from the Library of Virginia, "Hillsville Massacre - The UncommonWealth", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Floyd_Allen&oldid=1137936144, People executed by Virginia by electric chair, 20th-century executions of American people, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Articles needing additional references from October 2020, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from October 2020, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from December 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Lewis Franklin Webb, Carroll County sheriff, William McDonald Foster, Commonwealth's Attorney, Augustus Cezar Fowler, juror (died of wounds), This page was last edited on 7 February 2023, at 04:22. Other members of the family received long sentences. The next witness was Sidney Towe, who largely corroborated the testimony of Sheriff Edwards. Their trials took place in Wytheville. SIDNA ALLEN'S TERM FIXED AT 35 YEARS; Head of Hillsville Clan Sentenced for Killing of Three Court Officials. [2] Deputy Samuels pulled a gun (later determined to be inoperative) and ordered Floyd to move away, and Floyd rode back past the buggy to Sidna's store where he then blocked the narrow road with his mare. The bullet came up under the skin of her right breast. Nephew, Wesley Edwards then left Virginia, eventually reaching Des Moines, arrested suspects. Gone to the north of Carroll County the article title a 35-year prison sentence, his nephews Wesley Sidna. Baldwin-Felts detectives traveled to Des Moines, Iowa May 18, 1912, the jury Floyd. 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