Charles Davenport
Submitted by Herman R "Buck" Seibert Jr. April 11, 2012
Cincinnati Enquirer, December 14, 1876, page 7
KENTUCKY HULL-DOZING
A Negro Seducer Meets His Fate
Considerable excitement exists among the good people of Gubser's Mill over the report that a white girl, the daughter of an old citizen of Campbell County had eloped with a negro. The facts as near as we could obtain, are as follows: An old farmer named John Eat, residing near Gubser's Mills, is the father of three or four children; two of them are girls ranging from fourteen to seventeen years.
For several years past a colored man named Charley Davenport, a widower, has been a constant and frequent visitor to the house and no person and no person dreamed that there existed any intimacy between him and any of the girls until about a week ago, the oldest girl, about seventeen years was missing and search being made, she was nowhere to be found.
The next day the report spread that Davenport was also missing and the thought flashed upon the minds of the family and their friends that the negro eloped with the girl and the report spread that they at present in this city and yesterday word was sent to Davenport that unless he brought the girl home that the first time he showed himself at Gubser's Mills he would be hung to the first tree.
It would appear that they left their homes at nightfall and traveled toward the city on foot: that they slept in an old barn between this city and Alexandria, arriving here the next day. The feeling among the people in the upper part of the county over this affair is any thing but pleasant and there is no doubt that a mob is organized to give Davenport his merits unless he brings the girl home.
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KENTUCKY HULL-DOZING
Cincinnati Enquirer, December 17, 1876, page 4
An account was given in our Newport column a few days ago of the seduction away from her home of Clara Eats, a young white girl living in the upped end of Campbell County, by a negro man named Charles Davenport, living in the neighborhood and in the habit of visiting on the girl's father's place. The two were gone about a week and spent the time in Newport together having walked all the way on foot, a distance of probably twenty miles.
Intense indignation prevailed in the neighborhood and the country was scoured for the black beast with dire intent in case he were captured. At last, day before yesterday, moved as is thought, by the hope that the injured girl would stand by him and deny their guilt, he let her go and himself returned home.
As soon as discovered he was pursued and the dread law evoked to accomplish his capture and punishment. A writ was placed in the hands of J J Stevens and that officer, in trying to execute the writ, was shot at three times and snapped at twice by the desperate devil.
Stevens got but one shot at the negro, his revolver getting out of fix at the critical moment. He was on the top of his house at the time he fired and says he don't know whether his shot took effect or not, because though the black seducer fell on his all fours, he got away in lively style. That same evening, just before dark, Davenport snapped his pistol twice at John Eats, the father of the abused girl, with the muzzle right between his shoulders; and subsequently to this Hunt Finley, a half brother of Davenport, called Mr. Eats out and fired at him, but happily without effect and then ran away.
Davenport at last, however, met his fate and a deserved fate it certainly was if but half of the seduction story were true. He was found dead yesterday about three hundred yards from John Eats house with three bullet holes in him. A six barreled revolver was lying by his side, with five chambers empty, and a small quantity of ammunition, showing that somebody had been loading and firing. Precisely how the killing occurred will probably remain a mystery, nor will there be much public concern among the good people there living on that point.
Not the least distressing feature of the affair
is that the poor girl, only seventeen years of age, is with child by her black
seducer.