Rains Co.TX The Rains Hanging (submitted by Elaine Nall Bay) The Rains County Leader
May 14, 1970
The Rains Hanging by Ginger Smith
Texas History
Rains High School
May 1, 1970
On June 8, 1891, the first, last and only legal execution ever held in Rains County occurred when Henry Johnston was hanged as the climax to a sensational murder trial that found him guilty of murdering William Shuemake.
Henry Johnston was described by those who remembered him as being good looking, tall and dark headed. Some have even described him as handsome. He had been confined to the Grayson County Jail for some time during the late 1880's for a crime that has been lost to the passing of time when William Shuemake secured his release.
Shuemake brought Henry and his wife, Hettie, to live on his newly acquired farm, just west of Emory. Shuemake was an old man that lived alone but kept Johnston and his wife on the place as permanent hands, along with numerous Negroes, who worked as needed.
In the spring of 1890, Shuemake received a card notifying him of registered mail and Johston, having been present when Shuemake received the money order, took the amount to be $1,000. In reality, it was for $10, but the decimal point had escaped the semi-illiterate Johnston. Johnston later told some Negroes who worked for Shuemake that the old man had received a large sum of money and had hidden it in his cabin.
The first week in May, Shuemake dropped from sight. After several days, Joe Benton, a Negro, asked Sheriff Fannin Montgomery what had happened to Shuemake? Montgomery investigated and found the old man's cabin empty, but there were blood stains on the floor and Shuemake's wagon, mules and horses were missing.
A search party assembled and scoured the surrounding area. Henry Treadwell found SHuemake's bloody remains in a post oak thicket about a hundred yards from his home. He had been sead a number of days. Death was ruled as being caused by severe blows to the head an neck.
It was later proved that Johnston killed the old man while he slept in front of the fireplace and carried the body on horseback to the thicket and dragged it into the underbrush. Johnston then took the wagon, mules and horses and headed for the Red River and the safety of Oklahoma Territory.
SHeriff Montgomery and Shuemake's son, Abe, trailed Johnston to the border community of Monkstown. Because of recent rains and a high rise on the river, they were forced to stop. Going to the local inn for a room and finding it filled, they pleaded with the innkeeper to make room for them, which he consented to do. As the weary men led their horses to the stable at dusk, Abe SHuemake saw a grey mule in the stable and told Montgomery he thought i looked like his father's animal.
His father's mule had a cut ear and from this city, the son made a positive identification. At the same moment as they were examining the mule, a shadow crossed Montgomery's shoulder. He quicky turned and grabbed the figure, throwing it to the ground. His intuition had been correct, the begging, crumpled figure at his feet was Henry Johnston.
Early the next morning, Montgomery and Shuemake rode to Denison with Johnston in custody. THere they caught a train back to Emory.
Word of the capture and transportation of Shuemake's killer reached the old man's home town of Bells. A lynch mob of Shuemakerr's friends waited quietly for the train to make its regular stop at the Bells depot. The alert conductor, however, saw the mob and went through town ignoring the scheduled stop.
When the party arrived in Emory and as the prisoner was being taken to jail, he tried to escape. As he ran down the stairs of the jail, Dr. Addams shot him and his escape was foiled.
The trial was held in early October of 1890. It began on the 4th of that month and on the 6th Jury Foreman A.J. Bowles read the verdict, "Guilty in the first degree." Judge T.D. Montrose sest the date of the hanging as the 27th day of April 1891.
During the course of the trial, Charlie Yalka,, the eloquent and persuasive District Attorney, shocked all present when he made the statement, "The body of WIlliam SHuemake was left for the flies to blow and the hogs to eat his guts out."
Immediately following Johnston's trial on October 6, 1890, the state also tried Hettie Johnston. She pleaded not guilty and her trial was quickly settled with her acquittal and release. She was allowed to stay with Henry Johnston during most of the time of his confinement.
Henry Johnston requested a new trial but was denied further hearing. However, Governor Hogg granted a stay of execution from April 27, 1891 to June 8, 1891.
On June 8, the day dawned hot and grew hotter as the afternoon approached. BY mid-afternoon, over 5,000 people had congregated on the east side of the town square to witness the hanging, milling about and fanning the dust.
The scaffold with the lower part covered with black calico, was built on the west side of the old mail. A barbed wire fence was erected around the scaffold and guards, armed with Winchesters, stationed at every post with orders to shoot anyone who tried to interfere with the hanging.
Late in the afternoon, the crowd became hushed as the Rev. Lockart of the Camolite Church mounted the scaffold and ead the 14th Chapter of John. "Let not your hear be troubled; Ye that believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." The ministed then sang, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul".
Johnston, accompanied by a group of peace officers from Rains County and surrounding counties of Hunt, Hopkins, Wood and Granson, was then brought onto the scaffold, where he shook hands with everyone except Sheriff Montgomery.
Jiler Ovis Corbitt positioned Johnston over the trap door. His hands were tied behind his back and his feet were buckled together. The rope was slipped over his head and the knot was placed behind his left ear. Finally, a hood of black cloth was placed over his head. Johnston appeared to be the calmest man on the gallows.
Sheriff Montgomery picked up a newly sharpened hatchet and with one swift stroke cut the rope that held the trap door and it was finished. They cut Johnston down and placed his body in a pine coffin. He was immediately taken to Potters Field at the City Cemetery for burial.
The crowd now pushed in and snatched pieces of the rope, splinters of the scaffold and scraps of calico for souveniers. By sundown, the dust had settled on the square and the town was almost deserted and the hanging was history.
The members of the jury that served on Johnston's trial were Jesse Adams, W.P. Harrison, T.J. Pounds, G.T. Walker, J.T. Adams, T.M. Dugan, A.R. Snell, T.T. Pope, J.W. Quarles, J.H. Parish, Anthony WIlliams, and A.J. Bowles, foreman. The foreman of the Grand Jury which indicted Johnston was E.B. Davis. (District Court Records, Rains County, Emory, Texas, vol. 1 & 2, Case #145)
It is not recorded when or why Jenry Johnston was transported to the Hunt County jail for lodging until his execution, but he must have been taken immediately to Hunt County upon his conviction and sentencing.
S.J. Mason, Sheriff of Hunt County, has now presented his account against Rains County for the sum of $152.25 for board of Henry Johnston from 10-15-1890 to 5-6-1891 or 302 days at 75c per day, including expenses of board, clothing, doctor bills, tobacco and washing. (Commissioners Court, Rains County, Emory, Texas)
And after examination thereof, it is ordered by the court that a draft on the ajil bond fund issued to said Sheriff S.J. Mason for the sum of $91.35, that amount being at the rates of 45c per day for keeping said prisoner and that the balance of said accounty, $60.90, be deferred for action until the account is itemized. W.M. Lamb, Judge (Commissioners Court, Rains County, Emory, Texas, Minutes taken from meeting of May 21, 1891)
The account of S.J. Mason, Sheriff of Hunt County, having presented at this time his account of $86.45 for Guards, Medicine, Clothing and for the prisoner, Henry Johnston, and after a careful examination of said account, the items containted therein for guards for the sum of $61.50 and medicine $5, is hereby approved for which amount on application the Clerk will issue a draft therefore on the jail bond fund. Be iit ordered by the Court that the Judge and SHeriff be authorized and requested if possible, to dispose to the best interest of the county, the scaffold or gallows and fixtures in jail yard.
W.M. Lamb, Judge
(Commissioners Court, Rains County, Emory, Texas. Mintues taken from meeting of June 6, 1891).