Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
Travel Stories in the News

A NEW HAMPSHIRE MAN'S EXPERIENCE.
Wm. H. Turner of Manchester, N. H. an engineer and machinist, had for four years been in the habit of spending his winters on the plantation of Woodworth & Son. at Clintonville, S. C., about seventeen miles from Charleston. Previous to the election of Lincoln, in reply to a question of one of his fellow workmen, he said that if he had the casting vote he would give it for Mr. Lincoln.—
About two weeks after the election, he was visited at the plantation by a Vigilance Committee, arrested, and taken to the Charleston jail, and locked up. As he passed through the streets, the bystanders hissed, hooted, and assailed him with threats of hanging, tar, and whipping, following him to the jail, and there collecting in a large mob, clamoring for his life, and threatening to kill the jailer if the prisoner was not given up. During the night Mr. Turner suffered from hunger, but more actually from thirst, and in the morning, up- on asking the Sheriff for a drink of water, he was told to `Go to h—I, and get water if you want it.' Some hours later, the turnkey was asked for water, but the reply was, `Send
down East and get it.' He was taken before the `Vigilant Committee Tribunal' in the afternoon, and asked whether he had said what was charged against him. He replied in the affirmative. Judge Jeffers then tore up the original warrant, saying that another Court must take cognizance of the case, and ordered the prisoner back to jail, using the foulest language, and declaring that he ought to be hanged. He passed that night, and every day and night of his imprisonment, in his hole, a miserable apartment, 27 inches high, and about eight feet long, without a shred of bedding. The next morning, thirty-six hours after he was first taken, a small bit of hard black bread and a ???? of impure water was put into the cell, and this was the allowance he had each day during his confluement[sic].—
On the morning of the 11th of March—more than fourteen weeks after his arrest—he was allowed to depart in the steamer, working his passage to New York. His employer cheated him out of his wages—some $248—and a watchmaker kept his watch and chain, which he had left to have repaired before his arrest. Mr. Turner will hereafter probably spend his winters in the North. [Douglas Monthly, Rochester, N.Y., May 1861 - Submitted by Candi H.]

---

©2008 Genealogy Trails