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When the history of Harlan is written, little space in it will be devoted to accounts of legal hangings here.

Only three persons have been hanged legally in Harlan County, according to Circuit Cout records--although Circuit Court Clerk Mose Howard grants that others may have taken place without sanction of the law.

Hanging first was adopted as the method of capital punishment in this district shortly before the Cicil War, and the first man hanged-legally-in Harlan County was a Hezekiah Clem, charged with murder.

The record for that period isnot easily accessible, but Howard who had read the account, said the hanging took place sometime around 1860

"Clem was tried and sentenced to death," he related," and it was directed by the court that sheriff take him down to near the mouth of Poor Fork, to a place known as Booger Hollow, there to be hanged by the neck until dead.

"They say he was taken there, and a wagon driven under a tree. A rope was tied around his neck and to a branch of the tree, and the wagon was then driven out from under him."

Howard himself saw the secondhanging in the county, which took place in 1895. Buford Overton and John Scott had been charged with the murder of two Jewish peddlers at the head of Martins's Fork, for which Scott received a sentence of life imprisonment at hard labor.

Overton's much--delayed trial was finally begun August 21, 1895 with a special jury summoned to hear the case. Court began at 7:30 a.m., with Circuit Judge W.F. Hall presiding.

On August 22 Overton changed his plea to guilty, but it was not until the next day that the jury returned this verdict:

"We the Jury do agree and find the defendant guilty and fix this punishment at death."

According to the record, Overton planned an appeal, but none was ever entered. He was ordered taken to the County Jail" and there safely kept until the 18th day of October, 1895, at which day between sunrise and sunset the sheriff of Harlan County shall hang him by the neck until he is dead."

There was only one hitch. Overton escaped. However, through letters he wrote back to a sweet heart, it was learned he was in Tennessee, and Jailer Fielding Hensley, grandfather of the present jailer apprehended him and brought him back, Howard said.

So the hanging took place as scheduled, on an old popular tree at the foot of Ivy Hill. Although it was a wet, gloomy day, some 3,ooo people from Bell County, Virginia and Tennessee, as well as Harlan County, witnessed the hanging, Howard recalled.

"Sheriff Grant Smith asked Overton if he wanted to say a few words, and he made a speech to this effect: Young men--I want to give all you young people some advice. Don't ever drink any whiskey, don't gamble and don't disobey your father and mother.

"you can see what that's brought me to.

Overton was in his thirities when he was hanged, Howard said. There was only one other hanging in the county after that---in 1902 or 1903. Hanging was abolished around 1910. Howard added, and electrocution was substituted a little later.

Sunday August 24, 1947

Volume 46 Number 21

Pages 1 & 5

article written by Ruby Lawson

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