KYJacksonPurchase-L Archives

From: Bill Utterback <>
Subject: Marshall County - The Hanging of Samuel Gaines
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2004 18:56:35 -0500

My friends -

Today, we are moving to Marshall County for the subject of this post.

In past postings on other counties, we have read newspaper and other
reports about early hangings in the JP counties. Today's post is a
narrative on the hanging of Samuel Gaines in 1866. He, and an accomplice,
McDonald Hamilton, murdered B.F.McNabb in March of 1865. Hamilton's death
sentence was later commuted, and Gaines alone paid the ultimate penalty.
This account of the affair was in the newspapers of the time, and was
reprinted in later histories of the county.

Tomorrow, we will have another essay by Dr. Gordon Wilson.

-B
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Marshall County - The Hanging of
Samuel Gaines

Soon after the war, when the minds of the people were more or less
disturbed, Samuel Gaines was arrested for the murder of B. F. McNabb. The
killing took place near the home of Mr. McNabb, in the southeast part of
the county, while he was out in his clearing. He was shot down in March,
1865, by Samuel Gaines and McDonald Hamilton. They were both indicted at
the June term of the circuit court of the same year, and the indictments
were returned on the 28th day of the month signed by John B. Dupriest,
foreman. The case was called at the same term of court, the indictment was
found, when both parties announced "'ready". Charles S, Marshall was on the
bench while W. W. Tice, Commonwealth's Attorney, was assisted in the
prosecution by Col. Ed Crossland. The defendants were represented by
P[hilander] Palmer and J. C. Gilbert. G. S. Jones was Sheriff, assisted by
his deputy, John J. Dupriest, our present county judge. James H. Riley was
the clerk and Henry L. Minter the jailer. The jury that heard the case are
named as follows: C. Mathis, Wm. Dunn, C. B. Bond, Elijah Johnson, Sam
Dees, Joe Alford, W. H. Copeland, Eli Wallace, John Minter, Jesse Reeder,
John Edward and David Shemwell. The verdict was as follows:
"We, the jurors, do find the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment.
David Shemwell, foreman."

Judge Marshall set September 15, 1865, as the day upon which the prisoner
should be hung, but his friends liberated him from jail and he and Hamilton
both made their escape, but the next year they were both caught and brought
back. Gaines was caught near Louisville by a Mr, Tice, a Methodist minister
from Calloway County, for which he received a reward of $250. Governor
Bramlet commuted the death sentence of Hamilton to ten years in the
penitentiary, which time he served out and spent the remainder of his days
in Tennessee, but the Governor fixed July 13, 1866, as the day for the
execution of Gaines.

The scaffold was erected in what is now F. M. Pool's field, just below
where his residence now stands, and on the day fixed, Samuel Gaines paid
the penalty for his crime in the presence of an immense gathering of people.
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• Marshall County - The Hanging of Samuel Gaines by Bill Utterback <>