The Alabama in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Bill Sketoe

I too have been interested in the hangings in Dale County:
Benjamin Franklin "Dock" Prim hung Nov. 20, 1864. Dock was a deserter and a member of Speckled John Ward's renegades.

Erasmus "Ras" Myers hung Nov. 25, 1864. Ras was an old man who fed a couple of deserters (afraid not to). His hanging was especially awful. He was lifted on the shoulders of 2 black men the Guard was questioning and dropped. His body was placed in an outhouse over night until they allowed the family to bury him. Jacob Ezell and Whitmore Crews was there with Capt. Brear. I'm not sure who else.

As for the men at the Sketo hanging, I have only been able to pin down a few names. The story goes that there were 6 men there and all died a violent death but only 4 ways of "violent death" are listed in accounts and there are variations of these: one riding on a
clear day struck by a falling limb, one by a runaway mule, one by lightning while riding in a storm and one found dead in the swamp.

Capt. Joseph R. Brear, of course, was in charge. Accounts say he died in 1866 while riding in a storm, a limb fell from a tree and
killed him. His family moved to Florida.

George W. Echols, was home from Co. B 33rd AL. He had been wounded in the right thigh at Murfreesboro which left him crippled
and on crutches. He used these crutches to scratch out the hole beneath Rev. Sketo's feet when they hung him. He was b. 1843 GA s/o Judge Abel Echols who moved to TX after the war--George was killed in 1865 when he got into an arguement with the
renegade Joseph Saunders. Joseph himself was murdered by an "unknown hand" Feb. 1866, though it was speculated Judge Echols had it done.

Isaac Ardis acording to stories, seems to be the man who placed the noose around Sketo's neck. The only family with that name was in the 1860 Pike census was born 1816 and the family apparently moved right after the war. Isaac died in 1870, I don't know
how. Isaac's son, Julius Calvin Ardis of Co. E 53rd AL d. 17 Nov 1863, less than a month before the Sketo hanging.

The other names mentioned I am still looking into are: Josh Morris, Bill Ard and Dave Young. The old story about the hole that wouldn't stay covered was that Wash Reynolds, a man opposed to the hanging, kept the hole clear in his lifetime. I wonder who did after he died????

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