THE DUCK HILL, MISS., ROBBERY--THE KILLING OF PASSENGER
CHESTER HUGHES.
On the cold and cheerless night of December 15, 1888, the north-bound
express train of the Illinois Central Railway, which left New Orleans
for Chicago at seven o’clock A. M. pulled into the station of Duck
Hill, Miss., twenty-five miles south of Grenada, thirteen hours later.
The manner in which the engine was boarded and the train stopped is
best told in the language of Albert Law, the engineer in charge of the
locomotive. He says:
“I pulled out of Duck Hill Station at 10:05 o’clock P. M. The fireman
called to me to look out; that there was a car of cotton ahead on the
side track. I pulled slowly by, in order to avoid igniting the cotton
by sparks from the engine, and when I passed the cotton the fireman
said: ‘All right, let her go.’ I started ahead lively, and presently
saw the robbers climb up on my engine from the east side.
“The smaller man got on first. I thought they were tramps, and was in
the act of slowing up to put them off when the smaller man covered me
with a big pistol and said, ‘Don’t stop here! go on! go on!’ I then
saw that the men were masked. I asked, ‘Where do you want to stop!’ He
replied, ‘I’ll tell you where to stop.’ I pulled along, and when we had
gone about a mile he said:
“‘Stop here--stop now!’ I put the air on full and stopped as quickly as
I could.
“The little man did all the talking. When we stopped he got down on the
ground and fired his revolver two or three times. The train had hardly
stopped when he commenced shooting. The other man said, ‘Get down!’
My fireman and myself were then made to go ahead, on the east side of
the train, to the express car. Here they stopped us, and the tall man
called out to the messenger, ‘Open up! Open up!’ The messenger looked
out of the door and the tall man said, ‘Where is your other man?’ The
messenger said, ‘I have no other man--no one here but me,’ to which the
reply was, ‘Help this man into the car!’ The messenger being covered by
the revolver of the larger man, extended his hand and helped him into
the car.
“About this time Mr. Wilkerson, the conductor, came out of one of the
rear coaches with his lantern, and the smaller man, who stood guarding
us, told me to tell him to go back. I did, and the conductor went back,
but in a couple of minutes came out again. I saw two forms get out of
the car. They had no lights. I said, ‘You had better go back, or they
will shoot you; they are robbing the express car.’
“The fireman and I were between the robber and the rest of the train.
He kept us in front of him as a sort of breastwork. Some one in the
direction of the passenger coaches called out: ‘Law, where are you?’
When I answered a voice said: ‘Look out! I am going to shoot!’ I
stepped back from the train and the firing commenced, and I broke and
ran for the woods, which were close by.”
Meantime the robber who had entered the car handed a sack to Southern
Express Messenger Harris and bade him deliver up the contents of
his safe. At this juncture the firing on the outside of the car had
commenced, and advancing to the door, still keeping an eye on the
messenger, the robber fired three shots into the air. Conductor
Wilkerson had, on first coming out, taken in the situation, and going
back into the coaches announced to the passengers that the train was
being robbed, and asked who would assist him. Chester Hughes, a brave
young fellow, from Jackson, Tenn., arose quickly and said, “I will,
if I can get anything to shoot with.” Two colored men seated near by
had each a thirty-eight caliber Winchester rifle, and these weapons
were quickly gathered by the conductor and his gallant passenger, and
loading them with cartridges furnished them by the owners they went
forth to do battle with the robbers. It was conductor Wilkerson who had
warned the engineer to protect himself, and he fired the first shot at
the robbers.
Advancing abreast of each other these brave men fired shot after shot
at the dark form of the robber who stood as a sentinel on the outside
of the car, and who unflinchingly held his ground, returning with
steady aim charge after charge from his trusty revolver, until finally
young Hughes dropped his Winchester, and exclaiming “I am shot!” fell
to the earth. Wilkerson raised the brave young fellow to his feet and
dragged his unconscious and bleeding form into the coach, and returning
to the steps of the front coach renewed the firing at the robbers.
The robber had, meantime, secured the money from the messenger (about
two thousand dollars), and backing out of the car, still holding his
pistol on the messenger, joined his comrade on the ground, and under
the fire of the conductor both retreated to the woods hard by.
Chester Hughes had been in charge of a widowed sister, who, with
several small children, were _en route_ to Jackson, Tenn. The sister
knew nothing of her brother’s participation in the fight with the
robbers until he was carried back into the coach, when she prostrated
herself in affectionate embrace over his body, from which life was fast
ebbing away. The scene was an agonizing and affecting one.
The unerring aim of the robber had sent three shots through the body of
young Hughes, all entering the stomach within a radius of six inches,
and the unfortunate but daring young fellow lived only a few minutes.
The same train on which he had erstwhile embarked in the vigor of
health and buoyant spirits, bore his lifeless form to the home of his
widowed mother at Jackson, Tenn.
The Southern Express Company and the Illinois Central Railway promptly
presented his grief-stricken mother with a fitting testimonial of
appreciation for the heroic conduct of her son. While
“On Fame’s eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead,”
the name of Chester Hughes will be enrolled among the bravest of the
brave.
The whole country was electrified with horror at the brutal murder of
a passenger on one of the great trunk lines of railway, in one of the
most populous districts of the South, by train robbers, and it was
determined that no expense or labor should be spared in bringing the
criminals to justice. General Manager C. A. Beck and Superintendent
J. G. Mann, of the Illinois Central Railway, were in Memphis in a
special car at the time. During the night a violent and very general
rain storm had prevailed, and the telegraph wires were down in many
places. The news of the robbery did not, therefore, reach Memphis
until about midnight. The railroad and express officials remained at
the telegraph office all night, seeking the details, and left about
daylight for the scene of the robbery. The aid of the Pinkertons was
again summoned, and several of the most expert detectives of the
Chicago agency soon arrived at Duck Hill.
About a month prior to the Duck Hill robbery the United States Express
Company had been robbed at Derby, Miss., a station sixty-five miles
north of New Orleans, on the Queen and Crescent Railway, by Eugene
Bunch, a man who is supposed by some persons, even at this day, to
be identical with Rube Burrow. Eugene Bunch, a native of Louisiana,
and long a resident of Texas, bore a remarkable resemblance to Rube
Burrow. The description, about thirty-six years old, weight one hundred
and seventy pounds, height six feet one inch, light complexion,
auburn hair, long, drooping mustache, blue eyes, raw-boned and
stoop-shouldered, would fit either Rube Burrow or Eugene Bunch. Apart
from this personal resemblance they bore nothing else in common except
the title of train robber. Their habits and methods of life were
strikingly dissimilar. Bunch was a man of some education, had taught
school in Louisiana and Texas, and was for a long period of time a
County Court Clerk in Texas, while Burrow was a coarse, unlettered
fellow, and it may be stated, as a certainty, that these men never had
any association as train robbers or otherwise.
The Pinkerton detectives, on their arrival at Duck Hill, were unable
to find a trace of the robbers. There was no clew from which to
begin a search for them. Whence the robbers came, whither they had
gone, whether on horseback or afoot, was not known. At this juncture
Detective D. C. Hennessey, of New Orleans, who recently met his death
at the hands of assassins in that city, and a man of undoubted ability
in his profession, having received a descriptive circular of the
robbers, telegraphed the officials of the Southern Express Company as
follows: “Description of the robbers received. I am well aware as to
who they are, and am satisfied I can get them.”
A conference was at once arranged with Hennessey, who declared the Duck
Hill robbery to be the work of Eugene Bunch. An unfortunate combination
of circumstances here ensued to corroborate Hennessey’s view. Bunch
answered Burrow’s description with great exactness. The former was
reliably ascertained to have been in northern Louisiana a few days
prior to the robbery, and, therefore, within easy reach of Duck Hill;
Bunch had an intimate friend who answered Engineer Law’s description of
the smaller man who stood guard over him at Duck Hill.
The detectives had, meantime, traced two men riding out south from the
scene of the robbery in the direction of Honey Island, in the Pearl
River, a favorite resort with Bunch; and, still more remarkable, one of
the horses ridden corresponded with the one owned by Bunch’s comrade
in Louisiana, who was known to have assisted him in his flight from
Derby, Miss. The chase that followed, therefore, under the leadership
of the Pinkertons, was organized to find Bunch, and not Burrow. From
New Orleans to Texas, to Monterey and Mexico City, to Los Angeles and
San Diego, and even to San Francisco, the detectives pursued Bunch
until, just as his capture seemed certain at San Francisco, he eluded
the detectives by taking a Pacific coast steamer. The chase was then,
after months of labor, abandoned.
Meantime, in a quiet way, the detectives of the Southern Express
Company were at work on the theory that Rube Burrow was the leader
in the robbery at Duck Hill. It was discovered that Rube Burrow and
Joe Jackson rode away from the farm of Fletcher Stevens in Tate
County, Miss., on December 1, 1888, and after paying a visit to Rube’s
brother-in-law, Berryhill, who lives eighteen miles from Oxford,
proceeded to Water Valley, Miss., where they spent the night; and
that going thence to Duck Hill they robbed the train in the manner
described. After mounting their horses, tethered in the woods some half
a mile from the spot on which the robbery occurred, they rode through a
drenching rain a distance of forty miles by daylight. The next day they
camped in the brush, divided the spoils of the robbery, and at sundown
resumed their journey. After another hard night’s ride they reached
the vicinity of the Pearl River, near Philadelphia, Miss. Here, fearing
the news of the deed at Duck Hill had preceded them, and that the
detectives might be in waiting at the bridge, they turned their horses
into the swamps and two miles north of the bridge swam the swollen
current of Pearl River. Reaching the opposite bank, they continued
their journey through the wilds of the forest for a few miles, and
turning from the southwesterly course on which they had ridden for two
days, they rode in a northeasterly direction, traveling most of the
distance at night, until they reached Lamar County. Here they remained
in quiet seclusion until the tragic event recorded in the next chapter
occurred.