Saturday was another damp morning, the fog drifting above the frosted grass of the baseball diamond next to the railroad station. Few birds were singing, fewer animals darting through the underbrush in the cold mist. Long beams of light running in the direction of the railroad tracks as the sun rose in the east set ice particles flashing where they lay on cold branches and frozen leaves. The center of town was silent. Most of the buildings were burned out or burned down. One church was gone. The Masonic Hall and the school were gone, as was Daddy Hall’s store and all of the houses that once clustered around the crossroads in the center of town. A wet, charred smell lay over everything, the smoke from the still smoldering mess mixing with the mist.
A man walked down the dirt road that ran along side the railroad tracks. Booted and gloved, he shrugged his shoulders up towards his hat, trying to keep his ears warm in his lambs’ wool collar. Every quarter mile or so, he stopped and turned towards the woods at the side of the road. He looked around as if to see who might see him, then started yelling out into the forest.
“You all get on the train tonight!” Sheriff Walker called. He went a ways farther south down the track and called out again, cupping his hands around his mouth.
“The train’s coming, tonight! Bryce Brother's engine, pulling two cars! You all get on the train, you’ll be all right!”
He stopped to breathe deeply, bending over to rest his hands on his knees. Sheriff Walker’s eyes were ringed in dark circles; he looked like a man who’d not slept well in a while.
Looking up, he thought he saw a movement under the trees, deep in the dark shade of the bushes encircling one of the giant oak trees. He rubbed his tired eyes and looked again but could see nothing in the deep shadows made by the low morning sun.
“You women and children come on out at dark tonight! Train’ll take you up to Archer or Gainesville. You’re safer off this land right now. No men! Don’t bring your men with you. We’re still looking for that convict, so we can’t let no men on the train! You hear?”
Shivering in the damp morning, the sheriff turned as he heard his deputy walking towards him up the tracks from Sumner.
“Nothing down this way,” the deputy told him. “Called out but didn’t see any of them.”
“We told them, best we can do,” Walker replied. “Let’s move up to Wylly, tell all them to tell anyone they see. Best we can do,” he said, shaking his head as they got in their car and drove away.
There was a rustling in the brush, fronds of palm dipped. Then Rosewood was silent again.
From the Gainesville Sun, Sunday January 7, 1923:
ANOTHER NEGRO KILLED
IN ROSEWOOD CLASH
____________
SHOT TO DEATH OVER
GRAVES OF RELATIVES
______________
James Carrier Believed to Have
Been in Barricaded House-
Refuses to Divulge
Names and Pays Penalty
__________________
OFFICIALS REPORT QUIET
__________________
Hunt for James Hunter-Want-
ed For Assault on White
Woman is Being
Continued
__________________
An unidentified negro man, appar-
ently about 60 years of age, was
shot and killed at nine o’ clock Satur-
day morning, over the freshly made
graves of three others of his race
at Rosewood, after he refused to di-
vulge names of other occupants of the
house at which two white men and
two negroes were killed late Thurs-
day night. The negro admitted
having been in the house during
the firing.
The shooting this morning brought
the total deaths in the racial clash
to seven, two of whom are whites.
Returning to the negro quarters of
Sumner, three miles away, early Sat-
urday morning after having spent
the night in nearby woods, the negro
appealed to W.H. Pillsbury, super-
intendant of the Cummer Cypress
Company mill there, for protection.
Mr. Pillsbury locked him in a shanty
on the outskirts of town.
Later in the morning when mem-
bers of the mob heard that the ne-
gro was being held there, an imme-
diate demand was made for his body.
Fearing possible violence near the
mill, Mr. Pillsbury turned the man
over after receiving a promise that
no outbreak would take place within
the village. The negro was led to
the scene of earlier violence and there
shot to death after questioning by his
captors.
Feeling which had [quieted] down
overnight was reported to have be-
come intensified after the shooting
this morning.
_______________
Rosewood Fla., Jan. 6-(By Asso-
ciated Press)- A new grave was dug
in the negro cemetery at Sumner
near here late today, and in it Dep-
uty Sheriff Elias Walker placed the
body of James Carrier, whose death
at the hands of several white men
this morning was the result of a
clash between the races at Rosewood
Thursday night.
He was shot to death while stand-
ing on the graves of the four negroes
who fell in the fighting that follow-
ed the attempt of a crowd of white
men to enter a negro house in search
of Jesse Hunter, wanted for alleged
implication in an attack on a white
woman in Sumner.
According to information received
by officials, Carrier was seized by
several white men this morning and
accused of having been in the house
from which negroes fired on the ap-
proaching white men, killing two of
their number. He is said to have re-
fused to reveal the names of the ne-
groes who did the shooting. The
white men, who were in a throng, led
him into the negro graveyard and
made him stand on the newly dug
graves of his[sister-in-law and nephew],
also victims of the fighting, while
they riddled his body with shots.
Meanwhile, Hunter, search for
whom has resulted in several deaths,
still is out at large. Sheriff Walker
has been informed that a negro an-
swering his description is under ar-
rest in Lakeland and has sent a man
who knew Hunter by sight, to try to
identify the prisoner. Tonight he
still was without word as to whether
the prisoner was Hunter.
Officers stated tonight that the
situation in the entire vicinity was
quiet and they said no further trouble
was expected. The negroes of Rose-
wood have been hiding in the woods
since Thursday night and those in
the nearby villages do not venture
from their quarters, it was reported.
LAKELAND SUSPECT
NOT JESSE HUNTER
Lakeland, Jan. 6- (By Associated
Press)- Two deputies and two other
citizens of Rosewood, Florida, arrived
here early tonight to identify a negro
suspected of being Jesse Hunter,
sought for an alleged attack on a
young white girl at Sumner, Florida,
and returned to their homes immedi-
ately thereafter, after finding that
the negro held here was not Hunter.
The resemblance between the two
negroes is very close, the Rosewood
citizens stated.
The local chief of police is holding
the negro on other charges.