During the period between 1900 and 1906
trouble began to brew among the tobacco men of the state, especially in
the Black Patch area around Hopkinsville. the buyers had formed a trust
and were controlling the market. They were getting tobacco at ridiculously
low prices and the farmers were unable to make a living.
On September 24, 1904, Felix Ewing and Joel
and Charles Fort addressed a gathering of 1,000 farmers in Guthrie
and formed an organization to fight the trust. they secured a charter and
called themselves "The Planters Protective Association". Within a few days
they had enlisted more than 5,000 new members. The primary objective of
the Association was for the farmers to obtain better prices for their crops
by pooling them and fixing their own prices.
A great many farmers refused to join the Association and they were paid
higher prices by the Trust in an attempt to break up the Association. There
was a great deal of friction between these two groups of farmers.
"Night riding" began almost at once in an attempt to force the outsiders
(or Hillbillies, as they were called) into the Association. Independent
farmers were threatened by anonymous letters, barns were burned and plant
beds were scraped. Bundles of matches or switches were sent to persons
who talked against the Association and later some of these outsiders were
burned out or whipped. This activity frightened nearly 10,000 men into
joining the Association.
Dr. David A.
1857 - 1915
Alleged Leader of The Night Riders
Attended Major Ferrell's School
Resident of Cobb, Caldwell County,
In 1906, the hot-headed elements of
the Association formed a secret order with the official name of "The Silent
Brigade" or "The Inner Circle" but they were commonly known and feared
as the "Night Riders." They were drilled in a military fashion by their
leader, Dr. David Amoss, of , who had been
a cadet and drill master at Major Ferrell's Military School in Hopkinsville.
the purpose of this organization was Cobb to force all growers to join
the association, to force independent dealers to cooperate with the association
and to force Trust companies to buy tobacco only from the association at
its set price. In order to achieve these ends the Night Riders were willing
to commit acts of violence.
The first organized attack occurred
at Trenton when a band of armed and masked men burned the tobacco warehouse
and factory of an independent dealer who had bought non-association tobacco.
A little later they appeared at Elkton and dynamited the warehouse there.
On the night of December 1, 1906, two
hundred night riders rode into Princeton, took possession of the town and
proceeded at leisure to burn the largest tobacco factories int he world,
filled with tobacco purchased from the British market.
Hopkinsville was electrified by the
news of the Princeton raid. Since this city was in the midst of the trouble
area, its citizens expected the night riders to strike here next. The Militia,
under Major Erskine Birch Bassett, the police
force and a large body of armed citizens prepared for a raid. On January
4, 1907, the Mayor, Charles Meacham, received
a telephone warning that the Riders were on the way. The different units
were alerted and took their positions for the defense of the city. However,
the report turned out to be a hoaz. The Night Riders had sent the warning
in order to test the city's prepardness.
Night after night the riders gathered
for an attack on the city. It was their custom to have one of their members
move into a city before it was attacked and watch the place. Certainly
Hopkinsville was watched. One night when the riders got almost to the city
limis they were turned back by a warning that a whole company of militia
with loaded rifles was concealed in a building waiting for them.
It was a year before a night came when
vigilance was relaxed and that night, December 7, 1907, a little before
2:00 A>M> the Silent Brigade struck Hopkinsville. There was no opposition.
The attack was made from the I.C. Depot.
The masked men had left their horses on the outskirts of town and marched
down 9th Street to Main where they separated into six squads and carried
out their orders with military precision. Three men were sent to guard
the Seventh Street bridge and small parties guarded other downtown streets.
A corral was formed at 9th and Main into which all citizens who ventured
out were herded and guarded by a small squad. One squad went to the Cumberland
Telephone office where they broke down the door, cut the wires and captured
the two telephone operators on duty before they could sound the alarm.
Another unit surrounded the police station and shot through the walls and
windows, quickly taking prisoner the men who were surprised inside. Other
units took over the Fire Department and the L & N Depot. Small groups
rode up and down the street shooting out windows wherever a light was turned
on. In a very few minutes the city was in complete control of the masked
The office of the newspaper, The Kentuckian,
was vandalized and a buyer for the Imperial Tobacco Co., was dragged from
his home and brutally beaten.
RUINS OF PEOPLE'S
TOBACCO WAREHOUSE,southwest corner of Ninth and Campbell Streets,
December, 1907. Warehouse, owned by John C. Latham, was filled with dark
tobacco owned by farmers who would not join the Planters Association, thus
the target of the Night Riders. Three tobacco warehouses were burned during
the raid on Hopkinsville, December 7, 1907.
The largest squad marched to the Latham
warehouse near the L & N Depot and then to the frame warehouse of Tandy
& Fairleigh on 15th Street and burned them to the ground. The fire
soon raged out of control destroying several residences, the Association
Warehouse and threatening the Acme Mill. A railroad man was shot in the
back when he tried to save some box cars from the fire. The leader of the
night riders, Dr. Amoss, was accidentally wounded in the head by his own
At the conclusion of the raid the men
assembled for roll call at the main intersection and then marched out of
town singing "My Old Kentucky Home".
Erskine Birch Bassett
In the meanwhile Major
Bassett, having climbed out of a rear window of his house, made
his way unseen about the city arousing his men to form a posse of eleven
men. Six of the men were on horseback and th eother five in a carry-all.
They set out in hot pursuit. The night riders had neglected to post a rear
guard which made it possible for Major Bassett and his five companions
on horseback to mingle with the riders. They rode past the front of the
group searching for the leader, but Dr. Amoss had left earlier in another
direction to have his wound attended. Since they could not find the leader
they turned up a side road and waited for the riders to pass, and then
rejoined the men in the carry-all.
Farther up the road about two thirds
of the night riders left the main body and the posse opened fire on the
remaining group. In the pitched battle that ensued one of the riders was
killed and another wounded.
As a result of the raid on Hopkinsville,
Co., D was ordered on active duty and Major Bassett was given command of
all military operations in the area. There were troops on duty from December
1907 until November 1908.
On January 3, 1908, while the soldiers
were guarding Hopkinsville and other points, the night riders raided Russellville
with 55 men and destroyed two factories. There were no raids where the
soldiers were stationed.
As a result of his efficienty in handling
the difficult situation arising from the Night Rider War, Gov.
Augustus F. Wilson commissioned Major Bassett
a Lt. Col., on December 17, 1908. Although the worst of the troubles were
over by this time Col. Bassett was called on several times to protect witnesses
int rials of the night riders. By the summer of 1910, the night rider trouble
had come to an end except for a few scattered minor episodes.
John C. Latham
did not rebuild his warehouse but gave the site to the city of Hopkinsville
to be used as a park. It was named Peace Park.